用法学习: 1. sagacious [səgeɪʃəs] 睿智的, 英明的 adj. A sagacious person is intelligent and has the ability to make good decisions. ...a sagacious leader. vocabulary: Use the formal adjective sagacious to describe someone who is wise and insightful like an advisor to the president or a Supreme Court justice. Someone like an inspirational leader or an expert in a field who seeks knowledge and has foresight can be described as sagacious. If you comment on something at a deeper level, you are making a sagacious observation. The word is a descendent of Latin sagus "prophetic" and is related to the Old English word seek. Synonyms include discerning, insightful and another formal word perspicacious. Chakras (UK: [ˈtʃʌkrəz], US: [ˈtʃɑːkrəz]) 轮脉 are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra 密宗 ( the sacred books of Tantrism, written between the 7th and 17th centuries ad, mainly in the form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife. ), or the esoteric or inner traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. To shop till you drop 血拼到底, 逛到死 is an American idiom which means to buying things until you are physically tired and cannot walk around the shops anymore. Sometimes it is spelled shop 'til you drop. Be aware that the phrase has become somewhat of a cliche and is sometimes used tongue in cheek toward the old cheesy advertisements. "Don't wear uncomfortable shoes if you plan on shopping till you drop," said Niki Helton, nursing freshman. You've shopped till you dropped at duty free and get there before the allocated T-minus 20 minute gate shut down. 2. weigh up 比量, 端详, 上下打量, 忖度, 评估, 衡量, 掂量 [mainly British] If you weigh someone up, you try and find out what they are like and form an opinion of them, especially when you are suspicious of them. carefully assess someone or something. to think carefully about the advantages or disadvantages of a situation before making a decision: I'm weighing up my options before I decide to apply for the job. "you'll have to weigh up the risks for yourself". My recruiting sergeant weighed me up when I first walked into his office. size up If you size up a person or situation, you carefully look at the person or think about the situation, so that you can decide how to act. to examine something or someone carefully and decide what you think about it, him, or her: Voters are still sizing up the candidates. The two cats walked in circles around each other, sizing each other up. Some U.S. manufacturers have been sizing up the U.K. as a possible market for their clothes. He spent the evening sizing me up intellectually. vocabulary: To size up is to evaluate or critically assess something or someone. When a chess player sizes up her competition, she makes a judgment about what kind of player she might be facing. If you're giving a speech, it might help to size up your audience before you decide to include your infamous corny jokes. And part of what happens during a job interview is that the interviewer sizes up the applicant, attempting to figure out what kind of worker they'd be. You could also size up the sofa your brother bought, guessing whether or not it's likely to fit through the front door. take stock 盘点, 全面评估 (review the situation) If you take stock, you pause to think about all the aspects of a situation or event before deciding what to do next. make an overall assessment of a particular situation, typically before making a decision. A review of a situation or system is its formal examination by people in authority. This is usually done in order to see whether it can be improved or corrected. The president ordered a review of the situation. "he needed a period of peace and quiet in order to take stock of his life". It was time to take stock of the situation 盘点局势. I was forty, the age when people take stock and change their lives. appraise [ə'preɪz] 评估, 估价, 估值 I. If you appraise something or someone, you consider them carefully and form an opinion about them. This prompted many employers to appraise their selection and recruitment policies. to examine someone or something in order to judge their qualities, success, or needs: At the end of each teaching practice, trainee teachers 实习老师, 见习老师 are asked to appraise their own performance. In cooperation with other professionals, social workers will appraise the individual's needs. He coolly appraised the situation, deciding which person would be most likely to succeed. II. 估价. 