英语阅读中常见的熟词僻义

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

熟义：n.地址      僻义：v.向...致辞, 演说

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

根据与你谈话的不同对象，问题也有所不同

 

2) Diet

熟义：n. 饮食习惯         僻义：n. 减肥,瘦身；议会

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

美国的工业已经改变了结构，学会了明智

 

3) Cause

熟义：n./v. 原因，导致      僻义：n. 事业，理想，目标

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

一个这样的事业现在正在寻求终止生物医学的研究，因为有这样一种理论说，动物享有权利禁止它们被用于实验。

 

4) Novel

熟义：n. 小说      僻义：adj. 新颖的

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

当一种新的文学理念出现时，人们应该试着去了解它的意图。

 

5) Realize

熟义：v. 意识到      僻义：v. 实现，发挥

 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.

据说，Colorado州前州长Richard Lamm曾经说，老年多病者“有责任死去和让位”，以让更年轻、更健康的人们去发挥他们的潜能。

6) Stop

熟义：n./v. 停止        僻义：n. 句号

 We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs.
我们必须大量使用基本词汇，摆脱句号，修饰性形容词及限定动词的羁绊。

 

7) Sound

熟义 n. 声音, 语音, 噪音    v. 听起来

僻义adj. 健全的, 合理的, 有效彻底的, 健康的 （sound and safe: 安然无恙）

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

如果我们准备保护大气，关键要让这些新发电厂对环境无害。

 

8) Firm

熟义 adj. 结实的，稳固的      僻义 n. 公司，商号

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

直到加利福尼亚最近通过了一项法律，美国的公司不必告知任何人信息何时泄露，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.

人们早已知道在客户翻阅电话簿时，名叫AAAA的出租汽车公司要比Zodiac出租汽车公司有很大的优越性。

  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.

这个现象造成了人们对小型企业和民族资本的作用以及世界经济的最终稳定的严重忧虑。

 

9) Might

熟义  may的过去式      僻义 n. 力量，威权 (with might and main: 尽全力)

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

这个浪潮从异常活跃的美国席卷到欧洲，并以不可比拟的威力影响到正在崛起的国家。

 

10) Weather

熟义：n. 天气      僻义：v. 经受风雨，度过难关

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

这种"附加工人效应"可以支持失业保险或残疾保险所提供的保障制度，以帮助家庭渡过困难时期。

 

11) Panel

熟义：n. 仪表板，面板      僻义：n. 专家小组

 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.

最近的行动是由白宫召集了一批来自国家科学院的专家团，他们告诉我们，地球气候毫无疑问正在变暖，而这个问题主要是人为造成的

 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，该小组尚未在一个关键问题上达成一致，即是否建议立法机关把将私人资金用于克隆人的行为视为犯罪。

12) Keep

熟义：v. 保持      僻义：n. 生计

 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.

当然公开来源的谍报活动的确有它的风险，因为很难区分正确与错误的信息。这正是Straitford公司赚得生计的地方。

 

13) Promise

熟义：v./n. 承诺       僻义：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说，掌握我们国家教育体系的人“沾沾自喜地、霸气十足地公然宣称敌视才学，迫不及待地认同那些看来在才学方面最无前途的孩子。”

 

14) buy

熟义：v. 购买      僻义：v. 听信，认同

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

许多美国人相信了这些胡言乱语，在三十多年中，差不多有一千万烟民早早的进了坟墓。

 

15) Catch

熟义：v. 抓住       僻义：n. 捕获，捕获量

 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.

这意味着可以捕获更多的海洋生物，所以现在和过去的真正差距可能会比之前在捕获区记录的数据所体现出的更糟糕。

 

16) Game

熟义：n. 游戏,比赛      僻义：n. 猎物

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

但大部分的，成长缓慢的动物则成了狩猎的目标，并且很快被狩猎到灭绝。

 

17) Slip

熟义：v. 滑倒      僻义：n. 纸片

 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，一份解雇通知书、一个不利的诊断结果或者配偶的去世都可能在几个月之内将一个家庭从稳定的中产阶层家庭降格成为一个新贫困家庭。

 

18) Tap

熟义：v. 轻拍，n. 水龙头，栓头      僻义：v. 开发

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

大约在网上交易的第一年当中，大部分业务活动都是围绕着努力开发消费者市场来进行的。

 

19) Ground

熟义：n. 地面，      僻义：n. 根据，依据(on the ground that…)

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

铁路公司对“被控”客户进行区别对待的依据是，从长远来看，这样做会降低所有人的成本。

 

20) Lean

熟义 v.倚靠, 倾斜      僻义 adj.瘦的, 贫乏的, 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、专注的脸庞，穿着牛仔裤和便鞋，吃着小圆面包，在剧场外的石板上过夜，

 Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin.

Friedman只在奥斯汀市雇用了为数不多的雇员。其中的一些有军事情报工作背景。

 

21) Anchor

熟义：n. 锚      僻义：n. 主持人，主播

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

快餐食客、新闻主播、发短信的人，都在笑啊笑啊。

 

22) Chair

熟义：n. 椅子      僻义：v./n. 主持，主席

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

前卫生局医务主任C.Everett Koop 80来岁还出任了一个互联网公司的总裁。

 

23) Nature

熟义：n. 自然      僻义：n. 天性，本质，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.

陪审团也认为造成该运动员受伤的是这项运动本身的危险性，而不是头盔。

 

24) Spell

熟义：v. 拼写      僻义：n. 一段时间

  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.

虽然一开始在20世纪60年代和70年代有过一段乐观的时期——那时候仿佛晶体管电路和微处理器的发展将使他们在2010年能够模仿人类大脑的活动——但是最近研究人员已经开始将这个预测延后数十年，甚至数百年。

25) Stress

熟义：n. 压力       僻义：v. 强调

 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.

虽然日本的教育因强调基础知识而经常受到外国人的赞扬，但是它往往强调考试和机械学习，而不重视创造性和自我表现。

 

26) Trust

熟义：n./v. 信任，信赖    僻义：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.

但是很难想像当今的几个石油公司的合并是否会重新造成约100年前美国标准石油公司对竞争造成的同样的威胁，那时由于人们对该公司的这种担心而导致了它最终的解散。

 (ZT)