用法学习: 1. NSW州长辞职: This morning Mr O'Farrell revealed during a surprise press conference that a handwritten note thanking Liberal fundraiser Nick Di Girolamo for the wine, which he had claimed he never received, would be presented to the corruption watchdog. Mr O'Farrell maintained he did not intend to mislead ICAC but conceded 承认 he had a "massive memory fail". "The evidence I gave the to the Independent Commission Against Corruption was to the best of my knowledge," he said. "But I accept the consequences of my actions." 2. "She was charged with supporting incursions ( I. 侵入, 入侵. a sudden attack on an area controlled by other people. armed incursions into border areas by rebel forces. II. a situation in which someone or something enters an area where they do not belong. homes damaged by the incursion of floodwater. ) into a foreign state with the intention of engaging in hostile activities." Police also executed three search warrants - two in Sydney and one in Brisbane. 3. A wart疣(genital wart湿疣) is a small, rough growth resembling a cauliflower or a solid blister. It typically occurs on humans' hands or feet but often in other locations. Warts are caused by a viral infection, specifically by one of the many types of human papillomavirus (HPV). There are as many as 10 varieties of warts, the most common considered to be mostly harmless. It is possible to get warts from others; they are contagious and usually enter the body in an area of broken skin. They typically disappear after a few months but can last for years and can reoccur. burn off to remove something by burning it. They managed to burn off the excess wax. burn off/up 烧没, 烧掉, 烧光 to cause excess volatile or flammable substance to burn until there is no more of it. to use or get rid of energy or fat by doing a lot of physical exercise: Running is an excellent way to burn off excess calories. We burnt the gasoline off the water's surface. Why did you burn off the gasoline? burn off [for some excess volatile or flammable substance] to burn away or burn up. A film of oil on the surface of the water was burning off, making dense black smoke. The alcohol burned off and left a delicious flavor in the cherries jubilee. Swimming can help you burn off those unwanted calories. 4. slip up on (someone, something, or an animal) to sneak up on someone, something, or an animal quietly. I slipped up on Harry and scared him to death. The cat slipped up on a mouse and grabbed it. slip up I. slip up on something 犯错 to make a mistake. to make a blunder or mistake; err. It was unusual for him to slip up that way and forget a meeting. I guess I slipped up on that last job. Fred slipped upon compiling that list—there are a lot of names missing. II. to fall over: He slipped up in the street.
澳洲航空风云: Virgin Australia: It was established in 2000 with two aircraft operating on a single route, and suddenly found itself catapulted (catapult /ˈkætəpʌlt/ 弹弓子 British an object that children use for firing stones. It consists of a stick in the shape of a 'Y' with a thin band of rubber across the top. The American word is slingshot. a. a large weapon used in the past for firing heavy stones. II. a piece of equipment on a ship used for sending aircraft into the air. ) to the position of Australia's second airline after the collapse of Ansett Australia in September 2001. Ansett Airway: Ansett also paid millions of dollars for the right to be official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, an investment generally regarded as unwise不明智的. This destabilised the financial position of the company considerably. Ansett expanded into New Zealand in 1987 through its subsidiary Ansett New Zealand after the Government of New Zealand opened its skies to the airline. After the Government of Australia reneged 食言, 毁约 on an agreement to reciprocate投桃报李, Air New Zealand tried to acquire a share of Qantas when it was floated in 1995, but was not allowed. Instead it bought a 50% stake in Ansett Australia for A$540 million in 1996, though managerial control 管理控制权 remained in the hands of News Corporation. Ansett Australia then had to divest 撤资 itself of Ansett New Zealand to avoid creating a monopoly. The Australian government then changed the rules to allow foreign airlines to fly domestic routes. Competition from Qantas and a succession of start-up airlines (Impulse Airlines and Virgin Blue), top-heavy ( I. something that is top-heavy lacks balance because it is heavier at the top than at the bottom. II. 管理层臃肿的. 管事的多, 干活的人少的 a company or organization that is top-heavy has too many workers at senior level and not enough at junior level. ) and substantially overpaid staff, an aging fleet and grounding of the Boeing 767 fleet due to maintenance irregularities left Ansett seriously short of cash, losing $1.3 million a day. Air New Zealand attempted to cut Ansett's costs while maintaining the same level of revenue. This did not work, as the cost cutting hurt Ansett. Additionally, Ansett's fleet had been allowed to deteriorate, a situation which came to a head ( come/bring something to a head informal if a situation comes to a head, or if you bring it to a head, it suddenly becomes worse. Everything came to a head last week when two of the teachers resigned. ) with a partial grounding of its Boeing 767 fleet during the Christmas 2000 season and a full grounding in Easter 2001. Ansett was thus unable to compete with the low cost carriers and Qantas, who were able to run at a loss on some routes, as they could not maintain revenue while cutting their costs, which included laying off staff. A deal made in April 2001 for Ansett to purchase Virgin Blue was repudiated ( repudiate /rɪˈpju:dieɪt/ I. 