用法学习: 1. lay down I. 放下武器. 放弃抵抗. To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground. The police urged the gunman to lay down his weapon. Lay down your arms. II. To intentionally take a fall while riding a motorcycle, in order to prevent a more serious collision. He laid down his brand-new Harley-Davidson to avoid the oncoming bus. III. To specify, institute, enact, assert firmly, state authoritatively, establish or formulate (rules or policies). Let's lay down the rules right at the beginning, so we are consistent. You've got to lay down the law with that boy. III. To stock, store (e.g. wine) for the future. IV. To sacrifice, especially in the phrase "to lay down one's life." V. (intransitive, nonstandard, proscribed) To lie down; to place oneself in a reclined or horizontal position, on a bed or similar, for the purpose of resting. I feel a bit ill, so I'm going to go lay down for a while. lay down the law I. To promulgate law. [I]n other words, some Jews thought of Moses as the one who laid down the Law, while others saw him more as a prophet. II. (idiomatic) To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted. Looks like the governor's laid down the law about the guards getting too lax, so we have to be damned careful. Montague could picture the grim, hawk-faced old man, sitting at the head
of the council board, and laying down the law to the masters of the
Metropolis. He concluded this sentence with a self-important cough, as one who has laid down the law in an indisputable 不可辩驳的, 无可争议的, 不容置疑的 manner. lax I. 松懈的. 松散的. not paying enough attention to rules, or not caring enough about quality or safety. worries about lax airport security. the lax morals of today's society. II. not made firm or tight. lax muscles. internal security: The information received is highly confidential and relates to internal security. tight/lax security (=good/bad security): The meeting took place amid extremely tight security. self-important adj. behaving in ways that show you think you are more important than everyone else. Having, or behaving as if having, too high an opinion of one's own importance. The assistant manager was a self-important fellow who strutted about the office barking instructions. read (someone) the riot act (idiomatic) To scold or berate somebody; to reprimand. She really read him the riot act about his smoking habit. 2. 孩子作为家庭暴力的受害者: Koda and Hunter Little, four years old and nine months respectively, were powerless to fight their father or turn the car they were strapped into around when dad Damien Little drove the family wagon off the Port Lincoln wharf where the boys met their drowning death. The two cases of senseless child deaths in Australia that happened in the past week have shocked Australians and brought to the fore ( bring something to the fore to move something forward; to make something more prominent or noticeable. All the talk about costs brought the question of budgets to the fore. The question of budget planning was brought to the fore. ) the oft-forgotten victims in the "family terrorism" epidemic that's gripped the nation. Awareness of domestic violence, though it's been slow coming, has shot up ( I. [intransitive] 猛涨. to increase quickly by a large amount. Petrol prices have shot up in the last six months. II. 猛蹿了. to grow taller very quickly. She's shot up since the last time we saw her. III. [transitive] mainly American to destroy something by shooting bullets at it. IV. [intransitive/transitive] informal to put an illegal drug into your body with a needle ) in Australia in recent years, largely thanks to the campaigning that followed the shocking murder of Melbourne boy Luke Batty, whose mother Rosie has led the charge to bring family violence out from behind closed doors and into public consciousness. But despite a child murder in a family violence setting being a major catalyst for this societal shift in attitudes towards how we think about and tackle family violence, the kids are still left to be forgotten about 被遗忘. University of South Australia adjunct associate professor says that the reasons children are often overlooked 被忽视 as victims of violence are frighteningly similar to the reasons they are targeted. "They don't have the ability to defend themselves. They're vulnerable, they're easy targets," she tells news.com.au. Rather than being end targets of family violence, Prof. Bagshaw says, children are often used as "weapons" to get revenge against 报复 partners. Threats to, hurt, kill, or remove a child from another partner are often employed in domestic disputes. And when those threats are acted on 付诸实施, 付诸实践, the vulnerable victims are too terrified to speak up or are faced with threats of their own. Prof. Bagshaw, who has led major studies on family violence and children facing abuse, says believes there should better protection services available for children experiencing violence. "We need to be more vigilant on the effect of violence on children and witnessing violence," she said. "We hear about the cases when they're killed, but there are a lot more children who are living with violence that could well lead up to something like that, that are forgotten about. 3. pandemonium [ˌpændɪˈməunɪəm] a very noisy and confused situation, especially one caused by a lot of angry or excited people. If there is pandemonium in a place, the people there are behaving in a very noisy and uncontrolled way. 乱作一团. 喧嚣; 嘈杂. There was pandemonium in court as the judge gave his verdict. We got a bunch of guy friends together to show each other their beloved penises. The catch? One of the guys didn't know that the other actually kept his underwear on. Obviously, pure pandemonium ensued. groom I. 