用法学习: 1. mutant 变种 noun [countable] biology a plant or animal that is different from others of its type as a result of a change in its genes(gene [dʒi:n] a pattern of chemicals within a cell that carries information about the qualities passed to a living thing from its parents. gene for: a gene for breast cancer (=that makes you likely to get it). in the genes (=passed through the genes): He believes that shyness is in the genes.). mutate [mju:ˈteɪt] vi&vt. to become physically different from other plants or animals of the same type as a result of a genetic change. To undergo or cause to undergo mutation. mutagen 变种基因 noun [countable] a substance that produces a genetic mutation. mutiny[ˈmju:təni] n. if a group of people, especially soldiers or sailors, mutinies, they refuse to accept someone's authority. n. a refusal by a group to accept someone's authority, especially a group of soldiers or sailors. a prison mutiny. He drove the crew to the verge of mutiny. 2. A 14-year-old Perth boy has been cautioned 警告 by police after reportedly
slipping a laxative into his high school teacher's drink. Senior
Sergeant Craig Collins said the female teacher did not experience any
long-term side effects but "putting a substance into someone's food or
drink could result in dire consequences". top dog( 大人物, 大老板; 大热门; ): The expression top dog is an idiomatic for the boss or the leader. In a competition, it is also the favorite or the one expected to win, and the opposite of the underdog. It may be a shorthand reference for a dominance hierarchy. 3. Despite not being able to differentiate between
the sun and the moon, Mr Tran still tied for first place on the show
and will now return as the carry over champion(Any gameshow contestant who has won the previous show and is back to challenge new contestants. "Woah Pete, back on the piss again. After last nights effort that makes you the carry over champion". The game usually involves three contestants competing to amass the highest score by answering questions correctly and playing several games. The champion from the previous episode will usually be invited to return as a carry-over champion. Each contestant is spotted 起步钱 with $20 to start ( to notice someone or something. Hugh was spotted by local police and had to leave quickly. spot someone doing something: The boys had been spotted buying alcohol. a. to notice that someone has a talent that can be developed. She was spotted singing in bars when she was 18. spot someone's potential: An effective teacher can spot a child's potential. II. American in sports, to give an advantage to someone who you are playing against, usually because they are not as good as you. III. to watch someone doing a sports activity such as weight training or gymnastics in order to help them, and to make sure that they do not get injured. ). The host reads a trivia question to the contestants. The first to press a buzzer gets an opportunity to answer the question, interrupting the host if in the middle of reading the question. ).
The Block Contestant 人生新计划: The
ex-Blockhead, whose parents were publicans, told 9 Stories he will be
doing everything from running the office to pulling beers behind the bar(The loser of the bet would then be forced to publically admit their error by pulling beers behind the bar at The Little Guy. Beers brewed and served by traditional methods, typically cask ale啤酒桶, do not use artificial gas. Taps for cask beer are simple on-off valves that are hammered into the end of the cask (see keystone for details). When beer is served directly from the cask ("by gravity"), as at beer festivals and some pubs, it simply flows out of the tap and into the glass. When the cask is stored in the cellar and served from the bar, as in most pubs, the beer line is screwed onto the tap and the beer is pulled 牵引啤酒 through it by a beer engine啤酒引擎. The taps used are the same, and in beer-line setups the first pint is often poured from the cask as for "gravity", for tasting, before the line is connected. Cask beer taps can be brass (now discouraged for fear of lead contamination), stainless steel, plastic, and wood.)
along with his cousin and co-owner Michael. He plans to put his
budget-busting renovation skills perfected on two seasons of the
gruelling reality show to use. "Eventually Michael will do the office
and man the bar and I'll get stuck into the building work to save some
money." While most of the prize money has gone into doing up a farm
house and renovations on the family home, Brad said two seasons on The
Block has helped him fulfill his dream of buying a pub. "I'm not going
to lie, The Block's been a massive factor in achieving this," he said.
in saying that 虽是那么说, 话虽那么说, 话虽如此 Have you noticed how many people are saying, "In saying that …"? I know this expression is not new, but in recent years it seems to have reached epidemic proportions. Maybe it 's only in certain circles, but if so I seem to be in them all. "My finances are really bad, but in saying that, I do have food on the table each day and somewhere to live." They are saying money is tight but at least they have the essentials生活必需品. But people trip themselves up when the phrase has no relationship to their previous statement. A recent example came when I was visiting a country town and got talking to a group who were also new in the area. One of them said, "Rabbits were a plague in Australia at one time. In saying that, can anyone tell me how I can get to Big W?" This is clearly a wrong use of the phrase. The speaker thinks that when he has finished one topic then he can say "in saying that" to lead him to an unrelated topic. But that 's not the way this phrase works. Of course, when enough people use a word or phrase wrongly and frequently, it will become normal, and word fanatics like me will be the odd ones out. This happened with the phrase it begs the question. The meaning of this expression was "to assume something is true before it has been proved." A lawyer may say, "Your Honour, this scoundrel has fleeced my client of every dollar he had." The judge would respond that this "begs the question"(scoundrel [ˈskaundrəl] 大骗子 a man who behaves in an unfair or dishonest way. fleece [fli:s] 骗走 to cheat or trick someone as a way of getting their money.) — meaning the lawyer had assumed the defendant was guilty (by calling him a "scoundrel") before it had been proved. That has traditionally been the correct use of the phrase. But through ignorance, the meaning of this has changed over the past 15 years to predominantly mean, "That reminds me of a related question." And so it is with in saying that. In the minds of many people在许多人看来, in saying that means they are about to move on to any subject they want to, instead of staying where they made sense.
