一、人及社會環境

?1．人?

arm胳膊——an arm and a leg一只胳膊和一條腿——cost an arm and a leg價格昂貴；付出巨大的代價

It does not cost an arm and a leg, and it works.

它不用花一大筆錢，而且還很有效。

ash骨灰——in ashes灰飛煙滅

By the 1970s, the classic Hollywood studio system was in ashes; the producers and directors who had made wonderful film careers using “mature” actors of the previous generation like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were no more.

20世紀70年代，經典的好萊塢片廠制度灰飛煙滅了；也再也沒有制片人和導演錄用像貝蒂·戴維斯和瓊·克勞馥這一代“成熟”的演員而創造出精彩的電影事業了。

backbone脊柱→支柱

Social Security is the backbone of the nation’s retirement system.

社會保障是國家退休制度的支柱。

bend彎腰——drive sb. round the bend把某人逼瘋；令某人抓狂

My older son, preparing to student-teach middle-school math next fall, has completed most of his college homework while listening to music or a video online and reading text messages coming in on his phone—a situation of divided attention that would drive me round the bend.

我大兒子在準備明年秋季的中學實習，教數學。他一邊聽著音樂或看在線視頻，還一邊讀著手機上的短信，卻也已經完成了大部分的大學作業——但這種分散注意力的做法會令我抓狂。

body身體——body bag帶有拉鏈的運尸袋→死亡

Unless the president acts now by resuming transfers, he risks prolonging the hunger strike until the inevitable deaths begin. The men need to know there is a way out of Guantánamo other than by body bag.

除非監獄長現在采取行動，即恢復轉移囚犯，否則就有可能延長絕食抗議，直到不可避免地有人開始死亡。囚犯要知道：還有辦法出關塔那摩監獄，而不是等死。

bone骨頭——in one’s bones從骨子里→憑直覺

The key to training is reaching the point of beyond, where everything hones in and you move automatically, knowing in your bones what you have to do.

訓練的關鍵是達到一種超越的境界：一切砥礪奮進，你也自動前行，憑直覺就知道該做什么。

bone骨頭——to the bone到極點；徹骨地

Workers are dying in preventable factory fires because the world’s leading retailers—from Wal-Mart to Gap to H&M—make their clothes in countries where labor laws are not enforced and demand that their contract factories slash production costs to the bone.

工人死于可預防的工廠火災，因為世界上主要的零售商——從沃爾瑪到Gap到H&M——在沒有勞動法的國家里做衣服，并要求簽合同的工廠大幅度削減生產成本。

brain腦袋——brainer費腦筋的事——no-brainer明擺著的事情；不費腦筋的事；容易處理的問題

But it’s a no-brainer that Ferguson needs more cops who look like the people they patrol.

但顯而易見的是：弗格森鎮需要更多的警察，而且這些警察看起來要像他們巡查的對象。

cheek臉頰——with tongue in cheek假惺惺地；言不由衷地；挖苦地

With tongue in cheek, I say we need more college students to major in political science so they can lobby our government to stand up to mercantilism of other countries.

言不由衷地說，我們需要更多的大學生主修政治學，這樣他們就可以游說政府對抗其他國家的重商主義。

crack（嗓音）變化→成長

We felt that high schools with 600 to 900 students were large enough to offer a full and solid curriculum, but small enough so students were known well by their teachers and didn’t get lost in the cracks.

我們認為，擁有六百至九百名學生的高中規模足夠大，能夠提供完整而扎實的課程，但也足夠小，學生因此能為老師所熟知，不會在成長過程中迷失自我。

DNA脫氧核糖核酸→本質；特點

While organizations enact telecommuting policies in various ways, it behooves them all to begin by examining the DNA of their workplace culture.

組織機構通過各種方式制定遠程辦公政策時，應該要先審視一下辦公室文化的本質。

ear耳朵——earful令人吃驚的回答；怨言——give sb. an earful數落某人一番

And if I’m wrong and our future is one of cataclysmic caffeine scarcity—one in which lattes cost an astronomical $4.75 instead of the totally reasonable current price of $4.25—come to Portland and give me an earful.

