用法学习: 1. pile in, pile out of something 进来, 进去 to enter/leave a place quickly and not in an organized way: She opened the door and we all piled in. pile out (of something) 退出, 离开 To exit or disembark from something in a rough, disorderly fashion. To leave or exit a location or a vehicle in large numbers. Jake and his friends piled out of the van to go to soccer practice. We need to count heads as you leave the bus, so don't everyone pile out all at once! socialize I. to spend time when you are not working with friends or with other people in order to enjoy yourself: I tend not to socialize with my colleagues. I hope Adam's actually doing some work at college - he seems to spend all his time socializing! II. to train people or animals 社会化, 驯化, 驯服 to behave in a way that others in the group think is suitable: Here at the school we make every effort to socialize these young offenders. end-run 避开, 绕过, 绕开, 回避, 规避 (shirk He was always ready with an opinion, never shirking controversial issues.) a way of avoiding a rule that was put in place to stop you from doing something: make an end-run around The teachers made an end-run around the regulations by using two different textbooks. do an end-run around Officials in California tried to do an end run around the federal governement. Trump also recently ruled out one proposed end-run around the Constitution, saying it would be "too cute" for him to run as vice president in order to later ascend back into the White House after the elected president resigned. patchwork I. = hodgepodge. something composed of miscellaneous or incongruous parts. II. 补丁. pieces of cloth of various colors and shapes sewn together to form a covering. something resembling such a covering. a patchwork of fields. A "patch job" is slang for a quick, often temporary, repair or fix, and can refer to either a physical object or a damaged relationship. It can also mean a situation created from mismatched or miscellaneous parts, like a "patchwork quilt". "After their big fight, they decided to have a patch-up job to save their marriage". "The new government is just a patch job of different politicians with no unified vision". 2. delimitation the marking or describing of the limits of something. the act or process of marking or prescribing the limits or boundaries of something. The word delimitation 划界 is derived from delimit, shown below. The main focus was the delimitation of responsibilities between the police and the judiciary. delimit 划定界限, 标定界限, 标界 to mark or prescribe the limits or boundaries of; demarcate. to mark or describe the limits of something: Police powers are delimited by law. Data items in the computer file were delimited by commas. The square brackets delimit the list, and individual elements are separated by commas. The possibilities for new automotive features are vast but are practically delimited by costs of development and manufacturing. cast and crew all the actors and other people who work to produce a show. We spoke with members of the show's original cast and crew. crew 团伙, 一群人, 一帮人 noun. [informal, disapproval] You can use crew to refer to a group of people you disapprove of. ...the motley crew of failed and aspiring actors who comprised the 'distinguished guests'. ...one of the youngest members of a criminal crew. II. all the people who work together, esp. to operate a ship or aircraft, or all the people of lower rank: The captain and crew would like to welcome you on board. Jack worked on a road-repair crew. verb. If you crew a boat, you work on it as part of the crew She took part in ocean races and crewed on yachts. There were to be five teams of three crewing the boat. ...a fully-crewed yacht. motley [ˈmɒtli] adj. 各种各样的人, 一帮背景各异的人, 格格不入的一拨人, 莫名其妙的混搭 I. incongruously varied in appearance or character; disparate. You can describe a group of things as a motley collection if you think they seem strange together because they are all very different. consisting of many different types that do not appear to go together: There's a motley assortment/collection 风格各异的人 of old furniture in the house we're renting now. The people who turned up for the meeting were a motley crew (= a group consisting of many different types of people). ...a motley collection of vans, old buses, cattle-trucks, and even a fire engine. The volunteers seem a motley crew. "a motley crew of discontents and zealots". The motley crew of Blue Origin's first passenger flight seems closer to a cast of offbeat characters gathered together for a zany adventure: If The Breakfast Club had the brain, the jock, the basket case ( I. a person or thing regarded as useless or unable to cope. "do that for a couple of days and you become a blithering basket case". someone who is extremely nervous or anxious and is therefore unable to organize their life: By the end of the course I was a complete basket case. II. 陷入经济危机的国家和组织, 财政困难的国家 a country or organization that is in severe financial or economic difficulties, especially one that is unable to pay its debts. "sudden meltdowns—such as the financial crisis—can turn flourishing countries into basket cases overnight". ), the princess, and the criminal, this Blue Origin flight has the boss, the tag-along, the real deal, and the kid. II. (of clothing) made up of a variety of colours. "they wore the motley coat of jesters". noun. I. an incongruous mixture. "a motley of interacting interest groups". II. the multicoloured costume of a jester. "life-size mannequins in full motley". vocabulary: If you've encountered the word motley, it's most likely in the phrase "motley crew," which means a diverse and poorly organized group. Think of a band of pirates, or the assorted characters who became The Fellowship of the Ring. In contemporary usage, motley can be used in virtually any context as a synonym for mismatched 不搭的, heterogeneous [ˌhetəroʊˈdʒiniəs] ( consisting of many different types of people or things America has a very heterogeneous population.), or ragtag ( ragtag consisting of various types of people whose clothing, equipment, and skills are not very good. If you want to say that a group of people or an organization is badly organized and not very respectable, you can describe it as a ragtag group or organization. We started out with a little rag-tag 人员混杂的, 鱼龙混杂, 三教九流的 team of 30 people. a ragtag army 杂牌军. ragtag and bobtail a group of people considered to be disreputable or undesirable The ragtag and bobtail of every nation poured into California in search of gold.). But the word was first used to describe multicolored fabric, especially the type of material used in a jester's costume. This distinctive apparel was a sign of the fool's place outside the class system — and, in the Elizabethan era, it signified that the jester was beyond the sumptuary ( sumptuary [ˈsʌm(p)tʃʊəri] adj. relating to or denoting laws that limit private expenditure on food and personal items. relating to rules or laws that control spending, especially for religious or moral reasons: sumptuary laws Sumptuary laws dictated which classes of people could wear certain clothes or fabrics. Sumptuary goods were restricted to certain groups within society through laws or social rules. wiki: Sumptuary laws (from Latin sūmptuāriae lēgēs) are laws that regulate consumption. Black's Law Dictionary defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expenditures for apparel, food, furniture, or shoes, etc." Historically, they were intended to regulate and reinforce social hierarchies and morals through restrictions on clothing, food, and luxury expenditures, often depending on a person's social rank. ) laws that determined who could wear what. Thus, the fool had the exceptional ability to speak freely, even to royalty. 