用法学习: 1. blight VS plight: blight [blaɪt] 带给别人麻烦, 大麻烦事 I. something that damages or spoils something else. You can refer to something as a blight when it causes great difficulties, and damages or spoils other things. This discriminatory policy has really been a blight 疤瘌, 黑疤 on America. Manchester still suffers from urban blight and unacceptable poverty. economic/moral/urban blight. blight on: The threat of war cast a blight on their happiness. Labor calls the sacking of Whitlam a 'blight' on Australia's national character. II. 枯死病. Blight is a disease which makes plants dry up and die. a serious disease affecting plants and crops. verb. to cause serious damage or harm to something. If something blights your life or your hopes 破坏你的生活, 打破你的希望, it damages and spoils them. If something blights an area, it spoils it and makes it unattractive. An embarrassing blunder nearly blighted his career before it got off the ground. ...a strategy to redevelop blighted inner-city areas. His career was seriously blighted by misjudgments such as this. plight [plaɪt] 困难情况, 困境 a sad, serious, or difficult situation. If you refer to someone's plight, you mean that they are in a difficult or distressing situation that is full of problems. ...the worsening plight of Third World countries plagued by debts. the plight 困窘 of the poor/homeless/unemployed. secrete [sɪˈkrit] 分泌, 偷藏 ( secret [ˈsiːkrɪt] ) I. to secretly take something or put something somewhere. If you secrete something somewhere, you hide it there so that nobody will find it. She secreted the gun in the kitchen cabinet. On what became known as the "Night of the Long Prawns", Country Party members secreted Gair at a small party in a legislative office as the ALP searched for him to secure his written resignation. As Gair enjoyed beer and prawns, Bjelke-Petersen advised the Queensland governor, Colin Hannah, to issue writs for only the usual five vacancies, since Gair's seat was not yet vacant, effectively countering Whitlam's plan. II. If part of a plant, animal, or human secretes a liquid, it produces it. to produce a liquid such as saliva Glands in the animal's skin secrete tiny proteins. The sweat glands secrete water. 2. humility [hjuˈmɪləti] 谦逊, 谦虚 a way of behaving that shows that you do not think that you are better or more important than other people. She had a rare combination of humility and endless confidence in her talent. nexus [neksəs] 交汇点 A nexus is a connection or series of connections within a particular situation or system. The Prayer Book has provided a flexible enough nexus of beliefs to hold together the different church parties. ...the nexus between the dominant class and the State. note: A nexus is a central link or connection. If you happen to be at the nexus of something, you are right in the middle of it, like standing in the middle of an intersection. Nexus entered English during the seventeenth century from the Latin word nectere, meaning "to bind or tie." People tend to use this word to describe the point where different things or ideas come together or intersect. In the field of cell biology, a nexus refers to "a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion," and implies that the nexus of a cell facilitates communication among the various parts and allows it to work properly. 3. impervious [ɪmˈpɜrviəs] 不受影响的, 不为所动的, 不在乎的 adj I. not affected by something or not seeming to notice it. If you are impervious to someone's actions, you are not affected or influenced by them. She seems almost impervious 不为所动的, 不受影响的, 满不在乎的 to the criticism from all sides. The political system there has been impervious to all suggestions of change. impervious to: She continued to work, apparently impervious to the midday heat. He carried on talking, impervious to the effect his words were having. II. 不传导的. 不导热的. science something that is impervious to a substance does not let the substance pass through it. Something that is impervious to water, heat, or a particular object is able to resist it or stop it passing through it. The floorcovering you select will need to be impervious to water. ...a layer of impervious rock. pervious = permeable I. able to be penetrated; permeable. a pervious substance allows water to pass through; permeable. The top sheet is formed of a fluid pervious material, e.g., a fibrous material. II. receptive to new ideas; open-minded. shoreline 河岸, 湖岸, 河边, 海边, 湖边, 海岸线 ( beachfront mansions 海边别墅, 沙滩别墅) the edge of an ocean, lake, or large river. A shoreline is the edge of a sea, lake, or wide river. Much of the shoreline is too rocky for landing a boat. 3. tacit [ˈtæsɪt] 间接承认. 默认. expressed or understood without being said directly. If
