2018年10月29日 星期一

commoner, Don’t let filler words become a crutch.



Japan's Princess Ayako married commoner Kei Moriya, who works for a major shipping company, in a ritual-filled ceremony Monday at Tokyo's Meiji Shrine. Her decision means leaving the imperial family.


-0:12











Don’t let filler words become a crutch.


HBR.ORG

How to Stop Saying “Um,” “Ah,” and “You Know”
To eliminate filler words, understand the role they play in your speech.

beat, upbeat, boogie, nightspot, chez


Welcome chez W B Yeats!



After 91 Years, New York Will Let Its People Boogie

By ANNIE CORREAL

On Tuesday, the City Council is set to repeal the city's Cabaret Law, a Prohibition-era rule that made it illegal to dance in most nightspots.


chez
ʃeɪ/
preposition
  1. at the home of (used in conscious imitation of French).

    "I spent one summer chez Grandma"


nightspot
ˈnʌɪtspɒt/
noun
informal
  1. a nightclub.

1. to dance to, sing to or play boogie-woogie music
2. to engage in any lively or upbeat popular music or dance

especially rock and roll or 1970's disco
3. to party especially when drugs are involved4. (also BOOGIE-WOOGIE) to engage in habitual lifestyle of immoral or destructive vices
The rich couple had cocaine and other party favors and had their friends over at the mansion to boogie all night long.


〈太鼓などが〉〈規則正しいリズムを〉刻む(out);《音楽》〈リズム・拍子を〉刻む,取る;〈心臓が〉規則正しく打つ,鼓動する(⇒pulsate
  • beat time
  • 拍子を取る



preparatory upbeat


upbeat


NOUN

  • (in music) an unaccented beat preceding an accented beat.[名]〔the ~〕《音楽》上拍(の指示)
    • ‘The song has three stanzas of six lines, carrying four stresses downbeats separated by upbeats.’
    • ‘But havoc and harmony learn to coexist, most harmoniously on ‘Circle Square Triangle’, whose guitars punch thick upbeats despite an ungainly note count.’
    • ‘Movement is slowed with stops at percussive upbeats.’
    • ‘There are a lot of upbeats, up in the air, which is great for dancing but really hard for an orchestra.’

ADJECTIVE

informal 
  • Cheerful; optimistic.[形]((略式))楽天的な;陽気な
    ‘he was upbeat about the company's future’

2018年10月25日 星期四

Ultracrepidarian, remain a Remainer


ultracrepidarian
  •  
  •  
Definition: one who is presumptuous and offers advice or opinions beyond one’s sphere of knowledge
The meaning of this word comes from a story in antiquity, in which the famed Greek painter Apelles one day heard a cobbler criticizing the way he had rendered a foot in a painting. Apelles then said to the shoemaker something very cutting and witty about how he shouldn’t presume to judge beyond his station. The exact remark has, unfortunately, been lost in time, but since the Latin phrase ultra crepidam means “beyond the sole,” we may imagine that Appeles used this, or something similar, in his rebuke. Hence, an ultracrepidarian is one who, as a shoemaker might, goes “beyond the sole,” and offers advice on matters they perhaps should leave alone.
The fatal dowry has been cobbled sure, by some purblind ultracrepidarian. 
—Thomas Lovell Beddoes, letter to Thomas F. Kelsall, 11 Jan., 1825




Simon Kuper thinks it's a patriotic duty to keep fighting Brexit.


FT.COM

Opinion: Why I remain a Remainer
‘If Brexiters had come out with a proper plan, they would have soon bored most Remainers into irrelevance’

2018年10月24日 星期三

caravan, breezy, scamper, pull up (STOP), cursory


After 24 hours stuck on a bridge between nations, the 7,000+ migrant caravan found another way. Now it's a 2,500-mile walk north to America. And that walk will include jungles and deserts and monsoon rains. https://cnn.it/2EEfpUh


"Corbyn went to war on a manifesto that was the breeziest defence of European social democracy I’ve seen in my adulthood."


BOHMTE, Germany -- Like countless other communities, this west German town lived for years with a miserable traffic problem. Each day, thousands of cars and big trucks barreled along the two-lane main street, forcing pedestrians and cyclists to scamper for their lives.



In my first lecture, as Sue said, I took a long view, trying to bring Confucius into the present era - a long scamper as it were of a lecture from the 5th century BC down to the year 2008; but in this lecture, In my first lecture, as Sue said, I took a long view, trying to bring Confucius into the present era - a long scamper as it were of a lecture from the 5th century BC down to the year 2008; but in this lecture,
正如Sue說,我在第一次講座採取長遠觀點,試圖把孔子召回當代—-從公元前5世紀談到2 008年,快步旅行過長歷史,但這一講我可不再如此勇敢,而想看看中國和西方之間的互動關係,特別是它與英國和美國的。
Until recently, Robert Allen Stanford was known mainly as a colorful Texas financier and a power broker in the breezy money haven of Antigua.

But on Tuesday, a caravan of cars and trucks carrying federal authorities pulled up to the headquarters of his company, the Stanford Group, to shut down what the regulators described as a "massive ongoing fraud" stretching from the Caribbean to Texas, and around the world.

For decades, Chinese scientists say, they have known of the risk of a potentially catastrophic earthquake along the Longmenshan belt, the area where the Wenchuan earthquake struck, and repeatedly raised their concerns with government authorities. But they say preparations for a quake there were cursory at best, and building codes remained well short of the codes that have become standard in other well-known earthquake zones, including Beijing itself.


美國總統川普表示,約七千中美洲民眾所組成、正在朝美國邊界前進的旅行隊伍(caravan),已成為國家緊急事件。



caravan
Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together
Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop
Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals
Convoy, a group of vehicles or ships traveling together for mutual support
Caravan (towed trailer), a self-contained trailer based camper or recreational vehicle containing beds, a kitchenette, dining and storage areas; chiefly British usage

breezy
ˈbriːzi/
adjective
  1. 1.
    pleasantly windy.

    "it was a bright, breezy day"
    synonyms:windyfreshbriskairyMore
  2. 2.
    appearing relaxed, informal, and cheerily brisk.

    "the text is written in a breezy matter-of-fact manner"


cursory 
adjective
quick and probably not detailed:
a cursory glance/look
a cursory examination

cursorily 
adverb
He glanced cursorily at the letter, then gave it to me.

pull up (STOP) phrasal verb
When a car or someone driving a car pulls up, the driver stops the car, often for a short time:
A car pulled up outside my house.

scamper Show phonetics
verb [I + adverb or preposition] ━━ n., vi. 走り回る; 素早く逃げる ((away, off)); 走り読みする; 駆け抜けるように旅行する ((through)).
━━ n. 走り回ること; 急ぎ旅; 走り読み.
When small children and animals scamper, they run with small quick steps, in a playful or frightened way:
The children scampered off into the garden.