用法学习: 1. hold one's breath 别寄什么希望, 别期待, 等着吧, 做梦吧: To wait, as if breathlessly. Let's hold our breath then. don't hold your breath (idiomatic, imperative) "Don't wait." Said cynically to suggest that what has just been mentioned to is unlikely to happen soon or at all. The government says it's going to introduce free meals for all school children. — Huh, don't hold your breath. Etymology： Suggesting that if one were to hold one's breath while waiting for the expected event, one would die before it happened. go to hell 去死. very hostile([hostəl] [hostaɪl]) 很不友善, 很有敌意. 2. Though Josh is anxious to 焦急的想要 leave immediately, Paxton convinces him to stay one more night. That night, Josh and Paxton are slipped tranquilizers and Josh stumbles back to the hotel room, while Paxton passes out in the disco's storage room closet. 3. get up to I. To do something, especially something that you should not do. Recently he's been getting up to all sorts of mischief. I haven't seen you for a while. What have you been getting up to? II. to do something, often something that other people would disapprove of: She's been getting up to all sorts of mischief lately. I wonder what those two got up to yesterday? get one's rocks off (on something) I. Sl. [for a male] to ejaculate. (Considered coarse.) Boys normally don't talk about getting their rocks off. II. Sl. to enjoy something. (Fixed order.) I really get my rocks off on heavy metal. I've listened to the stuff, but I sure don't get my rocks off on it. III. if a man gets his rocks off, he has sex. I don't think he cares what she looks like so long as he gets his rocks off. beyond the pale( within the pale) (idiomatic) Describing behaviour that is considered to be outside the bounds of morality, good behaviour or judgement in civilised company. Etymology: A pale, originally a stockade made of pales of wood, was an area under
the authority of a certain official. In the 14th and 15th centuries the
British ruled Dublin, the surrounding area was outside the law. Anyone
or anything beyond the pale was considered savage and dangerous, and the
express came to mean anything unacceptable or beyond the limits of
accepted morality or conduct. From pale ("jurisdiction of an authority, territory under an authority's jurisdiction"), suggesting that anything outside the authority's jurisdiction was uncivilized. The phrase was in use by the mid-17th century, and may be a reference to the general sense of boundary, but is often understood to refer specifically to the English Pale in Ireland. In the nominally English territory of Ireland, only the Pale fell genuinely under the authority of English law, hence the terms within the pale and beyond the pale. The boundary of the Ashdown Forest (a royal hunting forest) was also known as the Pale, consisting of a paled fence and a ditch inside, to allow deer to jump in, but not back out. 4. Former staffer Ashby broke his silence over the Slipper scandal last night, alleging Abbott government minister Christopher Pyne warned he would call him a "pathological liar 病态的爱撒谎的人, 撒谎成瘾的人" ( In psychiatry, pathological lying (also called compulsive lying, pseudologia fantastica and mythomania) is a behavior of habitual 习惯性的 or compulsive lying. A pathological liar could also be a man or woman of any age group. A person with this trait believes anything said to them is a lie because they have the tendency to be liars themselves. They mistrust people and are continually investigating everything that is said to them. This person lives in fear of being lied to. They will go to any length to prove that someone is lying to them even when the truth is obvious.) if he went public. 5. prayer ( [preə(r)] 祈祷. 祈祷词. Communication with God, act of praying, etc. [ˈpreɪə(r)] One who prays. ) I. [countable] the words that someone says when they are speaking to God. prayer for: a prayer for peace. say a prayer: He said a prayer for their safety. say your prayers (=pray): I go to Chapel every Sunday and I say my prayers. II. [uncountable] the act or practice of speaking to God. He was a firm believer in the power of prayer. in prayer: A group of Christians knelt in prayer. III. prayers 祈祷会 [plural] a regular religious ceremony with prayers. daily/morning/evening prayers: He reads the Koran and attends daily prayers. IV. [countable] informal a strong hope or wish for something an answer to someone's prayer: The job seemed like the answer to her prayers. not have a prayer 没机会, 没可能 informal to not have a chance or possibility of success. to have no chance. With an injured ankle, he doesn't have a prayer of winning the race. Usage notes: sometimes used without not: Do we have a prayer of convincing him to go? They didn't have a prayer without a backer for the new company. do something on a wing and a prayer informal to do something even though you are not prepared, but you hope that you will be successful.