估值. to give a judgment about how much money something might be sold for: The ring was appraised at $40,000. vocabulary: When you buy a house someone will need to appraise its value before you can get a mortgage. To appraise something is to figure out its worth in the marketplace, on the field, or in the world of ideas. To appraise the value of a friendship is difficult, but to appraise the value of your grandfather's pocket watch — just go to the pawn shop. The verb appraise comes from the Late Latin word appretiare, which means "value" or "estimate." You can appraise your chances of marrying royalty, which are probably slim. You can also appraise the value of a quarterback on your fantasy football team by looking at the statistics for his completed passes. scrutinize [skruːtɪnaɪz] 审视 If you scrutinize something, you examine it very carefully, often to find out some information from it or about it. examine or inspect closely and thoroughly. "customers were warned to scrutinize the small print". Her purpose was to scrutinize his features to see if he was an honest man. Lloyds' results were carefully scrutinised as a guide to what to expect from the other banks. vocabulary: If you want to examine something closely and go over every single detail, then you should scrutinize it. Like the way your mom probably assesses your outfit before you leave the house for school. Scrutinizing is very different from glancing or gazing. It's even more than a long, hard look. To scrutinize something, you have to look at it really critically, investigating every nook and cranny( every nook and cranny 所有的边边角角, 每一个地方 every part of a place: Every nook and cranny of the house was stuffed with souvenirs of their trips abroad. Bureaucratic tentacles extend their reach into every nook and cranny of America. ). Often things are scrutinized to verify if they're correct or authentic. So it makes perfect sense that this verb is rooted in the Latin word scrutari, which means "to search." 3. dressing gown ( = bathrobe + sleep robe in US) a long, loose robe, typically worn after getting out of bed or bathing. Stroller 婴儿车 in US = pushchair in UK. a band-aid in US = a plaster 创可贴 in UK. clothes pin 衣服夹子 in US = clothes peg in UK. zipper 拉链 in US = zip in UK. chop-chop 快点 (UK) Hurry up. Used to urge someone to do something quickly. inflection [ɪnˈflɛkʃn] = inflexion in UK GRAMMAR I. a change in the form of a word (typically the ending) to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person, number, case, and gender. In grammar, an inflection is a change in the form of a word that shows its grammatical function, for example a change that makes a noun plural or makes a verb into the past tense. "a set of word forms differing only in respect of inflections 词形变化, 时态语态形态变化". II. the modulation of intonation or pitch in the voice. An inflection in someone's voice is a change in its tone or pitch as they are speaking. The man's voice was devoid of inflection 平铺直叙, 没有情感. 'Seb?' he said, with a rising inflection 升调, 降调. "she spoke slowly and without inflection 升降调, 高低音". obscenity (obscene) I. behavior or language that is offensive, rude, or disgusting. offensive, rude, or shocking, usually because of being too obviously related to sex or showing sex: In the raid, police found several boxes of obscene 色情片, 毛片 DVDs. He was jailed for making obscene 色情电话 phone calls (= ones in which unwanted sexual suggestions were made to the listener). obscene language/graffiti. The people who made that movie could be prosecuted for obscenity. Such deliberate destruction of the environment is an obscenity (= offensive and shocking). obscenity laws. He was shouting and screaming obscenities. II. 令人咂舌的. 多到令人咂舌的. a very offensive or sexually shocking word or sentence. morally wrong, often describing something that is wrong because it is too large: to make obscene profits. The salaries some bankers earn are obscene. He eats obscene amounts of food. smut (SEXUAL MATERIAL. filth (OFFENSIVE WORDS/PICTURES). ) I. disapproving magazines, books, pictures, films or jokes that offend some people because they relate to sex. If you refer to words or pictures that are related to sex as smut, you disapprove of them because you think they are rude and unpleasant and have been said or published just to shock or excite people. I find the media's growing obsession with smut and sensation deplorable. ...schoolboy smut. There's an awful lot of smut on television these days. I can't have smut filling my inbox. II. dirt or ash (= powder left when something has burned) that makes a mark on something. Smut or smuts is dirt such as soot which makes a dirty mark on something. III. a plant disease that mainly affects grasses such as wheat: Smut was destroying many of the crops. Some smuts can cause significant yield losses. deplorable If you say that something is deplorable, you think that it is very bad and unacceptable. Many of them live under deplorable conditions. The Chief Constable said that sexual harassment was deplorable. The reporters behaved deplorably. 4. slum it/be slumming informal to spend time in conditions that are much worse than you are used to – often used humorously. Jeremy doesn't slum it when he goes away. line of work (occupation) the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money. What line of work is your father in? What do you do for living/work (a bit rude)? What kind of work are you in? What line of business is your family in? incorrigible [ɪn'kɒrɪdʒəbəl] 不可救药的, 没救的, 病入膏肓的 adj mainly humorous An incorrigible person or incorrigible behaviour is bad and impossible to change or improve. If you tell someone they are incorrigible, you are saying, often in a humorous way, that they have faults which will never change. 