you refer to someone's tacit agreement or approval, you mean they are
agreeing to something or approving it without actually saying so, often
because they are unwilling to admit to doing so. The question was a tacit admission that a mistake had indeed been made. The rebels enjoyed the tacit support of elements in the army. He tacitly admitted that the government had breached regulations. tacit approval/consent/support 默许, 默认. a tacit understanding 默契, 心照不宣 on the need for a pay rise. By tacit agreement 心照不宣, Clark's friends all avoided any mention of his mentally ill wife. The deal had the tacit approval of the Presiden. Our diplomats leaving would be tacit acceptance of Maduro legitimacy. "Trump's racism is so absolute that he continues to refuse to give even a tacit acknowledgment to the epidemic 无所不在 of police violence against black people in America," Mr Robinson said. 4. collaborate I. When one person or group collaborates with another, they work together, especially on a book or on some research. He collaborated with his son Michael on the English translation of the text. A hospital will collaborate with a retail developer to improve retail and catering services. ...a place where professionals and amateurs collaborated in the making of music. The two men met and agreed to collaborate. II. If someone collaborates with an enemy that is occupying their country during a war, they help them. to work secretly to help an enemy or opponent. collaborate with 通敌卖国: He still denies that he collaborated with the Nazis. He was accused of having collaborated with the secret police. collude 串通, 沆瀣一气 to work secretly with someone to do something dishonest. If one person colludes with another, they co-operate with them secretly or illegally. Several local officials are in jail on charges of colluding with the Mafia. My mother colluded in the myth of him as the swanky businessman. The two companies were colluding to exploit consumers. He was accused of colluding with his brother in the deal. on the back foot/put someone on the back foot If someone is on the back foot, or if something puts them on the back foot, they feel threatened and act defensively. From now on, Labour will be on the back foot on the subject of welfare. I thought it would knock my confidence and put me on the back foot 有防备心, 有警惕心. With this group of bondholders now on the backfoot, the administrator has come out swinging, savaging their proposal, and questioning the bondholders' ability to raise sufficient funds to keep Virgin Australia flying. come out swinging/fighting 开始来劲了 to react to something or begin something in a strong, forceful way: He came out swinging at his critics, accusing them of having their own agenda. The company knew it was going to have to come out fighting. Etymology: An allusion to the behavior of a boxer who immediately begins a boxing match or a round of a match by aggressively throwing punches in an unrestrained manner.
指标. 衡量标准: 1. metrics I. a set of numbers that give information about a particular process or activity: Do you have any metrics on the rate of usage for the service? Performance metrics need to align marketing activity with corporate goals. The study includes market metrics such as market and segment size estimates. cost/financial metrics. II. a standard for measuring or evaluating something; basis for assessment. A measure for something; a means of deriving a quantitative measurement or approximation for otherwise qualitative phenomena (especially used in engineering). What metric should be used for performance evaluation? What are the most important metrics to track for your business? It's the most important single metric that quantifies the predictive performance. How to measure marketing? Use these key metrics for measuring marketing effectiveness. There is a lack of standard metrics. a new metric for judging success 判断是不是成功. III. 公制. Metric means relating to the metric system. Around 180,000 metric tons of food aid is required. Converting metric measurements to U.S. equivalents is easy. 2. a measure of something 一定程度的, 一定量的 an amount of something good or something that you want, for example success or freedom. The new law gives local governments a significant measure of control over their own finances. I met a number of sportsmen who had achieved a measure of success (=some success). to show how good a particular quality is The huge volume of mail is a measure of her popularity. instrument I. an object that is used as a weapon. an instrument of torture/death. II. formal someone or something that can be used in order to make something happen. Something that is an instrument for achieving a particular aim is used by people to achieve that aim. The veto has been a traditional instrument 手段 of diplomacy for centuries. The government has a number of policy instruments it can use for this purpose. instrument of: an important instrument of quality control. a. a person who someone uses to help achieve a result. instrument of: The missionaries believed they were instruments of God. III. legal a formal legal document such as a will, contract, or deed. IV. 