3. not a flex 不是什么好事, 没什么好吹嘘的 To be used when somebody says something that is just embarrassing, yet they don't seem to realize it. A flex is a non-humble brag. "I haven't taken a shower in two weeks" - random. "That is not a flex" - person with common sense. flex verb I. to bend an arm, leg, etc. or tighten a muscle: First, straighten your legs, then flex your feet. He tried to impress me by flexing his huge muscles. II. 打弯. (of a material) to bend without breaking, or to make a material do this: Sheets of brittle lava broke under their own weight as they flexed. Metal fatigue occurs when steel is flexed. III. 有弹性. 通融. 稍微改变一下. 不是宁折不弯的, to change something slightly to make it more suitable for a particular situation; to be changed like this: There may be a need to suspend or flex established laws. In keeping the description of the job as general as possible, a manager can flex the boundaries of that job to meet the dynamic challenges of the world around them. The space can flex to suit various uses. IV. 炫耀. to show that you are very proud or happy about something you have done or something you own, usually in a way that annoys people: "I beat you!" "Hey, no flexing." No need to flex about all the cash you've got. V. 有弹性的 to work in a way that allows you to choose the times that you work, whether you work in the office or at home, etc.: I wanted to develop my network at the firm before flexing. With the help of my company, I was able to flex my hours 弹性时间. noun. I. (US cord) (a length of) wire with a plastic cover used for connecting a piece of electrical equipment to a supply of electricity: The flex on this iron isn't long enough to reach the socket. II. the act of bending an arm, leg, etc. or tightening a muscle: He expresses more with a flex of his eyebrow 挑眉毛 than most actors do with their whole body. III. the ability of a material to bend without breaking: The taper in the handle allows flex on impact. IV. (also flex apartment) a flat with a temporary wall put in to create an extra room: This convertible apartment or flex has had a temporary wall placed in the living room to create a third bedroom. On the second floor will be a flex unit which can be rented in various configurations. V. something you have done or something you own that you are very proud or happy about, or an action or statement that shows this, usually when this annoys people: He posted a photo of himself wearing an expensive watch, which is the kind of flex 炫富, 炫耀 that doesn't impress me at all. We've all heard those crazy flexes that just make you cringe. The crop top she wore to meet her ex was a total flex. "I'm not into reading, I've never even read a book!" "Weird flex, but OK (= I don't think that is something you should be proud of)." My biggest flex is having true friends. adj. = flexible: used to describe arrangements that allow you to choose the hours that you work, whether you work in the office or at home, etc.: Before a flex arrangement can be implemented, both supervisor and employee must fully understand the arrangement. flex work. 4. insipid [ɪn'sɪpɪd] disapproval I. 乏味的, 没味道的, 索然无味的. 寡味的. 寡淡无味的. If you describe food or drink as insipid, you dislike it because it has very little taste. not enjoyable to eat or drink because of having very little taste. not having a strong taste or character, or having no interest or energy: a pale insipid wine. He's an insipid old bore. Why anyone buys music with such insipid lyrics is a mystery. It tasted indescribably bland and insipid, like warmed cardboard. (of food) lacking a strong taste or character, or (of people, activities, or entertainment) lacking in interest or energy: an insipid flavor. insipid TV sitcoms. II. 无趣的. 没意思的. If you describe someone or something as insipid, you mean they are dull and boring. boring, dull, or pale, with no interesting features The walls were painted an insipid beige color. On the surface she seemed meek, rather insipid. They gave an insipid opening performance in a nil-nil draw with Peru. 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. adj. [disapproval] 乏味的, 无趣的. 平淡无奇的. 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?. bozo [ˈbəʊzəʊ] 蠢货 noun INFORMAL NORTH AMERICAN a stupid or insignificant man. "they're really a bunch of bozos". Some bozo on a motorcycle almost ran me over. If you say that someone is a bozo, you mean that you think they are stupid. He makes 'em look like bozos. A stupid, foolish, or ridiculous person, especially a man. 4. tradwife = trad wife = short for traditional wife [ˈtræd.waɪf] 家庭主妇 a married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning, etc. and has children that she takes care of. Tradwife is short for traditional wife: Trad wives are not just traditional stay-at-home mothers, but social media influencers making money for content. Gen Z is watching a lot of tradwife content. Trad wives don't split the bill!garrison [ˈɡærɪsən] town a town that has troops permanently stationed in it. a town containing a military base. It is here that Russia's biggest military base in the region is located in the garrison town of Mozdok. He was stationed in a small garrison town in Bavaria. garrison noun. a group of soldiers living in or defending a town or building, or the buildings that the soldiers live in: The 100-strong garrison had received no supplies for a week. a garrison town. verb. to put a group of soldiers in a place in order to live there and defend it: Troops are garrisoned in the area. gnarled [nɑːld] adj. 狰狞的. 斑驳的. 