英語閱讀中常見的熟詞僻義

address, diet, cause, novel, realize, stop, sound, firm, might, weather, panel, keep, promise, buy, catch, game, slip, tap, ground, lean, anchor, chair, nature, spell, stress, trust

 

1) Address

熟義：n.地址      僻義：v.向...致辭, 演說

 Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different.

根據與你談話的不同對象，問題也有所不同

 

2) Diet

熟義：n. 飲食習慣         僻義：n. 減肥,瘦身；議會

 American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted.

美國的工業已經改變了結構，學會了明智

 

3) Cause

熟義：n./v. 原因，導致      僻義：n. 事業，理想，目標

 One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animals have rights ruling out their use in research.

一個這樣的事業現在正在尋求終止生物醫學的研究，因為有這樣一種理論說，動物享有權利禁止它們被用於實驗。

 

4) Novel

熟義：n. 小說      僻義：adj. 新穎的

  When a novel literary idea appears, people should try to determine its purposes

當一種新的文學理念出現時，人們應該試著去了解它的意圖。

 

5) Realize

熟義：v. 意識到      僻義：v. 實現，發揮

 Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way", so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.

據說，Colorado州前州長Richard Lamm曾經說，老年多病者“有責任死去和讓位”，以讓更年輕、更健康的人們去發揮他們的潛能。

6) Stop

熟義：n./v. 停止        僻義：n. 句號

 We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs.
我們必須大量使用基本詞匯，擺脫句號，修飾性形容詞及限定動詞的羈絆。

 

7) Sound

熟義 n. 聲音, 語音, 噪音    v. 聽起來

僻義adj. 健全的, 合理的, 有效徹底的, 健康的 （sound and safe: 安然無恙）

  If we are ever going to protect the atmosphere, it is crucial that those new plants be environmentally sound.

如果我們準備保護大氣，關鍵要讓這些新發電廠對環境無害。

 

8) Firm

熟義 adj. 結實的，穩固的      僻義 n. 公司，商號

  Until California recently passed a law, American firms did not have to tell anyone, even the victim, when data went astray.

直到加利福尼亞最近通過了一項法律，美國的公司不必告知任何人信息何時泄露，甚至包括受害人。

  It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories.

人們早已知道在客戶翻閱電話簿時，名叫AAAA的出租汽車公司要比Zodiac出租汽車公司有很大的優越性。

  This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.

這個現象造成了人們對小型企業和民族資本的作用以及世界經濟的最終穩定的嚴重憂慮。

 

9) Might

熟義  may的過去式      僻義 n. 力量，威權 (with might and main: 盡全力)

 The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might.

這個浪潮從異常活躍的美國席卷到歐洲，並以不可比擬的威力影響到正在崛起的國家。

 

10) Weather

熟義：n. 天氣      僻義：v. 經受風雨，度過難關

 This “added-worker effect” could support the safety net offered by unemployment insurance or disability insurance to help families weather bad times.

這種"附加工人效應"可以支持失業保險或殘疾保險所提供的保障製度，以幫助家庭渡過困難時期。

 

11) Panel

熟義：n. 儀表板，麵板      僻義：n. 專家小組

 The latest was a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted by the White House, to tell us that the Earth's atmosphere is definitely warming and that the problem is largely man-made.

最近的行動是由白宮召集了一批來自國家科學院的專家團，他們告訴我們，地球氣候毫無疑問正在變暖，而這個問題主要是人為造成的

 The panel has not yet reached agreement on a crucial question, however, whether to recommend legislation that would make it a crime for private funding to be used for human cloning.

然而，該小組尚未在一個關鍵問題上達成一致，即是否建議立法機關把將私人資金用於克隆人的行為視為犯罪。

12) Keep

熟義：v. 保持      僻義：n. 生計

 Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That's where Straitford earns its keep.

當然公開來源的諜報活動的確有它的風險，因為很難區分正確與錯誤的信息。這正是Straitford公司賺得生計的地方。

 

13) Promise

熟義：v./n. 承諾       僻義：n. 有希望，有前途 （promising: (形)有希望的，有前途的）

  Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."

