用法学习: 1. Flaming( In 2006, Klein was one of several writers pseudonymously flamed by The New Republic writer Lee Siegel (posting as a sock puppet called sprezzatura). ), also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. Flaming is distinct from trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerges from the anonymity that Internet forums provide for users which allows them to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition( Disinhibition 口无遮拦, 百无禁忌, also referred to as behavioral disinhibition, is medically recognized as an orientation towards immediate gratification, leading to impulsive behaviour driven by current thoughts, feelings, and external stimuli, without regard for past learning or consideration for future consequences. In psychology, it is defined as a lack of restraint manifested in disregard of social conventions, impulsivity, and poor risk assessment. Hypersexuality, hyperphagia, substance abuse, money mismanagement, frequent faux pas, and aggressive outbursts are indicative of disinhibited instinctual drives. uninhibited [ˌʌn.ɪnˈhɪb.ɪ.tɪd] free and natural, without embarrassment or too much control: The students we spoke to were surprisingly uninhibited in talking about sex. We watched two hours of glorious, uninhibited tennis. She gave a loud, uninhibited laugh. ), which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation, and deindividualization ( Deindividuation 去个体化, 法不责众心理 the loss of a person's sense of individuality and personal responsibility. a psychological state where people lose their sense of individuality and act differently when in a group. This can lead to impulsive or antisocial behavior. wiki: Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention. For the social psychologist, the level of analysis is the individual in the context of a social situation. As such, social psychologists emphasize the role of internal psychological processes. Other social scientists, such as sociologists, are more concerned with broad social, economic, political, and historical factors that influence events in a given society. Theories of deindividuation propose that it is a psychological state of decreased self-evaluation and decreased evaluation apprehension causing antinormative and disinhibited behavior. Deindividuation theory seeks to provide an explanation for a variety of antinormative collective behavior, such as violent crowds, lynch mobs, etc. Deindividuation theory has also been applied to genocide and been posited as an explanation for antinormative behavior online and in computer-mediated communications. Although generally analyzed in the context of negative behaviors, such as mob violence and genocide, deindividuation has also been found to play a role in positive behaviors and experiences. There still exists some variation as to understanding the role of deindividuation in producing anti-normative behaviors, as well as understanding how contextual cues affect the rules of the deindividuation construct. Deindividuation is losing the sense of self in a group. heteronormative suggesting or believing that only heterosexual relationships are normal or right and that men and women have naturally different roles: Ballet has historically been a heteronormative art form. These attitudes come from years of living inside a heteronormative society. The book was filled with misogynistic and heteronormative rhetoric. non-normative not relating to what is considered the usual or normal way for people to look, act, or behave: The study discusses the connections between the creation of norms and the legal punishment of non-normative behaviour. The clothes are sold in a broad range of sizes and cuts to accommodate people with nonnormative body types. Antinormative behavior is behavior that goes against established social norms. It can include actions like mob violence, vandalism, and online trolling. Deindividuation is a psychological state that can lead to antinormative behavior. normative relating to rules, or making people obey rules, especially rules of behaviour. expressing value judgments or prescriptions as contrasted with stating facts normative economics. prescriptive saying exactly what must happen, especially by giving an instruction or making a rule. Of or pertaining to prescribing or enjoining, especially an action or behavior based on a norm or standard: Most teachers think the government's guidelines on homework are too prescriptive. ) are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation. While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a lasting impact on some internet communities where even once a flame war has concluded a division or even dissolution may occur. The individuals that create an environment of flaming and hostility lead the readers to disengage with the offender and may potentially leave the message board and chat room. The continual use of flaming within the online community can create a disruptive and negative experience for those involved and can lead to limited involvement and engagement within the original chat room and program. 2. Hard-headed diplomacy is required, not craven ( craven [kreɪvən] 没胆量的, 胆小怕事的, 懦弱无能的 adj. [written, disapproval] Someone who is craven is very cowardly. Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly. a craven act of terrorism. Politicians are too craven to tackle this problem. They condemned the deal as a craven surrender. ...his craven obedience to his employers. I cravenly agreed, simply in order not to antagonize him. He wrote to her afterwards, hoping cravenly that she had not been hurt. vocabulary: A craven man is no Superman or Spiderman, nor is he a firefighter or a soldier. A craven man is the opposite of those guys: he has not an ounce of courage. In "The Wizard of Oz," the Cowardly Lion could have been called the Cravenly Lion, but that didn't sound quite right. Use craven as you would cowardly. A craven leader is scared to lead, while a craven gymnast stays on the mat and avoids the balance beam. You can also use the word to describe other things, besides humans. Craven policies, for example, are probably weak and do not take bold measures. hard-headed 头脑冷静的, 不情绪化的 practical and realistic; not sentimental. not influenced by emotions: a hard-headed approach to problems. "a hard-headed businessman". ). sycophancy 巴结奉承. fainthearted 胆小的人, 不敢冒险的人 ([before noun]) Someone who is fainthearted is not confident or brave and dislikes taking unnecessary risks: He deals with subjects more fainthearted filmmakers would stay away from. the fainthearted people who are not brave: The drive along the winding coast road is not for the fainthearted. not for the faint-hearted extreme or very unusual, and unsuitable for people who like only safe and familiar things Horror films are not for the faint-hearted. not for the faint of heart lacking the courage to face something difficult or dangerous. A person who tends to easily experience stress, fear, anxiety, sickness, or discomfort when facing unpleasantness, graphic imagery, physical strain, or risk. We must warn you that the following video contains images that may be unsuitable for the faint of heart. Part of the hike is along a narrow path very close to a sheer cliff, so it's certainly not for the faint of heart! This is a difficult climb that is not for the faint of heart. 躺平 'Lying flat': The growing trend enticing young workers to opt out of the grind and an above-and-beyond culture: A young Australian has divided opinion after revealing his plan to 'lie flat' in the workforce, as part of a growing cohort of Zoomers ( a member of the generation of people born between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s. ) who aren't willing to live entirely for their jobs. The 23-year-old man took to Reddit to ask for financial advice that might allow him to adopt the 'lying flat' approach, saying he sees "no future in being forced to work tirelessly for 30-plus years". Working "copious amounts ( copious [ˈkəʊ.pi.əs] in large amounts, or more than enough: copious amounts 大量的 They drank copious amounts of wine. He took copious notes during the lecture. She took copious notes, filling page after page. ) of overtime" and "sucking up to corporate" don't appeal and he instead wants the freedom to escape both the rat race and the culture of 'above and beyond' subscribed to by previous generations. In the post-Covid landscape, many established economies experienced a 'great resignation', where burnt-out workers ditched their jobs for better opportunities, sparking significant upheaval in employment markets. Then there was the 'quiet quitting' phenomenon, which saw predominantly young people decide to put in only the bare minimum and not a fraction more. 'Lying flat' is in the same vein but goes one step further, involving a rejection of traditional life goals centred on getting ahead by going above and beyond at work. The movement is almost a form of opting out 主动退出 of capitalism and living as simply as possible to avoid the need for hard work. The lying flat movement first emerged in China in the shadow of the pandemic, where disenchanted young people decided to push back against 反抗 a gruelling work culture. "I teach a fourth year and final year subject that's preparing students to go out into the workforce, which all business students have to take," Dr Elkins said. "So, I'm right at the coalface of ( coalface: the surface in a mine from which coal is cut. at the coalface 在最前线, 在生产第一线 WORKPLACE UK informal doing the work involved in a job, in real working conditions, rather than planning or talking about it: At the coalface with a deadline looming, you sometimes feel under a lot of pressure. Those at the coalface of the business may occasionally lose patience with management theories and abstractions.) what 21 and 22 year olds are thinking, and I'm surprised that a lot of them have ambitions that are way more about work-life balance than career success. "Whatever was motivating workers in the past is not motivating this younger generation. They're rejecting the work values of their parents, I think because they've watched them work really hard with little reward." "It's not that they're not conscientious – I think they're just very aware of boundaries. "And maybe in a way we need to respect that because they will eventually shift workplace culture and perhaps much more to an equilibrium ( equilibrium [ˌek.wɪˈlɪb.ri.