如果我錯了，而且我們未來面臨的是災難性的咖啡因短缺——這造成了一杯拿鐵的價格是天文數字般的4.75美元，而不是現在完全合理的4.25美元——就到波特蘭市來數落我一番。

ear耳朵——wet-behind-the-ears乳臭未干的；初出茅廬的

Network news faces competition unimaginable when that wet-behind-the-ears desk assistant was assured the world was not going to change.

網絡新聞面臨著難以想象的競爭，而此時，初出茅廬的助理卻確信世界是不會改變的。

eye眼睛——blink an eye眨眼睛→應接不暇；不習慣

We are used to it already in the corporate world: careers start in Delft and end in Delhi without anyone blinking an eye.

企業界已經習慣這樣了：在代爾夫特開始職業生涯，在德里結束職業生涯，沒有人會不習慣。

eye眼睛——clear-eyed視力良好的→頭腦清晰的；有洞察力的

And amid the scramble to avoid being late for gymnastics, the whole family might take note—as the psychologist Wendy Grolnick and her co-author Kathy Seal remind in their clear-eyed book Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids—that the real problem in this country “isn’t that middle-class kids have too many activities but that less privileged kids don’t have enough”.

在爭分奪秒健身的過程中，全家人也許會注意到——正如心理學家溫迪·格羅爾尼克和她的合著者凱西·西爾在她們有洞察力的《壓力過大的父母，不堪重負的孩子》一書中所提醒的那樣——這個國家真正的問題“不是中產階級的孩子有太多的活動，而是不那么富裕的孩子沒有足夠的活動”。

eye眼睛——eye-for-eye以眼還眼；報復

Despite a decrease in crime over the past decades, in many urban neighborhoods, an eye-for-eye “code of the street” prevails.

盡管過去幾十年里犯罪率有所下降，但一種以眼還眼的“街區規范”卻在許多城市社區大行其道。

eye眼睛——jab one’s eyes out猛戳眼球→驚爆眼球

Your romantic Facebook messages about how you and your beloved are “soul mates” are making your friends want to jab their eyes out.

你在臉書上留下的關于你和摯愛的人如何成為“靈魂伴侶”的浪漫信息會驚爆朋友的眼球。

eye眼睛——remain in the public eye留在公眾視線里→仍受公眾關注

Whatever happens with the race for the mayor, Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin will undoubtedly remain in the public eye.

由于競選市長，所以不管發生什么事，安東尼·韋納和胡瑪·阿貝丁將毫無疑問地繼續受公眾關注。

eye眼睛——turn a blind eye視而不見

It is also clear from my experience that employers are not going to stop this practice if the government continues to turn a blind eye.

根據我的經驗，很明顯，如果政府繼續視而不見，雇主是不會停止這種做法的。

eyeball眼球——compete...for eyeballs博眼球，引起注意

This follows the traditional advertising-supported model while reducing the cost of production by providing a marketplace where amateurs, prosumers, and professionals compete alongside each other for eyeballs in any time and any device model.

這遵循了傳統的廣告支撐模式，同時降低了生產成本，因為它的市場模式是業余愛好者、生產消費者和專業人士可隨時在任何設備模型方面相互競爭以博眼球。

eyes眼睛→視角

At what other stage of life will you be able to spend four months studying abroad, where you learn the local language and try to understand life through new eyes?

人生的其他階段，你還能花四個月的時間到國外學習，學習當地的語言，通過嶄新的視角來了解當地的生活嗎？

eyes and ears眼睛和耳朵→眼線

Luckily, my skills also included the humility to seek out brilliant local colleagues, who became my eyes and ears in each market.

