2017年7月29日 星期六

pander, calamitous, shipwright, baton twirler, short of, podium, undoing, 4x100-meter relay



. “I think we are moving inexorably toward a constitutional crisis,” says one constitutional law scholar.


The president probably should have consulted the Constitution, or at least…
VANITYFAIR.COM




Since 1971 Malaysia has given preferential treatment in everything from education to investing to bumiputeras—people of indigenous descent, who are two-thirds of the population but poorer than their ethnic-Chinese and -Indian compatriots



Its benefits are debatable and its costs calamitous
ECONOMIST.COM


Unpredicted by the polls, the Conservatives win Britain's general election. Though it has pandered to some portions of the electorate, especially pensioners, David Cameron’s government can hardly be accused of shirking its fiscal responsibilities; it campaigned on a promise to take an additional £12 billion ($19 billion) from the welfare budget. For Labour, the result is calamitous http://econ.st/1F3gJb5

Victory was the pride of Chatham dockyard in Kent, the largest warship built for the Royal Navy. However, on 7 May 1765, shipwright Hartly Larkin realised, tossing in his bed in the small hours, with VIPs from the government and navy invited on board for a splendid ceremony later that day, there was a calamitous error: Victory was too wide to fit through the wooden gates of the dock to be launched into the Medway.

For U.S., Dread of Another Dropped Baton

Batons may not seem particularly calamitous, but they have been the undoing of several American 4x100-meter relay teams at recent Olympics and world championships.











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So Light on Her Feet

Throughout the 1950s and '60s, the Lions Club of Greater Miami named one local woman "Miss Light," to be a spokeswoman for the club's annual "Lights for Sight" charity fundraising campaign. In 1954 the Miss Light crown was awarded to University of Miami student and baton twirler Sandy Wirth. Wirth went on to become a finalist in the 1955 Miss America competition.




Asia's historical impact on the US has been more calamitous and bloody by far than anything Middle Eastern; think of the conflict with Japan during the second world war, the Korean war and Vietnam. Even today, the US is fighting one of its two big wars in Afghanistan in central Asia.

 ca・lam・i・ty



 
━━ n. 悲惨, 惨禍.
 ca・lam・i・tous ━━ a. 悲惨な; 災難を起す; 不幸な.

calamity

a serious accident or bad event causing damage or suffering
A series of calamities ruined them - floods, a failed harvest and the death of a son.




calamitousLine breaks: ca¦lam|itous
Pronunciation: /kəˈlamɪtəs /

Definition of calamitous in English:

ADJECTIVE

Involving calamitycatastrophic or disastrous:such calamitous events as fireshurricanes, and floods
Derivatives
calamitously
1
ADVERB





Definition of pander in English:

verb

[NO OBJECT] (pander to)
Gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire ortaste or a person with such a desire or taste):newspapers are pandering to people’s baser instincts






shipwright
ˈʃɪprʌɪt/
noun
  1. a shipbuilder.


twirl
v., twirled,  
twirl·ing, twirls.v.tr.
  1. To rotate or revolve briskly; swing in a circle; spin: twirled a baton to lead the band.
  2. To twist or wind around: twirl thread on a spindle.
v.intr.
  1. To move or spin around rapidly, suddenly, or repeatedly: The pinwheel twirled in the breeze.
  2. To whirl or turn suddenly; make an about-face: twirled in the direction of the noise.
  3. Baseball. To pitch.
n.
  1. The act of twirling or the condition of being twirled; a quick spinning or twisting.
  2. Something twirled; a twist: a twirl of cotton candy.

[Origin unknown.]









China's claim to sovereignty over Tibet clashes with Tibetan demands for self-rule. A podium discussion, organized by the German China Association, debates the opposing positions.
Yahoo hopes to strike a deal to sell a minority stake to a private-equity firm by year's end. Short of that, the company will pursue other alternatives, they said.

short of
1. Having an inadequate supply of, as in We're short of cash right now. [Late 1600s] Also 

see fall short of.
2. Less than, inferior to, as in Nothing short of her best effort was needed to make the team. [Mid-1500s]
3. Other than, without resorting to, as in Short of yelling, I had no other way of getting his attention.
4. See stop short, def. 3.




Sergei Rachmaninoff began his long relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1909, when--at the invitation of then conductor Carl Pohlig--he appeared for the first time on an American podium to conduct his 2nd Symphony. Later, under Leopold Stokowski's baton, the Orchestra offered several Rachmaninoff world premiere performances, including his 4th Piano Concerto (1927), Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (1934), and 3rd Symphony (1936).


baton
n.
  1. Music. A slender wooden stick or rod used by a conductor to direct an orchestra or band.
  2. A hollow metal rod with a heavy rubber tip or tips that is wielded and twirled by a drum major or drum majorette.
  3. A short staff carried by certain public officials as a symbol of office.
  4. Sports. The hollow cylinder that is carried by each member of a relay team in a running race and passed to the next team member.
  5. A short stick carried by police; a billy club.
  6. Heraldry. A shortened narrow bend, often signifying bastardy.
[French bâton, from Old French baston, stick, from Vulgar Latin *bastō, *bastōn-.]





podium

  • レベル:社会人必須
  • 発音記号[póudiəm]

[名](複 〜s, -di・a 〔-di〕)
1 指揮台, 台, 壇;((米))(本・原稿などを載せる)演壇(lectern).
2 《建築》腰壁, 台壁;(古代神殿などの)基壇;(古典建築の)腰石;(古代ローマの円形闘技場の)ひな壇式観覧席.
3 (空港などの)チケットカウンター.
4 《植物》葉柄.
[ラテン語]






undoing
ʌnˈduːɪŋ/
noun
  1. a person's ruin or downfall.
    "he knew of his ex-partner's role in his undoing"
    • the cause of a person's ruin or downfall.
      "that complacency was to be their undoing"






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