用法学习: 1. affirm I. 肯定的说, 坚定的说. If you affirm that something is true or that something exists, you state firmly and publicly that it is true or exists. to state that something is true or that you agree with it, especially in public. The school affirmed its commitment to its students. The senator affirmed that she would support our proposal. The courts have affirmed that the act can be applied to social media. ...a speech in which he affirmed a commitment to lower taxes. 'This place is a dump,' affirmed Miss T. The ministers issued an affirmation of their faith in the system. II. If an event affirms something, it shows that it is true or exists. Everything I had accomplished seemed to affirm that opinion. The high turnout was an affirmation of the importance that the voters attached to the election. III. to support something or make it stronger The company chose a name that would affirm its French identity. IV. to show respect for and approval of someone, especially in public. V. legal to promise to tell the truth in a court of law without swearing on a holy book. 2. TBBT: Sheldon: Now, if MA equals MG what does that imply? Penny: I don't know. Sheldon: How can you not know? I just told you. Have you suffered a recent blow to the head? Penny: Hey! You don't have to be so mean! Sheldon: I'm sorry. (Smiling) Have you suffered a recent blow to the head? Penny: No, you just suck at teaching. Sheldon: Really? Of those two explanations, which one seems the most likely? Penny: Oh, God, Sheldon, look I'm trying to understand, but you're going too fast. Can you just back up a little bit? TBBT: child's play 小孩过家家的玩意. 小孩玩意 I. an extremely simple task or act. something that is very easy to do: For her, computer programming is child's play. II. something that is insignificant. figuring out the password was child's play. Leonard: Hi. I'm Dr. Hofstadter. Where is he? Security Guard: Ball pit. Leonard: Thanks for not calling the cops. Security Guard: Oh, hey, it's no big deal. My sister's got a kid who's special. Leonard: Yeah, well, he's extra special. Hey, Shelly. What you doing? Sheldon: Size ratio was all wrong. Couldn't visualize it. Needed bigger carbon atoms. Leonard: Sure, sure. How did you get into this place? Sheldon: Back door has a five-pin tumbler system, single-circuit alarm. Child's play. You can start sorting protons and neutrons while I build carbon atoms. TBBT: pedestrian noun. & adj. A pedestrian is a person who is walking, especially in a town or city, rather than travelling in a vehicle. In Los Angeles a pedestrian is a rare spectacle. More than a third of all pedestrian injuries are to children. a pedestrian bridge/walkway 行人桥. adj. [disapproval] If you describe something as pedestrian, you mean that it is ordinary and not at all interesting. His style is so pedestrian that the book becomes a real bore. I drove home contemplating my own more pedestrian 普通老百姓的, 路人的 lifestyle. Penny: Sheldon, what the hell are you doing? Sheldon: I'm trying to get these tables cleared. We're slammed. Penny: No, wait, wait, no, wait. Wh.. what are you doing here? Sheldon: A reasonable question. I asked myself, what is the most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable, and three answers came to mind, uh, toll booth attendant, an Apple Store genius, and what Penny does. Now, since I don't like touching other people's coins, and I refuse to contribute to the devaluation 贬值, 失去意义 of the word genius, here I am. Penny: You just, you just walked in and they hired you, just like that? Sheldon: Oh, heavens, no. Since I don't need to be paid, I didn't need to be hired. I simply came in, picked up a tray, and started working for the man. Let me get that plate out of your way. Penny: Sheldon, this is ridiculous. Sheldon: Is it? Just a moment ago I had a minor epiphany 灵光乍现 regarding the polymer degradation phenomenon while scraping congealed nachos off a plate. Bernadette, table 10 wants their check. Bernadette: Thanks, Sheldon. Penny: Sheldon, wait, this isn't even what I do. I'm a waitress, not a busboy. Sheldon: You're right. That is more menial( [ˈminiəl] menial work is boring or dirty and is considered to be of low status. Menial work is very boring, and the people who do it have a low status and are usually badly paid. ...low paid menial jobs, such as cleaning and domestic work. a menial job in the kitchens. ). Hello, I'm Sheldon. I'll be your server today. I don't recommend the salmon. I saw it in the kitchen. TBBT: troglodyte [ˈtrɒɡlədʌɪt] I. (especially in prehistoric times) a person who lived in a cave. II. a hermit. III. [disapproval] 山顶洞人. 