| 单词 | 很难 |
| 释义 | 〔lutetium〕A silvery-white rare-earth element that is exceptionally difficult to separate from the other rare-earth elements, used in nuclear technology. Atomic number 71; atomic weight 174.97; melting point 1,663°C; boiling point 3,395°C; specific gravity 9.840 (at 25°C); valence 3. See table at element 镥：一种很难从其它稀有元素中分离出来的用于核技术的银白色稀有元素。原子序数71；原子重量174.97；熔点1,663°C；沸点3,395°C；比重9.840（温度25°C时）；化合价3 参见 element〔infrangible〕Difficult or impossible to break or separate into parts.不可分裂的：很难或不可能破裂或分裂成小部分的〔winter〕Winter, spring, summer, fall.It is not too difficult to see how the season namesspring and fall came into being, but without some background information it is impossible to tell what the origins of the wordswinter and summer are. Summer goes back to the Indo-European root .sem-, meaning "summer.” From a suffixed form of this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word.sumaraz, the ancestor of Old Englishsumor and its descendant, Modern English summer. This is the only Indo-European root referring to a season that has survived in an English name for a season.Of the other three,.wesr-, "spring,” has produced words such as vernal; ghyem-, "winter,” has given us words such as hibernate; andesen-, "harvest, fall,” has yielded earn ( from the prehistoric Common Germanic word.aznōn, "to do harvest work, serve"). Winter does, however, go back to the Indo-European root wed-, "water, wet.” From the formwe-n-d- of this root with the nasal infix -n- was derived the Germanic word .wintruz, with the underlying meaning "wet season" and the literal meaning "winter.”The Germanic word is the source of Old Englishwinter, the ancestor of Modern English winter. 冬，春，夏，秋。说出季节名spring 和 fall 的来历不是很难， 但如果没有一些背景知识，不可能知道winter 和 summer 的词源。 Summer 可追溯到印欧语中的词根 sem- ，意思是“夏天”。 给这个词根加后缀后又转化为史前的普通日尔曼词sumaraz， 这是古英语中sumor 的前身，由此又发展来现代英语中的 summer。 这是印欧语中表季节的词根在英语中作为季节名保留下来的唯一一个。另外三个wesr- “春”产生了象 vernal这类的词； ghyem-“冬”又给了我们单词 hibernate； esen- “收获，秋天”衍生出 earn ( 从史前的普通日尔曼词aznon “做收获的工作，服务”而来）。 然而winter 得追溯到印欧词根 wed- “水，湿的”。 由这个词根的we-n-d 形式和鼻音中缀 -n- 衍生出日尔曼语词 wintruz， 其隐含的意思是“湿润的季节”和字面意义“冬天”。这个日尔曼词是古英语中winter 的前身，也是现代英语 winter 的前身 〔estimate〕difficult to estimate the possible results in advance;很难估计正在发展的事物的结果；〔flying〕played the difficult passage with flying fingers.快速而轻松地翻阅这篇很难的文章〔concretize〕"The need to simplify and concretize . . . was hardly acceptable to a mind fascinated by the . . . suggestiveness of ideas"(Arthur A. Cohen)“简化和具体化的必要性…很难被那些脑子里…充满幻想的人所接受”(阿瑟A.科恩)〔fierce〕a fierce exam.一场很难的考试〔crescendo〕Crescendo is sometimes used by reputable speakers and writers to denote a climax or peak, as in noise level, rather than an increase. Although citational evidence over time attests to widespread currency,it is difficult for anyone acquainted with the technical musical sense ofcrescendo to use it to mean "a peak.” Such usage, as inWhen the guard sank a three-pointer to tie the game, the noise of the crowd reached a crescendo, was unacceptable to 55 percent of the Usage Panel.Crescendo 一词有时被享有声誉的演说家和作家用于表示高潮或顶点，而不是指渐强的过程，就象在噪声级中。 尽管过多的引证表明了这一流行趋势，然而对于熟悉渐强 这一音乐上的专门意义的人来说，很难把它用于指“顶点”。 