弯弯曲曲的. knobbly, rough, and twisted, especially with age. "the gnarled old oak tree". gnarly [ˈnɑːli] I. gnarled. rough and twisted, especially because of old age or no protection from bad weather: There were low trees with thick, gnarly branches. He served an amazing artichoke soup with gnarly black truffles and Parmesan shaved over the top. "twisted trees and gnarly roots". II. INFORMALNORTH AMERICAN ENGLISH difficult, dangerous, or challenging. used to describe something extreme, especially something that is very dangerous and exciting: The waves were what surfers would call "pretty gnarly". Have you ever had a gnarly car incident? "he'd taken a fall during a particularly gnarly practice session". difficult to deal with because of being very complicated: This is a gnarly, worldwide problem. His relaxed delivery helps him to sail smoothly through the gnarliest of topics. 5. Panelling (or paneling 墙裙, 木墙裙 in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make rooms in stone buildings more comfortable both by insulating the room from the stone and reflecting radiant heat from wood fires, making heat more evenly distributed in the room. In more modern buildings, such panelling is often installed for decorative purposes. Panelling, such as wainscoting and boiserie in particular, may be extremely ornate and is particularly associated with 17th and 18th century interior design, Victorian architecture in Britain, and its international contemporaries. The term wainscot (UK: [ˈweɪnskət] or US: [ˈweɪnskɒt]) 墙裙, 木墙裙 originally applied to high quality riven oak boards. Wainscot oak came from large, slow-grown forest trees, and produced boards that were knot-free, low in tannin, light in weight, and easy to work with. It was preferred to home-grown oak, especially in the Netherlands and British Isles, because it was a far superior product and dimensionally stable. quandary [ˈkwɒnd(ə)ri] 左右为难, 左右两难 (perplexity, pickle, predicament, plight) I. a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation. a state of not being able to decide what to do about a situation in which you are involved: I've had two job offers, and I'm in a real quandary about/over which one to accept. "Kate was in a quandary". If you are in a quandary, you have to make a decision but cannot decide what to do. The government appears to be in a quandary about what to do with so many people. II. a difficult situation; a practical dilemma. a state of not being able to decide what to do about a situation in which you are involved: I've had two job offers, and I'm in a real quandary about/over which one to accept."a legal quandary". That's quite a quandary you got yourself in. No it's not really a quandary, you just shouldn't cheat. simply like that. quagmire [ˈkwæɡˌmaɪr] I. 困难境地. 深潭. 摆脱不了, 跳不出来的困难境地 a situation that is so difficult or complicated that you cannot make much progress. A quagmire is a difficult, complicated, or unpleasant situation which is not easy to avoid or escape from. a difficult and dangerous situation: Since the coup, the country has sunk deeper into a quagmire of violence and lawlessness. His people had fallen further and further into a quagmire of confusion. We have no intention of being drawn into a political quagmire 泥潭. a situation that can easily trap you so that you become involved with problems from which it is difficult to escape: When I tried to get my tax situation straightened out with the government, I ran into a bureaucratic quagmire. II. mainly literary 泥沼. an area of very wet land that is too soft to walk on. A quagmire is a soft, wet area of land which your feet sink into if you try to walk across it. At the end of the game, the pitch was a real quagmire. Rain had turned the grass into a quagmire. be/become mired (down) in sth to be involved in a difficult situation, especially for a long period of time: The peace talks are mired in bureaucracy. be/get bogged down to be/become so involved in something difficult or complicated that you cannot do anything else: Let's not get bogged down with individual complaints. Try not to get too bogged down in the details. 6. grease the skids ( grease the wheels = pave the way = set the stage) 起了作用, 创造条件, 抹油 informal North American help matters run smoothly. To create conditions likely to produce or hasten favorable future developments."he used his budgetary skills to grease the skids for new projects". Insiders said Kidman greased the skids for the split with her passionate public boasts about her hot costars. Jaws dropped last year when Kidman said she was "so turned on" doing sex scenes with 28-year-old costar Harris Dickinson for the erotic drama Babygirl that she had to temporarily hit the brakes on production. higher law 更高法则 an ethical or religious principle considered as taking precedence over the laws of society, and to which one may appeal in order to justify disobedience to a constitution or enacted law with which it conflicts. a principle of divine or moral law that is considered to be superior to constitutions and enacted legislation. You say love is a temple, love a higher law. Love is a temple, love the higher law. You ask me to enter but then you make me crawl. And I can't be holdin' on to what you got. When all you got is hurt. Bully pulpit 政治舞台 ( a public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an opportunity to speak out on any issue. an important public position from which a person can let other people know his or her opinions on particular subjects: In the days leading up to the election, Mamdani vowed to use the "bully pulpit" and the judicial system to fight back against Trump's "threats." He intends to use his bully pulpit as state superintendent to bring attention to the issue. Over and over, he made use of the bully pulpit of the presidency, telling Americans he was doing the job they had elected him to do. "he could use the presidency as a bully pulpit to bring out the best in civic life". ) refers to a position of authority or high visibility—especially a political office—that provides someone with an outstanding opportunity to promote their views and be listened to by the public. The term was famously coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who described the presidency as a "bully pulpit," using "bully" in the old-fashioned sense meaning "excellent" or "wonderful." He meant that the presidential office gave him a great platform to advocate for his agenda and influence public opinion—not that he would use it to bully others. 7. 纽约市长选战: Mamdani's primary success exposed a divide within the Democratic Party, which suffered big losses up and down the ballot last year and has since struggled to put up a united front against the Trump administration without clear party leadership. Cuomo resigned from office in 2021 in the face of multiple controversies, including several sexual harassment claims, which he has denied. After losing the primary he was expected to win, Cuomo challenged Mamdani as an Independent candidate in the general election, and has since charged Mamdani of being more a socialist than a Democrat. "The truth is, there's a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now," Cuomo told Fox News last week. "You have an extreme left. Radical left. Bernie Sanders, AOC — Mamdani is just the banner carrier 扛大旗的人 for that movement — versus the mainstream moderate Democrats. They now call me moderate. They used to call me liberal. Now, I'm a moderate because the whole party shifted." New York Democrats were reluctant to endorse Mamdani's mayoral campaign after he secured the Democratic nomination. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to endorse Mamdani, despite telling reporters he has a "good relationship with him" and that they are "continuing to talk." Mamdani was arrested for protesting the war in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire outside Schumer's home in Brooklyn in 2023. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave an 11th-hour endorsement for Mamdani after months of equivocating ( equivocate [ɪˈkwɪv.ə.keɪt] 含糊其辞, 不明说, 躲闪, 支支吾吾, 含混, 闪烁其词 to speak in a way that is intentionally not clear and confusing to other people, especially to hide the truth. When someone equivocates, they deliberately use vague language in order to deceive people or to avoid speaking the truth. He is equivocating a lot about what is going to happen if and when there are elections. He had asked her once again about her finances. And again she had equivocated. Why doesn't the President say so without equivocation? She accused the minister of equivocating, claiming that he had deliberately avoided telling the public how bad the problem really was. prevaricate [prɪˈvær.ɪ.keɪt] to avoid telling the truth or saying exactly what you think. If you prevaricate, you avoid giving a direct answer or making a firm decision. British ministers continued to prevaricate. After months of prevarication, the political decision had at last been made. He accused the minister of prevaricating. ). The announcement came the day before early voting began. The party is starting to heat up. One man in a blue bucket hat and a red drug rug is kicked out for allegedly "not being on the list" and definitely looking like he might heckle the former governor. Another walks around handing out "Marxicrat" buttons for an opposition research group of the same name: he claims that Mamdani is a "cutout" for Pakistani intelligence. "Hopefully we win tonight," he said. 8. A Baja jacket (also known as a Mexican Baja hoodie, Baja sweatshirt, or drug rug) is a type of Mexican jacket with a single large pocket on the front, and vents on the side. They are more commonly made out of a coarse woolen fabric known as "jerga". They are often decorated with patterns consisting of horizontal stripes on the sleeves and hood, and vertical stripes down the rest of the jacket. The drawstrings are often flatter and more rectangular than most jacket drawstrings, and always made of the same material as the rest of the jacket. In espionage parlance, a cutout 中间人, 双面线人 is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication that facilitates the exchange of information between agents. Cutouts usually know only the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, not the identities of any other persons involved in the espionage process (need to know basis). Thus, a captured cutout cannot be used to identify members of an espionage cell. The cutout also isolates the source from the destination, so neither necessarily knows the other. sapling [ˈsaplɪŋ] I. 小树苗 a young tree, especially one with a slender trunk. a young and slender or inexperienced person. "what god or mortal reared up so fair a sapling?" He also travelled to the small island of Paqueta, where he met locals, learnt about mangrove conservation and planted tree saplings. II. a greyhound in its first year. bemoan [bɪˈməʊn] 悲鸣, 哀叹 (bemuse: 迷惑, confused) express discontent or sorrow over (something). to complain or express sadness about something. If you bemoan something, you express sorrow or dissatisfaction about it. The author was consulted by a married woman with late-stage cancer who was bemoaning the fact that her husband 'cannot boil an egg'. He bemoaned that even after all the support from his family he could never become a successful man. Researchers at universities are always bemoaning their lack of funds. "it was no use bemoaning her lot". 9. incongruous [ɪnˈkɒŋɡrʊəs] 不搭的, 不搭调的, 不协调的, 不和谐的, 不匹配的, adj. not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something. unusual or different from what is around or from what is generally happening. appearing strange or wrong within a particular situation. Someone or something that is incongruous seems strange when considered together with other aspects of a situation. This seemed both incongruous and irritating against a background of severe poverty. ...buildings perched incongruously in a high green valley. Such a modern office building looks incongruous in the quaint little town. The new computer looked incongruous in the dark book-filled library. seem incongruous 扎眼的, 突兀的 It might seem incongruous to have a huge saltwater aquarium hundreds of miles from the sea. incongruous with Critics of the new building say its style is incongruous with its surroundings. "the duffel coat looked incongruous with the black dress she wore underneath". The official Democratic Socialists of America watch party hit capacity at the incongruous choice of a Bavarian beer hall well before polls had even closed. 10. In woodworking, a trestle table is a table consisting of two or three trestle supports, often linked by a stretcher(A stretcher (桌腿间横向的支撑棍) is a horizontal support element of a table, chair or other item of furniture; this structure is normally made of exposed wood and ties vertical elements of the piece together. There are numerous styles of the stretcher including circumferential, double and spindle design. This term is sometimes referred to as a stretcher beam. A very common pattern for chairs has each front leg connected to the back by the lateral stretchers, which in turn are connected by a medial stretcher. In the William and Mary period chi (from the Greek letter chi - Χ) stretchers were common, connecting the legs diagonally, frequently with a finial where the stretchers crossed. ) (longitudinal cross-member), over which a board or tabletop is placed. In the Middle Ages, the trestle table was often little more than loose boards over trestle legs for ease of assembly and storage. This simple, collapsible 可折叠的 style remained the most common Western form of table until the 16th century, when the basic trestle design gave way to stronger frame-based structures such as gateleg ( A gateleg table or gate-leg table 活腿桌, 可加长的桌子, 可伸缩的桌子 is a type of furniture first introduced in England in the 16th century. The tabletop has a fixed section and one or two hinged leaves, which, when not in use, fold down below the fixed section to hang vertically. ) and refectory tables. Ease of assembly and storage has made it the ideal occasional table, and it remains a popular form of dining table, as those seated are not so inconvenienced as they might be with the more usual arrangement of a fixed leg at each corner. 