BB喧嚣: There 's crossing the line, and then there 's taking things seven steps too far. Former bros came to blows 打起来 ( to have a physical fight or a serious argument with someone: Demonstrators nearly came to blows with the police during the march. Do you think the two countries will come to blows over this? ) in a big way on Day 35 when loudmouth大嘴巴, 说话不经大脑(someone who says a lot of stupid or offensive things that annoy people.) Travis took a cheap shot at one of Ryan's sisters, and the fallout 余波 ricocheted ( ricochet [ˈrɪkəʃeɪ] 荡漾, 反射, 弹回 if a moving object ricochets, it hits a surface at an angle and immediately moves away from it at a different angle. ricochet off: The ball ricocheted off a rock and hit him on the shoulder.) throughout the House. Although Travis tried to pass it off as "boys being boys", Ryan was not having a bar of it(In English 'I wouldn't have a bar of it' is an informal way of saying I was (or would be) completely against an idea, and rejected it completely without even letting anyone try to convince me.), or Travis. "Watch your mouth or I 'll drop you, seriously," Ryan seethed ( seethe I. to be extremely angry. seethe with: He still seethed with anger over Maude's comments. 'Don't threaten me,' Ronnie seethed. II. to be full of a lot of people or animals that are moving around quickly. seethe with: She was certain that the entire cellar was seething with spiders. III. literary if a river, sea etc seethes, it moves as if the water is boiling. ) as his tolerance level soared to a whole new level of 'unimpressed '. And despite Travis ' many attempts to clear the air( clear the air to discuss a problem or difficult situation with someone in order to make it better. I think it's time we cleared the air, don't you?), Ryan was unwilling to forgive and forget. "He 's an uneducated bogan," Ryan told Sam, Leo and Lawson, vowing he'd never look at Travis in the same light再不把他当朋友了, 完全改观. AFL Final Winner队员Tom遇到高级妓女粉丝: Genial Tom was happy to oblige ( I. 从命. [intransitive/ transitive] to help someone by doing something that they have asked you to do. The fans wanted more goals, and Ferguson duly obliged. happy/glad/willing to oblige 欣然从命, 乐于听差, 听候差遣: If there's anything else I can do, I'm always happy to oblige. II. [transitive] [usually passive] formal to force someone to do something because it is the law, a rule, or a duty. be/feel obliged to do something: Employers are legally obliged to pay the minimum wage. They felt obliged to offer him hospitality.) and smiled and chatted to Amanda, posing up for a picture. He and his brother Sam Burgess are most definitely the men of the moment 时下红人 thanks to their amazing NRL win for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. And it seems 22-year-old Tom has fans from all walks of life, after he was stopped for an impromptu ([ɪmˈprɒmptju:] not planned or prepared. an impromptu dinner party. ) hug and meet and greet with none other than high class escort Samantha X. Amanda moved in close and wrapped her arms around the players torso, resting her head against his chest. He grinned as he stood next to the 40-year-old who in September revealed she made money from having sex, and her children were aware of her profession. It is not known if the pair know each other, or it happened to be a random meeting. Amanda beamed as she cosied up Tom, wearing a pale pink vest top teamed with white jeans. She said going public about her career and making her children, aged five and seven, vulnerable to school yard bullying was no different to children of gay parents who faced the same hardships. 'Children are teased mercilessly every day and their mother does not have to be working in the sex industry,' the 40-year-old said. 'I think the world is changing. My kids are in classes with kids that have gay parents, lesbian mothers, they're not ridiculed.' She talked candidly about her profession as a sex worker on Channel Seven's Sunday Night in September.