仪器. An instrument is a tool or device that is used to do a particular task, especially a scientific task. ...a thin tube-like optical instrument. ...instruments for cleaning and polishing teeth. The environment itself will at the same time be measured by about 60 scientific instruments. V. An instrument is a device that is used for making measurements of something such as speed, height, or sound, for example on a ship or plane or in a car. ...crucial instruments 仪表 on the control panel. ...navigation instruments. blunt instrument I. any heavy object with a flat or round end, used as a weapon. II. a method that uses too much force, so that, in achieving your aim, it also causes some harm or trouble. 3. Superannuation early withdrawals near $30b as new financial year sees double-dipping: "We've spent some on bills that we'd pushed out and were outstanding 欠账的. "The rest of it we've put away as a backstop ( something that can be used to solve problems after everything else has been tried. a system that will come into effect if no other arrangement is made. a backstop plan. The central bank's job is to act as a backstop to the banking system during times of market and economic stress. ) for a rainy day and trying as much as possible to live on [my wife's] income." Mr Jones warned there is now a run on ( a run on something 抢购, 疯抢 a situation in which a lot of people want to buy something at the same time. a situation in which lots of people suddenly buy a particular product. There's always a run on roses before Valentine's Day. There's always a run on sunglasses at this time of year. a run on the dollar/pound etc a situation in which lots of people sell dollars etc and the value goes down. a run on the bank 疯狂取钱, 抢着提现 an occasion when a lot of people take their money out of a bank at the same time. ) superannuation, with roughly 500,000 Australians completely clearing out their accounts. Assistant Minister for Superannuation and Financial Services Jane Hume told PM that the Tax Office has so-far approved almost $30 billion of super withdrawals. However, she pointed out that is only a fraction of the roughly $3 trillion Australian superannuation pool. She also labelled Stephen Jones' call of a "run" on superannuation accounts "irresponsible". "In fact, it's incredibly disappointing that in a time of financial crisis that sort of intemperate ( intemperate [ɪnˈtemp(ə)rət] 荒唐的, 失控的 I. unreasonable and showing a lack of control. If you describe someone's words as intemperate, you are critical of them because they are too forceful and uncontrolled. The tone of the article is intemperate. I decided to ignore his intemperate remarks. II. 爱喝酒的. 嗜酒如命的. tending to drink too much alcohol. ) language is used," Ms Hume responded. "It's akin to falsely shouting fire in the cinema and I think Australia should expect more of their elected representatives and Stephen Jones should know better." Equity Economics' lead economist Angela Jackson said early super withdrawal throws a spanner in the works for both super funds and the Government's economic plans. "They're going to be tapping into cash reserves and short-term investments, money that would have been available to make those long-term investments that involve, generally, partnering with the Government on big infrastructure projects. As for concerns those drawing down their super will either have nothing, or very little, to retire on, Sam Espie had more pressing 更迫切的 immediate concerns. "With two small children in the house, to me, I was ranking that above all of those other things," he said. "I placed a higher price on the peace of mind at night knowing there are resources there." 4. villainize 描述成一个坏人, 说成一个恶人 (transitive) To represent as a villain. GoyaFoods has been a staple of so many Latino households for generations. Now their CEO, Bob Unanue, is praising a president who villainizes and maliciously attacks Latinos for political gain. Americans should think twice before buying their products. villainous [ˈvɪlənəs] 大恶人的 evil. A villainous person is very bad and willing to harm other people or break the law in order to get what he or she wants. ...her villainous father.
