?2．日常行為?

“aha!” moment大呼“啊哈”的時刻→恍然大悟的時刻

In the course of these explorations some have an “aha!”moment that tells them unambiguously which path is right for them.

探索過程中，有些人有著頓悟的時刻，明確走哪條路是正確的。

balloon氣球→如氣球般地激增

Far from fragmenting, Chinese language Web content is ballooning—and may soon surpass English content by volume.

中文網站非但沒有支離破碎，而且還在不斷激增——數量上可能很快就會超過英文網站。

ballooning氣球充氣的→膨脹的，越來越大的

Prices are returning to levels more on a par with incomes, sprawling developments as well as new intown condos have stalled, while walkable neighborhoods are commanding premiums, and ballooning house sizes are beginning to come down.

價格正回歸到與收入相當的水平，不斷擴張的房地產開發以及新的市區公寓建設已停滯，而可以步行上班的社區更值錢了，并且越來越大面積的住房也在開始減少。

breadwinning掙面包→養家糊口

And many men are often just as delighted to be free of the shackles of breadwinning and feeling unappreciated for their efforts. Being single later in life can feel incredibly liberating.

而許多男人也同樣樂于擺脫養家糊口的束縛，不會再覺得自己的努力白費。以后的生活中保持單身會讓他們覺得無比自由。

comb梳頭→梳理；整理

We, therefore, invited the chairmen of our academic departments to comb the stacks; books deemed worthy of retention were distributed to respective departments, while those not selected were donated to local nonprofits and public schools.

因此，我們邀請了學術部門的領導來梳理這些書庫；值得保留的書籍分發給各部門，而未被選中的書籍則捐贈給當地的非營利組織和公立學校。

crunch（腳、車輪等）咬碎聲；扎扎地踏→關鍵時刻

You believe that you are more motivated when in a time crunch, or that you move faster under pressure.

你認為：時間緊迫的時候更有動力，或者壓力下動作更快。

cry叫喊——a rallying cry號召力；共同呼吁

Some say the study is a rallying cry for those who see home cooking as “time-consuming and often done for a bunch of ingrates who would rather just be eating fast food”.

有人說這項研究是在呼吁那些把家庭烹飪看作“浪費時間”的人，他們認為“吃的人往往是一群忘恩負義的家伙，吃完才說寧愿吃快餐”。

cry叫喊——It’s a far cry from...to...同……有著天壤之別

It’s a far cry from Walter Cronkite to Brian Williams the celebrity news reader.

沃爾特·克朗凱特同新聞名主播布萊恩·威廉姆斯之間有著天壤之別。

dumb傻的——dumb down簡化；降低難度

Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy,dumbed down their curriculums?

努力保持高畢業率和學生快樂的同時，大學是否降低了課程難度？

flip-flop作后手翻，翻騰，翻轉→（觀點、態度等的）突然改變（或轉變）

Speaking of spinelessness, Mitt Romney has flip-flopped, again, on the assault weapons ban.

說到懦弱，米特·羅姆尼又一次在攻擊性武器禁令方面出爾反爾。

fray磨損→破壞

In recent years, though, that vision has frayed.

然而，近年來，這一景象漸遭破壞。

gloss over給予光滑的表面→掩蓋，掩飾

But in sugar-coating the holiday and glossing over important issues regarding migration, religious freedom and the destruction of a way of life for native Americans, have we done a disservice to our nation’s history and failed to challenge our children’s world view?

但是，在粉飾假日和掩飾一些重要問題（例如移民、宗教自由和破壞美國土著人的生活方式）方面，我們是否違背了國家歷史？是否沒能挑戰孩子的世界觀？

haul拖；拉——for the long or short haul或長或短時期

However, living under the same roof for the long or short haul will remain a configuration that defines American families in the foreseeable future.

然而，或長或短時期生活在同一個屋檐下將仍然是一種生活方式。在可預見的未來日子里，美國家庭會是這樣子的。

hone用磨刀石磨→磨煉

Young women should believe successful directing careers are within their reach. They should then train and hone their craft.

