用法学习: 1. curious I. interested in learning about people or things around you: I was curious to know what would happen next. Babies are curious about everything around them. "Why did you ask?" "I was just curious.". II. = STRANGE strange and unusual. unusual and therefore worth noticing: A curious figure in a red cape and black boots darted into the building. curious-looking There was a curious-looking man standing outside. A curious thing happened to me yesterday. It's curious (that) Billy hasn't phoned when he promised he would. Big bang theory: 1. Howard: Sheldon, there's a diploma in my office that says I have a masters in engineering. Sheldon: And you also have a note from your mother that says I love you, bubbula. But neither of those is a cogent [ˈkoʊ·dʒənt] argument ( 服人的, 有说服力的. A cogent argument, reason, etc. is clearly expressed and persuades people to believe it. persuasive and well expressed. A cogent reason, argument, or example is strong and convincing. There were perfectly cogent 强有力的 reasons why Julian Cavendish should be told of the Major's impending return. The film makes its points with cogency and force. The authors argue cogently that it is high time the church lost its obsession with the subject. He makes a cogent argument for improving early childhood education. cogent argument. Her writing combines 兼具 fluency with cogency. ) for titanium over nanotubes. Howard: Sheldon. Sheldon: Yes. Howard: Go away. Sheldon: Did Leonard tell you to say that? Howard: No, I thought of it all by myself. Sheldon: Huh. It can‘t be a coincidence. There must be some causal link I'm missing. Raj: Go away. Sheldon: Curiouser and curiouser. 2. Sheldon: What, now, do you have company? Penny: No. No, no, no. You know what? The toilet's been doing that. I called the building manager, so… Sheldon: Oh, I can take a look at it. Penny: Well… Sheldon: I'm quite familiar with plumbing. Not to brag 吹牛, 吹嘘, but I spent most of fifth grade with my head in a toilet. Penny: Yeah, no, no, no. You know what, Sheldon, it's okay. You don't have to go into the bathroom. Sheldon: That's curious 奇怪. If there's no one here, why are there two glasses of wine on the table? Penny: Oh. Well, you know, I, I've got two hands and a bit of a drinking problem. Sheldon: Of course. Ask a silly question ( ask a stupid/silly question and you'll get a stupid/silly answer = ask me no questions and I'll tell you no fibs 说傻话, 问了蠢问题, 得到蠢答案 If one asks a strange or nonsensical question, the listener will probably respond with a similarly strange or nonsensical answer. If one asks a question that is stupid or to which the answer is obvious, one should not be surprised or displeased to receive a silly or bizarre response. A: "What the heck are you talking about? All I did was ask if you think I should dress my cat up for Halloween!" B: "Well, ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer!" A: "You want to get out of tomorrow's test, Bobby? Oh sure, why not? Why don't you stay home and sleep in, and I'll give you an automatic A?" B: "Really?" A: "No! Ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer." You asked Mom if you'd be allowed to go to a party the seniors are throwing with no chaperones? Good grief, what did she say? Ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer, I bet. garbage in, garbage out = rubbish in, rubbish out 种瓜得瓜种豆得豆, 老鼠的儿子会打洞 (computing, information technology, translation studies) If input data are not complete, accurate and timely, then the resulting output is unreliable and of no useful value. If the input is junk, then the output is junk. Usage notes: Even though the word garbage is chiefly American English, garbage in, garbage out may also be used in British English. play stupid games, win stupid prizes (humorous) If one makes poor decisions, then one should expect negative consequences. If you knowingly engage in reckless or foolish behavior, you will inevitably face negative consequences, often fitting the situation. If you engage in behavior that is stupid, obnoxious, or reckless, you will suffer unpleasant consequences. Sure, go ahead, bet all your money at the track and go home penniless, like you always do. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If you keep bullying people like that, you'll eventually get a punch in the face. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Usage notes: Most often a taunt in response to violent or humiliating outcomes of poor decisions. ). Penny: Oh. Sheldon: That's odd. Penny: Um, what? Sheldon: There are takeout containers in the trash can. Penny: So? That's my dinner from last night. Sheldon: What's odd is they're in the trash can. 2. fumble the bag("In the bag" means something is certain to be achieved. "Fumbled the bag" means to lose money or make unwise investments. "Be left holding the bag/baby 留下擦屁股, 留下收拾残局" means to be forced to deal with a difficult situation because others have abandoned responsibility. be left with an unwelcome responsibility, typically without warning. If you are left holding the bag, you are put in a situation where you are responsible for something, often in an unfair way because other people fail or refuse to take responsibility for it. I don't want to be left holding the bag if something goes wrong. The other investors pulled out of the project and we were left holding the bag. ) (slang) I. To make unwise financial decisions that lead one to lose or not make more money. To fumble the bag is to lose the money (the bag) you made or to make unwise investments with the money you already have, i.e. the bag. It's also used for fumbling, or botching or bungling, something more generally. He fumbled the bag 亏本, 亏钱 by investing all his money in that scam. II. (slang, by extension) To miss out on an opportunity or to do a bad job using it. It can also be used more broadly to describe fumbling, botching, or bungling something, indicating a failure to do something correctly or effectively. She fumbled 搞砸 the presentation and lost the deal. "Secure the bag 赚钱, 挣钱" is a slang expression meaning to obtain or ensure financial gain or success, often used in a context of hustling or making money. "Reed knew he had to secure the bag with a good paying job". "I'm trying to secure the bag by selling my crafts online". 