əm] I. a state of balance: The disease destroys much of the inner ear, disturbing the animal's equilibrium. the country's economic equilibrium. II. a calm mental state: Yoga is said to restore one's inner equilibrium. III. chemistry specialized 化学平衡态. the state in which the reactants (= substances involved in a chemical reaction) and products (= substances produced in a chemical reaction) do not change because the rate of forward reaction (= when products are produced from reactants) is equal to the rate of reverse reaction (= when the original reactants return from the products). IV. a situation in which an economy is balanced and not experiencing large changes, for example when the number of goods that people want to buy is similar to the number of goods being offered: equilibrium between sth and sth Raising the prices we charge the consumer would enable us to raise wages until we reach an equilibrium between supply and demand. equilibrium in sth Saudi Arabia has promised to make every effort to ensure equilibrium in the oil industry and to stabilize prices. market equilibrium 供需平衡 a situation in which the amount of goods or services people want to buy is equal to the amount of goods or services being supplied: On this graph the market equilibrium is found at the point at which the market supply and market demand curves intersect. partial equilibrium a balance between supply and demand in just one part of an economy: Today's protectionists too often have partial equilibrium (domestic) economic models in mind when what's needed is general equilibrium (international) political economy models. general equilibrium a theory that tries to explain the behaviour of supply, demand, and prices in the economy as a whole: The general equilibrium method is becoming an essential tool for the analysis of trade and other issues. ) that gives us all work-life satisfaction." 3. 副总统万斯: Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped ( I. to leave suddenly and unexpectedly, usually without telling anyone: He decamped from the hotel with someone else's luggage. II. to depart secretly or suddenly; abscond. ) to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration's first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation's capital. But asked in a recent interview by Fox News's Bret Baier if he viewed Vance as his successor, Trump offered a quick, "No," before adding, "but he's very capable." "So far I think he's doing a fantastic job," Trump said. "It's too early." The answer sharply diverged from his campaign's stock response to last year's veepstakes 竞选搭档甄选 ( The quadrennial process in which candidates for President of the United States select a running mate. The process by which candidates for the Presidency of the United States choose a running mate to become the Vice President if elected. The candidate for the challenging party was undergoing a veepstakes. Etymology: A blend word of the words "veep" and "sweepstakes". sweepstakes a type of gambling, often on a horse race, in which people pay a small amount of money and choose a particular horse, team, etc. The person who chooses the winning horse, team, etc. receives all the money paid by everyone else. a lottery in which each participant puts up money in a common fund which is given as the prize to the winner or in shares to several winners. ) buzz. Then, the campaign insisted Trump was on the prowl for "a strong leader who will make a great President for eight years after his next four-year term concludes." "Trump is two weeks into the administration. In what universe is Trump answering that question in a different way?" one adviser posited (posit 假定, 认可 to suggest something as a basic fact or principle from which a further idea is formed or developed. to assume or put forward as fact or the factual basis for an argument; postulate: If we posit that wage rises cause inflation, it follows that we should try to minimize them. ). "If Trump answered 'yes' to that question, it'd be an even bigger story. He would immediately be a lame duck." 4. clunky [ˈklʌŋki] I. 傻大傻大的. solid, heavy, and old-fashioned. heavy and solid in an ugly way: The clunky handsets looked old-fashioned as soon as they were launched. He wore a clunky gold ring."even last year's laptops look clunky". II. 笨重的. (of shoes) clumpy. ponderously ungraceful or unsophisticated. That tomboy's clothing is rather clunky. clunky boots. "clunky Dr Martens". III. making a clunking sound. "clunky conveyor belts". IV. awkward or badly done: The writing is clunky 不流畅, 磕磕绊绊的, 磕磕巴巴的, 写得不好, 写的不顺畅 in places and full of clichés. awkward or unsophisticated then you guffaw at clunky dialogue. Clunky prose is a way of describing sentences which are a little bit awkward, unwieldy, usually not very smooth, or which contain too many words, the opposite of fluid and flowing writing. They don't read easily, and they can seem to drift. Sometimes, clunky prose has too many focuses, which confuse the reader because they don't have a clear direction. V. old-fashioned or slow: It was the slow, clunky technology it used that was responsible for the firm's failure. guffaw [ɡʌfˈɔː] 大笑 to laugh loudly, especially at something stupid that someone has said or done. to laugh loudly but briefly: Kruger guffawed as though Ray had told him a really funny joke. He guffawed with delight when he heard the news. 5. A frame story 故事套故事 (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative 引子 sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into one or more other stories within it. The frame story may also be used to inform readers about aspects of the secondary narrative(s) that may otherwise be hard to understand. This should not be confused with narrative structure 叙事结构. Notable examples are the 1001 Nights and The Decameron. muckraking [ˈmʌkˌreɪkɪŋ] 挖丑闻 the action of searching out and publicizing scandal about famous people. the activity, especially by newspapers and reporters, of trying to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public: There was so much muckraking about his family life that he decided not to stand for election. "a muckraking journalist". Four days later, Mr Dutton's office provided a two sentence response, accusing the Labor Party of muckraking: If the Albanese Government's dirt unit 丑闻部门 spent more time being focused on fixing Labor's cost of living crisis rather than obsessing about Peter Dutton, Australians might be better off. muckraker disapproving a person, especially one in a news organization, who tries to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public: He made a name for himself as a celebrity muckraker in this relatively quiet little city. Muckrakers aren't likely to dredge secrets from his past. vocabulary: To muckrake is to write stories revealing scandals about politicians and other powerful people. If you want to muckrake for a living, try getting a job writing for a tabloid. Someone who muckrakes is called a muckraker, and their job is to investigate public figures and expose anything they discover that's illegal or unethical. Many journalists muckrake during political campaigns, reporting on personal scandals, corruption, and sometimes simply gossip. The term muckrake initially meant, literally, "to rake muck," but in 1906 President Roosevelt popularized the "investigative reporting" meaning of the word. 6. toupee [ˈtuːpeɪ] 定点式假发, 局部假发 I. a wig or section of hair worn to cover a bald spot. a small artificial hairpiece worn to cover a bald spot. II. = a periwig with such a topknot. a curl or lock of hair made into a topknot on a periwig or natural coiffure. a prominent lock on a periwig, esp in the 18th century. wiki: A toupee is a hairpiece that covers bald spots or is worn for theatrical purposes. Toupees can be made of human or synthetic hair. a hairpiece or partial wig of natural or synthetic hair worn to cover partial baldness or for theatrical purposes. While toupées and hairpieces are typically associated with male wearers, some women also use hairpieces to lengthen existing hair, or cover a partially exposed scalp. periwig [ˈpɛrɪwɪɡ] I. a wig. II. a highly styled wig worn formerly as a fashionable headdress by both women and men and retained by judges and barristers as part of their professional dress. 7. talking point A specific topic raised in a conversation or argument which is intended as a basis for further discussion, especially one which represents a point of view. a subject that a lot of people want to talk about. In the process, Clementsen has become a talking point in the debate over gender discrimination. They all met Lucy Jackson on the stand and the trip was a big talking point for weeks. Trump Is Echoing Putin's Talking Points. Haley, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump, admonished her once-political rival for repeating what she characterized as capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "These are classic Russian talking points," Haley said in a post on social media in response to Trump's recent remarks falsely claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a dictator. "Exactly what Putin wants." 8.
the White Lotus III: Seasons one and three of The White Lotus share something in common: they're both tinted yellow. For its third season, the anthology series jets to a yellow version of Thailand. The internet has noticed the warm wash. It's commonly accepted that yellow tints are used in films and TV shows to signal warmer climates. But Sicilian summers have just as much of a reputation for being hot as Hawai'i and Thailand. So why is Italy the only White Lotus destination so far to be depicted with a neutral-leaning colour grade? There are two main elements to the work of film and TV colourists. The first is correction, which is the process of adjusting footage to ensure colours are cohesive. The second is grading, which uses colour to create a visual style that gives a film or TV show an identity and can be used to nudge viewers towards certain emotions, a bit like a musical score. Melbourne-based film colourist Niklas Malkin says movies and TV shows will sometimes use an "extreme grade" as a sort of "creative power that transports people to another world". Think: Twilight's washed-out blue or the saturated fury of Mad Max. But a neutral colour grade is most common, with contrasting or noticeable hues used to differentiate between time or place. A transition to black-and-white or sepia (sepia [ˈsiːpɪə] a brownish tone imparted to a photograph, esp an early one such as a calotype. It can be produced by first bleaching a print (after fixing) and then immersing it for a short time in a solution of sodium sulphide or of alkaline thiourea. ) from colour signals a flashback scene, for example. And the use of colour