用法学习: 1. "The NRL has been made aware of the matter. It is a police matter and we will allow the process to take its course 让这个过程自然进行(let nature take its course 交给命运, 别去管他 to allow someone or something to live or die naturally. By this stage, her illness was so severe that the doctors agreed to let nature take its course rather than prolong her suffering. We plant the seeds in springtime and then just let nature take its course. to allow something to happen naturally. To permit events to proceed or a situation to develop without intervention or interference. 自然发生, 自然而然的发生. Normally, the Parks Department lets nature take its course and doesn't replace dead trees, but this situation is different. benign neglect (set phrase, often politics or public policy) A policy or strategy of deliberately taking no action concerning an issue, challenging situation, or other problem in the belief that this course will ultimately result in the best outcome possible. stand aside I. 让开, 退后, 站到一边去. To step sideways to make a space for someone else. Stand aside, please, so the doctor can get through. II. To leave a job or position voluntarily so that someone else can have it instead. It's time he stood aside and let a more qualified person do the job. III. To temporarily recuse oneself from action or decision-making in some domain. The minister will stand aside during the investigation. let sleeping dogs lie 求同存异, 搁置争议 (idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past. Eventually, they decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not discuss the matter any further. )" it said in a statement. 2. Caitlyn's ESPY award is a fix 事先定好了的, 预定好了的: Caitlyn Jenner winning the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs on Wednesday was a fantastic achievement, and her acceptance speech 致辞 was fantastically moving. But now, an anonymous source has come forward to say that the award was negotiated previous to the night in exchange for airtime on Jenner's reality show. According to Radar Online, Jenner's reps approached ESPN and suggested that she win the award, and offered PR plugs and footage of the broadcast on her popular reality show 'I Am Cait'. The source says that negotiations for the award began before Jenner's pivotal interview with Dianne Sawyer, which was shown on the US network, ABC. Both ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney, and it is alleged that Jenner's agents threatened to pull the interview with Sawyer if Jenner did not receive the Courage award. We will post more on this story as it develops随着事态发展. give rise to something 导致, 引起, 引发 to cause something; to instigate something. The attack gave rise to endless arguments. Her ludicrous living gave rise to further speculation as to the source of her money. International support has given rise to a new optimism in the company. mortar I. N-COUNT A mortar is a big gun that fires missiles high into the air over a short distance. 迫击炮. The two sides exchanged fire with mortars and small arms. II. N-UNCOUNT Mortar is a mixture of sand, water, and cement or lime which is put between bricks to hold them together. 泥灰浆. ...the mortar between the bricks. bricks and mortar 街头实体店: A traditional "street-side" business that deals with its customers face to face in an office or store that the business owns or rents. The local grocery store and the corner bank are examples of "brick and mortar" companies. Today's consumers lead busy lives and shopping takes time. Often it is a task. Consumers find researching and shopping on the Web far more convenient than brick-and-mortar visits. Although in-store excursions can still be fun, in many ways shopping online or via a mobile device offers a better overall experience, whether from the couch after the kids are in bed, on a mobile phone during a quiet moment at lunch, or on the go. III. N-COUNT A mortar is a bowl in which you can crush things such as herbs, spices, or grain using a rod called a pestle. 研钵. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the shells and claws. nag factor = pester power 又哭又闹, 一哭二闹三上吊, 孩子纠缠功力, 孩子经济: nag someone for something = pester someone for something. "Crime of the century 大罪, 世纪犯罪, 多大点罪, 算不上恶行" is an idiomatic phrase used to describe particularly sensational or notorious criminal cases. In the United States, it is often — though not exclusively — used in reference to the Lindbergh kidnapping. However, the phrase was in popular use much earlier in the 19th-century and has been used repeatedly ever since. Trial of the century 世纪审判 is an idiomatic phrase used to describe certain well-known court cases, especially of the 20th century. It is often used popularly as a rhetorical device to attach importance to a trial and as such is not an objective observation but is the opinion of whoever uses it. wide of the mark = off the mark 错的离谱, 太不准确了, 差得太远了 I. a long way from an intended target. "most of his shots went wide of the mark". II. not accurate. Earlier reports appear to be wide of the mark. the turn of the century 世纪转折点 the time around the end of one century and the beginning of the next. a mansion built at the turn of the century. 