3. spitball I. a piece of paper that has been chewed and then rolled into a ball to be thrown or shot at someone. II. in baseball, an illegal throw in which the ball moves a lot as it goes towards the player with the bat because the pitcher (= the player who throws the ball) has made one side of the ball wet: My brother showed me how to throw a spitball. He was facing a pitcher who had a reputation for throwing spitballs. spitball 抛砖引玉 verb mainly US informal to quickly to make suggestions. suggest ideas to be discussed without thinking about them carefully: I'm just spitballing here. The writers sat around for an hour, spitballing ideas for a character. arbitrage [ˌɑː.bɪˈtrɑːʒ] 倒买倒卖 the method on the stock exchange of buying something in one place and selling it in another place at the same time, in order to make a profit from the difference in price in the two places. the practice of buying something, such as shares or currency, in one place and selling them in another where you can get a higher price at the same time: The trader said most of their FOB-based ("FOB" stands for "Free On Board" and signifies that the seller's responsibility for the goods ends when they are loaded onto the vessel at the specified port, after which the buyer assumes all risks and costs.) supplies went to Europe, as those markets were closer to the U.S. and current prices made the arbitrage more favourable, referring to the free-on-board contract term that allows buyers to resell cargoes. arbitrage buying/selling 投机倒把的买卖 Traders said a rise in the peso's value made Mexican share prices more expensive compared with shares sold in New York and sparked some arbitrage selling. The importance of computers is that arbitrage opportunities can be quickly spotted and capitalized upon. About why Heard and McDonald Island is on the list: If you leave anything off the list ( Trump's tariff list), the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us. malady [ˈmæl.ə.di] 疾病, 病症 I. a disease. a disease, or a problem in the way something works: She's suffering from a variety of maladies, including dizziness, weakness, and headaches. All the rose bushes seem to be suffering from the same mysterious malady. II. a problem within a system or organization: Apathy is one of the maladies of modern society. elect to do something 选择做某事 to choose to do a particular thing: She elected to take early retirement instead of moving to the new location. His wife elected to stay with him despite their difficulties. She elected to try the treatment since it was her only chance of recovery. There are situations in which pilots may elect to take actions not specifically recommended in the manual. With travel restrictions still in place, many families will elect to take their holidays close to home this year. the elect formal I. 天选之人. 天选之子. 天选的人. 上帝选中的人. 上帝选择的人. in the Bible, people who are chosen by God. II. humorous any group of people who have been specially chosen for their particular qualities. elect adj president elect, prime minister elect, etc. the person who has been voted to be president, prime minister, etc. but has not yet started work: The president elect has been preparing to take office in January. 4. march to (the beat of) (one's) own drum 有自己做事方式, 随心所欲的做事, 自己想怎样就怎样, 跟着自己的节奏, 有自己的节奏 To do something, act, or behave in a manner that does not conform to the standard, prevalent, or popular societal norm. My brother's eschewed the idea of a full-time career and has had every oddball job you could think of, but then he's always been happy marching to the beat of his own drum. Look, I respect the fact that you like to march to your own drum, but do you have to make a point of doing everything in a counter-cultural way? march to (the beat of) a different drum To do something, act, or behave in a manner that does not conform to the standard, prevalent, or popular societal norm. My brother's eschewed the idea of a full-time career and has had every oddball job you could think of, but then he's always been happy marching to the beat of a different drum. Look, I respect the fact that you like to march to a different drum, but do you have to make a point of doing everything in a counter-cultural way? march (from some place) (to some place) to move along, walking with purposeful steps, from some place to some place. The army marched from one town to another. They marched to the battlefield from town. beat (one's) own drum 自吹自擂 (blow one's own horn) To promote, brag about, or draw attention to one's own abilities, skills, success, achievements, etc. This is a cutthroat industry. If you aren't prepared to beat your own drum a bit, you'll never get noticed. I can't stand being around Marcus ever since his company became such a massive success. The guy just can't stop beating his own drum! No, Kylie's just beating her own drum. I've read some of her short stories, and they're not great. bang/beat the drum 提倡, 鼓吹, 倡导 to speak enthusiastically about a belief or idea in order to persuade other people to support it too: Labour are banging the drum for a united Europe. 5. flip the script [on sb/sth] 大相径庭, 改弦更张 informal mainly US to do something completely differently or in the opposite way from the way it is usually done: This president's tweets and the way he spoke flipped the script. The artist explains how she wanted to flip the script, starting with working on a black rather than a white surface. In a nation where celebrities become politicians, here is one man who has flipped the script. They have combined a gospel choir and dance music to create a song that flips the script on everything. These photographs flip the script on stereotypes of what it means to be British. (Canada, US, informal) To reverse a situation, especially by doing something unexpected. To change or reverse something dramatically. Wow, they really flipped the script on their opponents after the intermission. The score went from 0-3 to 5-3! The independent candidate is determined to flip the script on this whole election. I didn't expect that team full of rookies to flip the script on the playoff bracket and sweep the regular season champions.
