Vocabulary

swamp  v.应接不暇；不堪承受

 e.g.  She was swamped with work.

 The railway station was swamped with thousands of families trying to flee from the city.

dominate v.支配；控制

  e.g. Her loud voice totally dominated the conversation.

When your biggest rival leaves a market you already  dominate, it must be good news.

awful adj.令人讨厌的；糟糕的

        e.g. After seven days of work with little rest, I looked awful and felt quite sleepy.

 Apart from the awful weather, London’s transport system may be another headache for visitors.

 frequent adj.  频繁的；时常发生的

 e.g. Can you think of any explanation for his frequent absence from work?

 David still loves his wife, but they now begin to have frequent and violent quarrels.

respond v. 回答；答复

e.g.  If your request is not responded to within two weeks, it may already be rejected. 

 Flood warnings must reach individuals in time and emergency services should respond quickly also.

immediately adv.立刻；立即

  e.g. You may leave immediately after you finish your work.

 I’d advise you to look into the matter immediately.

voicemail n. 语音信箱

  e.g. If a rogue reporter were to hack into someone’s  voicemail, is there any way to detect the intrusion? 

 Switch off your phone and allow messages to go to voicemail.

 cheer v. 欢呼；喝彩

 e.g. The crowd cheered as she went up the steps to the bandstand. 

 Hundreds of thousands of jubilant Americans cheered him on his return. 

 taskmaster n. 监工；工头

 e.g. In Somalia, the two bin Laden boys were employed by a cruel taskmaster, known for his furious outbursts.

 He's Seventh Avenue's resident taskmaster, having virtually run a designer prep school for the past two decades. 

blink v.(灯光)闪烁

 e.g. The small red lights on the production control desk started blinking.

 When you see the light in that window blinks three times, throw the box into the snow and drive off.

    n. 眨眼工夫，瞬间；眨眼（动作）

 e.g. In the blink of an eye, I changed my mind and decided to stay.

 Suddenly his eyes gave a blink.

 godsend n. 天赐之物

 e.g. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer.

 Paper products, pens, and other physical tools are a godsend for those of us who have a hard time focusing throughout the work day.  

response n. 答复；回复

 e.g. My suggestions met with little response.

 Your positive response will encourage the students greatly.

immediate adj. 立刻的；立即的

 e.g. Immediate response should be given for the  safety of the hostage.

 The matter is urgent. An immediate and affirmative reply is requested.

 half-baked adj. （想法、计划等）考虑不周的

 e.g. From this point of view, an education system without professional educators will be to a large extent half-baked.

 Having half-baked knowledge is worse than knowing nothing at all.

charge v. 收费

 e.g. They charged me more than I expected.

 The restaurant charged us £40 for the wine.

remove v. 去除；排除

 e.g. Now that the last obstacle is removed, the following process should speed up a lot.

 It is rather difficult to remove the unpleasant impressions the public have of him.

hesitation n. 犹豫；踌躇

 e.g. We shall make no hesitation in defending our rights.

 He had no hesitation in rejecting the offer.

  hesitate v. 犹豫

 e.g. Don’t hesitate to tell me if you have any complaints.

 If I can be of any assistance to you, do not hesitate to let me know.

overload n. 过量；超负荷

 e.g. 57 percent complained of work overload. 

 The fact is, you have to constantly delete information from your conscious mind, otherwise you’d go into sensory overload. 

texting 

n. （手机的）短信收发

e.g. How do you and your texting habits compare? 

 twittering n. （在推特网上）发消息

e.g. Twittering is very convenient. 

  Facebook 脸谱网

announce v. 宣称；声明

  e.g. The doorbell of the shop announced the arrival of a customer.

 The mayor is expected to announce changes to the policy in the next week.

announcement n. 声明，通告

 e.g. There has been no formal announcement by the government on the launch of the project.

