2016年4月13日星期三

repent, dare, coverlet, the charts. the height of sth, endways, endwise, flagellants

It is impossible to repent of love.

The New York Times leads with President Obama harshly criticizing Wall Street bankers for receiving nearly $20 billion in bonuses last year even as the economy collapsed. "That is the height of irresponsibility," Obama said. "It is shameful."

As every company knows, employees are its greatest resource. It's more than a shame, then, that many workers are either not encouraged or afraid to speak up and communicate ideas at work. Employers are losing valuable knowledge and experience, and their companies are weaker for that loss.
In a recent working paper, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson and Penn State professor James Detert explored the challenges employees face speaking up to internal authorities. Their research focused on behavior in large, multinational corporations, but the lessons learned can apply to smaller enterprises as well.
In this e-mail interview, Edmondson and Detert discuss their research and how managers can create environments that encourage and support "upward voice." Their paper is called "Latent Voice Episodes: The Situation-Specific Nature of Speaking up at Work." (Abstract)

Daily Highlights Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Spotlight


Fats Domino

Happy 80th birthday to R&B rocker Fats Domino. Though his first commercial record, "The Fat Man," came out in 1949, Domino didn't become a hit until 1955, when Pat Boone released a rendition of Domino's "Ain't That a Shame"; the song went to No. 1 on the charts. The following year, Domino had five songs in the top 40, including his best-seller "Blueberry Hill" — a song that had reached No. 1 for Glenn Miller in 1940.

Quote

"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B." — Fats Domino

Once he climbed up in Farmer Acorn's apple-tree to steal apples, and the limb didn't break, and he didn't fall and break his arm, and get torn by the farmer's great dog, and then languish on a sick bed for weeks, and repent and become good. Oh! no; he stole as many apples as he wanted and came down all right; and he was all ready for the dog too, and knocked him endways with a brick when he came to tear him.

flagellants

Medieval religious sects that included public beatings with whips as part of their discipline and devotional practice. Flagellant sects arose in northern Italy, and had become large and widespread by c. 1260. Groups marched through European towns, whipping each other to atone for their sins and calling on the populace to repent. They gained many new members in the mid-14th century while the Black Death was ravaging Europe. Though periodically suppressed by the authorities, flagellant sects enjoyed sporadic resurgences into the 16th century.

用鞭子抽打。如：「頑皮的小弟常遭父親鞭韃。」亦作「鞭打」。

end・ways, end・wise

━━ ad. 端を上［前方］にして, 縦に（on end）; 端と端を接して（end to end）.

Endways

End·wise , adv.
1. On end; erectly; in an upright position.
2. With the end forward.

the charts plural noun
the numbered lists produced each week of the records with the highest sales:
the dance charts
It's been number one in the charts for six weeks.

chart Show phonetics
verb [I] INFORMAL
Their first record didn't even chart (= enter the charts).

CHART━━ n. 図（表）; 海図, 水路図; グラフ; （the ～s）レコードの売上げ順位表.
━━ vt. …の海図［図表］を作る; 図で示す ((out)); …の計画を立てる.

dare (BE BRAVE/RUDE) Show phonetics
verb [I not continuous]
to be brave enough to do something difficult or dangerous, or to be rude or foolish enough to do something that you have no right to do:
I was going to ask if his dog was any better, but I didn't dare in case it had died.
[+ (to) infinitive] Everyone in the office complains that he smells awful, but nobody dares (to) mention it to him.
Dare you tell him the news?
Do you dare (to) tell him the news?
[+ infinitive without to] I wouldn't dare have a party in my flat in case the neighbours complained.
I daren't/don't dare think how much it's going to cost.
I'd never dare (to) talk to my mother the way Ben talks to his.
[+ to infinitive] He was under attack for daring to criticize the Prime Minister.

See also daresay.

coverlet這字要注意語源翻譯成"被單, 床單"容易誤會
它是床外罩日本語採 BED-COVER 音 n. - ベッドカバー

cov·er·let (kŭv'ər-lĭt) pronunciation

also cov·er·lid (-lĭd)
n.
A bedspread.

[Middle English coverlite, from Anglo-Norman coverelyth : Old French covrir, to cover; see cover + Old French lit, bed (from Latin lēctus).]

The girl raged and battled with all the force of her youth and
fulness of life, until by little and little her passionate
exclamations trailed off into broken murmurs as if she were in
pain. By corresponding degrees she sank into a chair, then upon
her knees, then upon the ground beside the bed, drawing the
coverlet with her, half to hide her shamed head and wet hair in it,
and half, as it seemed, to embrace it, rather than have nothing to
take to her repentant breast.

Little Dorrit by C. Dickens

throw and coverlet (2007年8月15日星期三)

the height of sth
1 the time when a situation or event is strongest or most full of activity:
August is the height of the tourist season.
At the height of the violence/crisis we were left without any help.

2 an extreme example of something:
the height of fashion

3 the time when you are most successful in what you do:
She was at the height of her career when he first met her.