用法学习: 1. mix business with pleasure 混在一起, 搅和在一起(寓教于乐), 一边休息一边娱乐, 休闲 to combine work with social activities or enjoyment (usually negative). Let's keep this relationship strictly professional. I prefer not to mix business with pleasure. Weekend getaways that allow you to mix business with pleasure have become fashionable. 2. Free will is the ability of agents to make choices unimpeded by certain factors. Factors of historical concern have included metaphysical ( [ˌmetəˈfɪzɪk(ə)l] I. 想象中的. relating to ideas about life, existence, and other things that are not part of the physical world. metaphysical speculation about God. II. relating to a group of 17th century English poets who used complicated images to express ideas. ) constraints (such as logical, nomological, or theological determinism), physical constraints身体局限 (such as chains or imprisonment), social constraints (such as threat of punishment or censure), and mental constraints (such as compulsions or phobias, neurological disorders, or genetic predispositions). The principle of free will has religious, legal, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will implies that individual will and choices can coexist with an omnipotent( omnipotent[omˈnɪpətənt] 无所不能的, 万能的 powerful enough to do everything), omniscient divinity[dɪˈvɪnɪtɪ](omniscient [omˈnɪsiənt] 无所不知无所不晓的 knowing everything.) that raises certain injunctions ( injunction 禁令, 禁止令 I. an order from a court that prevents someone from doing something. seek an injunction: Her lawyers are to seek an injunction preventing the deportation. grant an injunction: The court refused to grant an injunction. take out/bring/obtain an injunction against someone/something: The Home Secretary has obtained an injunction against the newspaper.) or moral obligations for man. In the law, it affects considerations of punishment and rehabilitation. In ethics, it may hold implications for whether individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In science, neuroscientific findings regarding free will may suggest different ways of predicting human behavior. Though it is a commonly-held intuition that we have free will, it has been widely debated throughout history not only whether that is true, but even how to define the concept of free will. How exactly must the will be free, what exactly must the will be free from, in order for us to have free will? Can Neuroscience Debunk破除, 揭穿, 揭破 Free Will? One of the lively debates spawned from the neuroscience revolution has to do with whether humans possess free will, or merely feel as if we do. If we truly possess free will, then we each consciously control our decisions and actions. If we feel as if we possess free will, then our sense of control is a useful illusion—one that neuroscience will increasingly dispel as it gets better at predicting how brain processes yield decisions. For those in the free-will-as-illusion 纯粹是幻想 camp, the subjective experience of decision ownership is not unimportant, but it is predicated on neural dynamics that are scientifically knowable, traceable and—in time最终, 随着时间—predictable. One piece of evidence supporting this position has come from neuroscience research showing that brain activity underlying a given decision occurs before a person consciously apprehends the decision. In other words, thought patterns leading to conscious awareness of what we're going to do are already in motion before we know we'll do it. Without conscious knowledge of why we're choosing as we're choosing, the argument follows, we cannot claim to be exercising "free" will. 3. 'higher calling更高的召唤, 更好的事': The sentence is "You've always had some higher calling to follow." In this case, "higher calling" means something better than you're doing now. For example, if you worked at McDonald's all through college then upon graduation, got a job working in the White House, a friend might say to you, "I always knew you had a higher calling." People also mean it in a spiritual way. For example, you might decide to go to the seminary and become a priest because you have a higher calling. If you have a higher calling, you are going to do something that is more noble or more beneficial to mankind that either what your are doing now or what you could have done. If somebody gives up a regular job to do relief work in disaster-stricken countries, we would say that he had a higher calling. 4. take shit/it 忍受侮辱, 接受侮辱, 受着他 to accept insults from a person without fighting back. Man, are you going to take shit from him like that? 5. A recliner躺椅 is an armchair or sofa that reclines when the occupant lowers the chair's back and raises its front. It has a backrest that can be tilted back, and often a footrest that may be extended by means of a lever on the side of the chair, or may extend automatically when the back is reclined. A recliner is also known as a reclining chair, lounger and an armchair. Modern recliners often feature an adjustable headrest, lumbar support and an independent footstool that adjusts with the weight and angle of the user's legs to maximize comfort. Recliners that are wheelchair accessible are also available. 6. pass the torch (to somebody) 传承, 传给下一代(Friends里Phebe结婚前的party上, 找来一个矮小的stripper, 被鄙视后Rachel说你可以teach stripping, pass the torch.) to give responsibility to someone The president of the company announced his retirement, saying it was time to pass the torch to someone younger. "Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills, but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one. 7. A deal with the devil 与魔鬼交易 or pact with the devil is a cultural motif, best exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. The "Bargain with the devil" constitutes motif number M210 and "Man sells soul to devil" motif number M211 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or a lesser demon. The person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical ( diabolical [ˌdaɪəˈbolɪk(ə)l] I. informal very bad. The food at the hotel was diabolical. II. evil or cruel. ) favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, or power. It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognizing the devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. The bargain is considered a dangerous one, as the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy 有勇无谋的, 蛮干的, 缺大脑的 ( ignoring obvious dangers in a stupid way. It was foolhardy to get involved in the first place.) venturer. Conversely, it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the devil, characteristically on a technical point. The person making the pact sometimes tries to outwit the devil, but loses in the end (e.g., man sells his soul for eternal life because he will never die to pay his end of the bargain. Immune to the death penalty, he commits murder, but is sentenced to life in prison). 