With Jeffrey Epstein gone, Ghislaine Maxwell's trial could change the conversation around sexual assault: Instead, Ms Maxwell appeared, soft-spoken and emotionless 面无表情的, via video stream. She pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy to entice minors into sex acts and two counts of perjury. She's rigorously denied such allegations for years. A federal indictment accuses Maxwell of having "assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18". She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. The trial, slated for 定于 July 12, 2021, is expected to last two weeks. Maxwell's lawyers requested her release on $US5 million bail, citing the risk of coronavirus and Epstein's premature prison death. But the judge ruled the 58-year-old socialite would be held without bail, saying that "even the most restrictive conditions of release would be insufficient". Maxwell now returns to a jail in Brooklyn for what promises to be a long wait before her next court appearance. It's hard to imagine the interest in this trial will fade in the interim. No defendant has captured the public's gaze in quite the way Maxwell has. She exists less as a woman now than as a symbol — for our insatiable curiosity about the ultra-rich, for our frustrations with plutocracy ( plutocracy [pluˈtɑkrəsi] = plutarchy [ˈpluːtɑːki] 富人说了算, 富人当政, 富人当权 countable a country governed by a group of rich people. A plutocracy is a country which is ruled by its wealthiest people, or a class of wealthy people who rule a country. Financial, not moral, considerations will prevail in a plutocracy. a. countable a group of rich people who govern a country. b. uncountable the state of being governed by a group of rich people. A plutocracy or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income.) and maybe, in a quieter way, our hopes for the progression of a widespread reckoning with sexual abuse. Maxwell, who's been compared to both a princess and a Bond villain, fits one's expectations 符合人民想象 of a rich socialite so perfectly that fiction couldn't offer a better portrayal 小说都不敢那么编. First, there's the life-changing tragedy. Her father's corpse was discovered "naked, stiff and floating" 24 kilometres from a yacht named after his daughter. And then there's the mystery. No-one knows for sure how the media baron ( media baron = media mogul = media proprietor [prəˈpraɪətər] = media tycoon = magnate [ˈmæɡˌneɪt] 大亨 someone who owns and controls a large number of newspapers, television companies, magazines, etc. and is able to influence public opinion: He became one of Britain's most powerful media barons. A media proprietor, media mogul or media tycoon refers to a successful entrepreneur or businessperson who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media related company or enterprise, media consumed by many individuals. Those with significant control, ownership, and influence of a large company in the mass media may also be called a tycoon, baron, or business magnate ( [ˈmæɡˌneɪt] a successful and important person with a lot of power in a particular industry. A magnate is someone who has earned a lot of money from a particular business or industry. ...a multimillionaire shipping magnate. a media/oil/shipping magnate. baron [ˈberən] I. a powerful person in a particular type of business the steel barons ). Social media creators and founders can also be considered media moguls. II. a man who is a member of the nobility. In the U.K., a baron has lower status than most other members of the nobility. proprietor [prəˈpraɪətər] someone who owns a business. The proprietor of a hotel, shop, newspaper, or other business is the person who owns it. ...the proprietor of a local restaurant. He was the sole proprietor with total management control. a hotel proprietor. sole proprietor someone who is the exclusive owner of a business My friend is the sole proprietor of a hotel. ) died, but the conspiracy theories have one thing in common: money. His death exposed the Maxwell's financial empire as a house of cards, propped up by millions stolen from company pension funds and billions of debt. At the age of 29, his daughter went from untouchably wealthy to scandalously broke — the kind of weeping tragedy her father's tabloids ate for breakfast ( have/eat sb for breakfast 轻松掌控, 轻易打败 to deal with or defeat someone very easily, for example because you are far more powerful or skillful than they are. to be able to very easily control or defeat someone: He eats people like you for breakfast. eat/have someone or something for lunch: to outdo or defeat someone or something very badly The big hardware chain was eating/having the local store for lunch. ). But the Maxwell legacy made it easy enough for the young socialite to exit the spotlight and reinvent herself. She moved to New