梳妆打扮. 梳洗. To care for the appearance of; to make neat and trim. to take care of your appearance by keeping your hair, body, and clothes clean and neat. Dan spends hours grooming in front of the mirror. groomed himself carefully in front of the mirror. II. To clean and brush (an animal). if an animal grooms itself or another animal, it cleans itself or another animal. III. To remove dirt and parasites from the skin, fur, or feathers of (another animal). IV. To prepare, as for a specific position or purpose. to prepare someone for a particular job or activity by giving them special training and attention. The 15-year-old schoolgirl is being groomed for stardom. groom an employee for advancement. a. if an adult who is sexually attracted to children grooms a young person, they become friendly with them, for example using Internet chat rooms, so that they can meet them and have illegal sex with them. V. Sports To prepare (terrain) for participants in a sport, as by packing down new snow and leveling moguls for skiers. VI. [transitive] to make snow firm for a path. Snow grooming 压平 is the process of manipulating snow for recreational uses with a tractor, snowmobile, snowcat, piste caterpillar, truck or snowcat (A snowcat is an enclosed-cab, truck-sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow.) towing specialized equipment. The process is used to maintain ski hills, cross country ski trails and snowmobile trails by grooming (moving, flattening, rototilling, or compacting) the snow on them. 4. 纽约火车上的好人: A glimpse at the news cycle can paint a bleak 昏暗的, 灰暗的, 阴冷的, 冰冷的 picture of humanity(bleak I. without any reasons to feel happy or hopeful. Things look very bleak for the team. Textile workers face a bleak future. paint a bleak picture (=say that the situation is not hopeful): The survey paints a bleak picture of an ill and ageing population. a. used about someone's expression. a bleak look. II. a bleak place seems cold and unfriendly and has no pleasant features. a bleak landscape. a. bleak weather is very cold and grey. uncertain/painful/bleak etc future: The people of Grozny face an uncertain future.). But every now and then a story comes along that suggests there may be hope for us yet. Over the weekend, a video posted on Facebook of a man literally giving the shirt off his back to someone in more need than him has gone viral, clocking up over 10 million views. According to NY Daily News, Lazaro Nolasco boarded the train A Train to Brooklyn at 10pm when he witnessed "Jay" – the Good Samaritan in the video – approach a shivering 瑟瑟发抖的, shirtless fellow passenger. He then handed over his own clothing including a beanie, leaving himself only a singlet to wear in the near-freezing temperatures of a Manhattan winter and even offered to take him to a hospital. This only goes to show just how far a little kindness can go towards making the world a better place. 5. Kendall Jenner, once just a sullen 不开心的, 闷闷不乐的 reality star, is now a bona fide fashion presence thanks to a wardrobe redux( redux (of a topic) 回归. 怀旧. Redone, restored, brought back, or revisited. Company policy redux. Dirty tricks redux. Usage notes: Redux is always used attributively and after the noun rather than before it.), while Victoria Beckham went from WAG to designer with a minimal new look.
租车注意事项: If you have a poke ( have a poke around 稍作调查, 稍作研究: to look carefully around a place to see what you can find; to try to find out information about sb/sth. To poke around means to explore, to try out, to check out and see how it works. It sounds to me like British English. poke around (UK also poke about) I. informal 翻找. 翻查. to search for something by moving things around, usually not in a very careful or organized way. to look or search around. I've been poking around in the library looking for some statistics. I don't mind if you look in my drawer for a paper clip, but please don't poke about. I was poking around in the drawer, looking for the key, when I found this! II. to waste time while moving about. I just poked around all afternoon and didn't accomplish much. Stop poking around and get moving. III. Look through things; also, make an investigation. I was poking around the attic when I found these old photos, or The detective was poking about, tracking where she went on that fatal day. poke one's nose into Pry into or meddle in another's affairs, as in I told her to stop poking her nose into our business. This usage replaced the earlier thrust one's nose into in the mid-1800s. nose about/around (for someone or something) to search here and there to find someone or something. We spent an hour nosing about for a newspaper. I will nose around for someone to help you. We nosed about for a while, but found no one. ) under the bonnet of the rental car industry, you'll find it's nowhere near as shiny as it looks (shiny something that is shiny has a bright surface that reflects light. Reflecting light. a shiny red apple. shiny black hair. II. Excellent; remarkable. ) in the brochures. Many companies make their money by selling you unnecessary add-ons and charging hefty "administration fees", causing the unwary traveller's budget to disappear in a cloud of oily smoke. We've put together 10 steps for navigating your way through the car rental process without being driven round the bend(drive someone around the bend Fig. to make someone crazy, to irritate someone. to make someone angry or very frustrated. This tax stuff is about to drive me around the bend. Gert will drive us all around the bend with her constant complaining. My children always drive me around the bend when they are tired and in a bad mood. John's girlfriend keeps driving him around the bend because she always asks him questions when he gets home from the bar. I quit my job because my boss drove me around the bend every time I went to work.). Sometimes they run promotions or deals that aren't picked up by the aggregators, and you may be able to get further discounts. Car companies will always try and upsell you from a sensible compact car to a more spacious set of wheels, because they can charge twice as much. A week's holiday pottering around ( potter around/about (chiefly Britain) 有一搭没一搭的, 漫无目的的, 随心所欲的. 