loot, plunder, pillage, sack, ransack, haul, fence 销赃: loot, plunder, pillage 和 sack 一样都是抢劫, 劫掠, 尤其是战争时的. 除了pillage以外, 其他几个还可以名词指赃物, 赃款, loot也指战利品 = spoils. loot还有其他几个含义, 比如外财, 赠品等等. plunder 比喻义时可以指偷盗公款. ransack 是乱翻乱找. 1. loot 唯一一个有褒义的: verb. I. 打劫. 偷抢. to steal something from a place or person. If people loot shops or houses, they steal things from them, for example during a war or riot. The trouble began when gangs began breaking windows and looting shops. There have been reports of youths taking advantage of the general confusion to loot and steal. In the country's largest cities there has been rioting and looting. We looted the temple and the orphanage, which turned most of the NPCs against us. Burglars looted cash and mobiles from a shop in Tagore Town. The passengers in the general compartment of Shramjivi Express were looted and robbed of their valuables. The president said the US has been 'looted, pillaged, raped and plundered' by nations, near and far, both friend and foe alike, in his 'Liberation Day' address. II. 打劫. 劫掠. (usually of large numbers of people during a violent event) to steal from shops and houses. To loot something is also to take a lot of money away from it that does not belong to you. If someone loots things, they steal them, for example during a war or riot. Armed thugs have looted food supplies and terrorized the population. ...lists of looted material. The officers of the corporation looted the company of millions of dollars. During the riot shops were looted and cars damaged or set on fire. noun. I. 赃物, 赃款. 抢来的财物. 劫掠物. 抢劫的东西. 劫来的东西. 打劫的东西. money and valuable objects that have been stolen, especially by an army from a defeated enemy or by thieves. money or valuable objects that have been stolen: Three men have been sentenced to prison for taking part in the robbery, but the loot was never recovered. The thief must have been very disappointed when he examined his loot. He was captured and his loot was returned to the store. II. 战利品(spoils). in computer games, the things you get as rewards, for example for defeating an enemy, that you can use in the games: It provides the same experiences as larger dungeon games: fighting monsters, disarming traps, advancing characters, and collecting loot. Enjoy this free online adventure game - battle demons with your friends, earn loot and build the ultimate castle! The loot from the sack of Constantinople included the head of John the Baptist. III. = sack, the plundering of a city, particularly during war. He consented to the loot of the city by the men under his command. IV. 钱. In 1943 it took on the informal meaning of "money," from Scottish slang for what workers got on payday. V. 一种勺子. A scoop used to remove scum from brine pans in saltworks. In seventeenth-century England, the word "loot" meant a ladle that removed the scum from the brine that produced salt. VI. In many contexts, such as in casinos or state-sponsored lotteries, "loot" 横财, 意外之财, 外财 connotes a windfall, money received unexpectedly. VI. 奖品, 赠品. 礼品. On Twitter, "loot" seems more likely to be associated with a company's giveaways or gift bags, once urban disturbance has been discounted. Any valuable thing received for free, especially Christmas presents. when the looting starts, the shooting starts (US) Lethal force is justified against rioters and looters. Usage notes: Especially used in the context of civil rights protests in the United States. Etymology: Originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21", of "taking advantage of the civil rights campaign" that was then sweeping the United States. 2. sack noun. I. 打劫. 劫掠. The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city. the sack of Rome. II. (uncountable) 打劫物. Loot or booty obtained by pillage. III (informal) Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position. give (someone) the sack [for sth]. get the sack [for sth]. The boss is gonna give her the sack today. He got the sack for being late all the time. IV.(colloquial, US, literally or figurative) Bed. hit the sack. in the sack. It's late - I'm going to hit the sack (= go to bed). He came home and found Judy and Brad in the sack (= in bed) together. in the sack mainly US informal If someone is good/bad in the sack, they are sexually skilled/not sexually skilled: Isabel used to say she was only with him because he was so good in the sack. V. The scrotum. He got passed the ball, but it hit him in the sack. sack verb (ransack). I. To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from. an attack on a building or town in which a lot of destruction is caused and many valuable things are stolen: The sack of Rome by the Visigoths occurred in the fifth century. The barbarians sacked Rome in 410 CE. II. (American football) To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he is able to throw a pass. III. ( = lay off) (informal, transitive) To discharge from a job or position; to fire. He was sacked last September. IV. (Australia, slang, transitive) To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something. Sack the homework. Sack him, let's run. 3. ransack 翻个底朝天, 翻找, 翻遍 to search a place or container in a violent and careless way. to completely search a place in a way that causes mess and damage. If people ransack a building, they damage things in it or make it very untidy, often because they are looking for something in a quick and careless way. Demonstrators ransacked and burned the house where he was staying. He returned from hospital to find thieves had ransacked his home. ...the wrecked schools and churches, the ransacked embassies and homes. ...the ransacking of the opposition party's offices. Burglars ransacked the house. The burglars ransacked the house but found nothing valuable. I ransacked the cupboard for my ski boots. 