York, started work as a business consultant and fell in lockstep 一拍即合 ( a situation in which someone has exactly the same ideas or opinions that someone else has, often without questioning those opinions or ideas at all What is disturbing is this sort of lockstep mentality in the main political parties. If people or things move in lockstep, or if they move in lockstep with each other, they act in a similar way. After years of moving in lockstep 萧规曹随的, 亦步亦趋, France and Germany are growing apart at an alarming rate. In the end, the 1987 collapse suggested, the economy doesn't move in lockstep with stock prices. When members of the armed forces march in lockstep, they march very close to each other. Navy officers marched in lockstep to lay flowers at the base of the new monument.) with a companion whose pursuit of secrecy probably felt like a balm [bɑm] 良药 for fresh wounds. That companion, of course, was Jeffrey Epstein. Decades later, when whispers 传言 about Epstein's impending arrest began circling, Maxwell again turned to money to exit the spotlight. Maxwell became the subject of a steady stream of news reports and conspiracy theories implying that a woman with three citizenships and a globe's worth of rich friends would never be found. Her trial teases the same sort of satisfaction some got from her arrest: seeing the rich and connected unable to buy their way out of consequences 不能为所欲为. Could this trial reveal damaging secrets about high-flying men? The thing about Maxwell is that she was never verifiably wealthy, or at least never as wealthy as her friends. She's one of those rare figures, for example, who unites both right and left Americans; both sides believe she has dirt on their enemies. Photographs of Maxwell sitting on the royal throne at Buckingham Palace also spurred a frenzy this week. The drama around high-flying men 身居高位的, 身居显位的 like this is why a portion of the public will be watching Maxwell's trial. But for another portion of the public, the misdeeds of the rich and powerful have surfaced with such frequency in the #MeToo era that they no longer land with a shock 波澜不惊, 见惯不惊, 见怪不惊( blasé [ˈblɑːzeɪ] adj unimpressed with or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before. "She was becoming quite blasé about the dangers". Both Princes said their biggest regret was their final conversation with their mother. inured adj [ɪˈnjʊə(r)d] be inured to something = inure sb to sth If you become inured to something unpleasant, you become familiar with it and able to accept and bear it: After spending some time on the island they became inured to the hardships. We have become inured to the stinging insects here.). Only after she'd formed a rapport would she "try to normalise sexual abuse for a minor victim by, among other things, discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when a minor victim was undressed". An anonymous victim's statement, which was read in the hearing, put it this way: "Without Ghislaine, Jeffrey could not have done what she did. Jeffrey was in charge, but she egged him on and encouraged him." In this way, the allegations paint her as "more than a perpetrator, but more than an enabler. She's a combination of both", says Amos Guiora, a law professor at the University of Utah. Guiora has spent years studying the bystander effect 围观效应, 围观心态 and criminal complicity. His forthcoming book, Armies of Enablers, features dozens of interviews with sexual assault victims. He defines an enabler as "a person in a position of authority who either should have known or knew about the peril a person was facing and decided not to act". Behind every high-profile sexual assault scandal, whether it's with the Catholic Church or the world of US gymnastics, there's an army of people like this whose decisions helped perpetuate the abuse, Guiora says. And yet the enabler is often the figure mentioned least in the public discourse. Part of that is because enabling isn't criminalised in the way perpetrating is, even though those actions often enhance the perpetrators' abilities to do harm. "From the victims' perspective, they feel the issue of the enabler has gone unaddressed 没有被提起 completely," Guiora says. "Everyone focuses on the predator and the victims … no-one even bothers to ask them who let the behaviour continue." And with the entirety of the trial left in the balance, it's too soon for labels, let alone ones that imply a motivation. What we do know for now is that the charges against Maxwell offer a slight twist to the #MeToo narrative we've come to recognise. With Epstein gone, the public's full attention falls to analysing a distinct and new set of claims. Maxwell's trial could bridge the conversation to its logical next steps, away from confirming stereotypes around money, power, gender, and towards a solution.