11. stick of furniture 一件家具 a piece of furniture: When they got married, they didn't have a stick of furniture. We had to burn every stick of furniture we had to keep warm. I'm willing to sell every stick of furniture to hire a lawyer to fight this. There wasn't a stick of furniture left in the house. They lived in a single room with a few sticks of furniture. Do you still cook? No. Not a stick of cooking. That is not one of the things that I need in defining myself. I don't need to cook. In American cooking, a stick of butter is taken to be 4 ounces (about 113 g). In typography, the stick, stickful, or stick of type was an inexact length based on the size of the various composing sticks used by newspaper editors to assemble pieces of moveable type. In English-language papers, it was roughly equal to 2 column inches or 100–150 words. In France, Spain, and Italy, sticks generally contained only between 1 and 4 lines of text each. A column was notionally equal to 10 sticks.
Taxpayer-funded cybersecurity course with 80pc dropout rate and recruitment issues labelled a 'patch job': attrition [əˈtrɪʃn] 消耗 I.
Attrition is a process in which you steadily reduce the strength of an
enemy by continually attacking them. gradually making something weaker
and destroying it, especially the strength or confidence of an enemy by
repeatedly attacking it: war of attrition 消耗战 Terrorist groups and the government have been engaged in a costly war of attrition since 2008. The rebels have declared a cease-fire in their war of attrition against the government. It has been relentless for him. He is a very capable leader who has driven real change, but at some point it becomes unsustainably attritional 消磨人的, 折磨人的. II. At a university or place of work, attrition is the decrease in the
number of students or employees caused by people leaving and not being
replaced. Most of the job losses will come through attrition. The company plans to cut its workforce over six years through natural attrition and fewer hirings. The majority of jobs will go through natural attrition. Staff attrition rates are high. (UK wastage 退学率 = dropout rate) the people who leave an educational or training course before it has finished: The high attrition rates on the degree programs are a cause for concern. III. (UK natural wastage 自然损耗) a reduction in the number of people who work for an organization that is achieved by not replacing those people who leave. natural wastage = attrition US a reduction in the number of people who work for an organization that is achieved by not replacing those people who leave. 文章开始: A taxpayer-funded initiative to address a cybersecurity skills shortage has been labelled a "patch job" with an 80 per cent student dropout rate 退学率, the training hub winning an excellence award amid course compliance concerns, and a LEGO city promoted as a "highlight" that was not actually used. TasTAFE received $1.5 million each from the federal and state governments, which was used to establish the Cyber Innovation Training Hub, where the next generation of cybersecurity experts was going to be taught. When student Tom saw the ad for a Certificate IV in Cyber Security in Hobart, he found it forward-looking. "We don't have jobs down here for this area. Australia is very lacking in it," he said. As one of the few students who did not quit the course, he now believes it was a government-funded "patch job" that has wasted public money. "I think it was just a show pony ( I. 给人看的. 做样子的. 装假的. a person who appears to perform well, but has no real ability. II. a person who tries to be the centre of attention; show-off. a stylish or flamboyant person, especially a performer, who enjoys being in the limelight. ) for them to say that we're doing this to harden Australian cybersecurity, and they just threw money at it," he said. "They just rushed it through, and it set itself up to fail. "Don't blame the teachers, they did the best they could." It fell on TasTAFE's education project leader Kate Elliott to establish the new program and, according to the online ad, find "experienced and motivated cybersecurity professionals" to teach it. After multiple recruitment rounds, and one suitable 合适的 candidate falling through, TasTAFE landed two "teachers under supervision". The first recruit, who was going to be working remotely, had never been a cybersecurity professional, but had managed responses to cyber incidents. The second hire had most recently held the roles of a special education, arts, drama and class teacher — and had started studying cybersecurity about eight months before being employed by TasTAFE. TasTAFE told the ABC that initial recruitment efforts were impacted by "a nationwide shortage of qualified cybersecurity teachers", but that it was able to appoint associate teachers "with substantial industry experience" while continuing to look for a qualified cybersecurity teacher. By March 2023, both associate teachers were being supervised to put together course materials for the first intake 招生, 招收 of students scheduled to start in July. As a member of the broader TAFE cyber network, TasTAFE had access to shared resources and assessments. About three months into the new course, students had started pulling out 退学, 退出. Around this time, another recruit, who had taught the course at New South Wales TAFE, joined the ranks. Several sources told the ABC there was tension among staff about how the course was taught. But with the impending grand opening of the new Cyber Innovation Training Hub — expected to be graced with ministers — TasTAFE had a bigger problem to solve. Tasmanian TAFE graduates worry as some locally taught courses that helped them forge a career may disappear as the cost to study them increases dramatically. Troy Anning, who was an education manager, sent staff a confidential email in April 2024 about course compliance concerns. He said TasTAFE would not be taking a mid-year intake 招收学生 of cyber students, nor would it take any trainees until all assessments, learning and staff were ready to deliver the program. Students from the first intake would be given extensions 延期毕业 and their units would be changed to match the units in the 2024 offering as much as possible. "[I will] redeploy teachers into Cyber C4 to develop learning, assessment and delivery so that the course is compliant ASAP," he wrote. A student from the first intake later wrote a complaint to Mr Anning, expressing "disappointment with the way the first intake have been treated since the mandatory six-month extension of our course".
