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托福词汇之“whoopsie wave被误会的招手”
Whoopsie wave describes the situation when you wave to someone you know and another person intercepts your wave mistakenly as if you are waving to them, e.g. caught in the crossfire of your wave. “被误会的招手”指你跟你认识的人招手时,另外一个人误以为你是在跟他招手,就好像这人被你们的交互招手给误伤了。 For example: I was waving to Eddy at the show and Phil thought I was waving to him. Awkward... Phil waved back to me as he was caught in a whoopsie wave. It's almost as bad as when Jim invited me to lunch, thinking I was Tony because his phone contacts were screwed up resulting in Jim texting me with an invite. 我在秀场跟艾迪招手呢,结果菲尔以为我在跟他招手。好尴尬......菲尔还给我招手呢,他真是误会了。跟着差不多一样尴尬的一件事是,吉姆邀请我一起吃午餐,他以为我是托尼,因为他的手机通讯录秀逗了,他给托尼的短信却发到了我手机里。
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托福词汇之“well-heeled shopper”高端消费者
The sinking stock market ultimately cracked well-heeled shoppers' confidence. Luxury sales -- including those at high-end department stores and restaurants -- fell 4.8 percent in September. 低迷的股票市场最终还是动摇了高端消费者的信心。今年9月,高级商场和酒店内的奢侈品销量下降了4.8%。 在上面的报道中,well-heeled shopper就是我们所说的“高端消费者”,well-heeled 是well provided with plenty of money,即“富有的、有钱的”,在上面的报道中,跟luxury和high-end所表达的意思相近,都是“高端的、奢华的”意思。 well-heeled 这个词是由美国人创造的。据说过去人们在斗鸡的时候,会给鸡身上绑上马刺 (heel/spur),参与战斗的鸡well-heeled才有可能获胜。后来,真正的武器逐渐演变为一种更强大的武器——钱,well-heeled也就变成了“有钱的”意思。比如:He is not so well-heeled as we expected. (他没有我们想的那么有钱。)
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托福听力背景词汇之常用习语(2)
睡觉 38. be hot and bothered 焦虑,不安 39. have one’s hands full 很忙 40. have cold feet 紧张 41. hit the roof 很生气 42. His name rings a bell 名字听起来很熟 43. have a heart of gold 心好,好人 44. in the wink of an eye 一眨眼功夫,很快 45. to jump the gun 行动过早, 结论错误 46. keep a straight face 摆出严肃面孔.忍住不笑 47. keep one’s fingers crossed 交叉手指,乞求好运 48. keep an eye on someone 留心,留意 49. to kick the bucket 死 50. to knock your teeth out 打人 51. look for a needle in a haystack 像大海捞针一样困难 52. to let the cat out of the bag 泄露秘密 53. to let one’s hair down 放松,好好玩 54. the least of my worries 次要的事情,小事一桩,一点也不担心 55. eat one’s words 收回说过的话 56. a fish out of water 如鱼儿离水,没有把握,有点不安 57. to face the music 勇敢地面对困难 58. make a monkey out of 嘲弄,戏弄 59. make eyes at 送秋波,抛媚眼 60. make one’s mouth water 使人垂涎三尺,想吃 61. make or break 涉及成败的关键时刻 62. music to one’s ears 悦耳的声音,喜讯 63. make hay while the sun shines 趁热打铁,及时把握机会 64. make some time 抽出时间,挤出时间 65. meet each other half way 相互妥协,各让一步 66. My legs have fallen asleep 双腿麻木 67. make a night of it 痛托福快玩一夜 68. make heads or tails of it 弄清楚,弄明白 (多用在搞不懂的情况下)
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托福词汇之“跨国婚姻mixed marriage”
近年来,随着社会和经济的发展,跨国婚姻已经不是名人的专利,越来越多的普通老百姓也加入到了跨国婚姻的行列。请看《中国日报》相关报道: Last year, 68,000 mixed couples registered for marriage, 4,000 more than in 2005. "Frequent migration across borders, driven by the country's rapid economic growth, is a major reason behind the growing number ofmixed marriages," Xu said. "Also, foreigners who are traveling to or are working in China are mostly at the typical age to marry." 报道称,去年我国登记的跨国婚姻有6万8千对,比2005年多4千对。跨国婚姻增多的主要原因是我国经济高速发展所带来的频繁移民。 这里的“mixed marriage”指的就是“跨国婚姻”。“Mixed”是“混合的”意思,“跨国婚姻”也就是两个不同国家、不同民族的人的联姻。常见的与“mixed”组成的合成词还有:“mixed blood”(混血儿)、“mixed economy”(混合经济)和“mixed salad”(什锦沙拉)。 此外,还可以用“interracial marriages” 来表示跨国婚姻。