'Sue, you are incorrigible!' he said. They are incorrigible optimists. an incorrigible liar/rogue. pesky 招人烦的, 烦人的, 讨人厌的 [informal] Pesky means irritating. annoying or causing trouble: Those pesky kids from next door have let the air out of my car tyres again! ...as if he were a pesky tourist asking silly questions of a busy man. With the character of Rafael Luna axed, there's no subplot involving him exposing Ellen's opponent as a sexual predator or evidence that the Richards campaign leaked our couple's private correspondence. Instead, it's that pesky Politico journalist who catches on to Alex and Henry and breaks the story of their relationship. sandbag verb. I. A sandbag is a cloth bag filled with sand. Sandbags are usually used to build walls for protection against floods or explosions. To barricade using sandbags. To construct a barrier of sandbags around. We sandbagged the basement windows against the floodwaters. "we had to sandbag the doors". II. hit or knock over with or as if with a blow from a sandbag. "he is a complex character who too often finds himself sandbagged by his own self-destructive tendencies". III. To sandbag something means to protect or strengthen it using sandbags. They sandbagged their homes to keep out floods. IV. To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage. V. To deceive someone by pretending to be weak, or (card games) by pretending to have a weak hand. 5. uncultured If you describe someone as uncultured, you are critical of them because they do not seem to know much about art, literature, and other cultural topics. He comes from a completely uncultured, lower middle-class family. Sometimes I forget how uncultured you Americans are. It's only the swooniest movie of all time. swoon verb. I. If you swoon, you are strongly affected by your feelings for someone you love or admire very much. to feel a lot of pleasure, love, etc. because of something or someone: The audience swooned with delight. Virtually every woman in the '20s swooned over Valentino. The crowd shriek and swoon at his every word. be overcome with admiration, adoration, or other strong emotion. "you can have them swooning over you with a few well-placed 恰到好处的 words". II. faint, especially from extreme emotion. "Frankie's mother swooned and had to be helped to the headmaster's office". an occurrence of fainting. "I fell down in a swoon. swoony informal I. giving someone a lot of pleasure or romantic feelings: Rock Hudson is the swoony romantic lead in this funny film. The song's swoony melodies are difficult to resist. II. feeling a lot of pleasure and romantic feelings: When I was a little girl I was swoony over anything to do with brides or weddings. well-placed = well-positioned I. cleverly or judiciously positioned or deployed. in a good situation to be able to do something: Roche is well-placed to compete with its strategy to invest in research and development. Because of everything we have planned in redevelopment, we are well-positioned. "I obtained the information through well-placed 精心设计的 questions". II. having a fortunate or advantageous position. "the country is well placed to take advantage of the single market". 6. Noted 知道了, 记下了, 记住了, 明白了. Them's the rules: It's an idiom used by particular groups of English speakers (Southern Americans, Brooklynites, for example) in colloquial speech. It means, those are the rules. If you see it in printed form, it will likely be in dialogue spoken by a person who uses a distinct dialect. Here are some examples of its use over the years. You'll see that each example contains a heavy dose of other dialectical pronunciations and informal ungrammatical constructions. From a book called From the Brooklyn Side published in 2000: "Them's the rules, Dominick. We either live by 'em or we die by 'em. But we ain't gonna break 'em for nobody.". Occasionally, the expression will be used in a jokey manner, as @Barrie England points out, by someone who speaks proper English to express the irony of the rules. As if those rules have been created by an uneducated person who would say "them's the rules" and not "those are the rules." For example, in this passage from a book called Resurrection Day published in 2000: "Not my problem. Them's the rules, and that's why I'm about to pull the pin and get out of this rotten city on full pension." Because it is an ungrammatical idiom, it is best used either humorously or ironically unless it is in the written dialogue of a character who speaks in that dialect, and then it can be used literally (meaning those are the rules) and to your heart's content. cretin [ˈkrɛt(ɪ)n] 蠢货, 傻蛋 I. DEROGATORY INFORMAL a stupid person (used as a general term of abuse). II. [offensive, disapproval] an offensive word for a person who is considered to be very stupid or unpleasant. If you call someone a cretin, you think they are very stupid. III. a person whose mental and physical development has been impaired by a deficiency of thyroid hormone in fetal or early life. himbo [ˈhɪmbəʊ] 四肢发达, 头脑简单的人(bimbo) noun INFORMAL HUMOROUS a good-looking but unintelligent young man. "how did she trick audiences conditioned to drool over himbos into falling for a middle-aged guy with a slight case of rheumatism?" Meet President Biden, the himbo. Whether he meets individual standards of himbodom is another question, but in the eyes of various