"I understand the issues with learning materials 学习材料, 教材 not meeting compliance, but I feel that the students are paying the price for the incompetence of TasTAFE," it read. About nine weeks after Mr Anning wrote to staff about compliance issues, TasTAFE's Cyber Hub won an excellence award for the best cybersecurity initiative from the industry peak body, TasICT. In a response to the ABC, TasTAFE said the mid-year intake in 2024 was not possible due to a commitment to maintaining high-quality delivery and "space constraints" in the Cyber Hub. "The 2023 intake encountered some assessment inconsistencies, which were resolved through resubmissions and gap assessments," it said. "A thorough review in early 2024 led to the development of updated assessments aligned with revised delivery plans." Instead of completing the course in 12 months, the first cohort of students 第一批学生 was given almost two years to finish it, and the second intake about 14 months. The first intake had a 75 per cent dropout rate, and the second one even greater at 80 per cent. 'I'd ask for my money back,' student says. Kori Valentine was one of the students who started in the second intake in February 2024, but withdrew because the class was "not making the pace 进度没有跟上 it needed to". "I felt that my time was better spent elsewhere," he said. "It's really shaken my faith in the local education." By May, one of the cybersecurity course teachers had left TasTAFE and other information and communication technology staff stepped in. Students were made to resubmit any assessments 重新交作业 that had compliance concerns. "The teachers were actually very up front about what was happening," Mr Valentine said. "I would commend 嘉许, 表扬 them for their honesty and whatnot, but it was one of the things that really made it obvious that things weren't quite working out." TasTAFE was given funding to build a hub that offers training with a strong focus on industry experiences and needs. Another student, Tom, said it was rash to roll out a course where students were doing assessments that had yet to receive a quality tick-off. Although the course was free until 2025, he was left questioning its value. "I mean, if I was paying for it, I'd ask for my money back," he said. But Mr Valentine said he "got a lot out of it". "I learned pretty much everything I need to know to have a solid foundation going forward security-wise," he said. With another teacher leaving in September 2024, and the remote teacher no longer taking the class, all three people TasTAFE had hired for the cybersecurity course were no longer involved. A 50,000-piece 'LEGO City Build — Cyber Games', featuring Tasmanian landmarks, was touted as a "centrepiece" and "highlight" of the new hub by Skills and Jobs Minister Felix Ellis and TasTAFE. But when Mr Valentine saw a local news report that conveyed students were simulating cyber attacks and defences on the block city, he was perplexed. "For the entire seven months that I was there, it wasn't working. It wasn't finished and we didn't even do any sort of simulated activity like that," he said. Multiple students of the 2024 class told the ABC they did not get to use the LEGO simulation. "[The news report] was also kind of where we saw up front that $3.5 million was invested," Mr Valentine said. "And I sat there thinking, 'Where? Where's that money gone?' "Everyone's making this up as they go along. What's going on here?" When he first saw the course being advertised, he thought it was sold as "this new exciting field to be looking into". "The terms new and exciting, to me, I read as modern and refined and professionally in demand," he said. "But then, experiencing the course, I realised that what that really meant was unfinished and experimental." TasTAFE told the ABC that engagement with the LEGO city simulation "was limited in 2024 due to curriculum adjustments". "It has now been fully integrated into the learning infrastructure, with plans to embed it more deeply into future course delivery," it said. TasTAFE was given the $1.5 million federal grant to build a hub that offers "face-to-face and virtual training with a strong focus on industry experiences and industry needs embedded at every stage". The hub was designed to replicate a real-life Cyber Security Operations Centre, where students learn to prevent and respond to incidents in two dedicated rooms — red for simulated attacks and blue for asset defence. But Iliyana Raleva of the 2024 class said she was "disappointed" the course was not as practical as she thought, and that TasTAFE did not uphold its promise 守住承诺 to have industry experts come and talk to students. She also said TasTAFE had promised to help students who wanted to gain entry-level industry experience. "I didn't get any support from the institution. And to be honest, I'm actually struggling to find a job in the field," she said. "I would have probably had more luck in Sydney or Melbourne, but that defeats the purpose of trying to create an industry here." TasTAFE told the ABC there was informal industry engagement in 2023 and 2024 with industry leaders — such as TasICT, TasNetworks, local employers and the Australian Women's National Security Network — and that this evolved into a formal Cyber Industry Expert Pilot Program in 2025. Current intake 'progressing well', government and TasTAFE say TasTAFE acknowledged that early challenges had impacted the learner experience. "These issues have been addressed, and the program continues to strengthen," it said. "The 2025 intake is progressing well, and TasTAFE remains committed to delivering industry-relevant training that equips learners with the skills and experience needed to pursue careers in cybersecurity." Skills and Jobs Minister Felix Ellis said the hub at TasTAFE was "training the next generation of cybersecurity experts". When the ABC put questions to minister Felix Ellis, a government spokesperson said the course had faced some challenges early on, and repeated TasTAFE's statement that "the 2025 course intake is progressing well 进展顺利". "The Cyber Hub has become a dynamic space for learning and collaboration, hosting cyber awareness training, school engagement programs, and professional development events," the spokesperson said. Data indicates that so far this year, about a third of students have pulled out of the course. TasTAFE said of the 19 enrolments 招生, 招收的学生, 招收的学员 this year, 12 "active learners" remain.
