每日一字

666

opulence
ascendancy
notoriety
ubiquitous
pervasive
prank
snag
buff
revamped
austere
ascetic
lieu
racy
listless
tomboy
laud
swoon
decorum
elucidate
dunzo
capricious
woebegone
nascent
furloughed
teal
torpedo

666

Opulence
n. extreme wealth; luxuriousness; abundance. opulent, adj.
The glitter and opulence of the ballroom took Cinderella's breath away.



Ascendancy
n. 1. controlling influence; domination. 2.the state of being in the ascendant

Leaders of religious cults maintain ascendancy over their followers by methods that can verge on brainwashing.

奥巴马快宣誓了，这个现在是个时髦词。　看下面：
There is also a completely different alternative definition. From the dictionary.com: the state of being in the ascendant. I think this second definition fits this Obama commentary:

Obama's ascendancy, seismic power shift
Published: Saturday | January 17, 2009
Kay Osbourne, Contributor
Awesome. This sums up President-elect Obama's ascendancy to the presidency of the United States of America and the Obama family's move into the White House as First Family. Tuesday's events change the game forever.

Another example:
Bush’s ascendancy was emblematic of insider privilege that long predates the American nation; Obama’s ascendancy was emblematic of the American Dream itself—and the symbolic weight of his electoral triumph has not been lost on the rest of the world.

666

Ｎｏｔｏｒｉｅｔｙ
ｎ．　1  : the quality or state of being notorious   2  : a notorious person  3: reputation

注意，１和２都带贬义；　３是中性。　怎么区分要看对象和场景了。
Ｓｏｍｅ　ｎｅｗｓ　ｃｏｍｍｅｎｔ　ａｂｏｕｔ　Ｏｂａｍａ，　ａｓ　ａｎ　ｅｘａｍｐｌｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｈｉｒｄ　ｄｅｆｉｎｉｔｉｏｎ：
－－　＂．．．　Over the decades, indeed, only a few have gained notoriety for the sublimity of their prose, the eloquence of their delivery or the aptness of their message for a concurrent crisis. Widely credited with writing stirring prose and with speaking mellifluously, Barack Obama will get rave reviews even if he reads straight from the Federal Register.＂

GW recently used this word also. Here, I think it also belongs in the third definition:
--  Shoethrower was "looking for notoriety," Bush said, adding that authorities shouldn't "overact" in their treatment of him.

当对象是下面二位的时候，是哪个定义呢？

海草

哇!!你这是英语12级吧?我一Baby级的,看不懂哦.....

666

海草: 哇!!你这是英语12级吧?我一Baby级的,看不懂哦.....

共同努力吧。

安静

快一日了，得赶快续着。


Ubiquitous

U*biq"ui*tous\, a. [See Ubiquity.] Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time; omnipresent. -- U*biq"ui*tous*ly, adv.

In this sense is he ubiquitous. --R. D. Hitchcock.

日暮苍山

长学问,请老师们务必坚持授课.

666

安静真好!今天我有点忙,zt一个例句吧。
Cellphone cameras have been ubiquitous at Barack Obama' appearances during his nearly two-year quest for the White House.

安静

另外一个相近的词

pervasive

adjective
spreading or spread throughout; "armed with permeative irony...he punctures affectations"; "the pervasive odor of garlic"; "an error is pervasive if it is material to more than one conclusion" [syn: permeant]

666

我觉得二字的差别是一个是静态的无所不在，另一个是动态的渗透性。

mist

谢谢安静教的两个字。这两个字俺在专业里偶尔用到。

666总结的真好。看了你的总结，觉得还真是你说的这样。

俺贡献个俺不认识的字，刚在YAHOO看的，“PRANK”，是不是“恶作剧”的意思？真不好意思，这么简单的字俺却不认识。

666

mist: 谢谢安静教的两个字。这两个字俺在专业里偶尔用到。

666总结的真好。看了你的总结，觉得还真是你说的这样。

俺贡献个俺不认识的字，刚在YAHOO看的，“PRANK”，是不是

好！
我帮忙找些例句。　这里以名词和动词形式各出现一次：

Are Pranks Awaiting Obama at the White House ?
01/19/2009

When Barack Obama takes office, he won’t have trouble typing his name on keyboards in the White House. That’s because George W. Bush administration officials have promised they won’t prank the new Administration by removing the letter O keys, CNN reports.

When President Bill Clinton left the White House in Jan. 2001, some of his aides removed the W keys from White House keyboards in a prank making it difficult to type George W. Bush.

