分类目录归档:英语学习资料

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 35

1. things that are utterly repugnant to morality
与道德完全抵触之事物
注意:①区别utterly与completely。②repugnant的语体。

2. But he felt that psychoanalysis gave facile explanations which were intensely satisfying at first but soon left one has hungry as before.
注意:这句话我暂不翻译,原文如此,大家看看有无问题。牛津的书,错别字是很多的。

3. such attempts to anchor oneself
此类使自己站稳立场的努力
注意:anchor这里是及物动词的比喻义。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 34

1. cut a cross into the palm of his hand
在他手的掌面上刻一个十字
注意:the palm of his hand与his palm有何区别?我这里特意用“手的掌面”而不是“手掌”。

2. after sentence has been pronounced
判刑之后
注意:①sentence前为何无冠词?②pronounce与sentence的搭配。

3. There was no single morality, but rather diverse systems of morals.
没有单一的道德,只有多元的伦理体系。
注意:区别morality与morals——别忘了,还有morale和可用名词单数形式的moral。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 33

1. not least because she is still under the spell of her brief relationship with Klamm 18 years earlier
尤其因为她还沉浸于十八年前与克莱穆的那段露水情缘里,不能自拔
注意:①not least的语义。②relationship这里专指男女关系。③“露水”应brief。④earlier能换成ago吗?

2. promiscuous sexual activity
淫乱(的性生活)
注意:“的性生活”不要也可,更简洁。我第一次看到promiscuous,是《新概念英语》第四册讲野兔繁殖的那课。(话说,帮我整理第四册授课笔记的诸位志愿者,多数都厌倦怠工了吧?靡不有始,鲜克有终啊……)重音在第二音节-mis-上。再送两个可以联想到的高大上单词:satyriasis和nymphomania。

3. The marital relationship founders, perhaps on Frieda’s possessiveness, certainly on K.’s egotism.
这段婚姻关系的告败,或许有傅丽达占有欲太强的因素,也一定是K.过于自私自利。
注意:①marital relationship即marriage。②区别作动词原型的find、found和founder。③两个on都表原因。④egotism亦作egoism。不要看到-ism就掏出“主义”。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 32

1. the family’s struggle for rehabilitation
全家人为重焕门楣所做的努力
注意:汉文里的“平反”,就是rehabilitation。动词rehabilitate如直接宾语为人,则语义要看上下文作二选一。如为建筑,则语义单一。-h-在多数词典里不发音。

2. Amalia’s resistance to Sortini’s predation
阿梅利亚对索尔蒂尼性侵犯的抗拒
注意:看到predation,请复习以前遇到的predator和predatory。predation这里是比喻义,词典里都不多见,所以我就摘录了。

3. a reservoir of national memory
民族记忆的汇集
注意:reservoir发音受其语源(法语)影响。这里是比喻义。英语同源词是reserve。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 31

1. total institutions
集权机构
注意:此total与totalitarianism有关。

2. concentration camps and death camps
集中营与死亡营
注意:death camp其实算concentration camp的一种,又称extermination camp,进去就别想出来了。

3. a germ of hope
一丝希望
注意:我大学时背过的flicker例句是a flicker of hope。还可以说a glimmer/ray/spark of hope。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 30

1. the apparatus of administration
行政机构
注意:apparatus的多重语义:器官、机构、设备。其中,表示“设备”时不可数。

2. the hippopotamus-hide whips
那些犀牛皮鞭
注意:①希腊语里,hippos是“马”;potamos是“河”。②区别hide、skin与leather;区别“皮”、“革”与“草”。

3. retain symbolic contact with their homeland
保留与祖国在象征意义上的联系
注意:①区别retain与keep。②motherland不如homeland常用。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 29

1. homosexual sadism
同性施虐狂
注意:①由homosexual想到heterosexual和asexual。②sadism的词源与读音;由之想到masochism。

2. K. [. . .] has a knife twisted in his heart.
K(……)的心让人用刀绞了。
注意:由此可译比喻义的“心如刀绞”。

3. a railway which was built by forced labour
一条由强征来的劳力修建的铁路
注意:古文里“征”与“发”不同。韩退之《圬者王承福传》里,有“发人为兵”(当时的“兵”已作“士兵”解了)。
继续阅读

少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 27

1. several Kafka protagonists

好几位卡夫卡笔下的主人公

注意:①Kafka作名词定语。②由protagonist想到antagonist。

2. distil an ideal type of the modern professional man

终于呈现出现代职场人士的一种典范

注意:①distil的比喻义。美语作distill。②an ideal type与the ideal type的差别。

3. the one whose facial rictus freezes his features in an involuntary grin

那个人,其狞笑在不由自主一咧嘴时,令表情瞬间凝固

注意:rictus的本义。
继续阅读

英文中常被用错的22个词

22 Everyday Words You Might Not Realize You’ve Been Using Incorrectly
AUG. 21, 2013

By NICO LANG

Did you know that the word “terrific” originally meant something completely different? A lot of the words we use have changed meaning over time, differing from their common or intended use. Other words sound so much like the other words that they are often used interchangeably, like bemused and amused. These are the things that make English fun, watching the ways in which words shift with time and colloquialisms, and these entries delighted the grammar nerd in me.

Below you’ll find some of the most commonly misused words — and some that just diverged from the way they were meant be used. In the comments, sound off with some misused words that really bug you. What are words that no one seems to get right?

Here’s 22 to start:

1. Ironic
Does not mean: Something cosmically shitty or funny that happened to you.
Does mean: An occurrence that is the opposite of what you’d expect.

Easily the most abused word in the English language, we partially have Alanis Morrisette (God love her) to blame for this one. The most “ironic” thing about the song “Ironic” is that its singer can’t define irony. (Or perhaps she’s so clever that such is the point?) A no smoking sign on your cigarette break? Unfortunate, not ironic. The good advice that you just didn’t take? Poor judgment, not irony.

2. Peruse
Does not mean: To skim a text or browse over the key parts.
Does mean: To read something attentively.

If you’re a grad student, you’ve likely “perused” your reading at some point — by reading the first line of every paragraph or using one of the other infinite tricks grad students use to not have a meltdown. But if you look at the parts of the word, you can see how we’re all using it wrong. “Peruse” originally comes from “per use,” which traditionally indicates that you plan to “use up” the text with your passionate reading of it. Thus, the text is meant to be “per use” — or to be specifically used once. The other meaning came later.

3. Consent
Does not mean: To give one’s enthusiastic permission or agreement
Does mean: To passively agree, even if you have a negative opinion of what you’re agreeing to

As a feminist, I’m all into “consent” in the bedroom, but the word doesn’t quite mean what we all think it does. Consent, as an acquiescence, is far more neutral in value. If you consent to something, you’re not cheering it on. You’re allowing it to happen — with your permission. It’s more of a shrug. But assent indicates you really, really want it — just as much as Robin Thicke thinks you do. So, ladies, if you want to tell him that Yes Means Yes, make sure to give assent. It sounds more fun that way.
继续阅读