3. part of the furniture 住很久了 someone who has lived or worked somewhere for a long time. fixture I. (law) 法律用语. a piece of furniture or equipment that is fixed in its place and is considered part of the building, and so you do not take it with you when you move. Something that is fixed in place, especially a permanent appliance or other item of personal property that is considered part of a house and is sold with it. Something that is fixed but can be moved is called a fitting. the hotel retains 保留了 many original fixtures and fittings. become a fixture: Their display could become a fixture of the show. a. used about a person considered to be permanently established in a job, place etc. II. 常客. 老顾客 A regular patron of a place or institution. III. 常规赛. British a sports event that happens at a regular time and place. The club is having to play all its fixtures away from home. permanent staff 永久员工 (=people who are employed by an organization for as long as they wish to stay): We have a permanent staff of 24, plus 8 seasonal workers in the summer. a permanent fixture 固定阵容 (=someone or something that is part of a system, organization, or your life for a long time): the midfielder is set to become a permanent fixture in the England line-up. Blomquist has become a permanent fixture in the team. 4. manky 指头变形 丑陋肮脏的. dirty and unpleasant to look at. Unpleasantly dirty and disgusting. Ugly or hideous, disfigured. Hey, check out his manky toes/fingers. 儿子的指头出问题了: My son bites his finger and toe nails. For the first time ever, he has infections around two fingers and his big toe. I think he has snagged them while biting the nail, but he is very run down after a virus and has succumbed to infections. It started off just round the nail and was fairly stable so I booked a non-emergency appointment for next Tuesday in case it hadn't cleared up. But now the infection on his toe is spreading slowly (over the last 48 hours) towards the joint. Do you think the time has come to try and get an emergency appt. for tomorrow (Friday) or is it reasonable to carry on waiting until after the weekend? It's not spreading in lines 呈直线扩展 really. It's more that he seems to get a small blister of pus just under the top layer of skin, which sloughs off ( slough = sluff [slʌf] or slough off 破皮, 蜕皮 I. To slide off (like a layer of skin). A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off. II. To shed (skin). to remove an outer layer of skin. This skin is being sloughed. Snakes slough off their dead skins. n. I. The skin shed by a snake or other reptile. That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful. II. 脱死皮. Dead skin on a sore or ulcer. This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn. ) within hours and leaves that area red and sore. Then he gets another blister a bit further away and it repeats. 5. opposites [electric charge电荷] attract, likes repel 异性相吸, 同性相斥. take the piss (out of) sb or sth 讽刺, 逗乐, 拿...开玩笑, 取笑, 嘲笑(pay someone out 是insult 侮辱某人) UK offensive to make a joke about someone or make someone look silly: They're always taking the piss out of him because he's a Barry Manilow fan. office beauty 职场美女. Clown of the office = office clown 职场开心果 office prankster. Give someone an inch and he'll take a mile/yard 得寸进尺. Prov. Be generous to someone and the person will demand even more. (Describes someone who will take advantage of you if you are even a little kind to him or her.) said about someone who has been given a small amount of power or freedom to do something, and then has tried to get a lot more. If you let Mark borrow your tools for this weekend, he'll wind up keeping them for years. Give him an inch and he'll take a mile. unguarded I. 丢在一边的. 无人看管的. 无人看守的, 无人值守的. an unguarded place or object is not watched or protected by anyone. You shouldn't leave your bag unguarded like that. II. saying or doing something without thinking first. Displaying, having, or feeling no wariness; incautious: an unguarded 不假思索的, 不及细想的, 脱口而出的 remark. unguarded moment 意料不到的时间, 意外地时间, 没有准备的时间: In an unguarded moment, Iris had told him how she felt. If you make an unguarded remark or say something in an unguarded moment, you tell someone something that you would usually keep secret, sometimes in a way that shows bad judgment: In an unguarded moment, I said that I didn't trust Carlo. opposing I. 敌对的, 对立的, 对抗的. 互相竞争的. competing or fighting against each other. competing against, fighting, or arguing with someone else or with each other. in conflict or competition with a specified or implied subject. "the opposing team". Players from the opposing team hurled insults at them. the commanders of the opposing armies. Opposing factions on the committee are refusing to compromise. (of two or more subjects) differing from or in conflict with each other. "the brothers fought on opposing sides in the war". a. opposing facts, opinions 两极的, 完全相反的, 意见相左的, 完全不一样的, 正相反的( contrary to public belief/opinion. run counter to sth. 正相反的. 相悖的. 背离的. 大相径庭的. The earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around反过来的. ) etc are completely different from each other. Two opposing explanations can be offered. the suppression of opposing views. We had a opposing holiday. Yours was more fun-chasing, mine was relaxing, just chilling. II. facing; opposite. "on the opposing page there were two addresses". "the opposing page相对的页面上". 