All's fair - review: Created by super-producer Ryan Murphy and with an all-star cast led by Kim Kardashian, legal series All's Fair has had savage reviews. But viewers have been celebrating its mix of high-camp ("Camp" refers to an aesthetic style characterized by exaggeration, artificiality, and irony. It often involves a love of the over-the-top and flamboyant, and a playful or subversive subversion of what is considered "good taste". "Camp" can be a subjective, humorous, or even a more serious form of expression. ), statement fashion and spotless 无死角的 ( I. extremely clean. Something that is spotless is completely clean. Each morning cleaners make sure everything is spotless. Even in the most spotless homes, carpets need regular cleaning to keep them looking good. The house had huge, spotlessly clean rooms. Her home is spotless. II. spotless character, record, reputation, etc. a very good and honest character, etc.. If someone's behavior or reputation is spotless, it is extremely good: a spotless career. He was young and confident, with a spotless reputation. ) interiors. Since it debuted on Hulu on Tuesday, the glossy new legal drama All's Fair has been roundly ( 严厉的 severely. If you are roundly condemned or criticized, you are condemned or criticized forcefully or by many people. If you are roundly defeated, you are defeated completely. Political leaders have roundly condemned the shooting. Liz Davies took the issue to the party but was roundly defeated. The government is being roundly criticized for its education policy. The home team was roundly defeated. ) savaged by critics. In the UK, The Times opined that it "may be the worst TV drama ever", while The Guardian branded it "fascinatingly, existentially terrible"; both newspapers awarded it zero stars out of five. All's Fair currently holds a rare 0% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which indicates universally 全方位的 negative reviews. It's certainly the most slated ( I. If something is slated to happen, it is planned to happen at a particular time or on a particular occasion. He was slated 按计划做事, 按约定做事 to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Controversial energy measures are slated for Senate debate within days. II. If something is slated 严厉批评, 狠批, it is criticized very severely. His new restaurant has been slated by a top food critic. Slated by critics at the time, the film has since become a cult classic. ) show of the year so far. So surely this nine-part series from Ryan Murphy, the Emmy-winning mastermind behind Glee and American Horror Story, is now dead on arrival? Perhaps not, because All's Fair is showing early signs of being a hit, at least on social media. On X, fans have called it "gloriously silly", "my type of nonsense camp show" and, perhaps most insightfully of all, a show that's "very fun" to watch because it "isn't afraid to be bad". The exceptionally terrible reviews combined with the show's high-profile cast – Kim Kardashian, in her first lead role, is at the centre of an ensemble that includes Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Sarah Paulson and Teyana Taylor – have made it an instant object of fascination 迷恋的对象. It helps that the three episodes that premiered on Tuesday contain plenty of jaw-droppingly awful standalone scenes that are just begging to be shared on social media. One clip that has already gone viral shows Close's character Dina Standish asking Paulson's Carrington Lane about her mother's decision to eschew ( eschew [esˈtʃuː, ɪsˈtʃuː] to avoid something intentionally, or to give something up. to avoid something intentionally, or to give up something: The leaders of the organization eschewed the term "union," preferring "guild." We won't have discussions with this group unless they eschew violence. He eschewed the trappings of wealth, wearing scruffy clothes and travelling around by bus. escrow [ˈes.krəʊ] I. an agreement between two people or organizations in which money or property is kept by a third person or organization until a particular condition is met. The agreement with the investment bankers did not call for escrow of fees. The broker has responsibility for the funds in the escrow account. in escrow If money is in escrow, it is being kept by a third person or organization until a particular condition of an agreement between two other people or organizations is met: The money was placed in escrow. Current rules require homeowners to collect the grants in installments from an escrow account. II. If a house for sale is in escrow, or if people are in escrow on a house, a price has been agreed and the buyer has paid some money but the sale is not complete until legal checks have been made. : The property is now in escrow. fall out of escrow US If a house for sale or the contract for the sale falls out of escrow, the sale process fails after a price has been agreed and the buyer has paid some money, but before the process is complete: Two multimillion-dollar properties fell out of escrow recently when the buyers learned of the proposed zoning ordinance. ) birth control in shockingly vulgar terms. From an actor of Close's stature 这种级别的 – eight Oscar nominations, three Emmys, three Tonys – it's high camp. High camp is probably what creators Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken were going for, at least in part. It's presumably no accident that 应该是故意的, 应该不是意外 Paulson's character shares part of her name with Alexis Carrington Colby, Joan Collins' arch villainess from the ludicrously entertaining 1980s primetime soap Dynasty. All's Fair has some of that show's alpha female energy, but adds a procedural element to the mix. It centres on Grant, Ronson and Green, a mercifully fictional Los Angeles law firm founded by Kardashian's Allura Grant, Watts' Liberty Ronson and Nash-Betts' Emerald Greene (yes, that is her actual character name). The firm specialises in securing hefty 丰厚的 divorce settlements for wronged wealthy women, but the founders are also locked in a perpetual battle with Paulson's rival lawyer, Carrington Lane. In the first episode's prologue, set 10 years in the past, we see Lane spitting feathers ( spit feathers I. 