否定. 否认. to say formally that something is not true. They repudiated all accusations of unlawful activity. II. 否决. to state that you do not accept or agree with something. Party members appeared on television to repudiate policies they had formerly supported.) by Virgin chief Richard Branson in August, and Singapore Airlines, which was initially blocked from buying Ansett, was also prevented from investing further in Air New Zealand/Ansett by the New Zealand government. It then declined to take up an earlier proposed deal to inject over $500 million into注资 Air New Zealand and Ansett after talks collapsed. In early September 2001, as the trouble worsened, the New Zealand government prepared to rescue Air New Zealand but cut Ansett adrift( I. /əˈdrɪft/ I. floating on the water without being tied to anything or controlled by anyone. The refugees spent three days adrift on the tiny boat. II. 茫然的, 漫无目的的. 飘飘荡荡的. feeling alone and that your life has no clear purpose. III. 比分落后. (chiefly UK, often with of) mainly journalism a team or player that is adrift of an opponent is behind them in a competition. Behind one's opponents, or below a required threshold in terms of score, number or position. The team were six points adrift of their rivals. come adrift British to become separated from something. Somehow the picture hook had come adrift from the wall.). Despite public pleas, the Australian government refused to bail out Ansett. Quickly running out of both lines of credit and options, Air New Zealand placed the Ansett group of companies into voluntary administration with PriceWaterhouseCoopers on 12 September 2001. In the early hours of 14 September, the administrator determined that Ansett was not viable to continue operations( viable [ˈvaɪəb(ə)l] I. able to be done, or worth doing. The present system is simply no longer viable. commercially/economically/financially viable 盈利能力的 (=capable of producing a profit): Hospitals plan to stop services that are not financially viable. II. science able to live and grow in an independent way. viability British English /ˌvaɪəˈbɪləti/ noun. We're concerned about the viability of your business plan. ) (primarily due to the apparent lack of any funds to cover fuel, catering or employee wages) and grounded the fleets of Ansett and its subsidiaries Hazelton Airlines, Kendell, Skywest and Aeropelican. Flights already in the air at the time the decision was made continued on to their destinations. Customers and employees had no warning of the stoppage in operations. It was alleged by the then administrators that Air New Zealand had engaged in asset stripping 资产剥离 of ( Westfield plans to split 剥离资产 its Australian and New Zealand assets, which include 47 shopping centres, from its international operations. The group hopes to merge those assets with Westfield Retail Trust, a joint owner of the Australian shopping centres. Security holders are due to vote on the split on May 29.) the airline as well as charging of its fuel costs due to Air New Zealand failing to hedge its fuel costs( hedge I. a line of bushes or small trees growing close together around a garden or field. We crawled through a gap in the hedge. a high hawthorn hedge. a hedge against something a way of trying to protect yourself against a problem or risk. Gold is a traditional hedge against inflation. v. I. 回避. [intransitive] to avoid answering a question or making a decision in a definite or direct way. II. [transitive] to enclose an area with bushes. He hedged his vegetable garden with low bushes. III. [intransitive] to protect yourself from risks involving your money. IV. to buy and sell shares in such a way that the risk of losing money is low. hedge your bets to organize a situation so that you have several choices available to you, in order to increase your chances of success. People are evidently hedging their bets, looking to the future but not yet prepared to give up the past. hedged in with/by surrounded by people or things. The cathedral is in the centre of the town, closely hedged in by other buildings. hedge something (in) with something 规避风险 to make special conditions for something so that you do not have to follow the usual rules. Most insurers' conditions are hedged with all sorts of exclusions排除, 不包含. hedge sparrow a small brown bird that is common in woods in Europe.) thus leaving it susceptible 难以承受的, 易遭受的 to major fluctuations in fuel charges during 2000. This claim was strongly denied by Air New Zealand, noting it had funded Ansett's loss of A$180 million in the last year, and Ansett's administrators soon admitted there was no evidence of any asset stripping.
