procrastination
拖延
While on the surface procrastination often looks like laziness, at the heart of it lies fear.
I'm not discounting 20-something exploration here, but I am discounting exploration that's not supposed to count, which, by the way, is not exploration. That's procrastination.
barrier
A barrier is something such as a rule, law, or policy that makes it difficult or impossible for something to happen or be achieved.
Duties and taxes are the most obvious barrier to free trade.
A barrier is a problem that prevents two people or groups from agreeing, communicating, or working with each other.
She had been waiting for Simon to break down the barrier between them.
A barrier is something such as a fence or wall that is put in place to prevent people from moving easily from one area to another.
The demonstrators broke through heavy police barriers.
You can refer to a particular number or amount as a barrier when you think it is significant because it is difficult or unusual to go above it.
They are fearful that unemployment will soon break the barrier of three million.
widow/widower
A widow is a woman whose husband has died and who has not married again.
A widower is a man whose wife has died and who has not married again.
She became a widow a year ago.
He is a widower and lives in Durango.
charisma
You say that someone has charisma when they can attract, influence, and inspire people by their personal qualities.
He has neither the policies nor the personal charisma to inspire people.
persona
/pɜːˈsəʊnə/ Someone's persona is the aspect of their character or nature that they present to other people, perhaps in contrast to their real character or nature.
The contradictions between her private life and the public persona are not always fully explored.
He was actually afraid to meet the young children who read his books for fear that they were expecting him to be this kind of jolly Santa Claus-like figure and would be disappointed with his more reserved persona.
lunatic asylum
疯人院 [ˈluːnətɪk ə'saɪləm]
keg party
饮酒聚会 （keg是装啤酒的桶）
Camp was more like a keg party without any alcohol.
nightgown
(= nightdress) a sort of loose dress that a woman or girl wears in bed.
Police reports said she was found wearing a long nightgown, socks, and a jacket
I had a vision of 10 girls sitting in a cabin, cozily reading books in their matching nightgowns.
introvert
An introvert is a quiet, shy person who finds it difficult to talk to people.
She loves cats and lizards, spends her free time making costumes, and am a bit of an introvert at heart.
Despite her eccentricities, she was no introvert, was a lively presence on various online sites and game worlds.
contacts
隐形眼镜
You should wear contacts.
barge
平底载货船
Carrying goods by train costs nearly three times more than carrying them by barge.
cartilage
软骨 /ˈkɑːtɪlɪdʒ/
Sharks are harvested for meat and cartilage, liver oil and, especially, for their fins.
But there can be serious side effects, including liver problems and cartilage and tendon abnormalities.
a nail clipper
指甲刀
embryo
/ˈɛmbrɪˌəʊ/ 胚胎；萌芽阶段
There are 24,000 frozen embryos in clinics across the country.
And women were active in Britain's embryo trade unions and radical politics in the 1820s-1840s.
heyday
Someone's heyday is the time when they are most powerful, successful, or popular.
In its heyday, the studio's boast was that it had more stars than there are in heaven.
Some companies had a product advantage in their heyday but lost it a long time ago.
interplay
互相影响
Innovative breakthroughs are the result of the interplay between convergent and divergent modes of thinking.
the interplay of political, economic, social and cultural factors
milieu
/milˈyou/ Your milieu is the group of people or activities that you live among or are familiar with.
They stayed, safe and happy, within their own social milieu.
What usually goes unexplained in these studies is exactly what creativity means in a corporate milieu.
There are a lot of people who still live in the 1960s milieu, where small is beautiful
That's a lot harder for me because as honored as I am to be here with all of you right now, this is not my natural milieu.
pasture
牧场
The cows are out now, grazing in the pasture.
But sheep ranchers already have more sheep pasture than they know what to do with.
percussion
打击乐器
a large orchestra with a vast percussion section.
prescription
处方
his new drug will not require a physician's prescription.
I'm not sleeping even with the prescription Ackerman gave me.
pretension
If you say that someone has pretensions, you disapprove of them because they claim or pretend that they are more important than they really are.
The city has unrealistic pretensions to world-class status.
But it should have no pretension that it will conquer the world.
prose
[UC] 散文
Does the ability to write great prose translate to managing a team of reporters?
Public performances and popular prose works were necessary distractions from the writing of poetry.
canoe
[kə'nu] 独木舟
In his wake, the broken canoe, the people's bodies and their few possessions were strewn in the water.
raft
木筏，小型充气船
a river trip on bamboo rafts through dense rainforest.
rayon
人造丝，化纤
the old woman's rayon dress
seismology
/saɪzˈmɒlədʒɪ/ 地震学
the Seismological Society of America 美国地震协会
shrub
灌木
Experimental models suggest a burst of shrub growth should have accompanied the temperature rise.
sulfur
硫，硫磺
Burning sulfur creates poisonous fumes.
anthropology
/ˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒɪ/ 人类学
bureau
/ˈbjʊərəʊ/ A bureau is an office of a company or organization that has its main office in another city or country.
the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau.
a government department
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
The problem lies in how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the cost of living
enzyme
/ˈɛnzaɪm/ 酶
Those afflicted by the disease are missing an enzyme that breaks down a particular fat.
fervor
a very strong feeling for or belief in it
Nationalist fervour has kept the energy industry all-but closed to foreign money for decades.