在当后卫投入一个三分球而使比赛成平局时，观众的嘈杂声到达了极点 中的这类用法， 有55%的用法专题使用小组成员不接受〔very〕 as well as by other syntactic criteria.But the status of other participles is still in flux.Some speakers accept phrases such asvery appreciated, very astonished, or very heartened, while others prefer alternatives usingvery much. What is more, some participles allow treatment as adjectives in one sense but not another:one may speak ofa very inflated reputation, for example, but not, ordinarily, of a very inflated balloon. As a result, there is no sure way to tell which participles may be modified by a barevery —syntactic tests such as the use of the participle as an attributive adjective will themselves yield different judgments for different speakers—and writers must trust their ears.When in doubt, the use ofvery much is generally the safer alternative. 也可以由其它句法标准衡量。但是其它分词的位置还仍旧在变动，一些人同意例如very appreciated, very astonished（非常欣赏的，非常惊讶的） 或者 very heartened（极受鼓舞的） 这样的词组， 而另一些人喜欢选择使very much （非常的） 这种用法。 另外，有些分词允许在某些意义上用作形容词，但不能用在其它意义上：例如一个人可以说a very inflated reputation（很好的名誉） ，但一般不说 a very inflated balloon（很鼓的气球）。 这样一来，就很难辨别哪一个分词能只用very 修饰——句法测验， 例如作为一个定语形容词的分词用法，对于不同的说话者能产生不同的判断——作者必须相信他们的耳朵。当有疑问时，very much 的用法通常是一个比较安全的选择 〔break〕The horse was difficult to break.那匹马很难被制服〔microburst〕A sudden, violent downdraft of air over a small area. Microbursts are difficult to detect and predict with standard weather instruments and are especially hazardous to airplanes during landing or taking off.微爆：一小区域内空气突然剧烈的下降，用普通气象仪器很难发现及预报，对于正在降落或起飞的飞机尤为危险〔finicky〕Insisting capriciously on getting just what one wants; difficult to please; fastidious:苛求的，过于挑剔的：在得到自己想要的东西上任性地坚持的；很难令人满意的；挑剔的：〔immaterial〕The wordimmaterial, meaning "of no importance or relevance,” has made its way in the world in spite of the opposition of no less a figure than Samuel Johnson. Johnson stated that "this sense has crept into the conversation and writings of barbarians; but ought to be utterly rejected.”More than two centuries laterit is difficult for us to recover Johnson's strength of feeling,and this tale might in fact serve as a warning to those who believe that the usages they abominate will not survive and become standard.Although Johnson was a man of immense learning,he did not have the lexicographical resources available today.If Johnson had had access to theOxford Latin Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary, among other works, he would have seen that frommāter, meaning "a mother,” "a plant as the source of things such as cuttings or fruit,” and "a source,”was derived the wordmāteria, meaning "wood as a building material,” "any substance of which a physical object is made,” "the subject matter of a speech or book,” and "the condition whereby an action is effected.”The adjectivemāteriālis derived from māteria only meant "of or concerned with subject matter" in Classical Latin, but its descendant in Late and Medieval Latin and its descendants in Old French (materiel ) and Middle English ( material ) developed other meanings, such as "consisting of matter.”One Middle English sense, "important, relevant,”that probably harks back to senses of Classical Latinmāteria such as "subject matter" continued in existence after Middle English times. So it was natural for the English wordimmaterial, first recorded in the 15th century, to come to mean "not important,” in spite of Johnson's wrath.