原始人. a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned. If you refer to someone as a troglodyte, you mean that they are unsophisticated and do not know very much about anything. He dismissed advocates of a completely free market as economic troglodytes. Penny: Hey, guys, sorry you had to wait, but we are swamped. What's this? Leonard: Sheldon took our order. Penny: Sheldon doesn't work here. Leonard: Well, honey, not to complain, but we were starting to think you didn't either. Sheldon (drops tray. A nearby table claps): Is that really necessary? Good Lord. The interference pattern in the fracture. The motion of the wave through the molecular structure. I've been looking at it all wrong. I can't consider the electrons as particles. They move through the graphene as a wave. It's a wave! The moment to applaud would be now. Troglodytes. 3. have a front-row seat 亲眼目睹, 近距离目睹 To be in close proximity to a certain situation or event. I unexpectedly had a front-row seat when a fight broke out at the bar. Living near this forest my whole life, I've had a front-row seat to the changes in local bird populations over the years. Gabbard likened the inner circle of politicians and journalists to a "popularity contest," explaining they're primarily focused on image over their core responsibilities of representing their constituents and telling the truth. If you do those things, and you go against the grain of what people view as cool, or what the narrative of the day is that is dictated by the power elite… then immediately you become an outcast, you become otherized. You become smeared, or even silenced and censored. And I've had more than front row seats to this. word salad 不知所云的, 胡言乱语的, 胡话 I. a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases, specifically (in psychiatry) as a form of speech indicative of advanced schizophrenia. a string of empty, incoherent, unintelligible, or nonsensical words or comments. In the moments when the debate wasn't in circus form it seemed very conventional and very one-sided, with one candidate who could give complete, coherent and informed answers about issues and the other who specialized in word salad. II. psychology unintelligible, extremely disorganized speech or writing manifested as a symptom of a mental disorder (such as schizophrenia). Damage to Wernicke's area can result in the loss of semantic associations … . Trying to speak results in garbled, nonsensical juxtapositions that neuroscientists call "word salad. Kamala Harris mocked for offering 'word salad' explanation for buying Russian oil. Several Twitter users mocked Harris' answer as a "word salad" that failed to explain why the White House hasn't considered cutting off Russian oil imports. Harris has frequently been mocked for press appearances where she seems unprepared and for giving a long-winded "word salad" answers to direct questions. As recently as Feb. 21, she also has shown herself to be ill-prepared to discuss the geopolitical issues in Ukraine. 4. world-beating 举世无双的, 傲视全世界的 better than all others of the same kind. better than all other similar people or things. world-beating hi-tech companies. a world-beating athlete/car. a world-beating athlete/cyclist/swimmer. world-beating wine/products/businesses/brands. Superior to all others of its sort. The world-beating test-and-trace system the Prime Minister promised was never delivered. in hock 欠债, 被抵押, 被当掉 I. in the possession of a pawnbroker. Possessions that are in hock are pawned (= left temporarily with a person in exchange for an amount of money that must be paid back after a limited time to prevent the thing from being sold): Most of her jewellery is in hock 当掉. His gold watch is in hock. II. in debt. The company's entire assets are now in hock to the banks. He is in hock to his boss for several thousand dollars. Even company directors on £100,000 a year can be deeply in hock to the banks. Josh Frydenberg puts Australia in hock for $1 trillion and expects us to believe he's running a 'world beating economy. in hock to 欠某人的 owing money to a person or organization, or forced to do things for them because they have lent you money or have helped you. If you are in hock to someone, you feel you have to do things for them because they have given you money or support. He is in hock to the bank just like his British counterpart. TBBT: Raj (arriving): Hey, it's Disco Night at the Moonlight Roller Rink in Glendale tonight. Who's up for getting down? Howard: Oh, that's perfect. Bernadette's been hocking me to take her roller skating. Leonard: I think Penny likes to skate. The four of us could double. Howard: What could be better? We're in. Raj: Great. It's not like I brought it up because I wanted to go. Howard: You can come with us. Raj: No, it's okay. I don't have to go. I'm happy just to guide you and your ladies to suitable entertainment choices. I'm a walking brown Yelp.com.
