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发表于 2016-7-10 00:15:31
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7. Compelled
What you think it means: To do something voluntarily by choice.
你认为单词的含义是:志愿选择做某事。
What it really means: To be forced or obligated to doing something.
单词的真正含义是:被迫或有义务做某事。
This is one that people get wrong and it’s rather understandable. The real
definition is very close to the definition people generally use. The difference
is the motivation. When people say compelled, they think the person wants to
perform the action. In fact, they are forced to do it regardless of their
personal feelings. Here’s an example. When you’re in court, you are compelled to
give honest testimony. You may not want to, but it doesn’t matter because you
have to.
这个单词被人们搞错其实倒也情有可原。它的真实定义和人们通常误用的含义很接近,但区别就在于动机如何。当说到compelled(被迫)时,人们以为说话者想做某事,但实际上,说话者是有违自身情绪而被迫去做某事的。举个例子,在出庭时,你就是compelled(被迫)如实作证的,你可能心里不情愿,但不管怎样你只能这么做。
8. Nauseous
What you think it means: To feel ill.
你认为单词的含义是:感觉不舒服。
What it really means: To cause feelings of illness.
单词的真正含义是:令人不舒服的。
This is another understandable mishap that a lot of people make. If you
actually feel sick then you are nauseated. The object that made you feel ill is
nauseous. Here’s how this works. If you’re at an amusement park and you’re
sitting next to a full trash can, the fumes from the trash may make you feel
ill. That means the fumes from the trash can are nauseous because they are
making you feel nauseated.
许多人用错这个单词也是情有可原的。如果你果真感到不舒服,那么你会nauseated(作呕),让你感到不舒服的东西是nauseous(作呕的)。请看下面的例子。假设你坐在游乐园一个满满的垃圾桶旁边,垃圾桶里冒出的烟雾让你感到不舒服。这就是说,垃圾桶里冒出的烟雾是nauseous(令人作呕的),因为它让你感到
nauseated(作呕)。
9. Redundant
What you think it means: Repetitive.
你认为单词的含义是:重复的。
What it really means: Unnecessarily excessive.
单词的真正含义是:过剩的。
This one is tough because you can use it wrong but unintentionally use it
right. When you repeat something a bunch of times, it can become redundant, but
redundant expands far beyond just repeating things over and over. A popular
thing companies are doing now is firing people but instead of calling it
“getting fired,” they call it “eliminating redundancies.” The premise being that
the employee they’re firing is unnecessary and excessive and they are thus
eliminating them. In pretty much any scenario where there is simply too much of
something, it is redundant.
这个单词有点复杂,因为你可能总会用错,却也不一定什么时候就用对了。当你不断重复某事很多次后,事情可能就会变得redundant(多余的),但是
redundant这个词所包含的意思远不止“不断重复”。当下公司都很流行解聘雇员,但他们不会说“炒你鱿鱼”,而是称之为“裁员”;但前提是,被裁的员工是可有可无的、多余的,这样就可以裁掉了。在很多情况下,如果某事太多太剩,那就是redundant(多余的)了。
10. Enormity
What you think it means: Huge, enormous.
你认为单词的含义是:巨大的,庞大的。
What it really means: Profoundly immoral or evil.
单词的真正含义是:极其不道德的或邪恶的。
Don’t beat yourself up over this one because no one knows this one off the
top of their head. Enormity sounds like enormous and as with many of our other
examples, here we expect words that sound alike to have similar meanings.
Enormity simply means really evil. An example of how to use it is the following:
“The enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazis in World War II.” It doesn’t
mean the enormous crimes, it means the heinous crimes.
不要因为用错这个单词而自责,因为没多少人能不假思索地知道这个单词。Enormity(穷凶恶极)的发音和enormous(庞大的)比较相近,正如先前提过的许多例子一样,对于发音相似的单词,人们也很容易认为它们的意思也一样。Enormity是指“极其邪恶”。举个例子来说明如何使用这个单词吧。“纳粹分子在二战中犯下的罪行是enormity(穷凶恶极的)。”它不是说enormous(庞大的)罪行,而是指十恶不赦的罪行。
11. Terrific
What you think it means: Fantastic, good.
你认为单词的含义是:妙极了,极好的。
What it really means: Horrific, to inspire fear.
单词的真正含义是:可怖的,令人害怕的。
This is another one that we expect will be changed in the dictionary
eventually because barely anyone uses the real meaning anymore. When people say
they feel terrific, they mean to say they feel fantastic. An example of
something terrific is King Kong. You see a giant monster and it inspires fear.
We’re going to loop awesome in with this one too. Awesome simply means to
inspire awe and people often use it to describe something really good.
我们认为这个单词的含义以后也会在词典里重新修订,因为现在几乎没有人会去使用它的真正含义。当人们说感觉terrific(恐怖的)时,他们是指感觉fantastic(好极了)。《金刚》就是典型的terrific(可怖的)例子,因为它是巨怪,让人感到恐惧。在此顺便说说awesome这个单词吧。Awesome是指“让人感到惊惧”,但现在人们用这个词的时候主要是指“某事好极了”。
12. Effect
What you may think it means: To cause something to change.
你以为单词的含义是:引起某事发生变化。
What it really means: An event that causes a change.
单词的真正含义是:引起变化事件。
A lot of people staunchly defend the wrong definition of this and it’s
understandable. When action A causes a change in object B, action A affected
object B and object B has been affected. Effect is an event that causes a
change. In our prior example, action A is, in and of itself, an effect because
it affects things. It’s admittedly confusing to explain but easy to remember. If
it’s a noun, it’s an effect. If it’s a verb, it’s an affect.
很多人是错误用法的拥趸者,这是可以理解的。当行动A导致事物B发生变化,行动
A影响了事物B,因此,事物B受到了影响。Effect其实是指引起变化的事件。在先前的例子中,行动A本身就是个effect(事件),因为它影响了事物。不得不说,这么解释起来很容易引起困惑,不过记起来却不难。如果是名词,那就是effect(事件);如果是动词,那就是affect(影响)。
13. Disinterested
What you think it means: Bored.
你以为单词的含义是:无趣的。
What it really means: Neutral.
单词的真正含义是:中立的。
A good way to remember this one is that there is a word that means bored
and it’s uninterested. If you’re uninterested, you’re bored. Being disinterested
is the long-form equivalent of stating that you don’t care about something.
要记住这个单词,有个办法就是别忘了已经有一个单词表示“无趣的”——这个单词就是uninterested。如果你uninterested(不感兴趣),那自然就“无趣”了。Disinterested是表示“对某事不关心”的一个单词。
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