用法学习: 1. fertile [fɜːrtaɪl , US -təl] I. Land or soil that is fertile is able to support the growth of a large number of strong healthy plants. ...fertile soil. ...the rolling fertile countryside of East Cork. He was able to bring large sterile acreages back to fertility. Rich 肥沃 soil contains large amounts of substances that make it good for growing crops or flowers in. Farmers grow rice in the rich soil. If you say that something is a rich vein or source of something 肥沃的土壤, 取之不尽的源泉 such as humour, ideas, or information, you mean that it can provide a lot of that thing. The director discovered a rich vein of sentimentality. My collection of Victorian literature turned out to be a rich and often hilarious source of information. II. A fertile mind or imagination 想象力丰富 is able to produce a lot of good, original ideas. ...a product of Flynn's fertile imagination. A chess player must have a fertile imagination and rich sense of fantasy. III. A situation or environment that is fertile in relation to a particular activity or feeling encourages the activity or feeling. ...a fertile breeding ground for this kind of violent racism. IV. 能生育的. A person or animal that is fertile is able to reproduce and have babies or young. The operation cannot be reversed to make her fertile again. Doctors will tell you that pregnancy is the only sure test for fertility. productive I. Someone or something that is productive produces or does a lot for the amount of resources used. Training makes workers highly productive. More productive farmers have been able to provide cheaper food. ...fertile and productive 产出量大的 soils 肥沃的土壤, 富饶的土地. The company is certain to reinvest its profits productively. II. 富有成效的. 有成果的. If you say that a relationship between people is productive, you mean that a lot of good or useful things happen as a result of it. He was hopeful that the next round of talks would also be productive. ...the chairman's role in fostering productive relationships between his senior colleagues. They feel they are interacting productively with elderly patients. III. Something that is productive of a situation or feeling creates it. [formal] Land, labor and capital are all productive of wealth. flowering n. The flowering of something such as an idea or artistic style is the development of its popularity and success. He is happy with the flowering of new thinking, but he hasn't contributed to it himself. ...the flowering of creative genius. adj. Flowering shrubs, trees, or plants are those which produce noticeable flowers. 2. Folau was exercising his right to free speech, sure. Free speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of expressing hateful views. And free speech, as a high-profile athlete, comes with deep responsibility. Positivity should beam down from such a lofty perch, not putrid 腐臭味, 馊味 bigotry(I. decayed and having an unpleasant smell. of organic matter) decaying or rotting and emitting a fetid smell. "a butcher who sold putrid meat". the putrid body of a dead fox. What's that putrid smell? II. very unpleasant; repulsive. "the cocktail is a putrid pink colour".). How on earth is a young, impressionable rugby fan who may be grappling with their sexuality supposed to feel about Folau, the Wallabies' biggest name, telling them that they are "evil" and hellbound? This is a legitimate life and death issue – just look at the statistics. Folau deliberately demonised, for a second time, members of both these fragile demographic groups. They are the last people in our society who need such emotional abuse. It remains to be seen if his latest outburst will cost the sport sponsorship. The champion No.8 did not come down severely on Folau in the first instance of his public homophobia, but must almost feel that a working relationship with his teammate is untenable [ʌntenəbəl] 难以为继的, 难以维系的(An argument, theory, or position that is untenable cannot be defended successfully against criticism or attack. This argument is untenable from an intellectual, moral and practical standpoint. He claimed the charges against him were untenable.). His response will be telling. The Wallabies didn't need to go into this event as the bad guys. They are already, on last year’s form at least, inept 无能的, 没有任何本事的 [ɪˈnept] also-rans 陪跑, 陪太子读书的人(inept [ɪˈnept] someone who is inept does not have much ability or skill. I was a hopelessly inept student. a. used about things that are done very badly. an appallingly inept performance. also-ran I. a loser in a race or other contest, especially by a large margin. "the line between champions and also-rans". II. informal an undistinguished or unsuccessful person or thing. If you describe someone as an also-ran, you mean that they have been or are likely to be unsuccessful in a contest. ). But here's something to consider: is Folau playing the most extreme brand of sporting martyr card? Is he spouting ( spout I. 喷射. If something spouts liquid or fire, or if liquid or fire spout out of something, it comes out very quickly with a lot of force. He replaced the boiler when the last one began to spout flames. The main square has a fountain that spouts water 40 feet into the air. In a storm, water spouts out of the blowhole just like a whale. II. Spout forth/spout off 乱喷 If you say that a person spouts something, you disapprove of them because they say something which you do not agree with or which you think they do not honestly feel. [disapproval] He used his column to spout ill-informed criticism of the Scots rugby team....an estate agent spouting forth about houses. All too often he is spouting off about matters which should not concern him. n. I. A spout of liquid is a long stream of it which is coming out of something very forcefully. II. A spout is a long, hollow part of a container through which liquids can be