What happened to Russia's Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped 看不懂 ( confound, baffling, perplexing摸不着头脑的, ): Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, U.S. intelligence had predicted a blistering 迅雷不及掩耳之势的, 气势如虹的, 气贯长虹的, 雷霆万钧的, 势不可挡的, 摧枯拉朽的 ( I. Blistering heat is very great heat. ...a blistering summer day. II. A blistering remark expresses great anger or dislike. The president responded to this with a blistering attack on his critics. blistering criticism is very severe Critics have launched a blistering attack on O'Halloran's latest play. III. Blistering is used to describe actions in sport to emphasize that they are done with great speed or force. used for emphasizing the force or speed with which something is done. Petty drove at a blistering pace (=very fast). David set a blistering pace at first. blister noun. A blister is a painful swelling on the surface of your skin. Blisters contain a clear liquid and are usually caused by heat or by something repeatedly rubbing your skin. verb. When your skin blisters or when something blisters it, blisters appear on it. The affected skin turns red and may blister. The sap of this plant blisters the skin. ...pausing to bathe their blistered feet. ) assault by Moscow that would quickly mobilize the vast Russian air power that its military assembled in order to dominate Ukraine's skies. But the first six days have confounded 迷惑不解, 看不懂 ( If someone or something confounds you, they make you feel surprised or confused, often by showing you that your opinions or expectations of them were wrong. He momentarily confounded his critics by his cool handling of the hostage crisis. The choice of Governor may confound us all. a. to make someone feel surprised or confused, especially by not behaving in the way they expect. She confounded her critics by winning the race. b. if you are confounded by something, you cannot understand it. We were totally confounded by her reaction. confound it/him/her/them used for showing that you are annoyed. ) those expectations and instead seen Moscow act far more delicately 小心翼翼的 with its air power, so much so that U.S. officials can't exactly explain what's driving Russia's apparent risk-averse behavior. "They're not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots," a senior U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Vastly outmatched 装备不如 by Russia's military, in terms of raw numbers and firepower, Ukraine's own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable - a fact that is baffling military experts. After the opening salvos 打响第一枪 ( salvo 开火 I. an act of firing a number of guns or other weapons at the same time. A salvo is the firing of several guns or missiles at the same time in a battle or ceremony. They were to fire a salvo of blanks, after the national anthem. II. A salvo of angry words is a lot of them spoken or written at about the same time. sudden attack on an opponent. His testimony, however, was only one in a salvo of new attacks. ) of the war on Feb. 24, analysts expected the Russian military to try to immediately destroy Ukraine's air force and air defenses. That would have been "the logical and widely anticipated 预料之内的, 万众期待的 next step, as seen in almost every military conflict since 1938," wrote the RUSI think-tank in London, in an article called "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Russian Air Force." Instead, Ukrainian air force fighter jets are still carrying out low-level, defensive counter-air and ground-attack sorties ( sortie [ˈsɔrti] 袭击. 攻击. 出击 verb. to attack a place suddenly using aircraft or soldiers. noun. I. 出营袭击. 发起攻势. a flight by a military aircraft or a group of military aircraft. If a military force makes a sortie, it leaves its own position and goes briefly into enemy territory to make an attack. His men made a sortie to Guazatan and took a prisoner. They flew 2,700 sorties in a day and didn't lose a single plane. Allied aircraft flew hundreds of sorties. a. a sudden attack by soldiers. II. mainly British a short trip away from a place. A sortie is a brief trip away from your home base, especially a trip to an unfamiliar place. From here we plan several sorties into the countryside on foot. ...little sorties into antique shops. III. mainly British an attempt at an activity or business. sortie into: Julie has made a sortie into the travel business. ). Russia is still flying through contested airspace 竞争的空域. Ukrainian troops with surface-to-air rockets 地对空导弹 are able to threaten Russian aircraft and create risk to Russian pilots trying to support ground forces. "There's a lot of stuff they're doing that's perplexing," said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He thought the beginning of the war would be "maximum use of force 出全力." "Because every day it goes on there's a cost and the risk goes up. And they're not doing that and it just is really hard to explain for any realistic reason." The confusion over how Russia has used its air force comes as President Joe Biden's administration rejects calls by Kyiv for a no-fly zone that could draw the United States directly into a conflict with Russia, whose plans for its air force are unclear. Military experts have seen evidence of a lack of Russian air force coordination with ground troop formations, with