【熟词生义】
1.frequent v. /frɪ'kwent/ ( a. /ˈfriːkwənt/
常到;常去;常出入于 If someone frequents a particular place, they regularly go there.
black South Africans with money in turn exploited that loophole to frequent those hotels and restaurants.
He began frequenting cheap bars.
a neighborhood frequented by tourists
a restaurant frequented by local politicians
2.register
His leaving wasn’t anything traumatic, because it never registered that we might lose touch and never see each other again. In my mind it was just Dad’s moving to CapeTown for a bit. Whatever.
3.forward v.
转交;转发;转接 If a letter or message is forwarded to someone, it is sent to the place where they are, after having been sent to a different place earlier.
I kept pestering them and finally they said, “Okay, we’ll take your letter and, if a man such as you’re describing exists, we might forward your letter to him. If he doesn’t, maybe we won’t. Let’s see what happens.”
We will forward your letters to him.
When he's out on the road, office calls are forwarded to the cellular phone in his truck...
4.drive n.
强烈欲望;强烈需求;本能需求 A drive is a very strong need or desire in human beings that makes them act in particular ways.
a strong natural need or desire
Once we reconnected, I was overcome by this drive to make up for all the years we’d missed.
The need for food and water are basic drives for all living things.
5.after
追求；搜寻If you are after something, you are trying to get it.
Interviews will give you facts and information, but facts and information weren’t really what I was after.
They were after the money...
I did eventually find what I was after.
6.pepper sb with sth
（小物体）密集地击打，连续击打 If something is peppered with small objects, a lot of those objects hit it.— often used figuratively
As soon as I arrived I started peppering him with questions.
The reporters peppered her with questions. [=the reporters asked her a lot of questions]
The boxer peppered his opponent with punches.
【词组】
1.have sb over
used to say that someone is coming to your home as a guest;
if you have someone over, they come to your house to visit you or to stay with you
I know that he loves traveling, loves entertaining, having people over.
We’re having the Simpsons over for supper on Tuesday evening.
We're having some friends over for dinner tonight.
2.opposites attract
used to say that people who are very different from each other are often attracted to each other
My mom was wild and impulsive. My father was reserved and rational. She was fire, he was ice. They were opposites that attracted, and I am a mix of them both.
3.self-righteous/ˌsɛlfˈraıʧəs/
moral superiority [suːˌpɪriˈɔːrəti]
having or showing a strong belief that your own actions, opinions, etc., are right and other people's are wrong
One thing I do know about my dad is that he hates racism and homogeneity more than anything, and not because of any feelings of self-righteousness or moral superiority.
a self-righteous person/tone
self-righteous indignation
It's OK to criticize, but don't be/get self-righteous about it.
We have to learn tolerance and to stop being so self-righteous.
4.take it upon yourself to do something
to accept responsibility for something without being asked to;
to do something that needs to be done even though no one has asked you to do it;
to decide to do sth without asking permission or advice
The restaurant closed only because a few people in the neighborhood took it upon themselves to complain.
Thank you for taking it upon yourself to organize the meeting.
He took it upon himself to personally thank each person at the meeting.
5.melting pot
熔炉(指不同民族或思想融合混杂的地方或状况) A melting pot is a place or situation in which people or ideas of different kinds gradually get mixed together.
After apartheid fell, my father moved from Hillbrow to Yeoville, a formerly quiet, residential neighborhood that had transformed into this vibrant melting pot of black and white and every other hue.
The city is a melting pot of different cultures.
the American melting pot
the vast melting pot of American society
6.roll/flood/pour/in
used for saying that large numbers of people or things, or large amounts of something, arrive somewhere
（人）大量涌入（或涌出），蜂拥 If people pour into or out of a place, they go there quickly and in large numbers.
Immigrants were pouring in from Nigeria and Ghana and all over the continent, bringing different food and exciting music.
Crowds poured in from everywhere to watch the race.
Holidaymakers continued to pour down to the coast in search of surf and sun...
7.make a deal with
I’d made a deal with my mom that if I went with her to mixed church and white church in the morning, after that I’d get to skip black church and go to my dad’s, where we’d watch Formula 1 racing instead of casting out demons.
8.cast out ↑
赶走;抛弃;丢弃 To cast out something or someone means to get rid of them because you do not like or need them, or do not want to take responsibility for them.
to force (someone or something) to go away
He was cast out of [=expelled from] the tribe.
They tried to cast out the spirits from the haunted house.