不紧不慢的. To potter, to be gently active doing various things in an almost aimless manner. I like to relax pottering around the house doing this and that at the weekends. potter I. (Britain) To act in a vague or unmotivated way. II. (Britain) To move slowly or aimlessly. ) Paris will cost you about $300 in a small Citroen hired from Avis- and more than $800 in a much larger five-door model. Resist the temptation 抵抗住诱惑, and you might just get lucky anyway. Rental companies only have a certain stock of available cars, and compacts are by far the most popular. If they run out of cars ahead of your booking, they might upgrade you free of charge. Almost every company has compulsory full insurance cover for their vehicles. But they'll also try and sell you add-on insurance cover which reduces your excess, sometimes to zero. It's a huge money-earner, playing on the fears of tourists 利用你的担心 who don't want the stress of paying for a fender-bender ( 磕磕碰碰. a minor accident in which vehicles are slightly damaged. A minor accident involving at least one motor vehicle. My insurance went up even though all my accidents were just fender-benders. ). They give it cutesy ( 甜得发腻的. 可爱的不要不要的. Overly, affectedly or unnecessarily cute; too cute to be taken as serious. The couple called each other by cutesy pet names that disgusted everyone else. saccharine [ˈsækərɪn] I. Of or relating to sugar. II. (pejorative) Excessively sweet in action or disposition; syrupy. III. Sentimental or romantic to the point of ridiculousness. precious I. Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such. The crown had many precious gemstones. This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge. II. Regarded with love or tenderness. My precious daughter is to marry. III. (pejorative) Treated with too much reverence. He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious. IV. (pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming. syrupy I. Having the taste or consistency of syrup. II. 甜得发腻的. Overly sweet or sentimental. ) names like "Relax" or "Peace of Mind" cover, but it's usually very poor value for money. Weigh it up carefully好好掂量掂量, 斟酌斟酌, and don't forget to check if your own credit card or travel insurance already has you covered. Arguing with a stroppy ( [ˈstrɒpi] a stroppy person gets angry very easily and is difficult to talk to. ) European rental company agent when you're already back on home turf is a futile exercise. Rental cars are often covered in minor dings and scratches 刮蹭, so you need to make sure you don't become a convenient scapegoat. Use your cellphone or camera to take date-stamped photos or a video while you're in the parking lot, and get the attendants to sign off 签字认可 any notable dings before you leave. But if for any reason your credit runs dry or you can't pay, beware. Avis charges a late fee of $50 and then 10 per cent interest compounding ( compound [kəmˈpaund] verb. I. 本息一起支付的. 连本带息的. to pay interest both on an amount of money as well as on the interest that has been added to it. II. 复杂化. to make a problem or difficult situation worse. Their problems are compounded by the fact that Mary's just lost her job. III. to mix two or more substances together in order to make a new substance or product. be compounded of something 混杂的, ...交加的 to be made up of two or more things. a feeling compounded of relief and shame. compound interest 利滚利 interest that is based both on an amount of money that someone has borrowed or saved and on the interest that has been added to it. n. I. 化合物. [countable] chemistry a chemical substance that consists of two or more elements that together form a molecule. Each different compound has a fixed ratio of elements. For example the water compound (H2O) consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Name the parts of this chemical compound. Water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. a. [countable/uncountable] something that consists of two or more substances mixed together. an old herbal compound used for treating headaches. II. [countable] a combination of things. John and Steve working together? That's a lethal compound 致命组合, 二人组. III. [countable] an enclosed area where a particular group of people live, or where people such as soldiers and prisoners can exercise. IV. [countable] 复合词. linguistics a combination of two or more words that is used as a single word. The three different types of compound are noun compounds (for example "bus stop"), adjective compounds (for example "self-centered"), and verb compounds (for example to "wind-surf"). ) daily. Hertz charges 10 per cent above the interest rate it pays its bankers for an overdraft 透支- so possibly as high as 20 or 30 per cent. Those are some seriously weighty ( I. 严重的. serious and important. of great seriousness and importance. "He threw off all weighty considerations of state". a weighty issue/matter/question. II. heavy. a weighty box. III. having a great deal of influence on events or decisions. "the evidence for proprietorial interference has become even more weighty". ) charges.