In the late 1970s, diamonds were the subject of considerable investment fervor.
fungus
['fʌŋɡəs] 真菌
mint
薄荷，薄荷糖
She popped a mint into her mouth.
铸币厂；[v]铸造
In 1965 the mint stopped putting silver in dimes.
the right to mint coins.
peninsula
the political situation in the Korean peninsula.
tycoon
[taɪ'kun] A tycoon is a person who is successful in business and so has become rich and powerful.
Wang admitted leaking information on pending deals to Taiwanese tycoon Fred C
a property tycoon 房地产大亨
solace
a feeling of comfort that makes you feel less sad.
I found solace in writing when my father died three years ago.
And we have tried to offer solace when your soldiers have returned home injured.
site hustle
副业，第二份工
you say you're working 50 hours a week, maybe a main job and a site hustle.
blinds
百叶窗
Pulling the blinds up, she let some of the bright sunlight in.
I could tell you I don't have time to dust my blinds, but that's not true.
payroll
在职的领工资的人员名录
They had 87,000 employees on the payroll.
triathlon
铁人三项
premise
[ˈpremɪs] something that you suppose is true and that you use as a basis for developing an idea
I question the entire premise of this piece.
It relies on the outdated premise that the future is at least somewhat predictable
Your article is based on a ridiculous premise and I believe anyone would see that
tardiness
迟到
he was fired for repeated tardiness.
Participants frown upon late arrivals, and some data-obsessed engineers have even computed the costs of tardiness
I would like to blame them for my occasional tardiness, ...
oxymoron
If you describe a phrase as an oxymoron, you mean that what it refers to combines two opposite qualities or ideas and therefore seems impossible.
Clean coal, as the name implies to the masses who were listening to the debate, is an oxymoron.
Public charity is an oxymoron and often counterproductive.
Grounders in space, it's an oxymoron...It's the only choice. - Only choice, also an oxymoron, by the way. - So is cold sweat.
premonition
(不详的)预感
He had an unshakable premonition that he would die.
He sees movement in the industry that supports his premonition.
trafficking
非法交易
Violent crime in the northern triangle is not entirely owed to drug trafficking.
These organizations are also involved in human trafficking, arms smuggling and other forms of crime.
"There are more victims of human trafficking in our jails than traffickers, " she said.
microbe
微生物
What comes out is a mess of data, strings of genetic material where it is not always easy to tell what DNA comes from what microbe.
predecessor
['prɛdəsɛsɚ] （工作上的）前任 the person who had your job before you；前一代（机器）
Yet the Obama administration actually followed the timetable and agreement reached by its predecessor.
Although the car is some 2 inches shorter than its predecessor, its boot is 20 percent larger.
puppet
['pʌpɪt] 木偶；傀儡
When the invasion occurred he seized power and ruled the country as a puppet of the occupiers.
He married again and opened a puppet theatre.
slate
石板
a stone-built cottage, with a traditional slate roof
do not take account of previous mistakes or failures and make a fresh start.
Pay everything you owe, so that you can start with a clean slate.
clear the slate and start over 不计前嫌，不管之前的障碍
prophecy
a statement in which someone says they strongly believe that a particular thing will happen. 预言
Will the teacher's prophecy be fulfilled?
self-fulfilling prophecies 自我实现的预言
seasonal affective disorder
季节性情绪失调
obsessive-compulsive disorder
强迫症
a locust plague/a plague of locusts
蝗灾
sewer
下水道
the city's sewer system
Like there's a man, he's walking down the sidewalk. Without realizing it, he crosses over an open manhole, and he just plummets into the sewer below.
manhole
路边下水道的窨井 ~ cover 井盖
excerpt
摘录
scrutiny
under scrutiny=being studied or observed very carefully.
His private life came under media scrutiny.
Three meat processing plants have also been closed and another 21 are under scrutiny.
antique
古董
an antique market
auditorium
礼堂；观众席
dorsal fin
背鳍
mural
壁画
nostalgia
[nə'stældʒə] 怀旧；思乡
The nostalgia wave has spawned scores of websites offering thousands of former East German products.
rhinoceros
[raɪ'nɑsərəs]同rhino，犀牛
senator
参议员
trench
沟渠，战壕
We fought with them in the trenches.
trench coat 军用防水大衣
subsidy
补贴，津贴 ['sʌbsədi]
depot
仓库
The depot is supposed to be around here somewhere.
chamomile
/'kæməmaɪl/ 甘菊
lavender
薰衣草
deterrent
威慑物
They seriously believe that capital punishment is a deterrent.
The idea of building a nuclear deterrent is completely off the political agenda.
moss
青苔
ground covered over with moss.
septic
腐败性感染，败血性感染
psychiatrist
[saɪ'kaɪətrɪst] 心理医生
apprentice
学徒
I started off as an apprentice and worked my way up.
bracelet
手链；手镯
anesthesia
麻醉剂
fatalities
death caused by an accident or by violence.
Drunk driving fatalities have declined more than 10 percent over the past 10 years.
seclusion
隔离，隔绝 [sɪ'klʊʒən]
seclusion policy
live in seclusion