media outlets and the general public, his himbo era has lasted a little over a decade now, owing to the popular parodies that popularized the internet during the Obama administration. The chill, ditzy [dɪtsi] 傻大姐似的( [informal] A ditzy person is silly and not very organized. a ditzy person, especially a woman, is silly: She played the role of a ditzy blonde. She may come across as ditzy, but she knows what she's doing. ) grandpa persona that was developed by supporters and humorists quickly overshadowed Biden's actual personality, so much so that even Biden himself has absorbed it. motorboating I. The act of travelling in a motorboat. II. (slang) The act of placing one's head between a woman's breasts and making the sound of a motorboat with one's lips whilst moving the head from side to side. The act of pushing one's face in between two ample breasts, and rocking one's head side to side very rapidly while making a vigorous, lip-vibrating "brrr" sound. on a string = on the string completely under one's control or subject to one's whims. under one's control or influence. "I keep all three men on a string and never make a choice". 7. knock I. If you knock on something such as a door or window, you hit it, usually several times, to attract someone's attention. She went directly to Simon's apartment and knocked on the door. Knock at my window at eight o'clock and I'll be ready. He knocked before going in. They heard a knock at the front door. They were wakened by a loud knocking at the door. II. If you knock something, you touch or hit it roughly, especially so that it falls or moves. She accidentally knocked the tea tin off the shelf. The baby was knocked 打落, 打掉 from his father's arms. Isabel rose so abruptly that she knocked down her chair. Buckets of roses had been knocked over. The bags have tough exterior materials to protect against knocks, rain and dust. III. If someone knocks two rooms or buildings into one, or knocks them together, they make them form one room or building by removing a wall. They decided to knock the two rooms into 打通 one. The spacious kitchen was achieved by knocking together three small rooms. IV. To knock someone into a particular position or condition means to hit them very hard so that they fall over or become unconscious. The third wave was so strong it knocked me backwards. They were knocked to the ground and robbed of their wallets. Someone had knocked him unconscious. V. To knock a particular quality or characteristic that someone has, or to knock it out of them means to make them lose it. Those people hurt me and knocked my confidence 让我丧失信心. The stories of his links with the actress had knocked the fun out of him. When they first joined for training many were starry eyed. We soon knocked that out of them. VI. If something knocks, it makes a repeated sharp banging noise. His old truck, knocking and smoking, pulled down the road and out of sight. VII. If you knock something or someone, you criticize them and say unpleasant things about them. I'm not knocking them: if they want to do it, it's up to them. Never knock charter flights; they are opening up the world for budget-conscious travellers. Jack Antonoff: Because of its (New Jersey) proximity to New York City, it has to be self-deprecating. And in my opinion—and this is no knock on the Parisians or anyone from big cities. But in my experience, it's not necessarily the recipe for the kind of work that I gravitate to," he explains. A lot of people are afraid to sign off on something that isn't done by a proven person." noun. If someone receives a knock, they have an unpleasant experience which prevents them from achieving something or which causes them to change their attitudes or plans. What they said was a real knock to my self-confidence. The art market has suffered some severe knocks during the past two years. 8. vessel [ˈvesəl] I. a large boat or ship: A scattering of vessels anchored in the harbor. Two tugboats guided the 70,000 ton vessel into port. a cargo/container/freight vessel. a commercial/merchant/naval vessel. a salvage/supply vessel. a fishing/patrol/research vessel. an ocean-going/sea-going vessel. II. a container used to hold liquids: We used bowls, pots, bottles, pitchers – any vessels we could find. III. 血管( blood vessel Blood vessels are the narrow tubes through which your blood flows. Blood vessels circulate blood throughout your body. They help deliver oxygen to vital organs and tissues, and also remove waste products. Blood vessels are the channels or conduits through which blood is distributed to body tissues. The vessels make up two closed systems of tubes that begin and end at the heart. One system, the pulmonary vessels, transports blood from the right ventricle to the lungs and back to the left atrium. The other system, the systemic vessels, carries blood from the left ventricle to the tissues in all parts of the body and then returns the blood to the right atrium. Based on their structure and function, blood vessels are classified as either arteries, capillaries, or veins. Blood vessels include veins, arteries and capillaries. capillary [kəpɪləri] 毛细血管 Capillaries are tiny blood vessels in your body. ). a