Investigation: is the Landmark Forum a cult? I thought I'd be brainwashed. But how wrong could I be...: It claims to be about self-improvement but it's been accused of exploiting the gullible, even of being a cult. Others say it transforms their lives. So what is the Landmark Forum? And what does it do? Amelia Hill decided to find out. What she discovered about the Forum - and about herself - will surprise you. I don't do epiphanies(epiphany [iˈpɪfəni] noun I. January 6th, celebrated by Christians as the day that the baby Jesus Christ was visited by three kings or wise men, according to the Bible. The appearance of Jesus Christ to the three Magi on the twelfth day after Christmas. II. 警醒. 豁然省悟. 顿悟. 豁然开朗. 幡然醒悟. 悟出. Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight. a moment when you suddenly realize or understand something important. an experience of sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are relatively rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem. Often they are triggered by a new and key piece of information, but importantly, a depth of prior knowledge is required to allow the leap of understanding. Famous epiphanies include Archimedes's discovery of a method to determine the density of an object ("Eureka!") and Isaac Newton's realization that a falling apple and the orbiting moon are both pulled by the same force. The word epiphany originally referred to insight through the divine. Today, this concept is used much more often also without such connotations, but a popular implication remains that the epiphany is supernatural, as the discovery seems to come suddenly from the outside. aha moment 忽然明白. 原来如此. (idiomatic) The moment or instance at which the solution to a problem or other significant realization becomes clear. eureka An exclamation indicating sudden discovery. eureka effect Sudden unexpected discovery. eureka moment (idiomatic) The moment of a sudden unexpected discovery. nirvana I. (Buddhism) complete cessation of suffering; a blissful state attained through realization of sunyata; enlightened experience. II. (non-Buddhist colloquial usage) state of paradise; heightened or great pleasure. satori 禅(悟禅), 领悟 (Zen Buddhism) A sudden inexpressible feeling of inner understanding or enlightenment. Shrove Tuesday The day before the beginning of Lent, when pancakes are traditionally eaten, originally to use up milk and eggs that would otherwise spoil because of not being eaten during Lent. Mardi Gras: The day, also known as Shrove Tuesday, when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday. The last day of a carnival, traditionally the celebration immediately before the start of Lent when joy would be out of place for Christians. light-bulb moment 计上心头, 幡然醒悟, 猛然醒悟, 忽然意识到, 顿悟
a moment of sudden realization, enlightenment, or inspiration. a moment
when you suddenly realize something or have a good idea: It was a light-bulb moment for me when I realized I could no longer go on without help. I
had a light-bulb moment and vowed to start managing my money better.
For independent inventors, the light-bulb moment must be followed by the
long hard slog of production and marketing. Origin: from the
representation of an illuminated light bulb above a character's head in
a cartoon or comic strip, to indicate that they have had an idea. ). I don't make leaps of faith or have life-transforming realisations and I have never experienced anything even remotely resembling a breakthrough. I have never read a self-help book and consider myself immune to out-of-body experiences( out-of-body experience 置身事外的, 跳出三界外的 a situation in which someone feels as if they are outside their own body and can watch what is happening to it.). Meditation bores me and the few times I tried yoga, I ended up inexplicably angry. Above all, what I most certainly do not do is stand up in front of 200 people who openly talk about sharing, loving and personal journeys, and apologise for getting it all wrong. Except, as of last Tuesday, I apparently do. This is how it happened. When I signed up to a course held by Landmark Education, I wanted to investigate tales 传说 I had heard about a course that turned intelligent, predominantly middle-class professionals into strange automatons ( [ɔˈtɑmətən] I. a machine that can move and do things without being controlled by someone. II. 机器人. 无感情的人. 无血无肉的人. someone who behaves like a machine and shows no feelings. ). Students were said to lose all sense of themselves and take to phoning loved ones late at night to bring up long-forgotten arguments while excoriating ( excoriate [ɪkˈskɔriˌeɪt] I. (transitive) 脱皮. To wear off the skin of; to chafe or flay. damage or remove part of the surface of (the skin). "the discharge is acrid and excoriates the skin of the nose". II. to denounce or strongly condemn. "He excoriated the government for censorship". During the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao would excoriate western capitalism as an evil. ) themselves for real and imagined character flaws. A quick look on the internet revealed even more dramatic claims. Since its creation in 1991, Landmark Education has been described variously as a cult, an exercise in brainwashing and a marketing trick cooked up by a conman to sap ( to make someone feel weak. Both teams were sapped by the heat. sap someone's energy/strength 削弱精力, 耗尽精力 (=make someone feel tired and weak): The whole incident seems to have sapped Mum's strength. sap someone's will 消磨意志 (=make someone less certain about what they want to do): Sanctions have sapped the government's will.) the vulnerable of their savings. Landmark rebuts ( rebut [rɪˈbʌt] 否认. 