multiple Russian columns of troops sent forward beyond the reach of their own air defense cover. That leaves Russian soldiers vulnerable to attack from Ukrainian forces, including those newly equipped with Turkish drones and U.S. and British anti-tank missiles. David Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force three-star general who once commanded the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, said he was surprised that Russia didn't work harder to establish air dominance from the start. "The Russians are discovering that coordinating multi-domain operations 协调多体部队行动 is not easy," Deptula told Reuters. "And that they are not as good as they presumed 预想 预料 they were." While the Russians have been under-performing, Ukraine's military has been exceeding expectations so far. Ukraine's experience from the last eight years of fighting with Russian-backed separatist forces in the east was dominated by static World War One-style trench warfare. By contrast Russia's forces got combat experience in Syria, where they intervened on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, and demonstrated some ability to synchronize ground maneuvers with air and drone attacks. Ukraine's ability to keep flying air force jets is a visible demonstration of the country's resilience in the face of attack and has been a morale booster, both to its own military and Ukraine's people, experts say. It has also led to mythologizing [mɪˈθɑləˌdʒaɪz] 神话化, 神化, 传得神乎其神的 of the Ukrainian air force, including a tale about a Ukrainian jet fighter that purportedly single-handedly downed six Russian aircrafts, dubbed online as "The Ghost of Kyiv." A Reuters Fact Check showed how a clip from the videogame Digital Combat Simulator was miscaptioned online to claim it was an actual Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. Biden led a standing ovation in support of Ukrainians in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, praising their determination and mocking Putin for thinking he could just "roll into Ukraine" unopposed. "Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people," Biden said. The United States estimates that Russia is using just over 75 aircraft in its Ukraine invasion, the senior U.S. official said. Ahead of the invasion, officials had estimated that Russia had potentially readied hundreds of the thousands of aircraft in its air force for a Ukraine mission. However, the senior U.S. official on Tuesday declined to estimate how many Russian combat aircraft, including attack helicopters, might still be available and outside Ukraine. Both sides are taking losses 都有损失( take a loss to lose money They took a loss on the deal. Take the L = take the loss Frequently used to describe flunking a test, being dumped, being stood up, being beaten up or robbed, or losing one's money in the stock market, gambling, or through exploitative business schemes. I really took the L on that history exam.). "We do have indications that they've lost some (aircraft), but so have the Ukrainians," the official said. "The airspace is actively contested 你争我斗, 你争我抢 every day." 文章二: They're shiny. They're gadgety. They're ridiculously expensive. But are they also useless? Military analysts are stumped as to why Russia has launched a massive military campaign – but not used its advanced combat jets 战机(fighter jet). The process has been well defined since World War II. Send in your precision-strike missiles first. Use these to destroy radars, anti-aircraft weapons and crater ( crater I. to make or form craters in (a surface, such as the ground). II. 毁掉跑道, 摧毁跑道, 破坏跑道 to fail; collapse; crash. As Russia's economy craters, the U.S. is seizing on an opportunity to advance its agenda among Latin American autocracies that might start seeing Mr. Putin as an increasingly weak ally. III. to suddenly become much lower Their share price cratered following the announcement. ) runways to prevent an opponent's aircraft from flying. Then send in your aircraft to keep the skies clear and respond to any calls for help from the troops and tanks advancing below. But Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't done this. "Russia's air force is missing in action, and largely unused," CNA think tank Russia studies director Michael Kofman says. "In the first [few] days, Russian tactical aviation, except for some Su-25s, largely sat on the sidelines. So have most combat helicopters. They have hundreds of both deployed in the area." The mystery remains why. Military analysts are picking through the evidence to understand what's going on. Did the opening guided-missile barrage fail to clear the way? Does Russia have the ability to co-ordinate its forces properly? Is there a fear of friendly fire ( Friendly fire or fratricide 误伤友军, 互相残杀, 打自己人 in military terms is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, long range ranging errors or inaccuracy. Accidental fire not intended to attack