时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

 


在我们这儿,常常能看到路标,警告开车的人要小心,别撞上过马路的鹿。我以前还不相信,可昨天差点儿撞上一只。好在我反应快,一个急转弯,躲开了,鹿虽然没撞上,但是车轮定位却出现了问题,开起来总是打偏。这让我想起了一个习惯用语,那就是:out of kilter.


说什么东西out of kilter, 就是指因为其组成部分彼此之间失去平衡,所以运转起来不正常。刚才说我为了躲开鹿,急转弯,结果方向盘打得太急,造成了车轮定位的失调,就可以说the wheels are out of kilter. 让我们听听下面这个人回忆他小时候干过的淘气事。


例句-1:Once my friend managed to get his mom's washing machine to spin around with me standing 1 in it! That was fun until the washer started shaking violently. We got it so out of kilter that his dad had to have it repaired. Did we get in trouble for that!


他说:有一次,我朋友让我站在他家的洗衣机里,然后居然开动了洗衣机,好玩极了。谁知后来洗衣机开始剧烈摇晃。我们把洗衣机弄得完全失调,他爸爸不得不拿去修理,可想而知。我们受到了多么严厉的惩罚。


在孩子眼里可能挺好玩,但是在大人看来,这太危险了。好在现在的大部分电器都有安全设置,不让小孩子进行这种危险的举动。很多人听到刚才那个例子,肯定会说,Boys will be boys,男孩就是男孩。不过,淘气真是男孩子的本性吗?


上个周末,我们一家本来说好了要开车到海边去玩,谁知星期六一大早下起了瓢泼大雨,完全打乱了我们的原定计划。Our schedule was thrown out of kilter.


******


大家肯定都知道,苹果和樱桃等水果都需要蜜蜂的授粉。我以前从来没怎么考虑过这个问题,直到不久前,忽然听说,美国的蜜消失不见了。让我们一起来听听下面这个农业记者是怎么说的。


例句-2:Millions of bees in the U.S. have mysteriously died or disappeared. As a result, crops in 24 states have been severely 2 thrown out of kilter. While scientists continue to search for answers, farmers wonder how long this disorder 3 will last.


这位记者报道说:美国数以百万计的蜜蜂都奇怪地死去或是消失了。这样一来,24个州的粮食作物的生长都出现了失常的现象。科研人员正在寻找问题的答案,而农民们想知道的是,这种情况还会持续多久。


我敢肯定,科学家们一定能够找到问题的答案。他们既然能发现风向、洋流、地震,甚至是融雪,都能影响到地球的运转,那么屈屈一起蜜蜂失踪的小事情,肯定难不倒他们。


说到这里,大家一定想知道,kilter这个字的意思。Kilter的意思就是“良好的状态”。这个字的准确来源无法确定。有人说,Kilter原来是指手里没用的废牌。也有人说,这个字跟砍或是打有关系。因此,out of kilter也可以说成是out of whack 4. 不论kilter这个词是怎么来的,大家需要记住的就是,out of Kilter,可以用来形容任何机械设备的失调,也可以用于某个系统、过程、机构、预算、或是日程的失常。



1 standing
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
2 severely
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地
  • He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
  • He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。
3 disorder
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
  • When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后,他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
  • It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
4 whack
v.敲击,重打,瓜分;n.重击,重打,尝试,一份
  • After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食,卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
  • He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒,在我背上猛拍一下。
学英语单词
a slut
Alliance for Progress
artificial duct
asymptotic slope
beldame
bid-price
bierstekers
blank map
Briss
catheretic
cathodic protection automatically controlled
causeymakers
cet. par.
chilauni
Coffeen Lake
compost grinder
Conia.
cooled-air circulation refrigeration machine
crystal sender
denalis
dibenzyltin dibromide
earth filtering
epoxy-amine resin
financial services sector
Fluvoxaminum
FSBO
fuel-savings
gadolinites
gosther
hard to get
hide your light under a bushel
high-centre
hokiangas
hopper freight car
Humbauville
if push comes to shove
integral ring
isdn digital subscriber line
Kichma
larval molting
lime arsenate
lineshaft
loovesum
m mode ultrasonic scanning
mass extinction coefficient
Mead, Margaret
medullary plate (or neural plate)
metal halide
metauranopilite
microsporosis capitis
My Quang
nonelement
oceanic bonitoes
office of prime minister and cabinet
Olintepeque
outline bar
palaeocon
phellodendron amurenses
piezoelectric driver
pillar crane
plasterable
political agenda
polyp of rectum
polyphenylene sulfide composite
priscillians
pullig
quadrumana
records service firing
rocker keel
roof structure to falls
rotating coupler
Rotava
salsaed
sindony
sisso
sodium metazirconate
speedometer main shaft
squeakless
stereocamera
stiklestad
studio floor
subgalea
subsurface trickle irrigation
superparts
supervacaneousness
television tape
text library
the fine print
the presence or absence of anthocyanin pigments
the sweets and bitters of life
thrust lift nozzle
time trial
unilateral hermaph-roditism
uniprocessor system
unrestless
value number
vertical phasing
vibration regulation law
wastoid
water bone infection
xestia csoevarii
yolk sphere