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托福词汇之“guest star 客串”
Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston will smooch on season finale of FX's "Dirt." In the episode, Aniston, 38, guest stars as a lesbian magazine editor and rival to Cox's character, ruthless tabloid queen Lucy Spiller. 报道说,安妮斯顿在好友考克斯的新剧《丑闻》中客串了一个同性恋女主编的角色,在《丑闻》大结局时,两位女主编还上演吻别镜头。 由报道可知,“客串”可表达为“to guest star”。为了提高收视率,影视作品力请大腕儿搞“客串”可谓风靡全球。既然“客串演员”是名人,“to guest star”恰到好处地体现了“名人不是一般的配角(to star)、名人又不是影片主角儿(guest)”的内涵。 值得一提的是,“客串”的表达并不仅仅拘泥于“to guest star”,比如,你也可用“to appear in a guest role”或者“to make a guest appearance on the soap opera/show/sitcom”来表达。举例说,报道中的话也可改写为: Aniston, 38, makes a guest appearance on Cox's new show as a lesbian magazine editor and rival to Cox's character, ruthless tabloid queen Lucy Spiller.(38岁的安妮斯顿在考克斯的新剧中客串了一个同性恋女主编的角色,而考克斯则在剧中饰演一个心狠手辣的八卦女皇后。) 此外,“guest star”也可做名词用,这时,“guest star”也可写做“guest actor/guest actress”。
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托福词汇之“亚太经合组织”
亚太经合组织(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)成立于1989年,由亚太地区21个成员经济体(member economies)组成,成员包括:澳大利亚、 文莱、 加拿大、 智利、 中国、 中国香港、 印度尼西亚、 日本、 韩国、 马来西亚、 墨西哥、 新西兰、 巴布亚新几内亚、 秘鲁)、 菲律宾、 俄罗斯、 新加坡、Chinese Taipei、 泰国、 美国、 越南。 东盟秘书处(the ASEAN Secretariat)、太平洋经济合作理事会(Pacific Economic Cooperation Council)和太平洋岛国论坛(Pacific Islands Forum)为该组织观察员,可参加亚太经合组织部长级及其以下各层次的会议和活动。 APEC领导人非正式会议每年轮流在各成员经济体举办,大部分领导人非正式会议结束时,与会的首脑都会穿上主办地区的特色服装拍一张全家福(family photo)。 承办领导人非正式会议的成员还需同时承办同年的部长会议、高管会议等不同层级的会议。部长会议(Ministerial Meeting)每年在领导人会议前举行一次,专业部长会议(Sectoral Ministerial Meetings)不定期举行。高官会(Senior Officials’ Meeting)每年举行3至4次会议,一般由各成员司局级或大使级官员组成。
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托福词汇之“block ticket sale团购”
Each ticket will have a digital chip that identifies the purchaser to prevent re-selling the much sought after tickets and to help identify counterfeits. Officials said block ticket sales would be limited to corporate sponsors and youth groups. 显然,报道中的“block ticket sales”指的就是“团购”,“block”在此表示“整批的”,如:the big block sale (大量成批销售)、a block booking (团订、大批量预定)。此外,名词短语“a block of”也常
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托福词汇之“越境袭击”
内向其领土发起的越境袭击,并表示要不惜一切代价捍卫本国主权。 上面的报道中,cross-border raid就是“越境袭击”的意思,有时候也译做“跨境袭击”;cross-border这个词的应用很广,像cross-border family(跨境家庭),cross-border investment(跨境投资),cross-border transaction(跨境交易)等都是常见的用法。 不过,“过境签证”中的“过境”却不能用cross-border来表示,而是用transit visa这个表达,transit强调的是“穿过,越过”的概念,可不要记错了哦。
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托福词汇之“rally support争取支持”
:Overseas Chinese rallied in support of the Beijing Olympics.(海外华人团结一致支持北京奥运会。)另外,rally还可以作名词,表示“集会”,如a political rally(一次政治集会);rally还有“示威、游行”的意思,如take part in a public rally。