4. plunder I. to steal goods violently from a place, especially during a war. If someone plunders a place or plunders things from a place, they steal things from it. They plundered and burned the market town of Leominster. She faces charges of helping to plunder her country's treasury of billions of dollars. This has been done by plundering £4 billion from the Government reserves. ...a guerrilla group infamous for torture and plunder. After the president fled the country, the palace was plundered by soldiers. Tragically, the graves were plundered and the contents scattered. After the battle the soldiers began looting and plundering. fig. He plundered 剽窃 (= took from) his ballet scores in writing his later operas. II. to steal or remove something precious from something, in a way that does not consider moral laws or is more severe than it needs to be. to steal or take large amounts of money or goods from a place: A lawsuit is being launched against him claiming that he and his associates have plundered more than $300m from the company over the years. Years of military rule have plundered the nation's wealth. Someone has been plundering funds from the company. The future of our planet is in danger if we continue to plunder its resources as we do. noun. I. an occasion when goods are stolen from a place, especially violently or during a war, or these stolen goods: We met after school and divided our plunder so each boy would have about the same amount. Residents in the villages under attack have been unable to protect their homes from plunder. The thieves hid their plunder 赃物, 偷来的东西 in the woodshed. II. a situation in which something is taken in a way that is not morally right or is too extreme: We need to put a stop to the plunder of the rain forest. Small firms are often seen as ripe for plunder. corporate/economic/financial plunder. 5. pillage to steal something from a place or a person by using violence, especially during war. If a group of people pillage a place, they steal property from it using violent methods. Soldiers went on a rampage, pillaging stores and shooting. ...the boldness to pillage and rape. There were no signs of violence or pillage. ...pillaging by people looking for something to eat. Works of art were pillaged from many countries in the dark days of the Empire. noun. the act of stealing something from a place or a person by using violence, especially during war: They have survived a thousand years of floods, droughts, wars, pillage, and destruction. Several acts of intentional pillage, destruction, and burning were attributed to the parties in conflict. 6. haul I. 运输. to transport something, usually by road: They use these trucks to haul freight. The roomy wagon has plenty of space for hauling the sports equipment she uses as coach of her son's soccer team. The product loses its economic advantage when it must be hauled farther than 80 miles. II. to pull something heavy slowly and with difficulty: They hauled the boat out of the water. haul yourself up She hauled herself up into the tree. III. to take something or someone somewhere, especially by force: She was arrested, fingerprinted, and hauled before a judge. If you even mention my name in public, I'll haul you right into court! haul something away FBI agents hauled away boxes of records. haul someone off The police hauled him off to jail in front of his whole family. haul sb (up) before/in front of sb/sth The EU gave the government two months to come up with a good case or be hauled up before the European Court of Justice. haul sb over the coals informal ( US also rake sb over the coals) to criticize someone severely for something they have done: Top ministers were hauled over the coals by the select committee for failing to disclose vital information in the inquiry. noun. I. 赃物. 赃货. a usually large amount of something that has been stolen or is illegal. an amount of something that was obtained illegally, esp. after it has been taken by the authorities: It was one of the biggest drugs hauls police have seen in recent years. a haul of sth They uncovered a haul of arms and ammunition at the suspect's address. Police say it is the largest haul of stolen art in years. a haul of arms/drugs. II. all the things someone buys on an occasion when they go shopping: shopping haul Check out the Ucinek family shopping haul. haul video A haul video is a video recording posted to the Internet in which a person discusses items that they recently purchased, sometimes going into detail about their experiences during the purchase and the cost of the items they bought. The posting of haul videos (or hauls) was a growing trend between 2008 and 2016. Often the items bought are books, clothing, groceries, household goods, makeup, or jewellery. I saw those gloves in a haul video. III. 鱼获. 捕获. 收货. the amount of fish caught: Fishermen have been complaining of poor hauls all year. IV. a journey, often a difficult one: a long/short haul From there it was a long haul/only a short haul back to our camp. Rachel Knox helped her husband dispose of 转移财产, 销赃 the money acquired from the victim (pass If you pass money, you give someone false or stolen money without telling them: [ + two objects ] I haven't trusted him since he passed me 使用假钞, 花假钞 a forged $100 bill. She was arrested for passing 销赃 stolen cheques). Specifically, the retailers want Congress to clamp down on online marketplaces — including those operated by Amazon and eBay — where thieves can fence 销赃 stolen goods, calling on the House and Senate to pass the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act.
