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Reading to Develop Your Ideas Book 3. Unit 1 Family and Marriage. New words and expressions for Reading One. stop by: If you stop by somewhere, you make a short visit to a person or place. (INFORMAL) Perhaps I’ll stop by the hospital... I’ll stop by to see Leigh before going home.
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New words and expressions for Reading One • stop by: If you stop by somewhere, you make a short visit to a person or place. (INFORMAL) • Perhaps I’ll stop by the hospital... • I’ll stop by to see Leigh before going home.
drop something off or drop somebody off: to take something or someone to a place by car and leave them there on your way to another place • I’ll drop you off on my way home.
renowned: A person or place that is renowned for something, usually something good, is well known because of it. • The area is renowned for its Romanesque (罗马风格的)churches...
placidly:calmly and peacefully • Dobbs stood at the entrance, placidly smoking his pipe. • rant and rave: If you say that someone rants and raves, you mean that they talk loudly and angrily in an uncontrolled way. 大声叫嚷 • I don’t rant and rave or throw tea cups. • Why don’t you stop ranting and raving for a minute and listen?
tick off: If you tick off a list of something, you go through each item at a time. 列举 • ticked off: American English angry or annoyed • Mark’s ticked off with me for some reason. • give somebody a ticking off: British English informal to tell someone angrily that you are annoyed with them or disapprove of something they have done (tick somebody off)
grievance: If you have a grievance about something that has happened or been done, you believe that it was unfair. • They had a legitimate grievance... • The main grievance of the drivers is the imposition of higher fees for driving licences. • rip up old grievances: 重提旧怨; 翻出老帐
harpy: A harpy is an insulting word for a woman who nags all the time and may be nasty. • henpecked: A man who is henpecked is always being told what to do by his wife, and is afraid to disagree with her. • a henpecked husband
diabetic: A diabetic is a person who suffers from diabetes. • pick up: to acquire casually or by accident • 不经意得到, 随便或偶然地获得 • picked up a mink coat on sale • 减价抛售时随手买了一件貂皮大衣
on the dot: informal exactly on time or at a particular time • I’ll be there on the dot. • at three o’clock/seven thirty etc on the dot (=at exactly 3:00/7:30 etc) • Mr Green arrived at six on the dot.
deck: a set of playing cards [= pack British English] • Irene shuffled the deck. • a deck of cards
glowing: A glowing description or opinion about someone or something praises them highly or supports them strongly. • The media has been speaking in glowing terms of the relationship between the two countries...
trying: If you describe something or someone as trying, you mean that they are difficult to deal with and make you feel impatient or annoyed. • Support from those closest to you is vital in these trying times...
speak volumes (about/for something): If something speaks volumes, it clearly shows the nature of something or the feelings of a person. • What you wear speaks volumes about you.
indefinable: An indefinable quality or feeling cannot easily be described. (WRITTEN) • There was something indefinable in her eyes... • She felt an indefinable sadness.
back out: If you back out, you decide not to do something that you previously agreed to do. • After you’ve signed the contract, it will be impossible to back out. • = pull out
beleaguered: A beleaguered person, organization, or project is experiencing a lot of difficulties, opposition, or criticism. (FORMAL) • There have been seven coup attempts against the beleaguered government.
browbeaten: If someone tries to browbeat you, they try to force you to do what they want. “Browbeaten” is the adjective form. • harangue: If someone harangues you, they try to speak in a loud angry way, often for a long time, in order to criticize you or to persuade you that they are right.
the pearly gates: the entrance to heaven— often used humorously 天国之门 • Saint Peter: the leader of Jesus Christ’s twelve disciples (=his close friends and followers), who became the leader of the first Christians. He is considered by Catholics to be the first Pope, and Christians think of him as being in charge of the keys of the gates to Heaven. He is sometimes called Simon Peter.
Check Your Vocabulary A • 1. My mom is well-known for being a good cook. She decided to cook a simple but delicious meal for as many as 150 guests, though it was not necessarily her duty to do so. • 2. Dad sat there as my mom kept listing her complaints about him one after another.
Check Your Vocabulary • 3. Dad was not good at cooking at all and the only thing that he could do was to prepare a cup of coffee. And that’s probably why he hadn’t eaten dinner yet. • 4. My parents’ acts explicitly expressed the love they had for each other, with no reliance on words. • 5. He was not sure what he was heading for and he nearly gave up the idea of getting married.