尽管不只塞缪尔·约翰逊一个人反对意思为“不重要的，无关紧要的”，immaterial 这个词还是产生了。 约翰逊声明：“这个意思偷偷出现在野蛮民族的对话和写作中；但应该遭到完全抵制。”两个多世纪之后，我们很难重新找到约翰逊强烈的感受。这个故事实际上可以算是对那些认为他们厌恶的用法不可能生存和标准化的人的一种警告。尽管约翰逊是一个博学的人，但是他没有今天可以得到的词汇学的资料。如果约翰逊除了其他著作外能得到牛津拉丁语词典 和 中古英语词典 的话， 他就能从中认识到这一点：mater ， 意思为“母亲”，“作为诸如剪下的东西或水果来源的一株植物”和“来源”，是由materia ， 意思为“建筑用的木材”，“用于制造物体的任何材料”，“讲话或著作的主题”和“影响一个行动的条件”而衍变而来的。形容词materalis 是由在古典拉丁语中仅仅意味着“和主题有关的” materia 衍变而来的， 但它在中古拉丁语和后期拉丁语中的衍生词和古法语中的衍生词(materiel )以及中古英语中的衍生词( material )继续发展有了其他的意思， 如“由物质组成的”。中古英语的一个意思“重要的、有关的”，很可能追溯到古典拉丁语materia 的意思如“主题”在中古英语时期之后继续存在。 因此，最早在15世纪被记录下来的英语单词immaterial 至今仍有“不重要的”的意思是很自然的， 尽管约翰逊对此很愤怒〔farther〕Farther and further have been used interchangeably by many writers since the Middle English period. According to a rule of relatively recent origin, however,farther should be reserved for physical distance andfurther for advancement along a nonphysical dimension. Thus 74 percent of the Usage Panel prefersfarther in the sentence If you are planning to drive any farther than Ukiah, you'd better carry chains; whereas 64 percent prefersfurther in the sentence We won't be able to answer these questions until we are further along in our research. In many cases, however, the distinction is not easy to draw.If we may speak metaphorically ofa statement that is far from the truth, for example, the analogous use offarther should be allowed in a sentence such as Nothing could be farther from the truth, though Nothing could be further from the truth is also justifiable. Farther 和 further 自从英国中世纪以来被许多作家交替使用。 然而，根据比较近的起源的法则，farther 应被用于实际距离， 而further 用于沿着非实际范围的前进。 因此用法专题使用小组中74％的成员喜欢将farther 置于句子 如果你计划开到比尤凯亚更远的地方，你最好带上链子 中； 而64%的成员则将further 用于句子 在调查取得更深入的进展前，我们不能回答这些问题 中。 然而，在许多例子中，方向很难把握。如果用此喻来陈述不符合事实的情况 ， 例如，farther 的类似用法允许用于句子， 如Nothing could be farther from the truth, 而Notting could be futher from the truth 也是对的 〔be〕Traditional grammar requires the nominative form of the pronoun in the predicate of the verbbe : It is I (not me ); That must be they (not them ), and so forth. Even literate speakers of Modern English have found the rule difficult to conform to,but the stigmatization ofIt is me is by now so deeply lodged among the canons of correctness that there is little likelihood that the construction will ever be entirely acceptable in formal writing.Adherence to the traditional rule in informal speech, however, has come to sound increasingly pedantic,and begins to sound absurd when the verb is contracted, as inIt's we. · The traditional rule creates particular problems when the pronoun followingbe also functions as the object of a verb or preposition in a relative clause, as in It is not them/they that we have in mind when we talk about "crime in the streets" nowadays, where the plural pronoun serves as both the predicate ofis and the object of have. In this example, 57 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the nominative formthey, 33 percent preferred the accusativethem, and 10 percent accepted both versions.But H.W. Fowler, like other authorities, argued that the use of the nominative here is an error caused by "the temptation . . . to assume, perhaps from hearingIt is me corrected to It is I, that a subjective [nominative] case cannot be wrong after the verb to be. ” Writers can usually find a way to avoid this problem: They are not the ones we have in mind, We have someone else in mind, and so on. See Usage Note at I 1we 传统语法要求系动词谓语中的代词用主格形式be ： It is I （而不是 me ）； That must be they （而不是 them ），等等。 