iPhone and iPad to blame for Finland's woes, says Prime Minister: "A little bit paradoxically (paradoxical I. strange because of being the opposite of what you expect. a paradoxical result. II. 自相矛盾的. consisting of two parts that seem to mean the opposite of each other. a paradoxical statement. paradox I. [countable] a person, thing, or situation that is strange because they have features or qualities that do not normally exist together. We get this apparent paradox of people migrating to an area that has very high unemployment. II. [countable/uncountable] a statement consisting of two parts that seem to mean the opposite of each other, or the use of this kind of statement in writing.) I guess one could say that the iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the Finnish paper industry, but we'll make a comeback," he said. Nokia's importance to Finland and its decline since the iPhone arrived is well documented, but lesser known ( 不那么出名的, 默默无闻的, 不为人知的. not as popular or famous as something else. Not as well or widely known as others of the same kind: one of Britain's lesser-known car manufacturers We stayed on one of the lesser-known Greek islands. ) in the tech world is the importance the forestry and paper industry to the country, which some see as threatened by tablets and e-readers, particularly in news print. While it might seem an exaggeration to blame Apple for Finland's current economic woes — or even Nokia's demise — it's also difficult not to see a link between Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone and Finland's economy in light of Nokia's outsized contribution to the Finnish economy in the decade prior to that year. As The Economist noted in 2012, during that decade Nokia contributed 贡献了 about a fifth of all Finnish exports, 23 percent of the nation's corporate tax and made up 占(占比, 所占比例, account for, make up, contribute) 30 percent of its R&D expenditure. Even as Nokia's Symbian ship was burning, its revenues as a percentage of Finland's GDP in 2011 was still 20 percent. Also, without Apple, Android is unlikely to have been the hit it has been for Samsung, which arguably has had a bigger impact on Nokia's lower-priced mobile device sales than Apple's high-end devices. The question of Apple's direct impact on the Finnish economy has been kicked around ( kick around I. [transitive] to discuss an idea or suggestion in an informal way. to discuss something; to chat about an idea. We got together and kicked her idea around. Fred and Bob kicked around some plots for a new movie. We kicked around a few ideas. II. [transitive] kick someone around 把人当球踢, 踢来踢去 to treat someone in an unkind and unfair way. He told reporters they wouldn't be able to kick him around any more. III. [intransitive/transitive] kick around (something) if people are kicking around, or kicking around a place, they are in that place without any definite plans. Two friends and I decided to kick around the Loch Tay area for a few days. IV. [intransitive] if something is kicking around, you have it but you are not sure exactly where it is. There's a box of matches kicking around somewhere. V. [intransitive] if an idea or suggestion is kicking around, people know about it but no one is doing much about it. The idea of a new school gym has been kicking around for a while now. VI. [transitive] to kick a ball in a casual way without showing much enthusiasm or seriousness. The boys were kicking a ball around in the back yard.) by the nation's business elite for some time. Indeed, Stubb was merely borrowing the simplified explanation from local business tycoon and chairman of Nordea Bank Björn Wahlroos who last year pinned blame on the iPad alone for harming Finland's ICT and paper sectors. As Finnish broadcaster YLE reported at the time, some local industry watchers saw Wahlroos' explanation as a popular oversimplification but basically correct while others noted Nokia's decline in mobile was already taking place. But, as The Economist noted, Finland was unique in its reliance on a single company. Samsung for example, whose revenues were twice as large as Nokia's, only accounted for 10 percent of South Korea's GDP since its economy was more diversified. Clearly, Apple is not to blame for Finland's dependence on a single company, nor for Nokia's missteps错棋, 失误 before and after the iPhone's arrival, but Apple's products and the industry that followed it seem like a reasonable explanation for at least part of Finland's economic problems. Stubb however remained upbeat about Finland's prospects, noting a potential opportunity in bio energy for the forestry industry, while Nokia Networks attempts to reinvent itself重塑形象. Previously, he's also pointed to Finland's gaming startups, with prominent successes including Angry Birds maker Rovio and Supercell, the maker of Clash of Clans. "Usually what happens is that when you have dire times you get a lot of innovation and I think from the public sector our job is to create the platform for it," Stubb said.
Geocaching [ˈdʒi:ouˌkæʃɪŋ] is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook (with a pen or pencil). The geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets(trinket 小饰品, 小饰件 a small decoration that is not very valuable, for example a small piece of jewellery.) of little financial value, although sometimes they are sentimental. For the traditional geocache, a geocacher will place a waterproof container containing a log book (with pen or pencil) and trade items then record the cache's coordinates. These coordinates, along with other details of the location, are posted on a listing site列表网站 (see list of some sites below). Other geocachers obtain the coordinates from that listing site and seek out 找出 the cache using their GPS handheld receivers. The finding 找到的人 geocachers record their exploits in the logbook and online, but then must return the cache to the same coordinates so that other geocachers may find it. Geocachers are free to take objects (except the logbook, pencil, or stamp) from the cache in exchange for leaving something of similar or higher value. Typical cache "treasures" are not high in monetary value but may hold personal value to the finder. Aside from the logbook, common cache contents are unusual coins or currency, small toys, ornamental buttons, CDs, or books. Also common are objects that are moved from cache to cache called "hitchhikers", such as Travel Bugs or Geocoins, whose travels may be logged and followed online. Cachers who initially place a Travel Bug or Geocoins often assign specific goals for their trackable items. Examples of goals are to be placed in a certain cache a long distance from home, or to travel to a certain country, or to travel faster and farther than other hitchhikers in a race. Higher value items are occasionally included in geocaches as a reward for the First to Find (called "FTF"), or in locations which are harder to reach. Dangerous or illegal items, weapons, food and pornography are generally not allowed and are specifically against the rules of most geocache listing sites. If a geocache has been vandalized or stolen it is said to have been "muggled( an insulting word for someone who does not know about something or how to do something. He was a complete muggle who thought he was very clever. Word story: In the Harry Potter books by J K Rowling a Muggle is someone who is not involved in the world of magic.)". The former term plays off the fact that those not familiar with geocaching are called muggles, a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series of books which was rising in popularity at the same time geocaching got its start.