6. When I was in Fiji, I had eye infections. I went to buy eye drops 滴眼液, then was told they have a healing hand 妙手圣医 in that village. kick up I. (figuratively, by extension, transitive, US) To raise, to increase (a price). The rent has been kicked up again. When Brazil triumphed over Italy in the final, it kicked up the price of Brazilian bonds. II. (figuratively, transitive) To stir up (trouble), to cause (a disturbance). It is no wonder that they are often heavy and indisposed, and demand on the next morning a visit to the medicine-chest to get rid of the superfluous food, which has already kicked up a disturbance. A medicine chest 药箱子, 家用药箱 is a container or cabinet for storing medicine. All ships governed by the regulations of the IMO are required to have medical supplies and suitable storage for them such as refrigeration and locks. In Canada medicine chest has a related, symbolic meaning. Under the terms of Treaty 6 between the Canadian government and several bands of First Nations people ("Indians"), the government was required to supply each Indian reserve with a medicine chest. This has been interpreted as an ongoing responsibility for the government to provide healthcare to First Nations people. He said that the disturbances had been initiated (instigate, give rise to something) by Tajiks, residents of the Uzbek village of Khushjar, who raided the Kyrgyz territory and kicked up a row with the locals. Blows were traded. III. (idiomatic, intransitive) To show anger (about something). He kicked up about it when they told him the train had been cancelled. But, you have kicked up about that a few times. I've got used to it, though. What I am not used to is how you are now. Very quiet, philosophical, and acquiescent. IV. 发作(kick in 开始发作), 甚嚣尘上. 开始有问题. (idiomatic, intransitive, US) To function improperly, to show signs of disorder, (of an illness) to flare up(= play up). The car is kicking up. My ADHD is kicking up again.
How Nick Jonas Became the King of Twinks: "He's got a great ass!" screamed the ripped gay man in front of me. The man was losing his mind, as well you might, because Nick Jonas was standing on the stage of the Up & Down with a strapping black drag queen at his side. The former Disney Channel star had come to the popular Manhattan nightclub to host the first Up & Down Sundays of September. The weekly event is New York's latest party for twinks and the elderly gay vampires who want to fuck them. A few years ago, gay men never would have expected Jonas to visit, let alone host, a party at a place like Up & Down. After all, he's a former member of the Jonas Brothers, the family boy band remembered for wearing purity rings to symbolize their virginity. But there he was, on the stage of a club that is more flamboyant than a high-end Cheesecake Factory, brandishing his "great ass." "Have you ever had chocolate nuts?" the drag queen asked Jonas as her decorated eyes filled with lust色眯眯的. "I remember when you were a child. But in your new videos, you're a buff bitch." She begged him to lift up his shirt and Jonas obeyed照做了. "You can't do this to me, bitch! I'm an old black woman!" the drag queen yelped at the sight of the pop star's happy trail肚毛. This appearance marked the beginning of Jonas's aggressively gay-friendly publicity campaign for his first post–Jonas Brothers album, Nick Jonas, and you might wonder why he bothers with the Up & Down and the drag queen and the ab-baring 坦胸露乳的 and all that. Why would the teeny bopper turn to homos to hawk 兜售, 叫卖 his new record? It could be because his career is in a precarious 前途未卜的, 动荡不安的 (not securely held or in position; dangerously likely to fall or collapse. "a precarious ladder". ) position. Truth be told, only three stars have had impressive careers after being in a boy band—Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, and Bobby Brown—and the latter two aren't exactly role models. Meanwhile, Jonas's brothers haven't been doing so great in the last few years: Joe's first solo album sold an abysmal 18,000 copies in its first week. When you look at his dim prospects前景暗淡, focusing his efforts to woo an oft-overlooked demographic that is estimated to be less than 3 percent of the population but exerts more than $800 billion in buying power 购买力 doesn't seem like such a terrible strategy. He's not exactly subtle about 不讳言, 不闪躲 his desire to court the gay community. The day after Jonas hosted Up & Down Sundays, he removed his shirt again at On Air with Ryan Seacrest and tweeted out, "I love my gay fans." Later that week, he exposed his ripped abs at yet another gay club while sharing a stage with Cocky Boys porn star Levi Karter, who had stripped down to his skivvies. All the while, this gay club striptease tour was being pushed 推广, 宣传 by ads on Grindr. Since then, Jonas has taken his gay-baiting to television, appearing on The Real Housewives producer Andy Cohen's Bravo talk show Watch What Happens Live, where he revealed he would—once again—be stripping down on the new DirectTV show Kingdom, a dramatic series about a mixed martial arts gym. Jonas has described his Kingdom character as an MMA fighter who goes through a crisis "revolving around his sexuality," but when I asked him if this meant he was playing a gay man, he acted coy. "I can't give any spoilers away, but I can say this: My character goes on a journey," he said. "I think it was a really beautiful story that was important to tell." Jonas