filters has become cinematic shorthand to differentiate between places. Tasmania-based film and TV colourist Juan Melara explains that when eastern European and Scandinavian countries are depicted in Western film and TV, there's a tendency towards cooler grades. He says places like South America, the Middle East, parts of Asia and Africa tend to be washed in warm hues, while the US, the UK and western Europe generally receive more neutral grades. This can be partly credited to natural environments: the light in London is diffused by cloud cover; whereas you're filming in direct, blaring sunlight in the Middle East. But while natural palette might be part of the reason warmer or cooler tints are used for certain geographic locations, the exaggeration of those tints is a trope that was popularised around the turn of the century. Melara, alongside many other colourists, thinks Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film Traffic played a significant role in how colours are graded for different locations. The movie, which coincided with the widespread use of digital colour correction, saw Soderbergh use distinct filters to delineate ( 泾渭分明 To outline or mark out. to describe or mark the edge of something. to mark the border of something: The boundary of the park is delineated by a row of trees. The main characters are clearly delineated in the first chapter. The boundary of the car park is delineated by a low brick wall. ) between the crime drama's two US-based storylines and a third in Mexico. The latter was tinted an exaggerated, sharp yellow, positioning Mexico as an entirely different world to the US; a lawless place where drug cartels ran wild. Melara believes the Mexico filter has become a cinematic shorthand for more than just heat. He says that, over time, the warm look has come to signify that a place has a lower socio-economic status (along with everything that comes with that) and is foreign to the filmmaker or characters. Malkin would agree socio-economic status appears to be associated with the warm look "to a certain extent", saying, "A lot of the warmer climates do happen to be developing countries." But he doesn't think warm grades are used "to place a country in a lower view", or that the warm look is a shorthand for the Global South. "It's always to be creative and to enhance the world of the series or movie. To put it simply, I don't think it's that deep," he says. Rini Elizabeth Mukkath is the head of communications at the Media Diversity Institute, which researches the way the Global South is depicted in media. She says it's absolutely that deep, and thinks adding the warm look to countries that belong to the Global South has been done so frequently, with such negative connotations, that it's now tantamount to adding a "colonial gaze" to film and TV shows. "Edward Said and his whole thesis on Orientalism from the 1970s talks about how the West portrays the Global South in a way that makes it almost dangerous, mysterious, and I think it still applies today," she considers. "[These kinds of tints] feed into that narrative and add to the sense of otherness and divide. "We're in 2025 and we still have media that portrays the Global South as exotic, backward and dangerous." Melara cites 2001's Black Hawk Down as an example of a film that used the warm look to "reduce a country down to nothing more than a backdrop for a hero to save the day" and a place where "bad things happen". Set in Mogadishu, Somalia, the Ridley Scott film follows American soldiers attempting to bring down a warlord. It used a warmer, desaturated grade with a high contrast. "When you add contrast and you've got someone who's got dark skin, it crushes details and subtleties in their skin tone. They become less detailed and uniquely human, which aids in portraying them as the enemy, thus making it easier for the viewer to side with the Americans [over the locals]," Melara explains. Mukkath says storytelling that doesn't take the time to show the actual complexity of people is "very dangerous". Intentions aside, she believes filmmakers have a responsibility to consider whether their depiction of marginalised communities "already suffering from stereotypes, is pushing those stereotypes forward". Malkin and Melara use words like creamy, dense, rich and vibrant to describe the colour grade of The White Lotus season three. Some scenes, particularly those at night, call on cool blues. Given this, both colourists think the yellow grade during daytime scenes partly comes down to emphasising the oppressive 让人窒息的 heat and humidity of Thailand. Malkin, however, thinks a warm grade may have been used again this season to help the narrative. The White Lotus is intended as a biting social satire that touches on themes of class, money, colonialism and exploitation. Mukkath concedes that a yellow grade could be a visual extension of this, conveying the way a privileged group of mostly white Americans sees a place like Thailand while exploiting it for their own enjoyment, as a result of decades of exposure to the Mexico filter. But she doesn't think any of these potential reasons are justified. "It's poor, it's got corruption, it's got crime, it's unsafe, but it has these pockets of beautiful resorts, which is really not what the country is about."