口干舌燥, 干的冒烟. be very thirsty. Come on, man, I'm spitting feathers here—can't we stop for a drink? "I'm spitting feathers here, let's have a nice cuppa". II. = spit blood = spit venom 气得吐血 be very angry. show that you are very angry; speak in an angry way: That man made me so angry that by the end of the meeting I was spitting blood! "some fans are spitting feathers over the proposed move". ) when she isn't asked to join their all-female firm. This sets the scene, sort of, for the frenzied revenge she's after today. So far, Lane hasn't been pushed into a lily pond, a fate that befell her namesake on Dynasty, but she has lobbed a particularly imaginative expletive at Kardashian's character. Paulson is one of the show's 17 executive producers – as are Close, Kardashian, Nash-Betts and Watts. At times, it feels as though they're all directing themselves, too, because these central performances are rarely complementary. Close seems to be enjoying herself and Nash-Betts manages to sell some painfully leaden 沉重的, 沉闷的, 没有生气的 ( I. like lead in color or weight; gray or heavy. A leaden sky or sea is dark grey and has no movement of clouds or waves. The weather was at its worst; bitterly cold, with leaden skies that gave minimum visibility. They said goodbye under a leaden sky. II. A leaden conversation or piece of writing is not very interesting. ...a leaden English translation from the Latin. ) dialogue, but Watts never looks comfortable, and Paulson is ferociously over-the-top. In fairness, when you're asked to deliver a line featuring three F-bombs in five words, you may as well commit fully to it. Kardashian is a curiously inert presence who exhibits a kind of mesmerising anti-charisma. A montage scene in which she struts through her outrageously lavish California mansion to a Janet Jackson bop (bop I. to dance to pop music: They were all bopping to the music. II. to hit someone or something, especially in a friendly way: to bop someone on the head. ) should feel aspirational and fabulous, but somehow ends up falling flat. At the same time, it's impeccably on-brand. Kardashian has built a stratospherically successful career from serving a similar blend of blandness and luxury on her hit reality shows, Keeping Up with the Kardashians (2007-2021) and The Kardashians (2022-), which also airs on Hulu. It's worth noting that Kardashian's business-savvy mother, Kris Jenner, is an executive producer here, too. And as reviewers have pointed out, All's Fair also shares a certain sensibility with other hit reality shows featuring glamorous women who don't always get on, such as Selling Sunset and the Real Housewives franchise. As with those shows, a combination of discord 不和谐, 合不来, 不合, statement fashion and spotless interiors seems key to its appeal. It seems unlikely that anyone involved wanted All's Fair to be rubbish – Murphy has devised some absolutely brilliant TV series, including 2016's The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, which featured an award-winning performance from Paulson, while his co-creator Jon Robin Baitz is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist who wrote another superior Murphy series, Feud: Capote vs The Swans. But it is tempting to imagine that at some point in production, they realised that All's Fair was never going to be the next Succession, and instead remodelled it into a future camp classic. Certainly, All's Fair feels primed to fill the hate-watching hole left by And Just Like That, the recently axed Sex and the City spin-off series that bemused (bemuse slightly confused: I was bemused at his sudden anger.) and amused viewers in equal measure. The show's rollout also looks smart. The first three episodes dropped on Tuesday, which gives viewers time to acclimatise 习惯于 to its unwieldy 笨拙的 dialogue and discordant 不和谐的 ( I. Something that is discordant is strange or unpleasant because it does not fit in with other things. His agenda is discordant with ours. II. A discordant sound or musical effect is unpleasant to hear. III. used to describe something that is not in agreement with something else: discordant opinions 不同的意见 views that are in conflict or disagreement with others, lacking harmony and creating tension. This term can also be used to describe sounds that are harsh or unpleasant, such as a jarring, dissonant note in a piece of music. Discordant opinions prevail even among good judges. strike a discordant note 发出不和谐音 formal to look or sound different or wrong compared with everything else: The contemporary dialogue struck a slightly discordant note. incongruous [ɪnˈkɒŋɡrʊəs] 不搭的, 不搭调的, 不协调的, 不和谐的, 不匹配的, adj. not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something. unusual or different from what is around or from what is generally happening. appearing strange or wrong within a particular situation. Someone or something that is incongruous seems strange when considered together with other aspects of a situation. This seemed both incongruous and irritating against a background of severe poverty. ...buildings perched incongruously in a high green valley. Such a modern office building looks incongruous in the quaint little town. The new computer looked incongruous in the dark book-filled library. seem incongruous 扎眼的, 突兀的 It might seem incongruous to have a huge saltwater aquarium hundreds of miles from the sea. incongruous with Critics of the new building say its style is incongruous with its surroundings. "the duffel coat looked incongruous with the black dress she wore underneath". The official Democratic Socialists of America watch party hit capacity at the incongruous choice of a Bavarian beer hall well before polls had even closed. ) performances. But the next six will premiere weekly, which means a steady supply of high-camp content for meme-makers to disseminate. In the highly competitive world of streaming TV, it's harder than ever to cut through the glut of sometimes very good, sometimes pretty middling drama series. Could this one rise to the top by being noticeably worse than the rest? Let's just say that for Hulu, all's fair in the streaming wars.