poured out easily. ) more hateful rhetoric in the name of religion because the consequences, ultimately, do not concern him? Folau said that he was disappointed in his treatment by Rugby Australia after last year's homophobia scandal, even after he was hit with a wet lettuce leaf ( whipped/slapped with a wet lettuce leaf. Right wet lettuce: someone who had no personality. Wet Lettuce: An emotionally weak person. When someone has their personality rapidly drained from them and does everything their girlfriend asks. And then they start lieing about where there going with elaborate tales cos they're scared they will get beaten up. Keith: Where's Brooksy tonight. Lloyd: He said he was comin but his bird rang and he quickly disappeared. Keith: WHAT A FUCKIN WET LETTUCE!) as punishment. "After we'd all talked, I told Raelene if she felt the situation had become untenable — that I was hurting Rugby Australia, its sponsors and the Australian rugby community to such a degree that things couldn't be worked through — I would walk away from my contract, immediately," Folau wrote in a column for PlayersVoice. Folau, by those words, is willing to blow up his rugby career if he feels that it is interfering with his religious views. By Wednesday's episode, he clearly is not willing to be silent on beliefs that tend to the extreme end of the Christian spectrum. 3. astrology [əˈstrɑlədʒi] 星座学(Pisces is the twelfth astrological [ˌæstrəˈlɑdʒɪk(ə)l] sign in the Zodiac.) the study of the movement of the stars and planets and how some people think they influence people's characters and lives. Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. astronomical [ˌæstrəˈnɑmɪk(ə)l] I. If you describe an amount, especially the cost of something as astronomical, you are emphasizing that it is very large indeed. Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices. The cost will be astronomical. He was astronomically wealthy. House prices had risen astronomically. II. Astronomical means relating to astronomy. ...the British Astronomical Association. astronomy [əˈstrɑnəmi] 天文学 Astronomy is the scientific study of the stars, planets, and other natural objects in space. horoscope [ˈhɔrəˌskoʊp] 星象, 运势 a description of someone's character and the likely events in their life that is based on astrology (=the position of the stars and the date they were born). A horoscope is an astrological chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, astrological aspects and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. Other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart 星运图, 运势图, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart. It is used as a method of divination regarding events relating to the point in time it represents, and it forms the basis of the horoscopic traditions of astrology. In common usage, horoscope often refers to an astrologer's interpretation, usually based on a system of solar Sun sign astrology; based strictly on the position of the Sun at the time of birth, or on the calendar significance of an event, as in Chinese astrology. 4. musicality [mjuːzɪˈkaləti] 音乐性, 音乐感, 音乐才能 I. 乐感. musical talent or sensitivity. a knowledge of music and the ability to be sensitive to it. "her beautiful, rich tone and innate musicality". II. the quality of having a pleasant sound; melodiousness. "the natural musicality of the language". technicality [teknɪkælɪt] I. The technicalities of a process or activity are the detailed methods used to do it or to carry it out. ...the technicalities of classroom teaching. [+ of]. II. A technicality is a point, especially a legal one, that is based on a strict interpretation of the law or of a set of rules. The earlier verdict was overturned on a legal technicality. out on the town Visiting a town or city for a day or evening for the purpose of having an enjoyable time, typically by visiting various establishments, such as restaurants, clubs, etc. He wanted to take me out on the town. We were out on the town last night for Valerie's birthday. That's why we're all exhausted today. I had a night on the town with my closest friends from school last weekend. Fig. celebrating at one or more places in a town. I'm really tired. I was out on the town until dawn. We went out on the town to celebrate our wedding anniversary. 5. serenade [ˌserəˈneɪd]
情歌. a song or a piece of music that is traditionally performed by a man
outside the house of the woman who he loves. a love song that is sung
directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the
window of a loved one in the evening. v. 唱情歌. to perform a song or a
piece of music for someone, especially someone who you love. take the grenade / take one for the team:
to suffer a task or experience in order to shield other members of some
group from the displeasure; "take one for the team". To sacrafice
yourself by feigning interest in the hot girl's/guy's fat/ugly/annoying
friend. Generally done while going out with a group of people, as it
would be senseless to fall on the grenade solo. Rupert:
Thanks for taking the grenade last night, man. It was totally sweet
hooking up with that really hot girl. How was hooking up with her ugly
friend?" Cornelius: Not so bad once I got the brown paper bag over her