驳斥 to show or say that something is not true. He completely rebutted the allegation. ) such claims. Not satisfied with simply transforming the lives of its students, it promises to deliver the secret of what it means to be human and guarantees them futures greater than they could imagine. For £275 and 39 hours of my time, it seemed like an offer worth considering. In my head, however, I had already begun to draft an article about a society 社会群体, 一群人 so needy that even its educated elite were mugs ( mug I. American informal a criminal who is violent and often not very clever. II. 傻瓜. informal someone who does not realize that they are being tricked or treated badly. Only a mug would pay those prices. a mug's game used for saying that something is stupid or dangerous and you should not get involved in it. ) enough to pay through the nose 血汗钱 for such vague, preposterous promises( preposterous [prɪˈpɑst(ə)rəs] extremely unreasonable or silly. The whole idea is preposterous.). Mugs or not, over the past two years, Landmark has experienced an astonishing surge of interest. While most companies congratulate themselves on achieving a 6 per cent growth, Landmark boasts a steady 10 per cent rise in customers across 100 cities and 21 countries. More than 125,000 people in the world participated in Landmark's courses last year. In 2001, its revenues reached $56 million, although the organisation is struggling to recover from the destruction of its main New York office in the Twin Towers. But it is on Britain's cynical shores that the organisation has struck gold( strike gold I. (literally) To find gold. II. (informal) 发现了金矿. 掘到金. To be lucky, to win or be successful. Etymology: As success in a Gold Rush was measured by whether gold was found. ), attracting more than 1,050 students each month, 80 per cent of whom go on to take a second course. Questioning former students on what the course taught them got me nowhere: happy to talk, they spoke winningly of transformations and breakthroughs, insights and possibilities while remaining vague as to how such magic was achieved. Clearly, the only way to get to the bottom of the course was to attend myself. So it was that three weeks ago, I reinvented myself as a human resources manager for an unspecified City firm, and signed myself up 报名课程, 注册课程. It was with mild trepidation ( [ˌtrepɪˈdeɪʃ(ə)n] I. 犹豫不决. fear, or nervousness. A fearful state; a state of hesitation or concern. I decided, with considerable trepidation, to let him drive my car without me. II. An involuntary trembling, sometimes an effect of paralysis, but usually caused by terror or fear; quaking; quivering. intrepid 具有冒险精神的. 大无畏的. 勇敢无畏的. Fearless; bold; brave. Some of the more intrepid ventured out to climb the territory's highest mountain, Tai Mo Shan. Fewer than 70 years earlier, the intrepid James Cook in his ship Resolution had been the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle. intrepidity The quality of being intrepid; bravery. trepid 胆小怕事的. 胆小如鼠的. timid, timorous, fearful. The trepid mouse. putrid [ˈpju:trɪd] I. formal decaying and smelling very bad. II. informal very unpleasant. a putrid yellow colour. ) that I took my seat on Friday morning in the all-white lecture hall in Landmark Education's rented north London offices. I had three days of lectures ahead of me, each day lasting 15 hours and seemingly designed to induce mild sleep deprivation. Still, I had been guaranteed a transformation by Monday morning. We sit in rows. On the stage in front of us, 53-year-old Jerry Baden perches on a director's chair and twinkles at us with dark eyes. Below him sit 160 students, aged from 18 to 84, with the majority in their thirties. There is a fairly equal balance between the sexes and we are a reasonably representative ethnic mix. On the floor beneath us, are 100 Forum graduates taking the £495 Advanced course. Two floors below, another 100 students study the £90 Self-Expression and Leadership programme. The building practically throbs with budding transformations. People look apprehensive ( slightly worried or nervous. apprehensive of: It's a strategy that many teachers are apprehensive of using. apprehensive about: Leonora felt very apprehensive about his visit.). There is much twisting of hair, shifting in seats 坐立不安 and quick, covert glances around 偷眼瞧, 偷偷巡视 the room: everyone seems to be wondering what they have got themselves into. Jerry is bombarding us with grand claims: Landmark Education is so powerful, he says, that it could achieve world peace if used correctly. He slips in a reference to Arafat and Rabin shaking hands in the rose garden; it was a Landmark moment, he claims. Really? Our eyebrows have barely time to arch 眉毛都没有时间竖起 in cynical disbelief but he has swept on(一扫而过. sweep the board I. (idiomatic) To win all the prizes in a competition. II. (idiomatic) To get enough votes in an election to gain all the seats.). World peace aside, this course will transform our lives, he promises. Transformation will come to all, but individual moments will vary: like corn, we are told, we will pop at different times. 