Source:
CNN: Bush aides: No “O’s” Will Be Removed from WH Keyboards

mist

谢谢群主帮着找例句，这个字还真是“恶作剧”呀。

mist

Playstation phone plans hit snag, reports say

In forest ecology, a snag refers to a standing, partly or completely dead tree, often missing a top or most of the smaller branches, while in freshwater ecology it refers to trees, branches and other pieces of naturally occurring wood found in a sunken form in rivers and streams.

666

mist: Playstation phone plans hit snag, reports say

In forest ecology, a snag refers to a standing, partly or completely dead tree, often missing a top or

今天的新闻标题：
GM hits a snag in cutting debts.

mist

谢谢666的例句。

刚在YAHOO看到这段：

So what about the South Beach Diet... and all those BUFF bodies you always see in the ocean-side metropolis?

buff:
-fan: an ardent follower and admirer
-a soft thick undyed leather from the skins of e.g. buffalo or oxen
-bare skin; naked; "swimming in the buff"
-buffet: strike, beat repeatedly; "The wind buffeted him"
-yellowish brown: a medium to dark tan color
-polish and make shiny; "buff the wooden floors"; "buff my shoes"
-an implement consisting of soft material mounted on a block; used for polishing (as in manicuring)
of the yellowish-beige color of buff leather

mist

With a "revamped" reality image, see which pageant contestant took the coveted title.

revamp:

to patch up or renovate; repair or restore; "They revamped their old house before selling it"

666

austere
Merriam-Webster's definition:
1 a: stern and cold in appearance or manner b: somber  , grave <an austere critic>
2: morally strict : ascetic
3: markedly simple or unadorned <an austere office> <an austere style of writing>
4: giving little or no scope for pleasure <austere diets>
5of a wine : having the flavor of acid or tannin predominant over fruit flavors usually indicating a capacity for aging

666

Op-Ed Columnist
No Time for Poetry
By FRANK RICH
Published: January 24, 2009

PRESIDENT Obama did not offer his patented poetry in his Inaugural Address. He did not add to his cache of quotations in Bartlett’s. He did not recreate J.F.K.’s inaugural, or Lincoln’s second, or F.D.R.’s first. The great orator was mainly at his best when taking shots at Bush and Cheney, who, in black hat and wheelchair, looked like the misbegotten spawn of the evil Mr. Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Such was the judgment of many Washington drama critics. But there’s a reason that this speech was austere, not pretty. Form followed content. Obama wasn’t just rebuking the outgoing administration. He was delicately but unmistakably calling out the rest of us who went along for the ride as America swerved into the dangerous place we find ourselves now.

...

The austerity of Obama’s Inaugural Address seemed a tonal corrective to the glitz and the glut. The speech was, as my friend Jack Viertel, a theater producer, put it, “stoic, stern, crafted in slabs of granite, a slimmed-down sinewy thing entirely evolved away from the kind of Pre-Raphaelite style of his earlier oration.” Some of the same critics who once accused Obama of sounding too much like a wimpy purveyor of Kumbaya now faulted him for not rebooting those golden oldies of the campaign trail as he took his oath. But he is no longer campaigning, and the moment for stadium cheers has passed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25rich.html

666

Region's Schools Brace for Austere Budgets in 2009-10
By Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 18, 2009; Page SM03

Money for Southern Maryland school systems will be much tighter in 2010 than it was last year, if the spending plan outlined last week for Charles County schools is any indication.

"We are facing the most austere and difficult times in well over a decade," Charles Superintendent James E. Richmond told county school board members Tuesday.

mist

666,OBAMA讲话那段里的AUSTERE是不是你上面的第三个定义，即“简单”的意思？

666

mist: 666,OBAMA讲话那段里的AUSTERE是不是你上面的第三个定义，即“简单”的意思？

我同意你的看法。
我加上了原文的连接。看了全文会比较清楚，尤其是后面有一段把austerity跟花里胡哨对比。

666

ascetic
1  : practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline  
2  : austere in appearance, manner, or attitude

666

The wealthy, self-indulgent young man felt oddly drawn to the strict ascetic life led by members of some monastic orders.

安静

lieu   /lu/ Show Spelled Pronunciation  [loo] Show IPA Pronunciation  

–noun 1. place; stead.
—Idiom2. in lieu of, in place of; instead of: He gave us an IOU in lieu of cash.

666

As the Tribune reported Sunday, Penfield remains lodged in the Crawford County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond on multiple charges.