Was Uber's New Year's Eve pricing unethical不道德的? Ride-sharing service Uber's "surge pricing," where customers are charged more for rides during peak demand times such as New Year's Eve, is a transparent policy — riders are informed in advance of the inflated price and have the opportunity to accept or reject the ride at the stated price. It was met with mixed effect this New Year's Eve: In San Francisco, it backfired引火上身 – revelers took other means of transportation home. But Twitter lit up with "Uber rage" from other cities, where riders complained of paying $100 or more to go just a few miles. Was this reaction evidence of ethical wrongdoing or merely evidence of a marketplace functioning as intended如所料? There was nothing illegal about Uber charging different prices during the wee hours of the New Year from those it charges on, say, Mother's Day. And, from a business perspective从经商, 做生意的角度来看, it makes sense for Uber: If the company's projection that millions of riders will accept the peak-demand pricing ends up being right, surge pricing 涨价 could translate into gross revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But does the transparency of Uber's pricing make it ethical? In a market economy市场经济, demand and price generally move in tandem. When demand goes up for a good or service, price generally goes up as well. And yet there is a reflexive disgust at merchants that seek to take advantage of human misfortune 趁火打劫 by hiking prices in response to elevated demand brought on by emergencies, such as weather-related calamities ( calamity [kəˈlæməti] 天灾人祸 I. an event that causes serious damage, or causes a lot of people to suffer, for example a flood or fire. II. used humorously about something that is annoying but not really serious. ). About 35 states make it illegal for all or some businesses to charge prices that are unconscionable 昧良心的, 不合理的(more than a reasonable or acceptable level or amount.), defined in various ways, during times of emergency. States with such "price gouging" laws include California, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, and New York. Is Uber's pricing on New Year's Eve more like emergency-triggered price gouging or more like the ethically uncomplicated dynamic pricing动态定价 used by airlines and others to vary the price of product based on shifting demand动态需求, 天天在变化的? The answer has to be that Uber's pricing is ethically more like the latter than the former. At bottom(at bottom 本质上, 从根本上来说 formal used when explaining the basic cause or nature of something. Most of these arguments are, at bottom, motivated by a fear of change. be at the bottom of something 核心问题, 真正原因 to be the true cause of something. His jealousy is at the bottom of most of our problems. the bottom drops out of/falls out of something used for saying that something stops being successful or stops making money, often because people stop buying a product. Analysts are warning that the bottom could soon fall out of the market.), Uber is doing nothing more than setting its prices based on prevailing market conditions in which the customer has a range of other options. If the New Year's Eve partygoer objected to the quoted price of the ride for when he wants to go home, he could have: (1) checked out the price on the competing service Lyft; (2) ordered a ride during off-peak hours; (3) stayed where he was overnight; (4) partied with a designated driver (part of Uber's proceeds New Year's Eve went to Mothers Against Drunk Driving); or (5) ordered a cab for a $10 flat rate through tax-hailing app Flywheel, where available; or (6) used extended-hour public transportation offered in so many places on New Year's Eve. Those are only the most obvious alternatives. The point is that the consumer had genuine choice and power that may have been obscured by the sticker shock of ( sticker shock (idiomatic, chiefly US) Disgust, shock, or fright upon learning the price of an item offered for sale. ) the price charged by a particular provider at a particular time. And the consumer's demand for the service was not forced by a political, man-made人祸, or natural disaster天灾. If the consumer made an informed decision知情的 to select the relatively expensive transportation option, the provider was no more ethically blameworthy than the airline that charges more for a seat on a plane leaving the day before Thanksgiving than it does for a seat on the same plane leaving the day after Thanksgiving. So the answer is that transparency does not, by itself, ethically validate Uber's pricing — or the pricing of the provider of any other goods or service where demand is subject to significant fluctuations. Context matters. To accept the premises of a capitalist economy is to accept the ethical neutrality of the choices that consumer and Uber alike made on New Year's Eve. To absolve 赦免 Uber of any ethical transgression 践踏道德底线 in its New Year's Eve pricing is not to immunize it from any consequences from the practice. The surge pricing apparently did not yield the expected financial dividends in some places and yielded unexpected damage to the company's image in social and conventional media outlets in other places. That may lead Uber to reconsider surge pricing, at least as the policy is now being used. Such a rethinking would be a matter of market forces, not ethical imperative ( imperative [ɪmˈperətɪv] I. formal extremely important and urgent. Long-term investing is risky, and careful planning is imperative必须的. it is imperative (that): It is imperative that these claims are dealt with quickly. it is imperative to do something: It was imperative to maintain peace and stability in the region. II. formal an imperative voice or way of speaking 命令式的 is confident and determined and shows that you expect to be obeyed. III. linguistics the imperative form of a verb expresses an order to do something. n. I. [countable] formal something that is very important and urgent. a moral/political/economic imperative 必须 (=something that must be done because it is right): Solidarity between rich and poor nations is a moral imperative. II. [singular] linguistics the form of a verb that expresses orders. The imperative is also called the imperative mood祈使语气. moral imperative something that must happen because it is the right thing. Tackling the issue of poverty is a moral imperative.).