New words and expressions for Reading Two • slick: smooth and slippery • budge: If someone or something will not budge, they will not move. If you cannot budge them, you cannot make them move. • Her mother refused to budge from London... • I got a grip on the boat and pulled but I couldn’t budge it.
glare: If you glare at someone, you look at them with an angry expression on your face. • The old woman glared at him... • Jacob glared and muttered something. • He glared round the room as if expecting a challenge.
harness: When you harness two animals, you fasten them together. When you are harnessed to something, you are tied to or closely connected with it. • live: Live animals or plants are alive, rather than being dead or artificial. • ...a protest against the company’s tests on live animals. • ...baskets of live chickens. • ≠ dead
pen: A pen is a small area with a fence round it in which farm animals are kept for a short time. • ...a holding pen for sheep... • = enclosure
stock: Stock are cattle, sheep, pigs, or other animals which are kept by a farmer, usually ones which have been specially bred. • I am carefully selecting the breeding stock. • 我正在精心挑选种畜(专供繁殖配种的牲畜,尤指公畜)。 • = livestock
trough: A trough is a long narrow container from which farm animals drink or eat. • yearling: an animal, especially a young horse, between one and two years old • corpse: A corpse is a dead body, especially the body of a human being. • morale: Morale is the amount of confidence and cheerfulness that a group of people have. • Many pilots are suffering from low morale...
psyche: In psychology, your psyche is your mind and your deepest feelings and attitudes. (TECHNICAL) • His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.
trump card: Your trump card is something powerful that you can use or do, which gives you an advantage over someone. 王牌 • In the end, the Ten took their appeal to the Supreme Court; this, they had believed from the outset, would be their trump card...
carry oneself: support oneself • sore spot: sore point/spot/subject (with somebody) something that is likely to make someone upset or angry when you talk about it • Just don’t mention it — it’s always been a sore point with him.
bicker: When people bicker, they argue or quarrel about unimportant things. • I went into medicine to care for patients, not to waste time bickering over budgets... • ...as states bicker over territory... • He is still bickering with the control tower over admissible approach routes. • = squabble
jerk: informal someone, especially a man, who is stupid or who does things that annoy or hurt other people • I swore at him for being such a jerk. • roll one’s eyes: roll one’s eyes, to turn one’s eyes around in different directions or in a circle, esp. as an expression of disbelief, annoyance, or impatience • He rolled his eyes when he heard the stupid joke.
heave a sigh: to breathe in and then breathe out noisily and slowly once • Mr Collier heaved a sigh and got to his feet. • Rebecca heaved a sigh of relief. • clomp: to walk heavily and noisily • regally: adv. When you walk regally, you walk in an impressive and noble manner, like a queen or king.
talk out: If you talk out something such as a problem, you discuss it thoroughly in order to settle it. • Talking things out with someone else can be helpful... • Talk out your problems. Do not keep them bottled up. • = talk through
hoist: If you hoist something heavy somewhere, you lift it or pull it up there. • Hoisting my suitcase on to my shoulder, I turned and headed toward my hotel... • Grabbing the side of the bunk, he hoisted himself to a sitting position.
haul: If you haul something which is heavy or difficult to move, you move it using a lot of effort. • A crane had to be used to haul the car out of the stream... • She hauled up her bedroom window and leaned out.
shower off: to wash thoroughly • mechanics: The mechanics of (doing) something are the way in which something works or is done. • What are the mechanics of this new process? • The mechanics of the process are quite complex.
quench: If someone who is thirsty quenches their thirst, they lose their thirst by having a drink. • He stopped to quench his thirst at a stream.
sustenance: Sustenance is food or drink which a person, animal, or plant needs to remain alive and healthy. (FORMAL) • The state provided a basic quantity of food for daily sustenance, but little else. • Without sustenance, the animals will soon die. • Potatoes were their only means of sustenance.
stink up: to fill a place with a very unpleasant smell • counsel: advice (FORMAL) • He had always been able to count on her wise counsel... • His parishioners sought his counsel and loved him.
get some of the smell on them: to go for some religious or psychological counseling • Word: the Word of God
Check Your Comprehension A • 1. What was the trigger of the fight between the author and her husband? The author wanted her husband to pull the dead ostrich out of the pen immediately while her husband wanted to wait until he came back from work that day. • 2. According to the author, what was the real reason for the fight between her and her husband? The husband and wife hadn’t communicated enough and there were many things that they needed to talk out.
Check Your Comprehension A • 3. Who were Tweety, Tovis, Weiser and Eek? They were the ostriches the couple raised. • 4. Why did the author want her husband to move the body of the dead ostrich instantly? She wanted her husband to move the dead ostrich instantly because the other ostriches would be affected when they saw the dead body of a fellow ostrich.
Check Your Comprehension A • 5. Why did the author’s husband leave the room in a hurry? And why did he come back later? He stepped out to try to move the ostrich. He came back home a while later because it was too heavy for him to move himself and he needed his wife’s help.
Check Your Comprehension A • 6. What are some of the lessons concerning the husband-wife relationship that the author has learned from the dead ostrich incident? She has learned a lot from the incident: a. whenever a problem pops up in a marriage, solve it; b. a couple needs to work out a problem together; c. counseling helps one’s marriage; d. forgiveness and forgetfulness are necessary in marriage.
Check Your Comprehension B • 1. The other ostriches will be affected when they see the dead body of a fellow ostrich. • 2. I said what could hurt my husband the most. • 3. Our farm was not getting enough money to support the whole family. • 4. As a result, any incident, like the dead ostrich, was enough to start rows between the wife and the husband.
Check Your Comprehension B • 5. A spiritually mature person or couple may be willing to go for some religious or psychological counseling so that they can get rid of the problem in their marriage. • 6. They can always get refreshment from reading the Word of God.