幸運的是，我的技能還包括謙遜地尋找優秀的本土同事，他們都成了我在各個市場的眼線。

eyesore難看的東西→眼中釘

When Mitt Romney’s childhood home was demolished last year in Detroit, neighbors were relieved that the “eyesore” was finally gone.

去年，米特·羅姆尼在底特律的童年故居被拆除時，鄰居們松了一口氣，因為“眼中釘”終于消失了。

face臉——cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face割掉鼻子報復自己的臉→用傷害自己的方式來解決已有的問題；得不償失

Thus, cities might be cutting off their nose to spite their face if they look at bank donations to their land bank as a solution to the foreclosure crisis.

因此，如果城市把對土地銀行的銀行捐贈作為房屋止贖危機的解決方案，那么，可能會得不償失。

facet（骨或其他硬部位的）?。ㄆ剑┟?/span>→方面

In short, there are many facets to crafting a workable response.

簡而言之，制定一個可行對策要多方面考慮。

fingertip指尖——have sth. at one’s fingertips近在手邊；隨時可以使用

Indeed, it is. Just like fatty foods taste good, and sitting in a car for even short trips is relaxing, having an iPad makes us feel like we have the world at our fingertips.

事實上，就是這樣。就像富含脂肪的食品味美一樣，也像坐在車里哪怕行駛短短一段路能讓人放松一樣，擁有一臺平板電腦也會讓人覺得世界觸手可及。

flesh肉體——in the flesh以肉體形式→本人；親自

It makes plain that we don’t really know other people until we’ve met them in the flesh.

很明顯，遇到他們本人之前，我們并不真正了解他們。

flesh肉體——make people’s flesh crawl使人起雞皮疙瘩

Heroes like Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Woodrow Wilson avowed racist beliefs that today would make people’s flesh crawl.

西奧多·羅斯福、溫斯頓·丘吉爾和伍德羅·威爾遜等英雄公開宣布的種族主義信仰，如今卻令人毛骨悚然。

flesh肉——pounds of flesh好幾磅肉→很大的利潤

Speculators are taking pounds of flesh in the commodity exchanges.

投機商在商品交易中賺取很大的利潤。

flesh and blood肉體和血液→血肉之軀；情欲

Bringing flesh and blood into the world of ideas is something even the most jaded reporters will celebrate with ink, photos and links.

讓思想有血有肉，是那些最疲憊不堪的記者們用筆墨、照片和鏈接想要做到的事情。

foot腳——back foot防守狀態；陷入被動；不利境地

Social justice advocates, already in a precarious position, will be further pushed onto the back foot.

本已處于危險境地的社會公正提倡者，將被進一步推向不利境地。

foot腳——foot the bill買單

Now her great-grandson, who with his brother inherited 17 million pounds sterling, is expecting us to foot the bill for his wedding.

現在，她那位曾孫，雖與他的兄弟共同繼承了1700萬英鎊，卻期待我們為他的婚禮買單。

foot腳——vote with one’s feet用腳投票（用退場或者棄權來表示不贊成）

The inability of parents and students to vote with their feet—and dollars—makes them prisoners of policies that have steadily ratcheted up to serve the educational institutions rather than the children.

家長和學生無法用腳投票，也無法用金錢操控，只能淪為政策的囚徒，而這些政策一直在逐步升級，服務的是教育機構，而不是學生。

guts內臟→勇氣

Here’s hoping a judge has the guts to do the right thing.

希望法官有勇氣做出公正的裁決。

hair頭發——bad hair day不如意的一天（日子）；不愉快的一天（日子）

Soaps offered an entertaining escape to where budgeting constraints and bad hair days didn’t exist, where we could see how the “rich” lived, and experience—even if just for an hour a day—a part of their fictional lives that seemed vastly more exciting than our own.

肥皂劇提供了一種有趣的逃避方式，逃到沒有預算限制和沒有不如意日子的地方，這里我們可以看到“富人”如何生活，然后經歷——哪怕只是每天一小時——富人虛構生活的一部分，這似乎比我們現實的生活更令人興奮。

hair頭發——by a hair差一點，險些

So the First Amendment wins, but only by a hair.