60 Minutes关于Ashby门的访谈: The revelations on 60 Minutes were so boring most of the audience adjourned to ( adjourn 休会 to temporarily end something such as a meeting or a trial. The trial was adjourned until Monday. adjourn to something to leave one place and move to another. Let's adjourn to the bar.) the dim sim bar before things got cold. After a suitably portentous ( [pɔ:(r)ˈtentəs] I. giving a warning about the future. II. 虚张声势的. 故弄玄虚的 trying to seem very serious and important, in order to impress people. Puffed up with vanity. done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress. "the author's portentous moralizings". moralizing The behaviour of one who moralizes. moralize [ˈmorəlaɪz] to tell people how they should behave, because you believe that your own opinion of right and wrong is the correct one. comment on issues of right and wrong, typically with an unfounded air of superiority. "the self-righteous moralizing 说教 of his aunt was ringing in his ears 言犹在耳". ) Liz Hayes intro (well, did anybody else notice she'd changed her hairstyle between the intro and the interview?) about this will "rock the government", Hayes sat back and fiddled with her glasses and encouraged Ashby's unsubstantiated 毫无根据的 allegations(very substantial 强有力的证据, 无可辩驳的 evidence. corroborate 支持. 支撑 to support what someone says by giving information or evidence that agrees with them. Details of the killings were corroborated by official documents. uncorroborated 毫无根据的 [ʌnkəˈrɒbəreɪtɪd] not confirmed or supported by other evidence or information.). And a new one — when Slipper allegedly asked young James whether he preferred hairy or smooth men? This was a surprise to the relatively unindustrious ( industrious 勤勉的, 勤奋的, 刻苦的 Hard-working and persistent; worksome. diligent and hard-working. I was very industrious in my effort to learn unicycle riding. ) crowd at the Ashbygate Trust. There is no reference to this conversation in any of the court documents, or in James Ashby's statement, or in Ashby's psychological report from Dr Phillips, which is available on the Federal Court website. Then back to pious ( pious [ˈpaɪəs] I. 敬畏的. 虔诚的. Of or pertaining to piety, exhibiting piety, devout, godfearing. strict in your religious beliefs and practices. strongly believing in religion, and living in a way that shows this belief: She is a pious follower of the faith, never missing her prayers. II. showing disapproval done or said with the intention of seeming religious and moral. disapproving pretending to have sincere feelings: Quit the pious apologies 虚假做作的 - I know you don't really care. pious hope 遥不可及的梦想 something that you hope for that is unlikely to be achieved. something that is unlikely to happen. Usage notes: Sometimes used pejoratively, in the sense of "mistaken" or "false" piety, as in "pious errors", "pious frauds". godfearing I. Acting with obedience to rules established by a deity out of fear of the power of that deity. II. Devout; pious; very religious.), sincere James — with an expression like a rained-on 浇雨了的, 淋雨了的, 落水狗, 浇成落汤鸡的 ( 'We got rained on'. 'It rained on us'. 'We're getting rained on'. 'It's raining on us'. 'We were getting rained on'. rain on one's parade 扫兴 Spoil one's plans. The minority party in the legislature has tried hard to rain on the speaker's parade, but so far his agenda has prevailed. I hate to rain on your parade, but your plans are all wrong. She really rained on our plans. This expression conjures up the image of a downpour ruining a celebration such as a parade. rain (up)on someone or something [for rain, or something similar] to fall on someone or something. The ashes from the erupting volcano rained on all the people fleeing the village. It rained on the fields until they were flooded. ) cocker spaniel ( Cocker Spaniels 大耳朵且耷拉耳朵的狗 are dogs belonging to two breeds of the spaniel dog type: the American Cocker Spaniel and the English Cocker Spaniel, both of which are commonly called simply Cocker Spaniel in their countries of origin. In the early 20th century, Cocker Spaniels also included small hunting Spaniels.). He tipped what can only be called the lukewarm bucket challenge over Christopher Pyne. Our information is that pious James and carnivorous 肉食性的 (an animal that eats other animals. An animal that only eats plants is called a herbivore, and an animal that eats flesh and plants is called an omnivore.) Christopher have been friends, colleagues and associates for many a long year. Like most natural liars, Brough was agile and convincing. He was obfuscating(obfuscate [ˈobfʌˌskeɪt] to deliberately make something confusing or difficult to understand.), of course. But we have proof Brough has lied to the media — so have others. It is nowhere near being a revelation. It is old, old, news. There was no way Channel 9 were going to do anything to damage the LNP government. Plausible deniability(Plausible deniability is a term coined by the CIA in