即使现代英语有文化的人也发现很难遵守这个规则，而It is me 的烙印现在已深刻地印入了判断是否正确的准则之中， 以致很少有可能使这种用法在正式书面语中被完全接受。但是在非正式讲话中奉行传统规则已经日益变得象在卖弄学问。并且当系动词被缩减时，就象在It's we 中一样，听起来反而象是不合语法的。 当代词跟在be 后面做动词宾语或做关系从句中的介语宾语时，传统的规则就象在 当我们谈到当今“街上的犯罪”时，他们不是我们心中所想的那些人， 句中复数代词同时充当is 的宾语和 have 的宾语。 在这个例子中57%的用法使用小组更喜欢用主格形式they， 33%更喜欢用宾格形式them， 而10%则两种都接受。但是象其他的权威一样，H.W.福勒争论道，在这里用主格是一个错误，它之所以错是因为“多半听到了It is me 都被改正成 It is I 而拿不定主意，以为主格的情况在动词 to be 后面不可能错。” 作家们常常能够找到一个办法来避免这个问题： 他们不是我们所想的人，我们脑子里想的是另一些人等等 参见 I1we〔descry〕To catch sight of (something difficult to discern).See Synonyms at see 1看见，察觉，辨别：看到（很难察觉的）东西 参见 see1〔call〕Let's call the game a draw. I'd hardly call him a good manager.就称这比赛是练习吧。我很难称他为一位好的经理〔excel〕 Transcend often implies the attainment of a level so high that comparison is hardly possible: Transcend 经常意味着达到如此高的水平以致于其它东西很难与其相比： 〔nonnegotiable〕Difficult or impossible to settle by arbitration, mediation, or mutual concession:不可谈判的：很难或者不可能通过公断、调解或相互的让步解决的：〔fusion〕fusion of metals in an alloy; the difficult fusion of conflicting factions.金属熔化为合金；有利益冲突的派别很难融合〔paint〕These nonporous surfaces paint badly with a brush.这些不渗透的表面很难被刷子刷漆〔identify〕In the sense "to associate or affiliate (oneself) closely with a person or group,”identify has developed two distinct subsenses. In one, the verb suggests a psychological empathy with the feelings or experiences of another person,as inMost young readers readily identify (or identify themselves ) with Holden Caulfield. This usage derives originally from psychoanalytic writing,where it has a specific technical sense,but like other terms from that field,it was widely regarded as jargon when introduced into the wider discourse.In particular,critics seized on the fact that in this sense the verb was often used intransitively,with no reflexive pronoun.As Wilson Follett wrote in 1966,"The critic . . . could help restore the true notion in these words if he would give upidentifying at large and resume identifying himself with Ivan Karamazov, Don Quixote, Mary Poppins, or whomever.” In recent years, however, this use ofidentify with without the reflexive has become a standard locution. Eighty-two percent of the Usage Panel accepts the sentenceI find it hard to identify with any of his characters; whereas only 63 percent now accepts this same usage when the reflexive pronoun is used,as inI find it hard to identify myself with any of his characters. · Omission of the reflexive with this use ofidentify serves among other things to distinguish it from use of the verb to mean "to associate (oneself) with the goals, interests, or principles of a group.” This use of the verb can be traced back to the 18th century,but it is now somewhat less acceptable to the Panel than the first sense under discussion:58 percent of the Panel accepts the sentenceShe identified herself with the campaign against drug abuse, and only 40 percent acceptsShe identified with the campaign against drug abuse, where no reflexive pronoun is used. 在“使（自己）密切联系或依附于别人”这一意思中的。identify 一词又有两种不同的含义。 第一，这个动词表现了对其他人的感情或经历在心理上的认同，例如大多数青年读者很快认同了 （或 identify themselves ) 霍尔顿·科尔菲德。 