新闻: 1. 醉鬼爬墙不过, 原来别有洞天: A drunk Russian has become an unlikely modern sage (/seɪdʒ/ n. I. [uncountable] a plant used to flavour food. Sage is a herb. II. [countable] literary someone who is wise and shows good judgment. adj. wise and showing good judgment. a sage decision.) after video of his futile ( 徒劳无功的, 无功而返的. unsuccessful, or useless. a futile rescue attempt. It's futile trying to persuade him to change his mind. The peace talks have proved futile. ) struggle with a fence prompted thousands of viewers to question the meaning of life. The unknown man, who appears in a YouTube video called the "Futility of Existence", appears utterly perplexed by the insurmountable 难以逾越的 barrier in his path. He tries to squeeze through the bars and he tries to climb over the top, however all his attempts prove fruitless. But it's what happens next that has prompted viewers to contemplate 审视 the existential implications ( existential relating to human existence and experience. ) of his drunken quandary. In a humiliating twist, a young boy carrying shopping bags nimbly ( I. able to move quickly and easily. II. someone who has a nimble mind is intelligent and learns things quickly. ) strides into frame and walks through a gaping hole([ˈɡeɪpɪŋ] a gaping hole or space is very large. a gaping wound) in the bars just metres away. The video, which has been viewed over 800,000 times in just three days, has had hundreds of comments on social media site Reddit with many seeing it as an allegory ( allegory /ˈæləɡ(ə)ri/ 寓言故事 a story, play, or poem in which the events and characters are used as symbols in order to express a moral, religious, or political idea. a. [uncountable] the use of events and characters as symbols. ) for life's hardships. "Actually captures the general feeling of life quite well for the 99 percent who work their asses off, just to struggle, and then be told they didn't do it right by some smart ass with good parents and good credit," codyblood wrote on Reddit. Others shared a philosophical perspective哲学视角 and one user interpreted the scene in the form of a classical theatrical story arc( story arc An extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television or comic books.). "Riveting ( rivet [ˈrɪvɪt] I. to join two things together with rivets. be riveted by/to something to interest someone so much that they pay complete attention. The book appeared to have riveted the man for hours. be riveted on/to someone/something if your eyes or attention are riveted on or to someone or something, you are so interested or frightened that you cannot stop looking at them. They were riveted to the television screen. Mitch came up, his eyes riveted on the girl's face. be riveted to the spot to be so frightened or surprised that you cannot move. I stood and watched them argue, riveted to the spot. Rivets铆钉 are a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked (i.e., deformed), so that it expands to about 1.5 times the original shaft diameter, holding the rivet in place. To distinguish between the two ends of the rivet, the original head is called the factory head and the deformed end is called the shop head or buck-tail. ) piece of mise en scene ( Mise-en-scène 场景 (French pronunciation: [mizɑ̃sɛn] "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term". Mise en place (French pronunciation: [mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French phrase which means "putting in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift. The practice is also effective in home kitchens.) in which our protagonist battles against the futility of a force meant to keep him out but learns in the process of the struggle that his approach, his methodologies, his existence are but for naught ( (archaic (or literary) nothing or nothingness; ruin or failure. naught = nought n. I. Nonexistence; nothingness. II. The figure 0; a cipher; a zero. pron. Nothing: All their work was for naught. adj. I. Nonexistent. II. Insignificant. come to nothing/naught 虚空 to amount to nothing; to be worthless. So all my hard work comes to nothing. Yes, the whole project comes to naught. (all) for naught/nothing (slightly formal) without achievement or result. Marge's time in jail wasn't all for naught – she earned a college degree while she was there. Usage notes: sometimes, in less formal use, nothing is substituted for naught: I would hate to think that what we'd tried to do was all for nothing. Etymology: based on the literal meaning of naught (zero or nothing)) in this journey. No my friends, fate has revealed his blunder, his hubris(a very proud way of talking or behaving that offends people), his fatalistic endeavours," notjawn wrote. Interpret it how you will, the video does show the drunk man eventually find freedom on the other side. 2. 