did, however, confirm he bulked up 健身 for the role: "When the show came around, I really had to push myself, and I gained about 15 pounds of muscle." He has also shown off his new sexy body on the cover of Attitude—a gay mag that specializes in shots of muscular men wearing very little. (I once bought it when I was 12 years old and didn't have access to GayTube.) And a few weeks ago, Jonas practically broke the internet 引爆 (Those events might change internet. But in the context of viral media content, "breaking the Internet" means engineering one story to dominate Facebook and Twitter at the expense of more newsworthy things. (Like, for example, the fact that humans have landed a probe on a comet for a first time in history.) So perhaps a more accurate term would be "hijacking the Internet," since really these stories seem to be manipulating online fervor rather than shutting the whole thing down.) when he posed in his tighty-whiteys and showed off his rock-solid, hairy, and possibly un-photoshopped ass crack in a spread ( I. a. 传播. 散播. 扩散. a situation in which disease begins to infect more and more people. They still do not know how to prevent the spread of the disease. b. 蔓延. a situation in which a fire starts to affect a larger area than before. Close doors to delay the spread of fire and smoke. II. a number of different things. spread of: You minimize risk by investing in a spread of companies. III. 长文. a long article in a newspaper or magazine. a double-page/two-page spread. IV. the width of something. The mature plant is around six feet tall with a spread of four feet. middle-age spread 水桶腰, 肥腰, 腰间赘肉 middle-aged spread fat that often develops around someone's waist as they get older. spread like wildfire if information spreads like wildfire, a lot of people hear about it in a short period of time. The rumour that he had left spread like wildfire. spread/stretch/try your wings 振翅高飞 to start to do new and interesting things that you have not done before. It's time for him to leave home and stretch his wings. spread the word/gospel/message to tell a lot of people about an idea that you believe in. They are spreading the word on the need for healthy eating. Campaigners worked tirelessly to spread the environmentalist message.) for Flaunt magazine. Many gay men have expressed happiness for this deluge of masturbation material, but others have taken to social media to question Jonas's motives. "Nick Jonas wants so bad to be part of the gay community," one Tumblr user said, and another posted photos of Jonas stripping followed by a Nicki Minaj GIF that said "...I know what the fuck you're doing." Dr. Michael D. Dwyer, an assistant professor of Communications at Arcadia University, also knows what the fuck Jonas is doing. In a phone interview with me he compared Jonas's publicity campaign—especially the Flaunt photos—to Marky Mark's relationship to the gay community in the 90s. The former rapper—who's now an actor and producer and goes by Mark Wahlberg—became a gay sex icon when he groped his crotch 裆部 while wearing nothing but a hat and briefs in a 1992 Calvin Klein ad. (Jonas aped that iconic ad in his recent spread in Flaunt, all the way down to the groin grab.) The sexy ads made Marky Mark a sex object for gay men, and they became an important part of Marky Mark's audience according to Dwyer—but because of the AIDS crisis and the country's homophobia, Marky Mark couldn't directly cater to this segment of his market. At the same time, the rapper also probably couldn't afford to lose the gays. After people accused him of gay bashing and homophobia in 1993, he made a point to sit down with the gay magazine the Advocate for an interview to save face and keep that queer cash coming in. Of course, Marky Mark was far from the first celebrity gay icon. American gay men have been idolizing female heterosexual stars at least since Judy Garland's suicide attempt in 1950, but their power as consumers only started to get recognized in the 1970s, when disco exploded and many states legalized same-sex dancing, according to Dwyer. From the get-go, the public associated disco with gay men. At first, music historian Alice Echols notes in her 2010 book Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, gay men mainly championed songs by heterosexual black women, like Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," helping catapult them onto the charts. After all, what gay man hasn't dealt with a homophobic boss and then had to tell himself he will, in Gloria Gaynor's words, survive? Gay's fandom for disco, however, wasn't as beneficial for male performers, who found themselves in trouble for singing music that homosexuals loved. "The reason why 'disco sucks' was sort of a cultural movement was in large part due to homophobia," Dwyer said. "If you read through the early 80s press of Michael Jackson, prior to Thriller, there was so much concern of him being a disco star and what that meant for his masculinity. His success as a pop star meant disowning, or minimizing, the degree to which he would have gay fans." Many other boy banders have needed to prove their masculinity after they left their groups behind. Justin Timberlake's first solo video, "Rock Your Body," featured a close-up on his patchy facial hair, as if to say, "Yo, my balls dropped. I'm a man who has