sophomore, peck, a peck of, turn in, with a grain /pinch of salt, enlist, sophomoric

Americans should think twice about hugs and high fives, while the French and Italians might reconsider traditional pecks on the cheek.


Witch in a bottle, England.

Silvered and stoppered bottle said to contain a witch. The folklorist Margaret Murray obtained it in 1915 from an old lady living near Hove, Sussex. She remarked "they do say there be a witch in it, and if you let ‘un out, there’ll be a peck o’ trouble.” No one has ever opened the bottle! (PRM 1926.6.1)

On the subject of her marriage, she presents herself in many ways as a traditional wife — one year after the publication of “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan had helped inspire a wave of rethinking of that role. Her marriage, she remarks, was “rather terribly Victorian or Asiatic.” Her aim was to provide “a climate of affection and comfort and détente” — and the children in good moods. She suggests the couple never really had a fight. She insists she got her opinions from her husband. On that last point, at least, Michael Beschloss, the historian, who was enlisted to write an introduction and annotations to the book, said in an interview, “I would take that with a warehouse of salt.”

With a Grain of Salt

You should take what you hear and evaluate it on your own, don't take it for being the truth or correct. The phrase is usually used when a person it giving you the 'low down' on what another person has told you. It is a warning that what that person has said, or may say, is not necessarily correct and accurate.

Answer

My grandmother used to say this to me all the time. Basically, it means to be skeptical or to question something that someone has told you. For example, if someone has a tendency to exaggerate, you'll want to take what they have said with a grain or pinch of salt. Answers.com says that the expression is a translation of the Latin cum grano salis, which Pliny used in describing Pompey's discovery of an antidote for poison (to be taken with a grain of salt).

take something with a pinch (or grain) of salt

regard something as exaggerated; believe only part of something:I take anything he says with a large pinch of salt

Answer

To take 'with a grain of salt' means to take with a heavy dose of skepticism, caution and suspicion.
The saying came from the old cure for poison - a pinch of salt. Salt was said to have healing properties, so to eat a meal 'with a pinch of salt' meant that you suspected the meal of being poisoned.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_old_saying_%27take_it_with_a_grain_of_salt%27_mean#

“We must eat a peck of salt with a friend before we know them.” –Cervantes 另外說法是蘇格蘭諺語



On this morning, John O’Connell, a junior at Empire High School here, is pecking feverishly at his MacBook, touching up an essay on World War I for his American history class. Across the aisle, 16-year-old Jennifer Renner e-mails her friend Patrick to meet her at the bus park in half an hour. Kyle Letarte, a sophomore, peers at his screen, awaiting acknowledgment from a teacher that he has just turned in his biology homework, electronically.
“Got it, thanks,” comes the reply from Michael Frank, Kyle’s teacher.

peck
verb
1 [I or T] When a bird pecks, it bites, hits or picks up something small with its beak:
The birds learn to peck holes in the foil milk bottle tops.
Geese were pecking around for food.
Chickens pecked at the seeds which covered the ground.

2 [T] to give someone a quick kiss, especially on the side of the face:
He pecked his aunt on the cheek.

peck 
noun [C]
She gave me the usual peck on the cheek (= quick kiss).


peck at sth phrasal verb
to eat small quantities of something without any enthusiasm

You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.

Prov. No one can escape eating a certain amount of dirt on his or her food.; Everyone must endure a number of unpleasant things in hisor her lifetime. (Often said to console someone who has eaten some dirt or had to endure something unpleasant.) Ellen: Oh, no! Iforgot to wash this apple before I took a bite out of it. Fred: You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.

「哪個人死前沒吃過一抔土。（You eat a peck of dirt before you die。引申義為：人生在世總會受點委屈。）」 (hc：a peck of dirt 不只是"一杯土")
peck² (pĕk)
n.

1. (Abbr. pk.)
   1. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the U.S. Customary System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 537.6 cubic inches.
   2. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the British Imperial System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 554.8 cubic inches.
2. A container holding or measuring a peck.
3. Informal. A large quantity; a lot: a peck of troubles.

v., pecked, peck·ing, pecks. v.tr.

1. To strike with the beak or a pointed instrument.
2. To make (a hole, for example) by striking repeatedly with the beak or a pointed instrument.
3. To grasp and pick up with the beak: The bird pecked insects from the log.
4. Informal. To kiss briefly and casually.

v.intr.

1. To make strokes with the beak or a pointed instrument.
2. To eat in small sparing bits; nibble: He pecked at his dinner.
3. To criticize repeatedly; carp.

n.

1. 1. A stroke or light blow with the beak or a pointed instrument.
   2. A mark or hole made by such a stroke.
2. Informal. A light quick kiss.

[Middle English pecken, probably variant of piken, to peck (perhaps influenced by Middle Low German pekken). See pick¹.]

peck² (pĕk)
n.

1. (Abbr. pk.)
   1. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the U.S. Customary System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 537.6 cubic inches.
   2. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the British Imperial System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 554.8 cubic inches.
2. A container holding or measuring a peck.
3. Informal. A large quantity; a lot: a peck of troubles.

[Middle English.]

turn in
1. Hand in, give over, as in I turned in my exam and left the room. [c. 1300]
2. Surrender or inform on, especially to the police, as in The shoplifter turned herself in. [1920s]
3. Produce, as in He turned in a consistent performance every day. [Mid-1900s]
4. Go to bed, as in I turned in early last night. [Colloquial; late 1600s]

sophomore
音節

soph • o • more

発音

sɑ'fəmɔ`ːr | sɔ'f-

sophomoreの変化形

sophomores (複数形)

[名]((米))

1 （4年制高校・大学の）2年生, （3年制高校の）1年生

be a sophomore at Yale
イェール大学の2年生である（▼in collegeとはいうが^×in Yaleとはいわない）. ⇒FRESHMAN[名]1, JUNIOR[名]5, SENIOR[名]3

2 （経験などが）2年目の人（略：soph）.

［以前のつづりはsophumer. 原義は「弁証法参加者」. 現在のつづりはギリシャ語sophós（賢明な）＋mōrós（愚かな）の影響を受けている］

Hutchins himself remained stubbornly sophomoric,…

sophomoric

Syllabification: (soph·o·mor·ic)

Pronunciation: /ˌsäf(ə)ˈmôrik/

adjective

• of, relating to, or characteristic of a sophomore:my sophomoric years
• pretentious or juvenile:sophomoric double entendres