I've got myself a task today: I want to imprint 20 very strange and unfamiliar English words or phrases in my brain, making them ones that are useful as far as my conversation goes.
強行記憶20個單詞短語，而且讓它們成為我的常用詞彙，而非閱讀詞彙。
1. Morbid 2. Snarky 3. Belligerent 4. Relic 5. Treading Water 6. Get one riled up
7. Truce 8. Sleazy 9. Chumm 10. Pejorative 11. One's stomping ground 12. Vulture
13. Brawn and Brain 14. Backpedal 15. Scoop 16. Gig 17. Obfuscate 18. Frenzy 19. Whack 20. Sabotage
See, this is not easy to many of us, especially those with poor memory. Here's how I do it:
對於我們大部分人來說，記性不太好，很難。所以我的做法是：
Step one: split them into pairs. 首先兩兩配對；
Step two: make sure I look up each word or phrase closely in an English-English dictionary and have a basic understanding of how it is used in a context, e.g. in a sentence. (Sometimes I need to use urban dictionary) 然後用英英詞典或網上的“本土詞典”查，通過例句大概知道什麼場合用；
Step three: read them out loud to make sure I know how to pronounce and spell them. 大聲讀出來，確保發音和拼寫基本沒問題；
Step four (key): based on my prior understanding, connect each pair of words by a sentence I create, then visualize the scene. 根據之前大概的對單詞詞組的理解，兩兩造句，视觉化场景。
1. Morbid is an adj. related to sick-looking or abnormal mentality... snarky refers to irritable, easy to get angry or sarcastic...
The husband became snarky when his wife kept on the morbid suspicion.
他的妻子總是無病呻吟愛懷疑，導致他變得怒火中燒愛挑刺。
2. Belligerent is an adj. meaning wanting to fight or always trying to challenge... relic is the remains of something...
In an interpersonal relationship term, your unstoppable belligerent reaction would leave everything a relic.
從人際交往的角度，你不停的挑釁最終只會讓自己的一切變得狼狽如殘骸。
3. Treading water refers to proactively get oneself involved in an unfavorable or even fatal situation... get one riled up means make someone irate, pissed off...
Kids are outrageous sometimes and like treading water, which really gets their parents riled up.
小孩有時候會任性喜歡蹚渾水，讓家長氣的火冒三丈。
4. Truce is a term to indicate ceasefire of both parties... sleazy relates to anything or anyone dirty, cheap, disgusting, whore-like sometimes...
She faked a truce with her husband and acted sleazy behind his back.
她假裝和丈夫議和，背後卻像個婊子一樣骯髒。
5. Chumm can be a verb or noun, indicating living together intimately... pejorative is a NOUN! It means disdainful words, being mean...
Hey Ric! Just because I am chumming with you doesn't grant you any pejoratives!
好你個理查德！我和你同居不代表你就能夠語言上輕薄我！
6. One's stomping ground, nice expression! meaning a place I go to very often... vulture... a bird... relative to eagle but more intimidating I guess...
Vultures like to hover around their stomping ground for preys.
禿鷹喜歡在自己的老地方上空盤旋狩獵。
7. Brawn and brain, another nice term! muscle and wisdom, referring to physical and mental... backpedal is a noun, equals to back-off or concession...
Brawn or brain but backpedal, loser.
要麼直接打，要麼來陰的，不能退縮，傻貨。（用身體或用腦）
(Nice alliteration, omg) 英語中的前綴押韻。
8. Scoop, for the meaning I want to learn, is the exclusive news... gig, as well, is a temporary job, I think it sure means shorter than a contract or even without legit agreement...
The main purpose of my gig this time is to find a scoop in town.
我這份臨時工作的主要目的是讓城裡發生的一件事成為我的獨家報道。
9. Obfuscate, in case I forget, contains part of "confuse" - "fus", meaning confuse someone, make blur... frenzy refers to a state of mind with excitement or disturbance or irritation or mess...
He sure can obfuscate to manipulate frenzy in the audience.
他確實可以忽悠聽眾，給他們製造內心的凌亂。
10. Whack is some serious hit or impact... sabotage is not strike; it is doing work in a slack motion or being sluggish...
The sabotage in the department tripped the manager to a whack.
部門的懈怠對這位經理來說是一次不小的打擊。
Crazy enough, when I am done with this article, I saw a Wechat friend of mine posted a song called "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys... come on, I can never flunk this word again.
艾瑪，寫完本文後，看了眼朋友圈，有個朋友發了首叫Sabotage的歌在上面，你認為我還能忘記這個單詞嗎？