tube that carries liquid, esp. blood, through the body: Blood clots clogged the vessels. A heart attack is caused by the blood vessels that supply the blood to the heart muscle getting blocked. rag trade 服饰业, 服装行业 noun informal I. the clothing or fashion industry. The rag trade is the business and industry of making and selling clothes, especially women's clothes. The rag trade is extremely competitive, and one needs plenty of contacts in order to survive. II. literary a person who has a particular quality or who is used for a particular purpose: As a young and spirited politician, he seems a worthy vessel for the nation's hopes. vassal state a state with varying degrees of independence in its internal affairs but dominated by another state in its foreign affairs and potentially wholly subject to the dominating state. a. In feudal society, a vassal was a man who gave military service to a lord, in return for which he was protected by the lord and received land to live on. b. [written, disapproval] If you say that one country is a vassal of another, you mean that it is controlled by it. The question is whether the country is destined to end up as a vassal of its larger northern neighbour. Headline earnings 日常收入(I. If a newspaper or magazine article is headlined a particular thing, that is the headline that introduces it. to have something as a headline or as the main story: The story was headlined "Killer dogs on the loose". The article was headlined 'Tell us the truth'. II. to be the main performer at an entertainment event: The band's headlining appearance at the festival could be their last. III. a headline amount, number, or rate is the most important one or the one that people notice most: The credit card company will cut its headline rate of interest to 19.9 percent. The headline figure of 3.6 percent isn't as bad as it looks if you exclude the effects of oil prices. The outgoing boss of Sydney Airport has joined the chorus of aviation industry voices calling for more international competition, after the federal transport minister rejected an application from Qatar Airways to double its flights to Australia. Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said strong growth in arrivals to the airport from China, South Korea and India had offset lagging markets including the US and New Zealand, but traffic from the Middle East remained well below pre-COVID levels, down 27 per cent on 2019. "The headline result for international passengers is encouraging, but it's a two-speed recovery," Culbert said. "The lag 缓慢 is being driven by a lack of seat capacity rather than a lack of demand." ) report a company's income from operations, trading, and investments only. Headline earnings therefore exclude certain one-time or exceptional items such as write-offs. Analysts look to headline earnings as a basis for how a company is operating at its business as usual capacity. 9. piggy in the middle 夹在中间, 居中调停 I. someone who is in a difficult situation between two other people who are arguing. If someone is piggy-in-the-middle or pig-in-the-middle, they are unwillingly involved in a dispute between two people or groups. II. Piggy-in-the-middle or pig-in-the-middle is a game in which two children throw a ball to each other and a child standing between them tries to catch it. agent provocateur [ˌæʒ.ɑ̃ː prəˌvɒk.əˈtɜːr] I. a person who intentionally encourages people to do something illegal, usually so that they can be arrested. a person who induces others to be violent or commit an illegal act in order to incriminate them or discredit a cause. "you people will start fighting amongst yourselves, not realizing that some agent provocateur is behind this". The movement had been widely infiltrated by agents provocateurs working for secret services. II. someone who intentionally causes arguments or discussions, or intentionally makes other people feel angry, offended, or uncomfortable: He is known as a musical agent provocateur, a revolutionary of hip hop. An agent provocateur (French for 'inciting agent') is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicates them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the target, or a group they belong to or are perceived to belong to. They may target any group, such as a peaceful protest or demonstration, a union, a political party or a company. 10. strait-laced = straight-laced [ˌstreɪtˈleɪst] 古板的, 保守的, 正统的 adj. [disapproval] having or showing very strict moral attitudes. having old-fashioned and unchanging morals, especially relating to sexual matters. If you describe someone as strait-laced, you disapprove of them because they have very strict views about what kind of behaviour is moral or acceptable. He was criticised for being boring, strait-laced and narrow-minded. Our unconventional behaviour did in fact shock some of our more straitlaced friends. The joke shocked her strait-laced parents. "his strait-laced parents were horrified". straight arrow 价值传统的, 正直的 noun. A straight arrow is someone who is very traditional, honest, and moral. an honest, morally upright person. someone who is very honest and careful to behave in a socially acceptable way: Friends described