加满油. 倒满酒, 加满酒: fill her up = fill'er up: I. 加满油. "Fill 'er up" is a common, informal phrase used to request a full tank of gasoline at a gas station, meaning you want the gas tank to be completely filled. "Fill 'er up" is the most common order given to to the attendant when the intent is to top off the tank. The phrase is a shortened and colloquial way of asking for a full tank of fuel. You'll typically hear this phrase at gas stations, especially in North America, when someone is about to have their car's gas tank filled. It's a direct request for the gas pump attendant to fill the gas tank to its maximum capacity. II. 加满酒. 倒满. 满上酒. refill drinks. refill noun. (a container holding) an amount of some material needed to fill up again an object that has become empty. A refill is also a container or an amount of what is needed to fill something again: a prescription refill. The waitress asked if I wanted a refill of coffee. Max held out his cup for a refill. My pen seems to be running out of ink - I need a refill. Chuck, you've nearly finished your drink - do you want a refill? A refill of a particular product, such as soap powder, is a quantity of that product sold in a cheaper container than the one it is usually sold in. You use a refill to fill the more permanent container when it is empty. Refill packs are cheaper and lighter. refill (to top off, replenish) verb. to fill something again: He refilled their glasses with ice-cold lemonade. He got up and refilled their glasses. replenish 加满, 添满 to fill something up again: Food stocks were replenished by/with imports from abroad. Does your glass need replenishing? hit me again I. In blackjack, a request for the dealer to give one another card. I was still pretty far from 21, so I said, "Hit me again!" A: "A jack of spades and a two of hearts. That's 12." B: "Hit me again." Dude, you were so close to 21! Why would you say "hit me again"? II. slang A request for another alcoholic drink. Yeah, I'll take another shot—hit me again! A: "Come on, hit me again, barkeep!" B: "I think it's time to call you a cab, sir." Hit me again—gin and tonic over here! fill (something) up 填满 I. to become full, or to make something become full: The sales pipeline for his facility is starting to fill up with clients. Too many spam emails are filling up our inboxes. The seats in the hall were filling up fast. fill something up with something He filled up the tank with petrol. fill up with Rooms were filling up with people seeking shelter from the hurricane. fill someone up If food fills you up, it makes you feel as if you have eaten enough: That sandwich really filled me up. filler I. a short text or drawings used to fill extra space in a magazine or newspaper, or talk, music, etc. used to fill extra time in a radio or television broadcast: We used the clip as a filler after one of our guests dropped out of the show. II. disapproving something of lower quality included in a film, broadcast, speech, record, etc. in order to fill all the time or space: There are only three good tracks on the album - the rest is just filler 充数的, 滥竽充数. III. 填充物. a substance that is injected (= put with a needle) into the skin as a beauty treatment, to hide wrinkles (= lines or folds in the skin caused by age). IV. a substance that is added to processed food (= food that has had a chemical or industrial treatment) to increase its size or add fibre, often a cheaper vegetable substance that is added to a meat product: Most pet treats are full of grains and fillers with only a fraction of the ingredients being real meat. The crab cake was filled with lumps of crab meat and had relatively little filler. V. a word or short phrase such as "er" or "well", used when a person pauses to think about what to say next: When she transcribed the conversation she edited out all the fillers.
'I could live 30 years - but want to die': Has assisted dying in Canada gone too far? This week, the BBC witnessed a man's death in California, where assisted dying laws are far more similar to those being considered in Westminster. Critics say Canada is an example of the "slippery slope", meaning that once you pass an assisted dying law it will inevitably widen its scope and have fewer safeguards (保障机制, 安全保障. lifeguard a person on a beach or at a swimming pool whose job is to make certain that the people who swim are safe and to save them if they are in danger. ). Canada now has one of the most liberal systems of assisted dying in the world, similar to that operating in the Netherlands and Belgium. It introduced Maid (Medical Assistance in Dying) in 2016, initially for terminally ill adults with a serious and incurable physical illness, which causes intolerable suffering. In 2021, the need to be terminally ill was removed, and in two years' time, the Canadian government plans to open Maid to adults solely with a mental illness and no physical ailment. Opponents of Maid tell us that death is coming to be seen 渐渐发展成 as a standard treatment option for those with disabilities and complex medical problems. Before she was approved for Maid, April was assessed by two independent physicians who were required to inform her of ways to alleviate her suffering and offer alternative treatments. "The safeguards are there," she says, when we press her about disabled people who feel threatened by assisted dying, or whether Maid is being used as a shortcut to better quality care. "If it's not right for you