8. damn with faint praise 心不在焉的赞美, 漫不经心的表演 to praise someone or something with such a lack of enthusiasm that it is obvious you do not think they are at all good. Critics have damned the film with faint praise. and damn the consequences/expense etc impolite used for saying that you are going to do something without worrying about what will happen as a result/how much it will cost etc. We're throwing a party, and damn the expense. undissolved Not dissolved: She sipped the undissolved sugar at the bottom of the cup. undersell [ˌʌndə(r)ˈsel] 贱卖, 卖便宜了(be overcharged 买贵了) I. to think or say that someone or something is less important, valuable, effective etc than they really are. undersell yourself: Many women have a tendency to undersell themselves in job interviews. II. to sell something at a cheaper price than someone else. III.To put forward an idea, or to market a new product, with insufficient enthusiasm. sell up to sell your house or company in order to go somewhere else or do something else: They sold up and retired to the West Country. Upselling (sometimes "up-selling") is a sales technique whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Upselling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products but can be simply exposing the customer to other options that were perhaps not considered. (A different technique is cross-selling in which a seller tries to sell something else.) In practice, large businesses usually combine upselling and cross-selling to maximize profit. In doing so, an organization must ensure that its relationship with the client is not disrupted. In restaurants and other similar settings, upselling is commonplace and an accepted form of business商业形式. In other businesses (e.g. car sales), the customer's perception 发现, 发觉, 觉察出 of the attempted upsell can be viewed negatively and impact the desired result. 9. Barter以物易物, 物物交换 is a system of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. How about barter trade if you can't afford that. I don't think bartering is still happening, not in the great scale you are claiming你说的那种程度上. It's not happening to that extent没到那种程度, 没到那种地步, but I know surgeons外科手术师 could be bought off 收买 like that. handy shandy another word for wank, usually by a crack whore for a packet of biscuits. How much is handy shandy? Dunno, your mom gives them for free... slut. hansy pansy a super cool guy, who all the boys hate because their girlfriends love him and keep talking about how wonderful he is. Hillary: "I just love the way he make's us all laugh with his stupidity. He's cute." Henry: "I wanna kill that hansy pansy!". handyman's special (realty, advertising) A euphemism for a house that needs considerable renovation and whose owner will only be satisfied if he is a handyman with considerable spare time. 10. Pikelet, a type of pancake found in Australia and New Zealand. no ifs and buts (British & Australian) also no ifs, ands or buts(American) something that you say to a child to stop them arguing with you when you want them to do something I want no ifs and buts, just tidy your room like I told you to! No ifs, ands or buts, you're going up to bed now! mediation [ˌmi:diˈeɪʃ(ə)n] mediate 调停 [intransitive/transitive] to try to end a disagreement between two people or groups. They mediate territorial disputes between neighbouring nations. mediate between: The Bishop mediates between the demonstrators and the authorities. a. [transitive] to find an agreement or solution that settles a disagreement. Iran mediated an agreement between the two African countries last September. meditation [ˌmedɪˈteɪʃ(ə)n] 苦思冥想 I. [uncountable] quiet thought that helps you to relax or that is intended as a spiritual or religious exercise. a. [countable] a particular exercise that is used in meditation. II. [uncountable] thought that takes all your attention for a long time. His mind had been elsewhere, lost in meditation. III. [countable] a piece of writing that expresses serious thoughts on a particular subject. meditate I. [intransitive] to make your mind empty of thoughts, or to concentrate on only one thing, in order to relax or as a spiritual or religious exercise. II. [intransitive/transitive] to think about something carefully for a long time. meditate on/upon: He spent hours meditating on his future.
披萨外卖: A guy reportedly in the death grip 死死抓着, 死抓着不放 ( A death grip is an extremely tight grip, such as that exerted by a person in a panic for fear for their life. This was commonly thought to be a risk when rescuing a drowning person — that they would cling to their rescuer with a death grip which would cause them both to perish. Investigation showed that this did not actually happen in practice and so breaking a death grip is no longer emphasised in lifesaving. ) of a truly heinous hangover([ˈheɪnəs] a heinous act or crime is extremely evil. (of a person or wrongful act, especially a crime) utterly odious or wicked. "a battery of heinous crimes") wasn't feeling like answering the door to get his Domino's pizza delivery, but it all worked out because of a brave worker, unafraid to see a lazy customer in his skivvies, watching James Bond movies. That is, if this all really happened. Making good use of that "extra instructions" section common on many food delivery sites, a fellow reported to be named "Dave" living somewhere in the world had a very special request要求 for the person delivering his pizza, and posted the results of that effort on Imgur: Please, let yourself in自己进来 and bring my desired items to my den of day-after sloth ( [sləuθ] I. [countable] an animal that lives in trees and moves very slowly. It lives in South and Central America. II. [uncountable] mainly literary lazy behaviour.). "I'm so hungover 宿醉太深 ( [hʌŋˈəʊvə(r)] tired and ill in the morning because you drank too much alcohol the night before. hangover I. the feeling of being tired and sick because you have drunk too much alcohol or taken too many drugs. II. 后遗症. something from the past such as an idea or attitude that is no longer suitable today. ) in bed. Let yourself in, turn right, go past the kitchen, through the living room, turn left and double doors are my bedroom," he wrote, adding something that would make me want to run the exact opposite direction, "I'm in my undies watching James Bond. Don't be alarmed别被吓到了, 别惊奇." He signs off as "Dave" with a thumbs up emoticon, as if he knew that the universe would be kind to him this day, by way of pizza. So if the photo from Imgur — which was picked up by a few sites in the UK like The Daily Mirror and Metro— is the honest truth, well then, we're happy you're happy, hangover guy, and hope you enjoyed that pizza. But alas, because the Internet loves making us believe wonderful things such as miraculous pizza deliveries really happened, only to later tear the rug out from under our hoax-believing feet(pull the rug (out) from under ), we must remain slightly skeptical. Who knows, maybe Dave just lives with someone who works at Domino's who was coming home with leftovers. We might never know, and you know what? That's okay.