这种用法来源于有关心理分析的著作，在这些著作中，这个词具有特殊的科技含义，不过就象从该领域引入的其它词语一样，这个词在日常生活使用中还带有专业术语的痕迹。特别指出的是，批评家们在发现这个词常常作为不及物动词来用，后面不带反身代词。正如威尔逊·福勒特1966年写到的，“如果评论家们很早就全面放弃identifying 而重新使用 identifying himself with 伊万·卡拉玛佐夫、堂吉诃德、玛丽·波普斯等人物，那就会有助于探询出这些词的真实含意。” 不过，近年来使用identify with 中间不加反身代词已成为一种标准搭配。 用法专题小组中82%的成员认为我觉得很难认同于他小说中的人物 一句是正确的； 而现在只有63%的成员接受使用反身代词来表达同一意思的句子，即I find it hard to identify myself with any of his characters。 省略反身代词以及其它一些方法，使identify 这种用法区别于它作为动词在“与某个集团的目标、利益或原则相联系”一句中的意思。 它作为动词的用法可追溯到18世纪，不过对于用法专题小组来说它没有第一种解释那样被易于接受：58%的小组成员接受她支持反对滥用药物的运动 这一说法， 只有40%的成员接受不要反身代词的She identified with the campaign against drug abuse 这一说法 〔real〕"It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true" (Bertrand Russell).“如果一个陈述没有任何理由说明它是真实的话，让人很难心甘情愿地相信它” （伯特兰德·罗素）。〔here〕"It would be difficult from here, with the certainty of armed gunmen inside, to bring him out alive"(Howard Kaplan)“因为里面肯定有带枪的武装人员，所以把他从这里活着带出来很难”(霍华德·卡普兰)〔pacification〕"Real pacification is hard to get in the Vietnamese countryside"(McGeorge Bundy)“在越南的乡下真正的安宁是很难实现的”(麦乔治·邦迪)〔tight〕Difficult to deal with or get out of:麻烦的，棘手的：很难处理或很难脱离的：〔impregnable〕Difficult or impossible to attack, challenge, or refute with success:无懈可击的：不能或很难攻击、挑战或驳倒的：〔put〕We were put to it to finish the book on time.我们很难按时读完这本书〔hard〕Under the circumstances, he was hard put to explain himself.在这种情况下，他很难为自己辩解〔softy〕A person who finds it difficult to punish or be strict.娇气的人：很难惩罚或严格要求的人〔ingrain〕"A system that had been ingrained for generations could not be easily undone by change from the top"(Doris Kearns Goodwin)“一个已经好几代人都根深蒂固的系统很难靠从上加以演变来破坏”(多丽丝·克恩斯·古德温)〔ombudsman〕The wordombudsman looks as if its constituents would be familiar, judging from the element man, but it is difficult to think of whatombuds could mean. Ombudsman is from Swedish, a Germanic language in the same family as English, andman in Swedish corresponds to our word man. Ombud means "commissioner, agent,” coming from Old Norseumbodh, "charge, commission, administration by a delegacy,” umbodh being made up of um, "regarding,” and bodh, "command.” In Old Norse anumbodhsmadhr was a "trusty manager, commissary.” In Swedishanombudsman was a deputy who looked after the interests and legal affairs of a group such as a trade union or business. In 1809 the office ofriksdagens justitieombudsman was created to act as an agent of justice, that is, to see after the interests of justice in affairs between the government and its citizens.This office of ombudsman and the wordombudsman have been adopted elsewhere, as in individual states in the United States.The term has also been expanded in senseto include people who perform the same function for business corporations or newspapers.从ombudsman 这个词的 man 这一组成部分看，它的构成似乎很眼熟， 但接下去就很难令人想起ombuds 到底是什么意思了。 Ombudsman 这个词源于和英语同属于日耳曼语族的瑞典语， 而man 这个词在瑞典语中的意思恰好和英语中的 man相对应。 Ombud 的意思是“调查团成员，代表”， 源于古斯堪的纳维亚语umbodh， 意为“由代表团负责，调查，管理”， umbodh 是由 um， 即“注视”和 bodh “命令、管理”两部分所构成。 在古斯堪的纳维亚语中，umbodhsmadhr 指一个“值得信任的管理者或代表”。 在瑞典语中，ombudsman 曾指一个管理一个群体如工会、商行的利益和法律事务的人。 1809年成立了司法巡查局 ，它是一司法机构， 即专门管理调查政府和公民之间事务的司法权益。巡检局和ombudsman 这个词也被其它地区采用， 如美国一些个别的州。