and you're not leading the charge and choosing Maid, you're not going to be able to access it unless it's for the right reasons," she adds. Some 96% of Maid provisions are under "track one" where death is "reasonably foreseeable". Dr Trouton says that means patients are on a "trajectory toward death", which might range from someone who has rapidly spreading cancer and only weeks to live or another with Alzheimer's "who might have five to seven years". The other 4% of Maid deaths come under "track two". These are adults, like April, who are not dying but have suffering which is intolerable to them from a "grievous and irremediable medical condition". But opponents argue it's being used as a cheaper alternative to providing adequate social or medical support. Dr Coelho told me that Maid was "out of control". "I wouldn't even call it a slippery slope," she says "Canada has fallen off a cliff." "When people have suicidal ideations, we used to meet them with counselling and care, and for people with terminal illness and other diseases we could mitigate that suffering and help them have a better life," she says. "Yet now we are seeing that as an appropriate request to die and ending their lives very quickly." Canada's assisted dying laws were driven by court rulings. Its Supreme Court instructed Parliament that a prohibition on assisted dying breached the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The extension of eligibility for those who were not terminally ill was in part a response to another court decision.
clobber VS cobbler VS hobble: 1. clobber noun. You can refer to someone's possessions, especially their clothes, as their clobber. verb. I. If you clobber someone, you hit them. If you do that again, I'll clobber you (one). Hillary clobbered him with a vase. II. to punish someone: The government is proposing new measures to clobber tax dodgers. III. If a person or company is clobbered by something, they are very badly affected by it. to badly affect someone or something, especially in a way that involves losing money. to harm someone financially: The new supermarket is really going to clobber the small local shops. The construction industry was clobbered by recession. Friends: RACHEL: OK, you know what, are, are you being like, the blind date guy again? ROSS: No no, you're uh, you're my lobster. See um, lobsters, uhh, in the tank when, when they're old, uhh, they get with, uhh, they walk around holding the claws. In the tank, ya know, with, with the holding and. . . Uhh, Phoebs you wanna help me out with the, the whole lobster thing? PHOEBE: Do the claws again. ROSS: Rach. OK, forget, forget the lobsters OK. We're, let's talk, what about us? RACHEL: Ross, there is no us, OK. ROSS: No, but. . . RACHEL: No, listen to me. I fell for you and I get clobbered. You then fall for me and I again, somehow, get clobbered. I'm tired of being clobbered, ya know, it's, it's just not worth it. ROSS: Well, but, but. . . RACHEL: NO but Ross. We are never gonna happen, OK. Accept that. 2. cobbler [ˈkɒblə] I. 修鞋匠. a person whose job is mending shoes. 鞋匠 Cobbler, a shoe repairing (not a manufacturer or cordwainer) guild or occupation. cobble = cobblestone 鹅卵石 small stones with round tops used in the past to make the surface of a road. wiki: A cordwainer ([ˈkɔːrdˌweɪnər]) is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather. The cordwainer's trade can be contrasted with the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. This usage distinction is not universally observed 全球通用, as the word cobbler is widely used for tradespersons who make or repair shoes. A major British dictionary says that the word cordwainer is archaic, "still used in the names of guilds, for example, the Cordwainers' Company"; but its definition of cobbler mentions only mending, reflecting the older distinction. II. Cobbler, a person who illegally forges passports and other documents. III. a sweet food consisting of fruit covered with a soft thick layer of pastry that is baked in an oven. an iced drink made with wine or sherry, sugar, and lemon. "sherry cobbler". big bang theory: Howard: This is the worst cobbler I've ever eaten. I mean it tastes like it was made of actual ground-up shoemaker. Sheldon: Amusing. A play on the two meanings of cobbler. Cobbler is a dish consisting of a fruit or savoury filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or dumpling (in the United Kingdom) before being baked. Some cobbler recipes, especially in the American south, resemble a thick-crusted, deep-dish pie with both a top and bottom crust. Cobbler is part of the cuisine of the United Kingdom and United States, and should not be confused with a crumble. 另例: Penny: Oh my God, this is the best cobbler I've ever had. Mrs Cooper: It was always Sheldon's favourite. You know what the secret ingredient is? Penny: Love? Mrs Cooper: Lard. Sheldon emerges from the bedroom area. Howard: Hey, look who's come out…. Mrs Cooper: Shhh! You'll spook him. He's like a baby deer, you gotta let him come to you. Sheldon crosses to the cobbler, takes some and puts it on a plate. Looks round at the group in the matter of a frightened animal. Everyone but Leonard looks down at their meal. Leonard: This is ridiculous. Dammit, Sheldon, snap out of it. You're a physicist, you belong at the University doing research, not hiding in your room. (Sheldon scuttles away) Mrs Cooper: You don't hunt, do you? 3. cobble together 快速的凑出来的, 临时凑出来的, 东拼西凑出来的, 攒起来, 简单拼凑在一起 [disapproval] If you say that someone has cobbled something together, you mean that they have made or produced it roughly or quickly. to make something quickly and without a lot of care, using whatever is available. to quickly produce or make something that is useful but not perfect The diplomats cobbled an agreement together. She cobbled together a tent from a few pieces