Palace Letters: He provided plenty of constitutional advice but made it clear this was a call for the governor-general alone. Indeed, after the dismissal, Charteris praised Kerr for keeping the monarch out of it, writing he had shown "admirable consideration for Her Majesty's position". Many will no doubt agree this is just as it should be. The governor-general is the Queen's representative in Australia and is empowered to make such decisions alone. It would be enormously problematic, even scandalous, had the Queen issued Kerr with instructions one way or another. But what then, is the point of having a sovereign, whose face adorns our currency and whose portraits hang in official buildings, if they are then shielded from a critical decision during a moment of constitutional crisis? Why do we have a Queen at all? One of Kerr's great concerns was the prospect of Whitlam moving first and asking the Queen to dismiss him as governor-general. This was the so-called "race to the palace" scenario. Kerr had raised this concern with Prince Charles directly during a visit to Papua New Guinea. The Queen's private secretary wrote to Kerr a month before the dismissal, making it clear what would happen in such a scenario. "You may be sure that the Queen would take most unkindly to it", Sir Martin wrote on October 2, 1975, "but I think it is right that I should make the point that at the end of the road, the Queen — as a constitutional sovereign — would have no option but to follow the advice of her prime minister". This is a fascinating piece of the puzzle and was presumably critical in Kerr's decision to give Whitlam no warning of his dismissal. The palace was effectively validating the governor-general's concern that if Whitlam had beaten him to the punch, the Queen would have reluctantly dismissed Kerr.
Melbourne Muslims feel 'unfairly tarnished' by reports linking them to rising COVID-19 cases: The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) has warned against scapegoating the Muslim community for the rising number of coronavirus cases in Melbourne while backing calls from AFL star Bachar Houli for more people to get tested. ICV vice-president Adel Salman told the ABC that some media reports had "unfairly tarnished 抹黑, 丑化, 黑化( I. if something tarnishes your reputation or image, it makes people have a worse opinion of you than they did before. If you say that something tarnishes someone's reputation or image, you mean that it causes people to have a worse opinion of them than they would otherwise have had. The affair could tarnish the reputation of the prime minister. His image was tarnished by the savings and loan scandal. He says he wants to improve the tarnished image of his country. II. intransitive/transitive if metal tarnishes, or if something tarnishes it, it starts to lose color and become less shiny. If a metal tarnishes or if something tarnishes it, it becomes stained and loses its brightness. Wear cotton gloves when cleaning silver, because the acid in your skin can tarnish the metal. noun. 亮油. Tarnish is a substance which forms on the surface of some metals and which stains them or causes them to lose their brightness. The tarnish lay thick on the inside of the ring. )" the Muslim community as being irresponsible and the cause of the current increase of cases, even if the articles did not explicitly call out Muslims. "There's sort of an undertone and innuendo 明里暗里的暗示 [in] some of the reporting that would lead the reader or the consumer of the media to think 'Well, the Muslims are being irresponsible and Muslims [are] putting us all in danger,'" Mr Salman said. He added that while a lot of Muslims had been "sadly impacted" by coronavirus or detected with the virus — including Houli's mother who is battling COVID-19 in intensive care — he did not think the Muslim community was over-represented in the numbers of cases in Melbourne. Mr Salman said while some people with a Muslim background had different opinions about the seriousness of the coronavirus, it was not unique to 并非独有的 the Islamic community. Earlier this month, the ICV released a statement calling for more balanced and fair reporting on COVID-19 pandemic. The statement was released after media reports suggested the spike 人数骤增 and resurgence 重新猖獗 of COVID-19 in the Melbourne suburbs were linked to Eid celebrations. "In times of stress like this, where everyone is looking for a reason and a scapegoat, it's very easy to scapegoat minorities [including] Muslim communities, [and] I think that's happening," Mr Salman said. But Mr Hasani in Melbourne emphasised that putting faith in God should be accompanied by following public health directions and taking precautions. "After we follow all the instructions from the Government and health authorities — we wash our hands, we put a mask on — then we put our trust in Allah," he said. Mr Hasani said putting someone at risk of being infected with COVID-19 was considered "a major sin", because the Koran dictates killing an innocent person is as great a sin as killing all of mankind. ICV said it keeps disseminating 散播, 传播 important public health messages to their communities and working along with multicultural and multifaith organisations to support each other. "This [pandemic] got nothing to do with religion or race, or particular communities. This is an issue that affects us all equally," Mr Salman said.