年輕女性應該相信成功的導演生涯是她們力所能及的。接下來，她們應該訓練和磨煉技能。

line up排隊→得到；征集

And even after lining up an apartment or a room, things can go wrong—things that can generally be managed in a campus residence hall.

即便租到一套公寓或一個房間，也可能會有問題，而這些問題住在校內也可以應對。

lug用力拉或拖——lug things賣力

Fewer Americans today lugthings for a living.

如今，幾乎沒有美國人會為了生存而賣力。

pat-down拍打→搜身安檢

Many passengers are disturbed about the nearly-naked images created by the scanners and even more distressed with the thorough pat-downs for those who refuse to go through the machines.

許多乘客對（機場）安檢儀掃描的近乎裸體的圖像感到不安，甚至對因拒絕通過安檢儀而遭到徹底搜身而感到更加難受。

pick up the tab撿起賬單→承擔費用；買單

Some interactions justify, and are even strengthened by, anonymity—but it often comes with a huge price tag for marginalized communities on the web, leaving women to pick up thetab.

因為匿名，有些互動是合理的，甚至得以加強，但隨之而來的往往是在網絡上給邊緣化社區貼上巨額標簽，讓女性為此買單。

play玩——play down淡化；縮小

In studies of heroism, psychologists find that heroes often display personal modesty by playing down the dangers that they faced.

對英雄行為的研究中，心理學家發現：英雄經常表現出個人謙虛，淡化所面臨的危險。

plod沉重地走→辛勤工作，埋頭苦干

Do you plod through the day at the office? Are you so tired by the afternoon that exercise is the last thing on your mind?

你是否在辦公室里埋頭苦干了一整天呢？到了下午，你是不是累得根本不想去鍛煉身體了？

pull off脫下→努力實現；完成；做過

His success in stealing the thunder away from what we used to call the “straight news”business is the greatest and funniest joke he ever pulled off.

他成功地在我們過去所謂的“純新聞”業務方面搶了風頭，這是他開過的最大、最有趣的玩笑。

rattle喋喋不休——death rattle死前的喉鳴→死亡之聲

The current discomfort is not a death rattle, but we do need to learn to live with the growing pains.

目前的不適并不是死亡之聲，但我們確實須要學會忍受成長的煩惱。

scalp剝頭皮→倒賣門票，賣黑市票

In the past few months several new apps have let people pay to get reservations at restaurants where tables are in a great demand. Some essentially scalp reservations. With others, like Resy, the restaurants themselves sell reservations.

過去的幾個月里，一些新的應用程序已經讓人可以在經常爆滿的餐館付費預訂座位。有一些應用程序基本上是在倒賣預訂的座位。而其他的應用程序，像Resy餐廳訂位應用程序，也賣預訂座位。

shaky搖晃的→不可靠的

These arguments are shaky at best.

這些論點充其量是站不住腳的。

show sb. the light給某人照明→給某人指明方向

Whether it’s VBAC vs. Caesarean, breast milk vs. formula, disposable vs. cloth, or wraps vs. strollers, these moms know what they think and will stop at nothing to show you the light.

不管是剖宮產術后陰道分娩還是剖腹產，母乳還是配方奶，一次性尿布還是布料的尿布，背帶式的裹布條還是嬰兒車，這些媽媽們都很清楚，而且都樂意停下手頭的活教會你。

shy away from羞于→回避

So governing bodies have shied away from this lofty ideal of integrity and building character and have focused on the social goals of access and winning.

因此，管理機構回避了正直和塑造品格這一崇高的理想，并將重點放在獲取和取勝的社會目標上。

sit坐→處于

With the release of the December jobs report, employment now officially sits at 9.4 percent and over half of those people have been out of work for over six months.

隨著12月就業報告的公布，目前官方的就業率處在9.4%，超過一半的人失業超過六個月。

slap at the wrists of sb.打某人手腕→輕度懲罰某人

I believe that this weakness in the face of cheating probably has something to do with the 1960s and certainly underlies the decision to keep ethics courses optional and to merely slap at the wrists of students who break the rules.