'But not all popcorn pops,' I think, momentarily panicked by the sure knowledge that I'm going to be that one last kernel, left charred 烧成焦炭 and blackened at the bottom of the pan. Jerry sweeps on. To pop, we must make ourselves coachable. We must not, he emphasises, choosing the one word guaranteed to strike fear into my soul, be observers. He seems to look straight at me. I kick my notebook under my chair and sit up straighter 坐直, 坐得更直了. There are rules. Timekeeping is essential, toilet breaks are discouraged: missing even a minute will jeopardise our chance of achieving transformation. We will work for three to four hours at a time. During short breaks, we will have homework. There is one meal break in the early evening and more homework after the day is done. Notetaking, unprescribed medicines and alcohol are forbidden and we must open our minds to all suggestions. Are we being lulled into dangerous credulity(a tendency to believe that something is true. Her claim that she earned only £33,000 a year strained credulity (=was very difficult to believe). stretch (someone's) credulity/patience etc: Foreman's book has a plot that stretches credulity to the utmost. stretch to allow something that is usually not allowed because of a special situation. We might be prepared to stretch the rules a little in this instance. stretch a point (=allow something that is not usually allowed): Couldn't you stretch a point for a friend? be stretching something to make something seem better or worse than it really is. It would be stretching the truth to say it was a success. be stretching it 言过其实, 太牵强了, 夸张了: She's nice, but to call her 'delightful' is stretching it a bit. stretch your legs to go for a walk after you have been sitting for a long time. pushing it I. 太过了, 太过分了 Is a 19 year old too young for a 28 year old? Yeah 9 years is kinda pushing it, 'specially when the delta is like half her life. The idiom derives from pushing the limit, or trying to go beyond a limit. But I don't think this makes its metaphorical meaning clear. It is always used to mean hoping or pretending that something will work or fit or be acceptable when really it won't. So here it means pretending or hoping that an age difference of 9 years will work, but the speaker is suggesting that in reality 9 years is too much. I think I've passed up dating teenagers, 19 is pushing it. It means you're pushing the limits of what's reasonable. If someone says "19 is pushing it" in the example you gave, they mean that 19 is almost too young for that person to be dating. II. The same phrase can also mean that someone is "pushing their luck" 不自量力, 玩过头了, 蚍蜉撼大树, meaning that they are perhaps counting on luck more than they should. If a small guy walked into a bar and began to insult the biggest guy in the place, he would be pushing his luck, or "pushing it". )? We discuss it anxiously in corners during our first break. Are these mind games 精神游戏, 错觉游戏? Is this how brainwashing begins? We glance over our shoulders ( looking over one's shoulder 保持警惕 Fig. keeping watch for danger or threats to oneself. Bob's a little paranoid. He's always looking over his shoulder. 偷眼看. 偷瞄. to look somewhere quickly and then look away. He glanced over his shoulder nervously. I glanced up to see Guido watching me from the window. Robin glanced around the room. 'I must go,' Claudia said, glancing at her watch.) as we whisper together to see if we are being watched. Comforted, I think, by the discovery that we all share the same anxieties, we begin to relax. We start to take active responsibility for each other and a community is formed. Over the next three days, we are educated in a mix of philosophies, psychology and religious theories, illustrated by readings from books, plays and one detailed description of the entire plot of Citizen Kane. Including the ending. The theories expounded cherry pick ideas ( 拓展. 细化. to explain something or to express your opinion about it in detail. It will be an opportunity to expound the ideas he has been developing. expound on/upon: He continued to expound on the failings of our educational system.) from existential philosophy and motivational psychology. They take in aspects of Maxwell Maltz's psycho-cybernetics, Zen Buddhism, Alan Watts and Freud. Shadows of Abraham Maslow, Hinduism, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale and P.T. Barnum flit over the proceedings. We're encouraged to share and, schooled by Oprah in what to do with a platform and a neurosis, people rush to the microphone to have Jerry lay waste to ( lay waste 碾为平地, 夷为平地 全面摧毁 (transitive) To completely destroy, especially of a geographical area or region. Usage notes: Sometimes takes "to" instead of being simply transitive. Thus, "...they laid waste to Russia's great cities" would be an acceptable alternative to the quote above. ) their tales of parental neglect, social deprivation and emotional hardship. It's useful but not rocket science and I remained stolidly unpopped. We've been sitting in the same, hard chairs for almost 13 hours. I'm bored and my back hurts. There are two more hours to go before we can go home, by which time my last train will be long gone. I begin to get cross 焦躁不安, 生气着急. I suspect I'm losing what little coachability I might once have possessed. Next morning, we retake our seats. Everyone in my row spent hours on their homework. I unwound instead by reading P.G. Wodehouse and criticising the course with my boyfriend. I feel bad. I've had kinder starts to the day. We're still taking our seats when Jerry begins shouting: We're ugly people. Disgusting. Our behaviour is entirely governed 控制 by a need to look good which makes us liars, fakes and frauds. 