the early 1960s to describe the withholding of information from senior officials in order to protect them from repercussions in the event that illegal or unpopular activities by the CIA became public knowledge. Its roots go back to Harry Truman's national security council paper 10/2 June 18/1948, which defined "covert operations" as "...all activities conducted pursuant to this directive which are so planned and executed that any U.S. Government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorized persons and that if uncovered the U.S. Government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them." The term most often refers to the capacity of senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command to deny knowledge of and/or responsibility for any damnable 毁灭性的行为 actions committed by the lower ranks because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved or at least willfully ignorant 睁一只眼闭一只眼, 装聋作哑, 视而不见, 装看不见 ( Willful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, willful ignorance or contrived ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting his or herself in a position where he or she will be unaware of facts that would render him or her liable. For example, in a number of cases, persons transporting packages containing illegal drugs have asserted that they never asked what the contents of the packages were and so lacked the requisite intent to break the law. Such defenses 辩护 have not succeeded, as courts have been quick to determine that 很快发现 the defendant should have known what was in the package and exercised criminal recklessness by failing to find out. ) of said actions. In the case that illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities become public公之于众, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such act in order to insulate themselves and shift blame 转嫁责任 on the agents who carried out the acts, confident that their doubters will be unable to prove otherwise. The lack of evidence to the contrary ostensibly makes the denial plausible ( ostensibly used for saying that although someone pretends to have one reason for something, there is in fact another reason. He was ostensibly on holiday, but actually he was on a diplomatic mission. Melissa went to her room, ostensibly to do her homework. ostensible 貌似的, 似是而非的, 表面上的 appearing to be true, or stated by someone to be true, but possibly false. The ostensible reason for the army's presence was to keep the peace.), that is, credible. The term typically implies forethought 先见之明, 事先安排(careful thought and planning that prepares you well for a future event. He wished they had had the forethought to bring extra water.), such as intentionally setting up the conditions to plausibly avoid responsibility for one's (future) actions or knowledge. In some organizations, legal doctrines such as command responsibility(Command responsibility领导责任, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, and also known as superior responsibility, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes committed during wartime. The term may also be used more broadly to refer to the duty to supervise subordinates管好下属, and liability for the failure to do so, both in government, military law, and with regard to corporations and trusts. The "Yamashita standard" is based upon the precedent set by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. He was prosecuted in 1945, in a still controversial trial, for atrocities 暴行, 残暴行为, 恶行 committed by troops under his command in the Philippines during the Pacific Theater of World War II. Yamashita was charged with "unlawfully disregarding and failing to discharge his duty as a commander to control the acts 控制行为 of members of his command by permitting them to commit war crimes." The "Medina standard" is based upon the 1971 prosecution of U.S. Army Captain Ernest Medina in connection with the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. It holds that a commanding officer, being aware of a human rights violation or a war crime, will be held criminally liable付法律责任 when he does not take action. However, Medina was acquitted of all charges.) exist to hold major parties responsible for the actions of subordinates involved in heinous acts and nullify any legal protection that their denial of involvement would carry.) was the order of the day ( 王道. 常有事, 正常, 常见情况. something necessary or usual at a certain time. Warm clothes are the order of the day when camping in the winter. Going to bed early was the order of the day when we were young. something that is usual or expected. a family-run hotel where simple comfort is the order of the day. something that is very common in a particular place or time. a time in Britain's history when small-scale agriculture was the order of the day. ). As for Ashby's claims that Pyne promised him support and nurture — those are simply unsubstantiated allegations, like many things James says.