因此第一修正案贏得通過，但只以微弱優勢。

hair頭發——within a hair’s breadth只差一點，差點

When paired with the political reality that no new law on climate change is likely to pass any time soon, this comes within a hair’s breadth of saying that climate change is not a problem for law to address at all.

考慮到氣候變化方面的新法律不太可能很快通過的政治現實，那么，這就幾乎可以說明氣候變化根本不是法律要解決的問題。

hand手——hand-in-hand手拉手的→并進的；息息相關的

Winning hearts and minds goes hand-in-hand with service and protection.

贏得人心和思想是同服務和保護息息相關的。

hand手——hands-on親自動手的→親身實踐的

Allowance money also gives them hands-on experience with financial transactions, which in the modern world are mostly invisible to a child.

零用錢也讓他們有金融交易的實際經驗，而這在現代社會通常被孩子無視。

head頭→領導，老板

And if the government wants to bring down the obesity rate in this country quickly, it’s going to take aggressive policies with far more bite. These policies will necessarily be less “realistic”than what the head of Wal-Mart could ever willingly stomach.

如果政府想要迅速降低本國的肥胖率，必將采取更激進的、更有誘惑力的政策。與沃爾瑪老板所能欣然接受的相比，這些政策必然不會那么“現實”。

head頭——go head to head with齊頭并進→與……并駕齊驅，不相上下

We have an inequality index that can go head to head with Egypt’s.

我們的不均衡指數與埃及不相上下。

head頭——head off轉移方向→阻止

Without a different outlook on how to treat or identify people with serious mental illnesses, we are unlikely to head off many of the tragedies like Representative Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting in Arizona or Colorado.

對于如何治療或鑒別患有嚴重精神疾病的人，如果沒有不同的觀點，那就不太可能阻止許多悲劇的發生，例如議員加布里埃爾·吉福茲在亞利桑那州或科羅拉多州遭遇槍擊。

head頭——head start先行一步的優勢，領先一步

As a former children’s librarian, I always trembled at mothers who visited my library to request The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or A Tale of Two Cities for their third grader, often because they wanted to give their child a head start or because they believed mistakenly that more age-appropriate literature didn’t offer the intellectual challenge that they wanted for their child.

作為一名前兒童圖書管理員，面對來圖書館給讀三年級的孩子借《哈克貝利·弗恩歷險記》或《雙城記》的母親時，我總是有點擔心，這往往是因為她們想讓孩子領先一步或因為她們錯誤地認為更多的適齡讀物智力上不夠富有挑戰性，而她們希望孩子面對足夠的挑戰。

head頭——hold one’s heads high昂首挺胸→心高氣傲

After all, wronged women, especially highly visible or educated ones, are expected to holdtheir heads high. That usually means walking away.

畢竟，飽受委屈的女人，特別是受高度關注的或者高學歷的女性，可能都會心高氣傲。這通常意味著就這樣走掉。

head頭——talking head電視受訪者，出現在電視（或電影）屏幕上發表談話的人

For over 16 years, Jon Stewart and his team at The Daily Show have criticized journalists for failing to adequately challenge the claims of politicians and talking heads.

十六年來，喬恩·斯圖爾特和他的團隊已在《每日秀》中批評新聞工作者未能充分挑戰政客和電視受訪者的言論。

head or tail頭或者尾——make head or tail of sth.搞清楚某事

But my high school French classes must have been light on bureaucratese, because I couldn’t make head or tail ofit.

但我高中的法語課堂肯定沒有講授太多官僚主義的內容，因為我根本沒有搞懂。

heart心臟→核心

The reason that both these statements are true goes to the very heart and purpose of the patent system.

這兩種說法都是正確的，原因在于專利制度的核心和目的。

heart心臟——at heart本質上；內心里

Among the innovators are people of all ages who are single at heart.