'You're disgusting,' he shouts. 'You just don't realise quite how disgusting you are yet.' He pauses. 'But you're just about to find out.' His timing is impeccable; we've hardly woken up and we're already hanging on his every word. This morning, he says, he is going to force our resistant minds to recognise how fetid ([ˈfetɪd] [ˈfi:tɪd] 污浊的. 腐朽的. fetid water or air has a very unpleasant smell, usually caused by decay. ) and mean our personalities are. He shouts, he mocks, he refuses to let us ask questions. He tells us we're liars and ridicules the stories we tell about our own lives. I can hardly bear it. I resent the way he struts across the stage and the way he takes stock of us all(审视, 检视. make an overall assessment of a particular situation, typically before making a decision. To take stock (of something) is to think carefully about a situation or event and form an opinion about it, so that you can decide what to do: After two years spent teaching overseas, she returned home for a month to take stock of her life. "He needed a period of peace and quiet in order to take stock of his life". ), smoothing the pleats in his trousers and patting his hair. I find his confidence intolerable and am maddened by his belief that he knows us better than we know ourselves. And yet, I am gradually forced to admit that he might be right. One after another, Jerry lambasts those who take the microphone to complain about how hard, harsh and unfair their lives have been. He pushes them through stages of anger, tears and denial until they stand face to face with their own delusions, deceits and contrivances( contrivance [kənˈtraɪv(ə)ns] I. [countable/uncountable] a plan to trick someone in order to get something for yourself, or the use of such a plan. II. [countable] a clever or complicated method of achieving a particular effect, especially in a story, that seems artificial. III. [countable] a complicated machine or piece of equipment designed for a particular purpose.). Jerry knows he's won. Now that we're putty in his hands 任人宰割, 任人欺负, 任人揉捏, he launches his bombshell. For every relationship that has failed, it is up to us to make it right. And now. In the next break. It's time for that phone call. He asks for a show of hands: who will make the call. A smattering of hands go up. Too few for Jerry, who tells us to begin the conversation with the words: 'I've been making you wrong for 冤枉你...', 'I've been resenting...' or 'I regret that...'. There are more hands in the air now and Jerry ploughs on. However we choose to begin the call, he says, we're to end it with the unambiguous, unilateral statement: 'I love you.' A few people take their hands back down. By midday, the pressure to make the phone call is so intense 压力大 that people are dialling as they walk down the stairs. Tearful heart-to-hearts take place in public corridors as once-implacable ( [ɪmˈplækəb(ə)l] 不动摇的. 不让步的. having or expressing very angry or determined feelings that will not change. the country's implacable opposition to the war. He looked at Matilda's implacable face. ) feelings of hurt and recrimination ( [rɪˌkrɪmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n] I. [uncountable] 互相指责. 掐架. 说对方不是. a situation in which people are accusing or criticizing each other. attempts to end years of bitter recrimination. a. [countable] [usually plural] a statement accusing or criticizing someone who has accused or criticized you. No marriage could survive such harsh words and recriminations. ) turn to reconciliation in a few short sentences. I do not make a phone call - I feel I have no one to call - but I see how brave and strong others are to make theirs. I begin to wonder whether it is healthy self-awareness or a deepset denial that make me feel so stable. I begin to prod at the possibility (I. 戳. poke. to push someone or something quickly with your finger, or with an object that has a long thin end. She prodded him in the back with her umbrella. II. to persuade or encourage someone to do something. prod someone into doing something: I had to prod Tony into taking care of the problem.) of the latter. Landmark has faced accusations of being a cult, but I saw nothing of that. Far from working to separate us from our families and friends, we were told there was no relationship too dead to be revived, no love too cold to be warmed. One girl who complains that she cannot feel close to her own mother realises she has never recovered from seeing her struggle ferociously bring up a young family alone. 'You were scared of your mother at the age of four and have been carrying that frightened child around with you ever since,' Jerry says. That evening, she phones her mother. 'I didn't even realise I was doing it because the feeling had become so familiar,' she says next day. 