head. ballad [bæləd] 情歌 I. music a popular love song. A ballad is a slow, romantic, popular song. 'You Don't Know Paris' is one of the most beautiful ballads that he ever wrote. II. literature a long poem that tells a story. 6. mortal I. One who is not a god; a human being. II. (idiomatic) 普通人. 普通老百姓. An ordinary person; Someone without special abilities or status. an ordinary person who is not especially successful, intelligent, rich etc. She's a mere mortal like the rest of us. lesser mortal (lesser minds, greater minds) A person of lower rank, station or ability. the impatience with lesser mortals sometimes shown by academics. The better-off tend to look upon us as lesser mortals. lesser adj I. formal smaller, less important, or less serious than something else. You can use lesser to refer to something or someone that is less important than other things or people of the same type. They pleaded guilty to lesser charges of criminal damage. He was feared by other, lesser, men. matters of lesser importance. He was flanked by two officers of lesser rank. lesser charge: She was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. II. used in the names of some animals, birds, or plants to show that they are a smaller type. III. You use lesser in order to indicate that something is smaller in extent, degree, or amount than another thing that has been mentioned. Any medication is affected to a greater or lesser extent by many factors. The more obvious potential allies are Ireland, Denmark and, to a lesser degree, the Netherlands. Lesser is also an adverb. ...lesser known works by famous artists. a lesser man/woman/person someone who is not as good or as moral as someone else. A lesser man wouldn't have admitted he was wrong. the lesser of two evils the less unpleasant or harmful of two possible choices. He's convinced the voters that he is the lesser of two evils. to a lesser extent/degree less strongly, or not as much She was encouraged by her mother and, to a lesser extent, her father. mortal adj I. human and not able to live for ever. His heart attack made him realize that he is mortal. II. serious enough to cause death. a mortal wound/blow/injury. a. likely to end with someone's death. mortal combat/struggle. mortal enemy 一生的敌人 someone who hates another person and will always hate them. The rich and famous like Aspen because the airport is long enough for fancy private jets and close enough to town that your private driver could have you sitting at Bad Harriet's with a Harlot cocktail in your hand within 20 minutes of deplaning. Even for mere mortals who have to take taxis or hotel shuttle buses, everything is close. andrology [anˈdrɒlədʒi] 男科(androgynous [ænˈdrɑdʒənəs] 雌雄同体的 I. an androgynous person is neither clearly male nor clearly female. II. biology an androgynous animal or plant has both male and female parts. anthology 选集: In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, by different authors, each featuring unrelated casts of characters and settings, and usually collected into a single volume for publication. The complete collections of works are often called complete works 全集 or Opera Omnia (Latin language equivalent). anthropology 人类学 [ˌænθrəˈpɑlədʒi] the study of human societies, customs, and beliefs. Someone who studies anthropology is called an anthropologist. Paleoanthropology 古人类学 ( Ross: paleontologist [ˌpæliɑnˈtɑlədʒist] 古生物学家) or paleo-anthropology is a branch of archaeology with a human focus, which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence (such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints) and cultural evidence (such as stone tools, artifacts, and settlement localities). paleo- UK = before a vowel pale- = (esp US) of palaeo- a. ancient, early, prehistoric, primitive. Paleozoic, Paleolithic. b. involving or dealing with (specified) forms, conditions, phenomena, fossils, etc. of remote, esp. geologic, eras (the following words are examples of this use in compounds). ) the branch of physiology and medicine which deals with diseases and conditions specific to men. Andrology is the medical specialty that deals with male health, particularly relating to the problems of the male reproductive system and urological problems that are unique to men. It is the counterpart to gynaecology [ˌɡaɪnəˈkɑlədʒi] (gynecology) 妇科(obstetrician [ˌɑbstəˈtrɪʃ(ə)n] 产科医生 a doctor whose job is to check the health of pregnant women and help with the birth of their children. obstetrics [əbˈstetrɪks] 产科 the part of medicine that deals with pregnant women and childbirth. pediatrics [ˌpidiˈætrɪks] 儿科 the part of medical science that deals with children and the treatment of their illnesses. pediatrician = paediatrician [ˌpiːdiəˈtrɪʃ(ə)n] ), which deals with medical issues which are specific to female health, especially reproductive and urologic health. give out I. [transitive] to give something to several people. The office gives out financial advice to students. II. [intransitive] if something such as a machine or a part of your body gives out, it stops working 停止工作. His heart finally gave out 心脏停止跳动 under the strain. For a dog, 19's a good age, but her heart's given out 心脏已经不行了, 老化了. We should put her to sleep to spare her suffering. III. [intransitive] if a supply of something has given out, all of it has been used. Their water gave out two days ago 停供, 停止供应, 断水, 断电, 断供. give out something 发出声音, 发出光芒 to produce something such as a sound or light The quietest devices give out only a low, almost inaudible hum. 7. Brownstone (美国常见的sandstone建筑) is a brown Triassic-Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a townhouse clad in this, or any of a number of aesthetically similar materials. Brownstone was deemed "not really much good as a building material" by Vincent Scully, professor emeritus of the history of art at Yale University. Brownstone was popular because it is unusually easy to carve and quarry, but these qualities also made houses clad in it to be susceptible to weathering and damage over time. 8. play-fight verb and noun 打打闹闹, 装打仗, 打闹 An unrefereed contest in which participants try to dominate each other without inflicting injury. A pretend or recreational fight. Horseplay is defined as boisterous fooling around, or to rough play. When two kids are tussling around and play-fighting each other, this is an example of horseplay.