of string and a sheet. Adjuncts (adjunct professors) often cobble together a living by teaching at several institutions. He cobbled together 随便凑出一顿饭 a meal from leftovers in the fridge. The group had cobbled together a few decent songs. You can cobble it together from any old combination of garments. knock together 东拼西凑, 因陋就简的拼凑出 If you knock something together, you make it or build it very quickly, using whatever materials are available. [mainly British, informal] Find Bernie and get him to knock an agreement together. ..a shelter knocked together 因陋就简搭出来 using wooden doors and door frames. scrape together 东拼西凑, 好不容易凑齐, 凑出来, 凑齐, 凑起来, 凑足 If you scrape together an amount of money or a number of things, you succeed in obtaining it with difficulty. They only just managed to scrape the money together. It's possible the Congress Party will scrape together a majority. lump together If a number of different people or things are lumped together, they are considered as a group rather than separately. Police officers, bankers and butchers are all lumped together in the service sector. They are lumped together with the troublemakers and basically written off. club together 凑份子, 凑钱 (chip in) If people club together to do something, they all give money towards the cost of it. For my thirtieth birthday, my friends clubbed together and bought me a watch. 4. hobble I. If you hobble, you walk in an awkward way with small steps, for example because your foot is injured. He got up slowly and hobbled (Annalise Keating's staggering walk, stumbling walk) over to the coffee table. The swelling had begun to go down, and he was able, with pain, to hobble. II To hobble something or someone means to make it more difficult for them to be successful or to achieve what they want. Poverty not only demeans our society but its cost also hobbles our economy. The pent-up demand for travel to restart is huge – but South Australian rules are hobbling both family reunions and tourism. Ms. Keating, today you ignored the case at hand and tried a case of your own invention, ignoring the fact that, in this country, we ask every man and woman to take accountability for their own actions. But how could we expect them to do so when we have hobbled them before their life has even begun? Ms. Bromelle... this courtroom owes you an apology. The law was in the wrong when it treated you like a criminal instead of a victim, and as much as I would like to vacate all of your criminal history, the best that I can do is to seal your prior convictions. So as long as you never appear in my courtroom, you will be eligible for assistance and jobs without disclosing your criminal history. It's as much of a fresh start as the law will allow, the one you should've been given in 1968. vocabulary: When you hobble, you walk awkwardly or unsteadily because you're in pain. You might wipe out on your bike and then hobble 一瘸一拐的 back home, pushing it in front of you. People who hobble, walking with a limp or a shuffle 拖着脚走路, 受伤走路, have most often been injured in some way, though a disabled or elderly person might hobble too. You can call the walk itself a hobble as well: "I knew that football tackle hurt when I saw your hobble as you left the field." The root of hobble is Old English — it's related to the Dutch hobbelen, "rock from side to side."
America is having a break with reality on tariffs. The world will move on to a new order: The Australian government after May 3 will no doubt want to try to negotiate with the Trump administration about our 10 per cent tariff, but they might be better off to just work around it and move on. The American age is coming to an end after 80 years and nine months and will be replaced by something that may be better. We don't yet know what that new world looks like, and the journey there is likely to be painful, especially for America. But the train has left the station — not just because of the tariffs unveiled on April 2, but because Donald Trump has smashed the global system of alliances and co-operation, led by the United States, that has been in operation since the Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944. The US government is now having a kind of break with reality. The Trumpists are not even right-wing or conservative in the normal sense, just tribal, recklessly macho and inept. What's more, Americans knew who they were voting for last year because they watched him for four years, and then he reminded them last year who he was and told them what he was going to do in his second term. They voted for him anyway and now their prices will rise because of the tariffs, many of them will lose their jobs because of the recession and their retirement savings will shrink because of the stock market decline, caused by the combination of uncertainty and the coming stagflation(an economic situation in which prices keep rising but economic activity does not increase.). Most governments, including Australia's, are trying to decide whether to, and how to, bargain with Trump to get their tariff removed, but perhaps they shouldn't bother. First, they are arguing against a mist of fabrication. Australia can't agree to drop its 10 per cent tariff on American imports because it doesn't exist. The same applies to most, if not all, of the other "reciprocal" tariffs Trump has imposed. The federal government is worried sweeping tariffs could spark economic turmoil in the region and globally, and the impact this could have on Australia. For example, Botswana's tariff is 37 per cent, half of the 74 per cent tariff that it supposedly has on imports from America, but that was calculated by simply taking the $US300 million ($501 million) trade deficit the US had with Botswana in 2024 as a percentage of Botswana's total exports to the US ($US405 million — most of which is diamonds), which is 74 per cent. Botswana