'It's only now I've stopped being scared of her that I realised how it had affected our relationship.' By the third day, nearly everyone except me seems to have popped. One man who has called everyone in his phonebook describes his newfound joy to another man who has just rung every woman he has ever slept with. People are straining at the leash to 急不可耐的, 挣脱束缚的 ( Be eager to begin or do something. to try and escape from someone's control so that you can do what you want. teenagers straining at the parental leash. by this time we were straining at the leash to get away. ) take their new-found confidence out into the real world. Everywhere, plans are being made; careers are reinvigorated and lives overhauled. I wish I could be part of it but, apart from recognising a couple of useful lifestyle tools, I remain out in the cold. Eventually, I realise I'm breaking the promise I made to be coachable. I decide to stop analysing, and simply give Jerry my trust. The words sound extraordinary in my mouth: this is not what I do. As a semi-interloper 不受欢迎的人, 不速之客([ˈɪntə(r)ˌləʊpə(r)] someone who is in a place or group but is not wanted by the other people there. One who interferes, intrudes or gets involved where not welcome, particularly a self-interested intruder. They disliked the interloper, and forced him to leave. gatecrasher, peeping tom, persona non grata, encroacher, backseat driver, kibitzer, meddler, nosy parker, marplot, buttinsky, busybody(showing disapproval someone who is very interested in other people's private lives and activities and tries to get involved in them in a way that is annoying.). interlope v. To intrude, meddle, or trespass in others' affairs. ), I don't feel I have the right to go up to the microphone but at the next break I ask Jerry to show me how to mend a once-strong relationship that hit a barrier 遇到阻碍. 'We make others wrong so we can be right and you just love to be right, don't you?' he says. His words mean nothing to me. I don't understand. Jerry speaks as though to a child. Chastened( [ˈtʃeɪs(ə)n] To punish (in order to bring about improvement in behavior, attitude, etc.); to restrain, moderate. to make someone feel ashamed or less confident. She seemed suitably chastened by the experience. chaste I. abstaining from sexual intercourse, celibate. II. 处女的. 守身如玉的. virginal, innocent, having had no sexual experience. III. simple, austere, undecorative. a chaste style in composition or art. IV. modest, decent, morally pure. a chaste mind; chaste eyes. Usage notes: Married couples are often exhorted to have "chaste sex"--compare the Vatican encyclical Casti Connubii (Of Chaste Wedlock). chastise [tʃæˈstaɪz] I. mainly journalism to criticize someone. II. old-fashioned to punish someone by hitting them.), I accept his condescension; I realise his words will change my view on not just this relationship but on others. I struggle and dimly begin to see his point. If my friend didn't regard what she did as wrong then there are at least two versions of her intention. If there are two interpretations of anyone's meaning, there might be dozens. If, therefore, there is no absolute truth, then whatever I believe about someone else's intentions says more about me than about them. I feel pins and needles run down my legs. I realise I have, finally, popped. Now I have to make that call. 'Just tell her you love her,' Jerry concludes, getting up. I don't want him to go now. I want him to stay for ever and advise me. 'Isn't that the only thing you know for certain?' he asks. 'Just tell her what you know to be true.' And I do. It's easy, surprisingly so. In a single phone call I get a friendship back. She tells me she loves me too. I cry and am happy. Two days later, after a tentative excursion into the real world, we return to compare notes. I cannot find a single person who believes their life hasn't improved. We're invited to come up to the microphone and share. It is Doug Tucker, a 35-year-old hot tub salesman from Stratford-upon-Avon who puts it best 说的最好. Over 6ft 4in, with a shaven head and rippling biceps tattooed with a snarling bulldog and the England flag, Doug is hardly the middle-class professional the course appears to attract. 'If anyone who knew me before I came on this course said I would even be in the same room as a bunch of people clapping and saying they loved each other, I would have hit them,' he says. 'Likewise, if anyone had told me I would have realised things about myself that I've realised in the last few days, I would have laughed in their face 笑死了.' 'This course has transformed me. And the funny thing is, I didn't know I even had it in me to transform,' he smiled. The Landmark Forum is not magic. It is not scary or insidious. It is, in fact, simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity. It is this intensity that makes the difference. While any one of us might well have already been told the same home truths by friends and family, we were too distracted by life and too wrapped up in our own defence mechanisms to listen. Landmark takes you away from life. The three days create a bubble of possibility in which we were able to try on new opinions and experiment with fresh behaviours. I don't know whether I will apply every lesson in the future, although I hope I will. I'm simply going to trust Jerry when he promised it was like riding a bicycle; that once we learn how to balance, we never forget. Although we might, every so often, still fall off. Secret seven: The Landmark Forum's 'seven commandments' for being an extraordinary person: Be Racket-Free: give up being right - even when you know you were. Be Powerful: be straight in your communication and take what you get. Be Courageous: acknowledge your fear (not necessarily get rid of it) and then act. Be Peaceful: give up the interpretation that there's something wrong. Be Charismatic: give up trying to get somewhere. Be entirely fulfilled in the present moment. Be Enrolling: share your new possibilities in such a way that others are touched, moved and inspired. Be Unreasonable: in expectations of yourself and others beyond what you would think they are capable of.