sex, and I'm not on Disney anymore." Most of the time, however, this approach has failed. In 1972, Partridge Family star David Cassidy posed nude in Rolling Stone, hoping to transition 蜕变, 转变 from teen icon to sex icon, but his adult career never matched the heights of his teen superstardom. (Of course, Cassidy's music was also never as great as Timberlake's 21st-century classic Future Sex/Love Sounds.) Female pop singers have faced easier transitions into adult stardom. Of the Disney Channel divas from the years when the Jonas Brothers dominated, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato have all had success as adults. Similarly, while Jackson had to act macho in the 1980s, Madonna's gender and origins in New York nightclubs allowed her to court gay listeners. Up to Like a Prayer, gay men adored Madonna. But their perception changed, according to Dwyer, when she started behaving like a "colonizer(One who establishes or joins a colony; a colonist. )," appropriating the vogue dancing that came from New York City's gay black scene in 90s. This critique expanded when Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 VMAs during a period when few genuine lesbians appeared on TV. "She was too far removed from ( far removed from something very different from something. Our dreams are often far removed from reality.) being at the disco cafeteria and being this sort of grimey New York girl. She's become seen as someone 被看做是 who just sort of capitalizes on 利用 [gay culture] for explicitly straight audiences," Dwyer said. Throughout the Obama era, gay audiences have accused other female pop stars of similar behavior. In a scathing Bitch magazine article called "Raise Your Glass if U R a Firework Who Was Born This Way," feminist writer Lauren Elmore describes how Ke$ha dedicated "We R Who We R" to Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers student who killed himself after being bullied. Less than two weeks later, Katy Perry followed her lead, dedicating 献给 the music video for "Fireworks," a song about feeling like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, to the It Gets Better Project—an online video series created by gay writer Dan Savage as a way for older LGBT people to tell young homos that their lives would improve as they aged. Perry and Ke$ha's public stances certainly didn't hurt their bottom lines: According to the Billboard charts, "We R Who We R" became Ke$ha's second-biggest single, and "Fireworks" became the third-biggest single of 2011, spending 39 weeks on the charts. In an email, Jonas's publicity team admitted what was obvious 显而易见的事情: He too was deliberately seeking the approval of gay men. "Nick's audience has long been diverse and he appreciates and loves all of his fans," they said. "With the roll out of his new album and TV show, it was important to him that he reached and embraced all of his fans and that includes the LGBT community." At Jonas's birthday party last month at Queen of the Night, an extravagant dinner-theater production in midtown Manhattan, I felt like Jonas and his team were gay-baiting me. I first got an inkling of 有所察觉, 察觉到 this(a slight idea or small piece of information that tells you that something might exist or be happening. The first inkling that something was wrong came on Wednesday. have no inkling: I had no inkling how serious these problems are.) when I was conspicuously assigned to a table with two other gay professionals—an Us Weekly staff writer and an employee at MTV. Then I looked around and realized a large portion of the partygoers were gay media professionals. The whole scene felt ingeniously 聪明的 calculated精心设计的. So far, Jonas's gay appeal seems to have worked. Although his songs haven't become global smashes, his album has hovered in the top five on the iTunes charts all week, and he has sold out several concerts. He hasn't ridden the zeitgeist ( [ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst] the ideas, beliefs, and interests that are typical of most people during a particular time in history and are expressed in the culture of that time. The Zeitgeist (spirit of the age or spirit of the time) is the intellectual fashion or dominant school of thought that typifies and influences the culture of a particular period in time. For example, the Zeitgeist of modernism typified and influenced architecture, art, and fashion during much of the 20th century.) Miley-style, but he has formed a dedicated fan base 形成忠实的粉丝群—in other words, his strategy is working exactly as planned. Last week, a line of girls and gay men wrapped around the block before his sold-out show at Gramercy Theatre. During the show, Jonas exhibited all the characteristics of a gay icon in the making. He danced like a male stripper and showed a self-aware sense of humor reminiscent of Liza Minnelli: "I will keep my pants on tonight!" Jonas joked before he removed his jacket during the song "Teacher." Even more important, his new songs sound incredible. He can be experimental like Frank Ocean, he can croon like Frank Sinatra, he can pop like Britney Spears, and he can make the kind of jams queens like to listen to as they rim assholes. He probably won't become the new Justin Timberlake, but there's a big chance he's our first heterosexual male Gloria Gaynor—and that is kind of revolutionary.