enemy/hostile targets, and deliberate firing on one's own troops for disciplinary reasons, is not called friendly fire, and neither is unintentional harm to civilian or neutral targets, which is sometimes referred to as collateral damage. Training accidents and bloodless incidents also do not qualify as friendly fire in terms of casualty reporting. Many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) militaries refer to these incidents as blue on blue, which derives from military exercises where NATO forces were identified by blue pennants and units representing Warsaw Pact forces by red pennants. In classical forms of warfare where hand-to-hand combat dominated, death from a "friendly" was rare, but in industrialized warfare, deaths from friendly fire are common.)? Is there enough advanced guided ammunition? Is it something else? Or all of the above? Most of the air activity over Ukraine remains ambiguous. Both sides use very similar aircraft and helicopters. The Su-25 "Frogfoot" ground attack aircraft, in particular, is used by both Russia and Ukraine. And they cannot be told apart in the distant photos and social media footage, meaning any nationality claims must be suspect 可疑的. It's a problem the combat forces themselves must contend with. A Ukrainian Su-27 "Flanker" fighter was shot down over Kyiv in the war's opening days. Whether by defensive or Russian forces remains unclear. But, unlike the recent wars in Iraq and Bosnia, combat air power is making a minimal appearance. And that's odd given the pride Russia displays in its air technology. "They're not flying CAPs [combat air patrols], or offensive counter-air, and only [yesterday] have I spotted the first Su-34 bomber conducting strikes," Mr Kofman says. Ukraine's major radar systems may be blinded 哑火. But satellite photos reveal few of its military airfield runways appear cratered. Not that its operational aircraft are likely still there anyway. Regardless, says Mr Bronk, Ukraine's air force should have been overwhelmed by now. "[Russian] Su-35 and Su-30 fighters would have overwhelmed the Ukrainian fighters, even if they did manage to take off for sorties conducted at very low altitudes with limited situational awareness 军情观察. This did not happen." The consequence is Ukraine's air force can make pinpoint strikes on advancing tank columns. "Multiple Russian columns have been sent forward beyond the reach of their air defence cover, and in other cases accompanying SAM batteries have been caught inactive in military traffic jams," Mr Bronk says. They're also intercepting Russian attack helicopters and possibly paratroop-carrying transport aircraft. "The fact that Ukrainian troops and civilians have been able to see [and rapidly mythologise] their own pilots continuing to fly sorties above major cities has also been a major morale-boosting factor," Mr Bronk says. Putin the Unready? Military analysts are speculating that Russia may have the aircraft. But it doesn't have the advanced ammunition needed to make them effective. It's a problem already observed in Moscow's air operations over Syria. "During combat operations over Syria, only the Su-34 fleet has regularly made use of [precision-guide munitions] PGMs, and even these specialist strike aircraft have regularly resorted to unguided bomb and rocket attacks," Mr Bronk says. "This, combined with the lack of targeting pods to spot and identify battlefield targets from a safe distance, means that the [Russian] fixed-wing pilots' capacity to provide close air support for their forces is limited." Whatever the case, the Kremlin's forces do not appear to be operating in a mutually supporting, cooperative way. "Looking at the military effort, I think Russian forces are getting some basics really wrong. They're not really fighting the way they train and organise for a major conventional war," Kofman says. "It seems they tried to win quickly and cheaply via 'thunder runs 闪电行动(a high-speed military convoy using offensive tactics and heavy weaponry to reach a destination; generally, a route or trip involving extreme effort or danger. Editorial Note: This term dates from at least as early as the Vietnam War.),' hoping to avoid the worst of sanctions and Western outrage. They've ended up in the worst of all worlds, trickling more resources into a failed strategy." But the war has only just begun. "The truth is that large parts of the Russian military have yet to enter this war, with many of the capabilities still unused," Mr Kofman says. "Not to take away from 贬低 Ukraine's great military performance and resilience, but I see a lot of early judgments and conclusions that need moderation." So, what's next? "Russia's political leadership is still not conceding their plan's failure, trying to take Kyiv quickly. But we're seeing them open up greater use of fires, strikes and air power," he says. "Sadly, I expect the worst is yet ahead, and this war could get a lot more ugly."