Menendez as a straight arrow who rarely drank and was close to his family. "he was remembered as a loner and a straight arrow". ...a well-scrubbed, straight-arrow group of young people. adj. honest and morally upright. "the straight-arrow head coach found himself answering for their crimes". (as) straight as an arrow I. (simile) Very straight; travelling in a very straight trajectory. II. (simile, by extension) Having no homosexual desires or thoughts; completely heterosexual. III. Very truthful, reliable, and morally upright. Kate would never cheat on an exam—she's as straight 诚实的, 正直的 as an arrow. I know Bob's story sounds ridiculous, but I believe him because he's straight as an arrow. I've always known Amanda to be straight as an arrow, so I can't believe she got caught shoplifting. scrub up well 外表光鲜靓丽的 UK informal approving said about someone when they have made an effort to look nice: Mary scrubs up well. scrub nurse 手术室护士 a nurse in an operating theatre (= a special room in a hospital in which people are operated on ). Colloquially referred to as 'scrub nurse', the instrument nurse is a member of the sterile team who scrubs, gowns and gloves for the surgical procedure. They: are responsible for setting up and handing sterile supplies and instruments to the surgeon. A surgical nurse, also referred to as a theatre nurse or scrub nurse, specializes in perioperative care, providing care to patients before, during and after surgery. To become a theatre nurse, Registered Nurses or Enrolled Nurses must complete extra training.: A good scrub nurse will anticipate the needs of the surgeon. The team worked quickly and efficiently, with the scrub nurse periodically flushing out excess blood as the surgeon cauterized vessels. 11. fail-safe I. very unlikely to fail. having no chance of failure. infallibly problem-free. the little black dress … has consistently been the fail-safe solution for night. a fail-safe plan. II. That does not cause undue damage in the event of failure. incorporating some feature for automatically counteracting the effect of an anticipated possible source of failure. If something is fail-safe, it has been designed so that if one part of it does not work, the whole thing does not become dangerous: a fail-safe device. The system is failsafe, because everything is backed up automatically. Guy said he was really hoping that Harper took a positive message out of the audition, even though he didn't get through to the next round. 'I think sometimes it's really difficult for people to digest the disappointment. Their failsafe 保底的, 最后一招 is to blame maybe the song or blame somebody else,' he said. III. being or relating to a safeguard that prevents continuing on a bombing mission according to a preconceived plan. Designed to shut off for safety if an emergency occurs. peripheral [pɪˈrɪf(ə)rəl] I. relating to or situated on the edge or periphery of something. "the peripheral areas of Europe". II. (of a device) able to be attached to and used with a computer, though not an integral part of it. "a peripheral control processor". noun. 附件. 附属部件. a peripheral device. "printers and other peripherals". periphery [pə'rɪfəri] I. If something is on the periphery of an area, place, or thing 在边缘, 在边界, 在边边上, it is on the edge of it. Geographically, the U.K. is on the periphery of Europe, while Paris is at the heart of the continent. Taste buds are concentrated at the tip and rear of the tongue and around its periphery. II. The periphery of a subject or area of interest is the part of it that is not considered to be as important or basic as the main part. The sociological study of religion moved from the centre to the periphery of sociology. 12. Bats In The Belfry [ˈbɛlfri] 疯疯癫癫的, 疯子, 神经病, 不正常的(The belfry 钟楼, 钟塔 is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached to a city hall or other civic building. A belfry encloses the bell chamber, the room in which the bells are housed; its walls are pierced by openings which allow the sound to escape. The openings may be left uncovered but are commonly filled with louvers to prevent rain and snow from entering and damaging the bells. There may be a separate room below the bell chamber to house the ringers. ) You use the expression "Bats in the belfry" to indicate that someone is acting eccentric or crazy. Example in use: 'Wanda has bats in the belfry; she seems to think that the mailman is trying to steal her cat!' Interesting fact about Bats In The Belfry: Although the phrase “Bats in the Belfry” has a very old-fashioned ring to it, the term originated in late 19th or early 20th century in America. A very early example comes from an October 1900 edition of an Ohio newspaper called The Newark Daily Advocate: “To his hundreds of friends and acquaintances in Newark, these puerile ( puerile [ˈpjʊərʌɪl] [disapproval] If you describe someone or something as puerile, you mean that they are silly and childish. Concert organisers branded the group's actions as puerile. The story is simple, even puerile. ...puerile, schoolboy humour. ) and senseless attacks on Hon. John W. Casssingham are akin to the vaporings of the fellow with a large flock of bats in his belfry." Joker: They all said I was sick in the head. They said, “I needed help.” Well, maybe I am a bit batty. Blame it on the Bats in my Belfry. Cinderella: So, yes, I'm gonna walk the streets until I find her, reveal my true self, and then personally invite her to the ball. Unless, of course, it turns out that she's got a couple bats in the old belfry, in which case, I will realize that my feelings were incorrect and... slowly back away 慢慢退出. It is your belfry that has bats. I do not have a single bat in my belfry. No, there are multiple bats in your belfry. I am the prince, and I say that your belfry is the one with the bats. Well, I'm the prince's best friend, and I say that yours is one with the bats. I'm your best friend, right? I have lots of friends. Of course you're my best friend. Yeah, thought so. Beautiful human. 13. mull something over 认真思考, 沉思, 深思熟虑, 慎重考虑 to think carefully about something for a long time. If you mull something over, you think about it for a long time before deciding what to do: I need a few days to mull things over before I decide if I'm taking the job. McLaren had been mulling over an idea to make a movie. I'll leave you alone here so you can mull it over. "Corridor reputation 老百姓中的口碑, 群众风评" is an unofficial but espoused ( espouse [ɪspaʊz] verb If you espouse a particular policy, cause, or belief, you become very interested in it and give your support to it. To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause). She ran away with him to Mexico and espoused the revolutionary cause. ) value of the State Department's culture, according to Diplopedia. It is described as a person's character, qualities, and interactions based on informal observations from colleagues not detailed in record. Corridor reputation is kind of what it sounds like: what people know and say about you and whisper to each other in the literal and metaphorical hallways of the Department of State. If I'm saying it because I'm pissed off that something went wrong, then I need to step back and handle my own emotional self-regulation problems first, and then circle back to whether there's a performance or conduct issue ( Around 40% of UK employees have a work conflict each year — most often with their line manager (CIPD 2015). Since a little conflict is inevitable, how you manage employee conduct 员工行为, 行为规范( code of conduct) can have the biggest impact on your organisation. So it's essential you create an environment that encourages good performance while dealing with grievance and misconduct effectively.) and handle that, because threatening people because they screwed up or I am mad at them is not professional behavior. Sadly, I've seen scenario #2 much more often than scenario #1, but they're both pretty prominent. The FS uses "Corridor reputation" as a cudgel, and we don't think about how it reflects on the person who brings it up -- since in reality, it's kind of a threat to ruin someone's career. If we're serious about diversity and inclusion (amongst other things...) we need to cut the crap and behave like professionals. cudgel [kʌdʒəl] 棍棒, 大棒, 粗短棍 A cudgel is a thick, short stick that is used as a weapon. a short, heavy stick used for hitting people. take up the cudgels for/against someone/something If you take up the cudgels for someone or something, you speak or fight in support of them. to argue strongly in support of, or against, someone or something: Relatives have taken up the cudgels for two British women accused of murder. The trade unions took up the cudgels for the 367 staff made redundant. cudgel your brains to think very hard or try to remember something you have forgotten. 14. kingmaker a person who brings leaders to power through the exercise of political influence. "the political leaders are attended by kingmakers and fixers". A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the succession. double take = do a double take 看两遍, 再顾, 回头看 to look at someone or something and then look again because you suddenly recognize him, her, or it or notice that something unusual is happening. If you do a double-take when you see or hear something strange or surprising, you hesitate for a moment before reacting to it because you wonder if you really saw or heard it. I did a double-take when I saw her dressed in biker's gear. I did a double take - I couldn't believe it was her. gratuitous [ɡrəˈtjuːɪtəs] 无关紧要的, 不必要的, 过分的 I. done without good reason; uncalled for. If you describe something as gratuitous, you mean that it is unnecessary, and often harmful or upsetting. There's too much crime and gratuitous violence on TV. ...his insistence on offering gratuitous advice. They wanted me to change the title to something less gratuitously offensive. "gratuitous violence". II. given or done free of charge. "solicitors provide a form of gratuitous legal advice". not to be sneezed at = nothing to sneeze at 不可小觑, 不可小瞧 If you say that something, especially an amount of money, is not to be sneezed at, you mean that it is a large enough amount to be worth having. If you say that something is not to be sneezed at, you mean that it is worth having. The money's not to be sneezed at. Well, a five percent pay increase means an