One of the roles which science plays is that of casting out superstition...
9.go all out
to do something with as much effort as possible
I loved Christmas with my dad because my dad celebrated European Christmas. European Christmas was the best Christmas ever. My dad went all out.
When he has a party, he likes to go all out. [=have a big and expensive party]
Her company always went all out [=did everything possible] to make the customer happy.
10.outside of
除了…之外；不包括 Outside of is used to introduce the only thing or person that prevents your main statement from being completely true.
Outside of birthdays and special occasions, all we had were our Sunday afternoons.
Nobody knew outside of a few close friends.
Every single relationship I've had with a man, outside of my husband, has ended in disaster.
11.a closed book
a person or thing that is difficult to understand
He was caring and devoted, attentive to detail, always a card on my birthday, always my favorite food and toys when I came for a visit. But at the same time he was a closed book.
Even to his closest friends, he was always something of a closed book.
Nuclear physics is a closed book to most of us.
12.white flight
(美)白人大迁徙（白人从市中心地区，尤其是黑人聚居区域，向郊区的迁移）a situation where white people who can afford it go to live outside the cities because they are worried about crime in city centers
At the same time, Yeoville had started to suffer from white flight, neglect, general decline. Most of my dad’s German friends had left for Cape Town.
13.leave for ↑
to depart for some place
We will leave for Denver at dawn.
When do we leave for Grandmother's house?
14.take off
(产品、活动、事业等)腾飞，突然成功 If something such as a product, an activity, or someone's career takes off, it suddenly becomes very successful.
to quickly become very successful or popular
My career took off quickly.
Her career took off after she won an Oscar for best supporting actress.
Our business is really starting to take off.
In 1944, he met Edith Piaf, and his career took off.
15.saving grace
可资弥补的特点;可取之处;仅有的优点 A saving grace is a good quality or feature in a person or thing that prevents them from being completely bad or worthless;
a good quality that makes a bad or unpleasant person or thing better or more acceptable
When a parent is absent, you’re left in the lurch of not knowing, and it’s so easy to fill that space with negative thoughts.“They don’t care.” “They’re selfish.” My one saving grace was that my mom never spoke ill of him.
Ageing's one saving grace is you worry less about what people think.
It's expensive, but the machine's saving grace is its ease of operation.
One of her saving graces is a good sense of humor.
16.speak/think ˈill of sb ↑
Don't speak ill of the dead.
She never speaks ill of anyone.
17.reach out to
to ask someone for help
I started by reaching out to some of his old connections, German expats in Johannesburg, a woman who used to date one of his friends who knew somebody who knew the last place he stayed.
他的朋友的曾经的女朋友→朋友→知道他最后呆过哪儿的一个人
She urged him to reach out to his family.
When I reached out to Don for help, he turned me down.
Jane reached out to her friends for the help and support that she needed.
18.be pushing (number)
to be nearing a specified age
接近；将近 If you say that someone is pushing a particular age, you mean that they are nearly that age.
My father was pushing seventy by that point, and I was so afraid I’d forgotten what he looked like.
Pushing 40, he was an ageing rock star.
19.leave off
to stop doing sth;
to stop before finishing a story, conversation, etc.
We picked up right where we’d left off, which was him treating me exactly the way he’d treated me as a thirteen-year-old boy.
Start reading from where you left off last time.
Let's begin where we left off.
Where did we leave off in our conversation?
20.a creature of habit
someone who likes to do the same thing at the same time every day
Like the creature of habit he was, my father went straight back into it. “Right! So where were we? Here, I’ve got all your favorites. Potato Rösti. A bottle of Sprite. Custard with caramel.”
21.make up for
弥补;补足To make up for a bad experience or the loss of something means to make the situation better or make the person involved happier.
make up for lost time
to spend a lot of time doing something because you did not have the chance to do it before
Once we reconnected, I was overcome by this drive to make up for all the years we’d missed.
After 30 years apart the sisters were keen to make up for lost time.
22.dunno [dəˈnoʊ]
— used in writing to represent the sound of the phrase don't know or I don't know when it is spoken quickly
“So how do you get to know people?”
“I dunno. By spending time with them, I guess.”
“What do you want to do today?” “I dunno.”
“Where did he go?” “Dunno.”
23.pack up
打点（行装）If you pack up or if you pack up your things, you put your possessions or the things you have been using in a case or bag, because you are leaving.
Then, as I was packing up to leave, he walked over to me and sat down.
They packed up and went home...
He began packing up his things.