Hofstadter說，掌握我們國家教育體係的人“沾沾自喜地、霸氣十足地公然宣稱敵視才學，迫不及待地認同那些看來在才學方麵最無前途的孩子。”

 

14) buy

熟義：v. 購買      僻義：v. 聽信，認同

  Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.

許多美國人相信了這些胡言亂語，在三十多年中，差不多有一千萬煙民早早的進了墳墓。

 

15) Catch

熟義：v. 抓住       僻義：n. 捕獲，捕獲量

 That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes.

這意味著可以捕獲更多的海洋生物，所以現在和過去的真正差距可能會比之前在捕獲區記錄的數據所體現出的更糟糕。

 

16) Game

熟義：n. 遊戲,比賽      僻義：n. 獵物

 The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction.

但大部分的，成長緩慢的動物則成了狩獵的目標，並且很快被狩獵到滅絕。

 

17) Slip

熟義：v. 滑倒      僻義：n. 紙片

 Now a pink slip, a bad diagnosis, or a disappearing spouse can reduce a family from solidly middle class to newly poor in a few months.

如今，一份解雇通知書、一個不利的診斷結果或者配偶的去世都可能在幾個月之內將一個家庭從穩定的中產階層家庭降格成為一個新貧困家庭。

 

18) Tap

熟義：v. 輕拍，n. 水龍頭，栓頭      僻義：v. 開發

  In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market.

大約在網上交易的第一年當中，大部分業務活動都是圍繞著努力開發消費者市場來進行的。

 

19) Ground

熟義：n. 地麵，      僻義：n. 根據，依據(on the ground that…)

 Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it reduces everyone's cost.

鐵路公司對“被控”客戶進行區別對待的依據是，從長遠來看，這樣做會降低所有人的成本。

 

20) Lean

熟義 v.倚靠, 傾斜      僻義 adj.瘦的, 貧乏的, 歉收的

 They all seem to look alike （though they come from all over）–lean, pointed, dedicated faces, wearing jeans and sandals, eating their buns and bedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre

消瘦、率直、專注的臉龐，穿著牛仔褲和便鞋，吃著小圓麵包，在劇場外的石板上過夜，

 Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin.

Friedman隻在奧斯汀市雇用了為數不多的雇員。其中的一些有軍事情報工作背景。

 

21) Anchor

熟義：n. 錨      僻義：n. 主持人，主播

  Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling.

快餐食客、新聞主播、發短信的人，都在笑啊笑啊。

 

22) Chair

熟義：n. 椅子      僻義：v./n. 主持，主席

 former surgeon general C.Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s.

前衛生局醫務主任C.Everett Koop 80來歲還出任了一個互聯網公司的總裁。

 

23) Nature

熟義：n. 自然      僻義：n. 天性，本質，本性（human nature 人性）

 The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete's injury.

陪審團也認為造成該運動員受傷的是這項運動本身的危險性，而不是頭盔。

 

24) Spell

熟義：v. 拚寫      僻義：n. 一段時間

  Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.

雖然一開始在20世紀60年代和70年代有過一段樂觀的時期——那時候仿佛晶體管電路和微處理器的發展將使他們在2010年能夠模仿人類大腦的活動——但是最近研究人員已經開始將這個預測延後數十年，甚至數百年。

25) Stress

熟義：n. 壓力       僻義：v. 強調

 While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression.

雖然日本的教育因強調基礎知識而經常受到外國人的讚揚，但是它往往強調考試和機械學習，而不重視創造性和自我表現。

 

26) Trust

熟義：n./v. 信任，信賴    僻義：n. 托拉斯（公司形式）

 Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the US, when the Standard Oil trust was broken up.

但是很難想像當今的幾個石油公司的合並是否會重新造成約100年前美國標準石油公司對競爭造成的同樣的威脅，那時由於人們對該公司的這種擔心而導致了它最終的解散。

 (ZT)