美联航发色情: A day after a woman's flippant ( 轻薄无礼的, 轻浮的. /ˈflɪpənt/ treating a serious subject or situation in a way that is not serious, especially when this annoys other people. His flippant remarks only made the judge angrier. ) threat to US airline went viral another carrier is making headlines over a Twitter gaffe /ɡæf/ of its own. When a woman identified as Alex tweeted a complaint to US Airways about a delayed flight to Portland, Oregon, yesterday the airline responded in a polite enough manner but inadvertently [ˌinədˈvɜ:(r)t(ə)ntli] 不谨慎的, 一不小心的, 一不留神的 attached a pornographic image. To make the PR bungle even worse the confronting photograph of a woman in a sex act with a model airplane was sent to another woman named Elle, who also complained about the same delayed flight. US Airways quickly removed the tweet but it was still online long enough for hundreds of Twitter users to save the offending image. The airline has since apologised for the tweet. "Our investigation has determined that the image was initially posted to our Twitter feed by another user. We captured the tweet to flag it as inappropriate. Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer". 租房卖淫: Airbnb is a website that allows regular people to rent out their homes to holidaymakers when they themselves are out of town. One escort service typically rents an Airbnb apartment in Manhattan for a week, and cycles several prostitutes through around-the-clock. Publicist Jessica Penzari was oblivious (oblivious /əˈblɪviəs/ I. 一无所知的, 无知觉的, 没有察觉的 not noticing something, or not knowing about it. oblivious to someone's stare. He was oblivious of what was happening; He was oblivious 无所谓的, 不当回事的 to our warnings. II. Failing to remember; forgetful. oblivious to/of: She seemed completely oblivious to the noise around her. Usage: It was formerly considered incorrect to use oblivious and unaware as synonyms, but this use is now acceptable. When employed with this meaning, oblivious should be followed either by to or of, to being much the commoner. oblivion [əˈblɪviən] I. a situation in which someone or something has been completely forgotten. a Hollywood star who has gradually faded into oblivion. II. 不知今夕何夕. 喝到萌, 茫然 a state in which you do not notice what is happening around you, usually because you are sleeping or very drunk. Drinking himself into oblivion won't solve any of his problems. ) that her flat became a temporary bordello 临时妓院 until one prostitute was knifed by a client, and she got a call from the police. Ms Penzari came home to find "at least 10 condoms" as well as other
telltale signs. Airbnb put Penzari in a luxury hotel for a week, paid
for her locks to be changed, cleaned her apartment and bought her new
pillows. 迪卡新女友: He is often coy about his relationships, and certainly hasn't spoken about his current squeeze(I. mainly American informal old-fashioned a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. II. [countable] the action of squeezing something. He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. a. [countable] a small amount of something that is squeezed out of something. a squeeze of lemon juice. III. [singular] a situation in which a lot of people or things are squeezed into a space. It was a squeeze to get everyone into the car. IV. [singular] economics a situation in which there is strict control over money or goods. a squeeze on costs/profits/wages. put a/the squeeze on someone/something: The government's putting the squeeze on business profits. feel the squeeze: The economy is said to be improving, but many of us are still feeling the squeeze. ). But there was no denying Leonardo DiCaprio's affections for his Victoria's Secret model girlfriend Toni Garrn as they kissed on the beach in Bora Bora on Friday last week. Leo, 39, wore a pair of blue trunks as he held hands 拖手 with his bikini-clad girlfriend Toni, 21.