现在这个名词术语的使用范围比以前更广，还包括在商务或报纸新闻业负有此项职能的人〔kudos〕Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like pluralsbut are etymologically singular:correctness requiresKudos is (not are ) due her for her brilliant work on the score. Some writers have tried to defend the use ofkudos with a plural verb, or even the introduction of a new singular form ofkudo, on the grounds that these innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were re-formed from nouns ending in-s that were thought to be plural. Perhaps the singularkudo would have to be acknowledged as a legitimate formation if it came to be widely adopted in the popular language in the way that cherry and pea have. But at presentkudos is still regarded as a slightly pretentious variant for praise and can scarcely claim to be part of the linguistic folkways of the community.When writers reach for an unfamiliar Greek word for the sake of elegance,it is fair to ask that they get it right.Still, it is worth notingthat even people who are carefulto treat the word syntactically as a singularoften pronounce it as if it were a plural:etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s),rather than as a voiced (z).Kudos 和 congeries 那些词一样， 看上去好象是复数，但从词源上看是单数：因此正确的用法应该是Kudos is （不是 are ） due her for her brilliant work on the score 。 许多作者为kudos 后跟动词复数形式的做法辩护， 他们甚至发明了一个新的词kudo 作为该词的单数形式，他们这样做是以英语单词 pea 和 cherry 的形成模式为依据的， 这些词都是从原先结尾带-s 的复数形式名词演化而来。 kudo 这种单数形式只有在象 cherry 和 pea 这样为大众语言所普遍接受之后才能被认可为一种正确的形式。 但是现在kudos 这个词仍被看作是 praise 这个词稍稍有些做作的变体， 还很难成为社群的习惯用语的一部份。当一个作家为了行文的优雅用一个生僻的希腊词的时候，他应该正确地使用它。但是值得注意的是，即使是那些非常仔细的人，他们在句子中把它用作单数，但在读的时候却读成复数的形式：根据词源来看，这个词最后一个辅音应该发成清辅音（s），而不是浊辅音（z）〔wind〕a clock that winds with difficulty.很难上发条的钟〔barrel〕In a very awkward position from which extrication is difficult:困境：很难摆脱的艰难处境：〔improve〕It is sometimes difficult for disadvantaged people to improve (or better ) their situation in life. 有些时候残疾人很难改善（或 better ） 他们的生活条件。 〔pay〕Given the unpeaceful feelings one often has in paying bills or income taxes,it is difficult to believe that the wordpay ultimately derives from the Latin word pāx, "peace.” However, it is not the peace of the one who pays that is involved in this development of meaning.Frompāx, meaning "peace" and also "a settlement of hostilities,” was derived the word pācāre, "to impose a settlement on peoples or territories.” In Late Latinpācāre was extended in sense to mean "to appease.” The Old French wordpaiier that developed from Latin pācāre came to have the specific application "to pacify or satisfy a creditor,”a sense that came into Middle English along with the wordpaien (first recorded around the beginning of the 13th century), the ancestor of our wordpay. 人常常在支付帐单或收入调节税时有不安之感情，因而很难令人相信单词pay 来源于拉丁词语 pax “和平”。 但是，并不是支付人内心的平和与这个词意义的延伸意有关连。因为意思是“和平”和“敌视的和解”的单词pax 源于 pacare “给人民或领土以安宁”。 在后拉丁语中pacare 的意义被引申为“抚慰，使缓和。” 古法语单词paiier 来源于拉丁语 pacave， 后来开始具有“缓和、平息或使债主满意”这个具体用意，这种意思随同单词paien （大约在13世纪初首次记录）进入中世纪英语， 这个词就是单词pay 的前身 〔hard〕a book that is difficult (or hard ) to find. Difficult, however, is often preferable where the need for skill or ingenuity is implied: 很难找的一本书（或 hard ） 。 然而Difficult一词在需要技术独创性的情况下，常会被使用： 〔deceive〕It is difficult to hoodwink a smart lawyer.很难欺骗一个聪明的律师。〔incomprehensible〕Difficult or impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible:无法领悟的，不可思议的：很难或不可能了解或理解的；莫名其妙的： |
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