the brunt of, square off, square the circle. hemlock, superlative, pieces of banks, committed. I am so brunt . .

最沈重(或強烈)的部分 The brunt of her argument was directed at the trade union leader.她的言論的鋒芒指向工會領袖。



The committee's report comes in the same week as the closure of thousands of post offices looks set to be announced, with rural loss-making outlets likely to bear the brunt of the cuts.
(據悉，英國政府已經決定，即將關閉數千個鄉村地區經營業績不佳的郵

政所。 Postal service 'far too patchy' )

"Oh! no, no"--cried Emma, laughing as carelessly as she could-- "Upon no account in the world. It is the very last thing I would stand the brunt of just now. Let me hear any thing rather than what you are all thinking of. I will not say quite all. There are one or two, perhaps, (glancing at Mr. Weston and Harriet,) whose thoughts I might not be afraid of knowing." (Emma By Jane Austen)


At Hospital, Survivors Face Quiet Despair

By KEITH BRADSHER

A hospital in Tacloban, the town that bore the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan, lacks the supplies to treat the wounded. Doctors say the prognosis of Richard Pulga, above, is grim. 

7 in G.O.P. Square Off, 7 Months From First Vote

By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG

The seven Republican candidates, with the spotlight trained on Mitt Romney, met Monday night in a debate that reserved the brunt of their criticism for President Obama.

'When the Killing's Done'

By T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE
Reviewed by BARBARA KINGSOLVER

A habitat restorer and an animal lover square off in T. C. Boyle's rollicking novel set in California's Channel Islands.

 , superlative,  pieces of banks, committed
Spain's BBVA Plots Its Rise in the U.S.

Thanks partly to its risk-averse culture, Spanish bank BBVA has avoided the brunt of the financial crisis, putting it in position to pick up pieces of banks that won't survive.

 superlative , 'Committed'

The New York Times leads news that a British jury convicted three men of conspiracy to commit murder but couldn't decide whether any of the defendants were guilty of plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic flights with liquid explosives in 2006. The failure to convict was an embarrassing blow to counterterrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic, who had used plenty of superlatives to describe the plot as potentially the deadliest act of terrorism since Sept. 11.

'Committed'

By ELIZABETH GILBERT
Reviewed by CURTIS SITTENFELD

Picking up pretty much where "Eat, Pray, Love" left off, Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir describes how her boyfriend's unforeseen visa problems enticed her into a most dreaded institution: marriage.
Squaring the circle of commercial file-sharing

When it comes to digital media sales, there is no European single market.
Some EU countries, like Bulgaria and Slovakia, can't access the Apple
iTunes Store because of licensing laws. Piracy is often a simpler solution.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew235mI44va89pI8

square the circle

Try to do the impossible, as in Getting that bill through the legislature is the same as trying to square the circle. This idiom alludes to the impossibility of turning a circle into a square. John Donne may have been the first to use it (Sermons, 1624): "Go not thou about to square either circle (God or thyself)."

 commit
━━ vt. （-tt-） 犯す (〜 suicide [a crime, an error]); 委託［委任］する ((to)); （獄・精神病院に）入れる; 陥れる ((to)); 束縛する (〜 oneself to do [to a promise]); 困難な立場に立たせる.
 commit oneself　意見を述べる ((on)); 身をゆだねる ((to)); 自分（の評判［名誉］）を危うくする.
 commit to paper [print, writing]　書留める.
 commit・man　委員 ((1人)).
 com・mit・ment, com・mit・tal　━━ n. 委任［託］; 約束, 責任; 収容（令状）.
 com・mit・ted　━━ a. 献身的な, 打ち込んでいる; 傾倒した ((to)).


 su・per・la・tive

  
━━ a. 最高の; 【文法】（the ～） 最上級の; 大げさな.
━━ n. 最高の人［もの］, 極致; 【文法】最上級.
 speak [talk] in superlatives　誇張して話す.
 superlative degree　【文法】（the ～） 最上級.
 su・per・la・tive・ly　━━ ad.
 su・per・la・tive・ness　━━ n.


square off

Take a fighting stance, prepare to fight, as in As they squared off, the teacher came out and stopped them, or The ambassador said the two countries were squaring off. [First half of 1800s]

'The Hemlock Cup'

By BETTANY HUGHES
Reviewed by WALTER ISAACSON

Bettany Hughes examines the life and death of Socrates, and the city that nurtured and killed him.

hemlock(hĕm'lŏk') 
n.

1. 1. Any of various coniferous evergreen trees of the genus Tsuga of North America and eastern Asia, having small cones and short flat leaves with two white bands underneath.
   2. The wood of such trees, used as a source of lumber, wood pulp, and tannic acid.
2. 1. Any of several poisonous plants of the genera Conium and Cicuta, such as the poison hemlock.
   2. A poison obtained from the poison hemlock.

[Middle English hemlok, poisonous hemlock, from Old English hymlice, hemlic.]

brunt Show phonetics
noun
the brunt of the main force of something unpleasant:
The infantry have taken/borne the brunt of the missile attacks.
Small companies are feeling the full brunt of the recession.n.

1. The main impact or force, as of an attack.
2. The main burden: bore the brunt of the household chores.