 The CEO made an announcement at the news conference.

ban v. 禁止；取缔

 e.g. Our company will ban smoking in all offices later this year.

 Charlie has been banned from driving for a year.

 futile adj. 无益的；无用的；徒劳的 

 e.g. As a whole our efforts did not prove to be futile.

 All his attempts to unlock the door were futile,  because he was using the wrong key.

distracting adj. 使人分心的

 e.g. He closed his eyes to put a stop to all distracting thoughts, sitting there quietly and peacefully.

 His endless sneezing and coughing is really distracting.

       distract v. 分散（注意力）

 e.g. Video games sometimes distract him from his homework.

 First of all, we must think of a way to distract her attention.

challenge n. 难题；挑战

 e.g. The new government‘s first challenge is the economy.

 The demonstrators have now made a direct challenge to the authority of the government. 

command n. 命令；指令

 e.g. The tanker failed to respond to a command to stop. 

 I closed my eyes at his command. 

be compelled to 不得不；被迫

 e.g. If you can’t keep your promise, I shall be compelled to sue you.

 Owing to the strong wind, the work will be compelled to stop.

instant messaging  即时通讯；即时信息

 e.g. The best comparison I can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. 

 For purposes of covering this instant messaging technique in an article format, we scaled down the awareness version that our company uses. 

no wonder难怪；怪不得

 e.g. As you were absent-minded, it’s no wonder that you know nothing about the speech.

 He had made a thorough investigation. No wonder he knew so much about it.

phase out 逐渐废除

  e.g. Will that country phase out its oil exports?

 The company has announced plans to phase out some of its cars next year.

figure out 解决；弄明白

 e.g. I can’t figure out what he  was hinting at.

 We need to figure out the reasons behind to prevent it from happening again.

get rid of 摆脱；去掉

 e.g. He shook the blankets to get rid of the dust.

 It is difficult to get rid of deep-rooted habits.

etiquette n. 礼仪；礼节

  e.g. According to etiquette, you should stand up to meet a guest.

 Etiquette gives us the tools and the confidence to know how to act and what to do in any set of 

   circumstances.

 predominant adj. 占大多数的；最普遍的

 e.g. Green was the predominant color in the forest.

 Love of liberty is the predominant feeling of many people here.

preferred adj. 首选的；更好的

  e.g. Hong Kong is one of the most preferred destinations for investment by foreign companies.

 Bright purple is his most preferred color. 

pitfall n. 可能出现的问题；陷阱

 e.g. This pitfall cost us one year.

 This is a major pitfall.

timely adj. 适时的；及时的

 e.g. We are particularly grateful to him for his timely help.

 What we expected is nothing less than a timely payment.

preferably adv. 更可取地；更好地

 e.g. Your early reply will be highly appreciated, preferably within this week.

 Taking exercise is pretty good for your health, preferably in the fresh air.

receipt n. 收到

  e.g. Goods should be supplied within 28 days after the receipt of your order. 

 We are taking action, having been in receipt of a letter from him. 

plain  adj. 表达清楚的；易懂的

 e.g. The plain truth is that he doesn’t like you.

 We prefer plain English rather than jargon and slang.

sarcasm n. 讽刺；挖苦；嘲笑

 e.g.  Sarcasm and demeaning remarks have no place in parenting. 

She was given to using bitter sarcasm.

inflection n.  语音的抑扬变化

e.g. In addition to the lexical dictionaries that are used during the dictionary lookup, there are also special internal inflection dictionaries.

caution n. 小心；谨慎

  e.g. Consumers should treat promotions with caution and only buy things they really need.

 There is no need for such caution.

delete v. 删除

 e.g. He deleted files from the computer system because of misoperation.

 If you delete 50 words, we can put the whole story on one page.

figure of speech  修辞手段；比喻

e.g. "The leopard cannot change his spots" is just a figure of speech. 

       mass e-mail 群发邮件

e.g. Mass e-mails can be dangerous sometimes.