666

racy
from Marriam-Webster
1 a: full of zest or vigor b: having a strongly marked quality : piquant <a racy flavor> c: risqué  , suggestive <racy jokes>2: having the distinctive quality of something in its original or most characteristic form

example here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/28/2009-01-28_banned_these_ads_are_too_racy_for_the_su-1.html

666

listless
- lacking in spirit or energy

666

前几天的洛杉矶新闻标题:
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: UCLA listless in Seattle

安静

666: racy
from Marriam-Webster
1 a: full of zest or vigor b: having a strongly marked quality : piquant <a racy flavor> c: risqué  , suggesti

这照片和racy有关么？

mist

oh, my god, i am glad i did not open this page at work :))

666

安静: 这照片和racy有关么？

不知道我有没搞错，觉得穿生日装就是racy。大概就是“露骨”的意思吧。ｍｉｓｔ都喊ＯＭＧ了，你还嫌不够露骨吗？

安静

666: 不知道我有没搞错，觉得穿生日装就是racy。大概就是“露骨”的意思吧。ｍｉｓｔ都喊ＯＭＧ了，你还嫌不够露骨吗？

没看见骨头啊。

666

Sorry to disappoint you, I can't make it too racy in school. :)

666

laud
v. praise.

The NFL lauded Boomer Esiason's efforts to raise money to combat cystic fibrosis

日暮苍山

安静: 没看见骨头啊。

大夫是用X光机看的.

安静

日暮苍山: 大夫是用X光机看的.

爆笑

666

日暮苍山: 大夫是用X光机看的.

高！

mist

666和苍山幽默，这个笑话可以作为“露骨”的双重含义的最好解释。

俺现在也跟着安静爆笑：))

不过，还没来得及学习那张照片所解释的英文字呢。

日暮苍山

不好意思,影响学习了.
请继续.

mist

Many Americans swoon at the high price tag and ask a simple question: How will we know it works?

swoon:
faint: pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain

666

Thanks Mist.
Saw this headline today about Montana:
Big Sky headed for bigger economic swoon

666

decorum
n. propriety; orderliness and good taste in manners. decorous, adj.

Even the best-mannered students have trouble behaving with decorum on the last day of school.

666

One more example here towards the end of the passage:

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

The New York Times ran this story last week: White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code.  In sum it said, "Mr. Obama promised to bring change to Washington and he has — not just in substance, but in presidential style." They reported that President Obama doesn't always wear a suit jacket when working, and he doesn't require his aides to dress formally on weekends. What's more, although it appears that Oval Office meetings so far have started on time, at least one ran over its allotted time.

At BuzzFlash, we didn't make much of it when the style news first broke on Wednesday. It was entertaining, like watching back episodes of "West Wing." But some critics have been very eager to pounce.  Here's what former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on right-wing radio about Obama:

    ... I found that Ronald Reagan and both President Bushes treated the Oval Office with tremendous respect. They treated the Office of the Presidency with tremendous respect. And some of that respect was reflected in how they expected people to behave, how they expected them to dress when they walked into the symbol of freedom for the world, the Oval Office. And yes, I'm disappointed to see the casual, laissez faire, short sleeves, no shirt and tie, no jacket, kind of locker room experience that seems to be taking place in this White House and the Oval Office.

    http://slog.thestranger.com...

Obama disrespects the office. Obama can't lead the free world. Obama belongs in the locker room. Those are the inferences to be read between the lines.

We accept that dress is symbolic, but we vehemently disagree that getting comfortable  -- in dress shirt and tie, contrary to Card's characterization -- in the Oval Office is, in effect, "dissing" the presidency. It's not like he showed up in a swimsuit and flip-flops at a state dinner. Could the lesson be instead that the Bush White House was all about appearances, photo ops, and decorum, whereas the Obama White House is signaling that they have gotten down to business, tackled complex problems, and begun to get things done from day one?

666

elucidate
- transitive verb   : to make lucid especially by explanation or analysis <elucidate a text>   
intransitive verb   : to give a clarifying explanation

安静

dunzo  

A hella dumb Southern California slang word derived from the word "done".

Why is it dumb? Consider the source...
Only in So Cal are they dumb enough to create slang longer then the original word itself. Fricken tards.

I am so glad that test is dunzo.

666

还真没见过这字，而且我的字典没有。

安静

嗯，昨天买了条很艺术的裙子，brand unknown. 上网查，说是这个clothes line 已经dunzo了。 只好再找dunzo是嘛意思。

666

原来如此。

666

capricious
- governed and characterized by caprice; impulsive; unpredictable

caprice
1 a: a sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action b: a sudden usually unpredictable condition, change, or series of changes <the caprices of the weather
2: a disposition to do things impulsively