創新者當中，有各個年齡段的人，但他們內心里都還是單身。

heart心臟——heart-rending令人心碎的

The story of recent immigration enforcement is full of heart-rending accounts of good people—fathers, veterans, small business owners—being banished as a result of small mistakes.

最近，移民執法的報道全是些父親、退伍軍人、小企業主這樣的好人的令人心碎的經歷：由于一點小錯就被驅逐。

jaw下巴——jaw-dropping下巴快掉下來的→令人極度驚訝的，駭人聽聞的，觸目驚心的

One insider who has seen the report said it was pretty jaw-dropping stuff.

一位看過那份報告的內部人士說那是相當觸目驚心的。

lip嘴唇——lip service空口的應酬話，表面文章，空頭支票

Employers should also sponsor nutrition and exercise programs to help employees earn those discounts. These strategies will address obesity with more than lip service.

雇主還應該贊助營養和鍛煉項目，幫助員工獲得折扣優惠。這些策略將實際解決肥胖問題，而不僅僅是做表面文章。

muscle肌肉——muscle one’s way使勁；想盡一切辦法

Musclingone’s way to the nomination isn’t a practice unique to the Bushes—in 1995, Bob Dole’s campaign told Republican governors that their disloyalty wouldn’t go unnoticed.

想盡一切辦法獲得提名并不是布什家族獨有的做法——1995年，鮑勃·多爾的競選團隊告訴共和黨州長，他們的不忠不會就這樣算了。

new blood新鮮血液→富有朝氣、充滿活力的新生力量

Are some older employees blocking the way for new blood in American offices and workplaces?

在美國的辦公室和職場，是否有一些年長的員工阻礙了新生力量的發展？

nose鼻子——follow one’s nose憑直覺行事

How can you, a Democrat, just follow your nose in vetoing the GOP budget? You have to justify your option.

你，一個民主黨議員，怎么能夠在否決共和黨提出的預算案方面只憑直覺行事呢？你應該證明你的選擇。

skin皮膚——have skin in the game參與其中，成為其中的一部分

Congress should change the law so that colleges and universities have skin in the game when they include loans in the financial aid “packages” that hundreds of thousands of college students are receiving as we speak.

國會應該修改法律，這樣各個大學就會參與其中；如果貸款也算在一攬子經濟援助計劃里，那么，成千上萬的大學生在我們宣傳的時候就獲得了該項援助。

skin皮膚——thin-skinned皮薄的→臉皮薄的；敏感的

I’m not thin-skinned. In some instances, harassing messages are almost easy to dismiss, the users easy to block.

我不是臉皮薄。某些情況下，對騷擾信息不予理會幾乎輕而易舉，用戶也很容易被屏蔽。

stomach胃→吃下；忍受

Conservationists could never stomach the cruelty involved in the wounding of animals.

動物保護主義者無法忍受傷害動物的殘暴行為。

thumb拇指——rule of thumb經驗法則

Dona Matthews, an expert on gifted education, has a good rule of thumb: Don’t test your child for “giftedness” if he is happy and engaged at school and is interested in learning.

天才教育家多納·馬修斯有一條很好的經驗法則：如果你的孩子很快樂，在校學習，并且對學習感興趣，不要測試他的“天賦”。

thumb拇指——thumbs down（thumbs-down）拇指向下→不喜歡；責備；不贊成

What most critics at newspapers and magazines produce are reviews: thumbs-up,thumbs-down consumer advice on whether a book, movie, exhibition or whatever else is worth the investment of time and money.

大多數批評人士在報紙和雜志上寫的都是評論：對一本書、一部電影、一次展覽或其他值得投入時間和金錢的東西給予好評、差評的消費者意見。

thumb拇指——thumbs up（thumbs-up）翹起拇指→表示贊許（滿意、勝利）

At larger institutions, teachers often focus only on scores, which can serve as a rough numeric “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.