extra $700 a year, which is not to be sneezed at! be thin on the ground 稀少 (few and far between) exist in small numbers or amounts. If people or things of a particular kind are thin on the ground, there are very few of them. Good managers are often thin on the ground. "at this time of year, holidaymakers are thin on the ground". to exist only in small numbers or amounts: Traditional bookshops are thin on the ground these days. Hoovering 阴魂不散, 不放手, 放不下 is a manipulation tactic used to "suck" victims back into toxic relationship cycles. Someone who hoovers fears that their target will "get away" from them, so they may engage in love bombing, feigning crises, stalking, or smear campaigns in order to suck up all their target's time, energy, and attention. Say you're out on the town when you suddenly get a random text from your ex that says "I miss you." It's been over a year since you've cut off all ties, so what gives? If this kind of message leaves you with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, you may have just been "hoovered." While easy to confuse with sincere attempts of reconciliation, hoovering is a manipulation tactic that someone might use to suck you back into a potentially toxic relationship. A random text may not necessarily suggest anything malicious on its own, but be wary if there's a past history of toxicity. Love bombing is a tactic in which someone "bombs" you with extreme displays of attention and affection with the intent to manipulate you. Although being showered with "love" can seem positive at the beginning of a romantic relationship, love bombing can lead to gaslighting and abuse. 15. scruffy 邋遢的, 脏脏的, 不修边幅的 (disheveled) adj. Someone or something that is scruffy is dirty and untidy. untidy and looking a little dirty: They live in a scruffy part of town. a small, scruffy-looking man. ...a young man, pale, scruffy and unshaven. ...a scruffy basement flat in London. grungy = grungey [ˈɡrʌndʒɪ] I. grimy; dirty. (of a person) feeling tired and dirty, or (of a thing) dirty: He showed up for the interview wearing some grungy old sweatshirt and jeans. "a dark and grungy basement". II. relating to or denoting a form of rock music characterized by a raucous guitar sound and lazy vocal delivery. Grunge fashion refers to the clothing, accessories and hairstyles of the grunge music genre. This subculture emerged in mid-1980s Seattle, and had reached wide popularity by the mid 1990s. Grunge fashion is characterized by durable and timeless thrift-store clothing, often worn in a loose, androgynous manner to de-emphasize the silhouette. The style was popularized by music bands Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Grunge fashion/style was influenced by disheveled and androgynous thrift-store clothing, defined by a looseness, de-emphasizing the body's silhouette. Men wear second-hand or shabby T-shirts with slogans, band logos, etc. A tartan shirt might accompany the T-shirt, along with ripped or faded jeans. Black combat-style boots, such as Doc Martens, completes the ensemble. In 1992, The New York Times wrote: "This stuff is cheap, it's durable, and it's kind of timeless. It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80's." As for hairstyles, men follow the "hair-sweat-and-guitars look" of Kurt Cobain. 16. possessive I. Someone who is possessive 独占欲的, 独占的, 霸道的 about another person wants all that person's love and attention. Someone who is possessive in his or her feelings and behaviour towards or about another person wants to have all of that person's love and attention and will not share it with anyone else: a possessive mother. Her boyfriend was getting too possessive so she finished with him. Danny could be very jealous and possessive about me. He used to ring his possessive mother several times a day. Leaning over, he kissed her possessively on the mouth. I've ruined every relationship with my possessiveness. II. Someone who is possessive about things that they own does not like other people to use them. If you are possessive about something that you own, you do not like lending it to other people or sharing it with other people: He's pretty possessive about his iPod - I wouldn't dare ask to borrow it. People were very possessive about 不想让别人用的 their coupons. III. In grammar, a possessive determiner or possessive adjective is a word such as 'my' or 'her' which shows who or what something belongs to or is connected with. The possessive form of a name or noun has 's 所有格的 added to it, as in 'Jenny's' or 'cat's'. IV. A possessive is a possessive determiner or the possessive form of a name or noun.
TBBT: Test run = Trial run. 1. Bert: This is the best blintz ( blintz = blintze [blɪnts] a thin pancake folded over a filling usually of apple, cream cheese, or meat. ) I've ever had. Sheldon: Oh. Thank you. Bert: It almost makes up for 弥补 the incredibly awkward turn things took earlier. Stuart: You know what, I, I, I think I'm just gonna go. Amy: No, Stuart, don't. Stuart: No, I consider you and Sheldon like my family, and I'm not even sure you think of me as a friend. You have any idea how that feels? Amy: We're so sorry. Stuart: I'm always the last one anybody thinks of.