我認為，面對作弊行為卻無能為力，可能與20世紀60年代的情況有關，而且肯定導致了這個決策：仍舊把道德課程當成選修課，而對違規的學生僅僅是打其手腕般的輕度懲罰。

snap one’s fingers打響指→引起注意

It would be so wonderful if we could simply snap our fingers and fix the issue of bias among university professors for good.

如果我們能簡單地引起注意，永遠地解決大學教授的偏見問題，那就太好了。

staggering蹣跚的→令人驚愕的

Desperate and childless, she began losing herself in Ebay, ran up a staggering amount of credit card debt, and watched her husband file for divorce.

沒有孩子，感到絕望，她便開始沉迷于易趣網上購物，結果信用卡債務達到了驚人數目，眼睜睜地看著丈夫申請離婚。

stand站立→立場

However, since being exploited as an unpaid intern by Fox Searchlight Pictures, I have been forced to take a stand.

然而，作為一名無薪的實習生，受到?？怂固秸諢粲皹I的剝削，我被迫表明立場。

stand behind站在后面→支持

Yet all over the world, flight attendants are standing behind Slater’s actions.

然而世界各地，空乘人員都支持斯萊特的行為。

step back后退一步→不介入；不插手

Or should officials step back, assuming that this arrangement mutually benefits employers and interns?

或者，假設這樣的安排對于雇主和實習生來說是互利的，政府官員就應不插手？

stray走失→背離

When my husband broke his vows, I, too, chose to keep mine. And when he strayed, I stayed.

我丈夫打破了誓言，可我還是選擇遵守諾言。他背離，我堅守。

stride大步——make strides大有進步，取得進展

A recent article in a series in International Herald Tribune noted that while German and other European women are making strides in education and in the workplace, their professional advancement stalls once they have children.

《國際先驅論壇報》最近的一篇系列文章指出，德國和其他歐洲國家的女性在教育和工作中大有進步，不過一旦有了子女，她們的專業發展就停滯不前。

sugarcoat裹以糖衣→粉飾；使有吸引力

Happy talk about “collaboration” won’t sugarcoat that fact.

愉快地談論“合作”不會粉飾這個事實。

tinker修補→擺弄；搗鼓

Outside of school, they may disappear to tinker in the garage or spend endless hours practicing an instrument.

課外時間，他們可能會躲在車庫中搗鼓車，或者花好幾個小時彈奏樂器。

tried-and-true經過檢驗而可靠的→靠得住的；行之有效的

In New York City and Miami-Dade, I looked beyond traditional constraints and moved past the tried-and-true perspectives in creating the Chancellor’s District and the School Improvement Zone.

在紐約市和邁阿密的戴德，在創建“大臣區”和“學校改善區”方面，我超越了傳統的束縛，采納了行之有效的觀點。

wait out等到……結束→渡過

Family of origin has become a lifeboat for roughly one in five 25- to 34-year-olds who move in with parents to wait out the economic storm.

原生家庭已成為大約五分之一的25～34歲年輕人的救生艇，他們回來跟父母一起住，以便渡過經濟風暴。

wake-up call電話叫醒服務→警鐘

I have used Turnitin.com as a learning tool in my classes by showing students what percentage of their papers were not cited properly; the alert acts like a wake-up call.

我在課堂上使用Turnitin.com這個網站作為學習工具，向學生展示他們論文中錯誤引用的百分比；這種警報就像一記警鐘。

whine機器等嘎嘎響；發嗚嗚聲→發牢騷；哭訴

A lot of time is spent on whining.

花了很多時間發牢騷。

wield揮舞→使用；行使

But still, most holiday shoppers this year are wielding credit cards, debit cards and cash.

不過，今年大多數假日購物者仍在使用信用卡、借記卡和現金。

woo向（女子）求愛→招致

Furthermore, firms typically need to pay employed workers a premium to woo them away from their current employer, making it more puzzling that firms would opt to limit applications to those currently employed.

此外，企業通常須要向已在其他企業就職的員工開出更高工資，以吸引他們離開當前的雇主；令人感到困惑的是，企業招聘時，經常會選擇將申請人限制于當前的在職人員。