does have tariffs on imports from the US, mainly meat and offal, and none of them is more than 40 per cent. The average would be no more than 10 per cent. In other words, there is nothing to negotiate. Trump's calculation simply assumes that any deficit must be the result of trade barriers, even though, in the case of Botswana, America has no diamond industry and must import them. A trade deficit is usually the result of an exporters' competitive advantage and low income, so it can't afford to buy much of what America sells. Countries like Botswana don't have a lot of options except to allow the currency to depreciate, look for other markets, like Europe, and suffer a big hit to economic growth. That's why the American tariffs will cause a global downturn: European employment will be hit by a wave of cheap imports and countries that have relied on exports to the US will either have a foreign exchange crisis like in 1998, or a recession, or both. The second thing is that Trump's demands won't be confined to 仅限于 trade. He wields tariffs as an all-purpose weapon to get other countries to do his bidding 听命于人, 唯命是从( do sb's bidding [formal, disapproval] If you say that someone does another person's bidding, you disapprove of the fact that they do exactly what the other person asks them to do, even when they do not want to. She is very clever at getting people to do her bidding! ) because he sees all negotiations as nothing more than expressions of power and competitive bullying. The tariffs in January on Mexico, Canada and China were largely designed to stop fentanyl and illegal immigrants coming into the US. And third, the tariffs are based on a mistaken view of how the economics of modern trade works. Trump thinks that since imports are subtracted from GDP, they represent a minus, or a loss. But imports also get added to consumption and investment, so they have to be subtracted so you only measure gross domestic product. Some of America's strongest allies are rethinking their relationship as Donald Trump's isolationism threatens to entirely remake the West. He also thinks that if you stop something being imported, it will magically get made in America instead and lead to more employment. Leaving aside the fact that manufacturing no longer employs human beings, only robots, that view misunderstands the complex network of supply chains that now constitute global manufacturing. Every complex product, such as cars and smart phones, comes out of an intricate global ecosystem, while simple ones like toys and clothes are just a matter of competitive advantage, which can't be wished away 想没有就没有的 ( wish something away to do nothing and hope that a problem will disappear. To cause some problematic person, issue, or situation to disappear or become resolved simply by desiring it to happen or ignoring that it is a problem at all. Look, I know you want to wish away this problem with accounting, but if we don't deal with it now, we could be looking at criminal charges down the line. This generation just tries to wish away the challenges facing the planet by complaining on social media, without actually taking any meaningful action. I know your little brother can be irritating at time, but you can't just wish him away—he's family, and you need to look out for him! Some people seem to think if they wish the disease away, then it will go away. ). It's impossible to overstate the revolution that Donald Trump has brought about 11 weeks into his second term. Just six months ago, markets were on about "American exceptionalism", obsessed with the booming "Magnificent 7" companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla). Its economy, stock market and technology leadership were the envy of the world 羡慕的对象. Now, the largest US bank, JP Morgan, puts the odds of a US recession at 60 per cent, the Magnificent 7 have dropped 26 per cent, the overall stock market has fallen back to where it was a year ago and stories appear daily about how China is beating the US at its own technology game, including electric vehicles, drones, AI and robots. Perhaps "Liberation Day" can be seen as the world being liberated from America. The great American cultural and economic hegemony that has lasted for more than 80 years is coming to an end. America's global economic leadership was formalised in 1944, when 730 delegates from 44 allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and agreed to base the global trading system on the US dollar, which would in turn be pegged to gold. The gold peg was broken in 1971, but if anything, that made the US dollar, and the United States, even stronger, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union 18 years later. American leadership promoted the spread of free trade, which in turn produced seven decades of rising prosperity in the US and the world, bringing billions out of poverty. But Trump is stuck in the idea that trade, and everything else, is a zero-sum game, that for every winner there is a loser and there is no such thing as a win-win, which is how most people approach a negotiation. The Soviet Union took 10 years to end, starting with the strike at the Gdansk shipyard in 1980 and the rise of Solidarity, the trade union, and its leader Lech Walesa, and then suddenly with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The first election of Trump in 2016 could be seen as the Gdansk shipyard strike. In that analogy, "Liberation Day", April 2, 2025, was the fall of the Berlin Wall. After November 9, 1989, it took Eastern Europe a long time to figure out what to do with itself, and it took the rest of the world a while to come to terms with the end of the Cold War and having one superpower instead of two. And now, 36 years later, we're back to two, with one flailing and self-harming and the other, China, disciplined and rising fast.