較大教育機構的教師通常只關注分數，而分數只是“好”或者“不好”的粗略數字。

thumb拇指——under the thumb of受……控制

Stockholm, unlike New York City, decided 20 years ago that it didn’t want to be under thethumb of any existing communications company.

與紐約市不同，斯德哥爾摩二十年前就決定不受任何現有通信公司的控制。

toe腳趾——keep sb. on sb.’s toes讓某人保持警覺

It has the added benefit of keeping motorists on their toes, since they don’t know what the heck the cyclist will do.

因為不知道騎車的人到底會怎樣，所以讓司機保持警覺會有額外的好處。

tongue舌頭——a slip of the tongue口誤；失言

It is now apparent that his statement was a slip of the tongue. But it has led to enormous loss for the company and he will have to resign from his post.

現在看來，很明顯他的說法是口誤。但是，已經給公司造成了重大損失，他不得不辭職。

tongue舌頭——bite one’s tongue閉嘴

Bite your tongue. Bide your time.

不要嚼舌根。等待時機。

tooth牙齒——real tooth真牙→確實可行的措施

We can adopt civilian review boards with real teeth and encourage a culture in which police respect the citizens they serve.

我們可以采用可行的措施進行民事審查，并鼓勵警察尊重公民這樣的一種文化氛圍。

tooth and nail牙齒和指甲→竭盡全力地，拼命地

The industry has fought such regulation tooth and nail.

該行業已經竭盡全力地與此類規定抗爭。

underbelly下腹部→易受攻擊的部位、區域，薄弱環節

Disclosure may be valuable, in that it increases the collective knowledge about cyberattacks and may create additional incentives to do more to prevent them, but it doesn’t address the underbelly of this dilemma.

披露可能是有價值的，因為它加強了對網絡攻擊的集體認識，并可能產生額外的激勵措施，以進一步阻止網絡攻擊，但它并沒有消除該困境的薄弱環節。

visceral內臟的→出自本能的；發自肺腑的

However, for courageous artists to continue their work when threats are visceral and clear they deserve three things: (1) equally courageous publishers; (2) national security leadership that is willing to proactively and rigorously engage jihadists who endanger the very essence of society; and (3) a public that emphatically demonstrates violence is an unacceptable response to the voicing of differing opinions and the exercise of democratic values will not be discarded in response to fear.

然而，對于勇敢的藝術家來說，面臨明顯的、震撼心靈的威脅時，如果要繼續搞藝術，那么，他們應該得到以下三方面的支持：（1）同樣勇敢的出版商；（2）國家安全領導方面愿意積極主動地與危害社會本質的圣戰分子交戰；（3）民眾，這樣的民眾強調對不同意見者施暴的行為是不可接受的，不會因為恐懼而放棄民主價值觀的行使。

weight體重→看重；關注

These interventions—easy to implement and essentially free—help to keep politicians honest and have an added benefit: they encourage viewers to pay attention not to surface features but to deeper content, helping us to remember to weight substance over style.

這些干預措施——易于實施，而且基本上是免費的——有助于保證政治家的誠實，另外還有一個額外的好處：鼓勵觀眾要關注的不是表面的東西，而是更深層次的內容，有助于我們牢記實質重于形式。

whisker胡須——by a whisker差一點點

It’s rarely recalled, but John McCain actually led Barack Obama by a whisker in Gallup’s daily tracking at the beginning of June 2008, 46 percent to 45 percent.

很少有人記得，但在蓋洛普每日跟蹤調查中顯示：約翰·麥凱恩于2008年6月初，以46%比45%的微弱優勢領先巴拉克·奧巴馬。

womb子宮——between womb and tomb子宮和墳墓之間→生與死之間

It has dramatized and informed us with metaphors and figures of feeling and thought, mysteries and politics, birth and death, and all the occasions we experience between womb and tomb.

它把情感與思想、神秘與政治、生與死以及我們在生與死之間的所有經歷都加以戲劇化，并用一些修辭手法讓我們了解。