Man In An Orange Shirt: After Flora bequeathes ( bequeath [bɪˈkwið] 遗赠, 赠与 to give someone money or property after you die by making a legal document called a will. bequeath something to someone: She bequeathed her jewelry to her niece. bequeath someone something: His uncle bequeathed him $5,000.) Adam his grandfather's old cottage, he hires architect Steve, who lives in an open relationship with the elder Caspar. Despite Adam's fear of intimacy, he embarks on a slow love affair with Steve, who eventually tells Caspar he is leaving him for Adam. As Flora learns about the relationship and thus Adam's sexual orientation, the fear and rage that she had silenced against her husband breaks out. After her discovery of the love letters, her next responses were stranger and more damaging. She never told him what she had discovered. She simply never let him in her bed again – encouraging the adoption of separate beds under a single hypocritical quilt, and then separate bedrooms. Thinking herself, as the wife and daughter of prison governors, well versed in such sordid matters, she assumed the revelation meant he was a paedophile, so thereafter saw to it that he was never left alone with any of us. I did not have a single private moment with my father until my teens, when he retired, and I began to have tentative ( I. not definite, or not certain. a tentative agreement/deal. II. not confident a tentative look/smile. ) encounters with this near stranger now present at weekday breakfasts. Cottaging (gay beat in AU) (In Australia, the term beat is used to refer to an area frequented by gay men, where sexual acts occur. This use of the word parodies the beat walked by a police officer or a prostitute. Most commonly, public toilets, parks, and nightclubs are used as beats, though sometimes suburban car parks become beats after nightfall. Sex researchers have found that a considerable proportion of men who use "beats" are men who have sex with men (MSMs) rather than gay-identifying. This is possibly because, while gay men have a plethora of venues for meeting legitimately, MSMs – who are often closeted – do not risk being observed in (or reported as attending) gay venues. ) is a gay slang term, originating from the United Kingdom, referring to anonymous sex between men in a public lavatory (a "cottage", "tea-room" ), or cruising for sexual partners with the intention of having sex elsewhere. The term has its roots in self-contained English toilet blocks resembling small cottages in their appearance; in the English cant language of Polari this became a double entendre by gay men referring to sexual encounters. The word "cottage", usually meaning a small, cosy, countryside home, is documented as having been in use during the Victorian era to refer to a public toilet and by the 1960s its use in this sense had become an exclusively homosexual slang term. This usage is predominantly British, though the term is occasionally used with the same meaning in other parts of the world. Among gay men in the United States, lavatories used for this purpose are called tea rooms.
breakout character VS breakout role (=breakthrough role): A breakout character is a character in serial fiction, usually stories involving an ensemble cast, who becomes more prominent, popular, discussed, and/or imitated than was originally intended or expected. The series from which the breakout character springs may be in the form of a novel, magazine, television series, comic strip, game or combination. A breakthrough role, also known as breakout role, is a term in the film industry to describe the performance of an actor or actress in a performance which contributed significantly to the development of their career and beginning of critical recognition. A similar term, big break, indicates the occurrence for the performer, not the role itself. Such a moment in an actor's career may often occur some time after they begin acting as their roles become more substantial. Often a breakthrough role is a significant increase in importance in the actor's part in the film moving up from a minor character or extra to one of the leading cast, or a "high impact" role in a film which has mainstream success and results in the widespread recognition or popularity of the actor. Martin Shingler defines a breakthrough performance as one which "attracts the attention of film critics, or receives rave reviews and is subsequently nominated for a major film award."
