字神帝國英語天地

Hunger Games fans may get to find out for themselves if the odds are forever in their favor. 《饑餓遊戲》的粉絲將有機會親自試試看好運是否會永遠眷顧自己。

Twenty years after selling books online, Amazon is opening the doors to its own brick-and-mortar bookstore.　　
在網上賣了二十年的書後，亞馬遜的實體書店也向客戶敞開了大門。
　　
Amazon Books, which opened Tuesday in Seattle's University Village, is being dubbed a 'physical extension' of the largest online retailer in the country.
☛☛ dubbed
v.給…起綽號( dub的過去式和過去分詞 )；把…稱為；配音；複製
參考例句：
• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 
　數學曾一度被視為各門科學的基礎。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 
　這部電影是配音的還是打字幕的？ 
☛☛ retailer
n.零售商(人)
參考例句：
• What are the retailer requirements?
　零售商會有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.
　這家零售商在上海組建了一支團隊研究這個問題。
　　　　
But don't except the shop to be a place where you can pick up your newest Amazon.com purchase.
　　 
Instead the company is using the data it's generated from the website, such as ratings, pre-orders and sales, to combine 'the benefits of offline and online book shopping', vice president Jennifer Cast said in a statement.
☛☛ vice
n.壞事；惡習；[pl.]臺鉗，老虎鉗；adj.副的
參考例句：
• He guarded himself against vice.
　他避免染上壞習慣。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.
　他們墮入了罪惡的深淵。
　　
Customers at Amazon Books will notice one major difference the minute they first walk into the store.
　　 
Each of the 5,000 to 6,000 titles are displayed with 'face-out', meaning you are presented with the cover instead of the book's spine.
☛☛ spine
n.脊柱，脊椎；(動植物的)刺；書脊
參考例句：
• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.
　他從馬上跌下摔斷了脊樑骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.
　他的脊柱有點彎曲。
　　
Cast said the company wanted to put each author's work on display.
　　 
'We realized that we felt sorry for the books that were spine out,' she told The Seattle Times.
　　 
And below each book will be something different too: a card that contains a review or rating from a customer on the site.
　　 
Although Amazon Books does have the 'staff-favorites' section familiar to many bookstores, Cast said she wanted to share the voices of thousands of passionate readers that come on the site.
☛☛ passionate
adj.熱情的，熱烈的，激昂的，易動情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的
參考例句：
• He is said to be the most passionate man.
　據說他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.
　他對那個項目非常熱心。
　　
'What better way to celebrate reading than to have the voices of readers under our books?' she said.

allege, affirm, assert, claim都有聲稱，斷定的意思，而且都是常用詞。這四個詞的用法到底有什麼不同呢?下面詳細分析了一下四者的區別，每個詞都配有例句，方便學習者理解該詞的含義。
　
►►allege “宣稱，斷定”，指在無真實憑據情況下宣稱、硬說

常說中國文學博大精深，然而一到英文作文時卻很頭痕，不知道怎樣把中文翻譯成英文。除了「Practice makes perfect」(熟能生巧)以外，你曉得其他英文諺語嗎？
　
❏❏ 情人眼裡出西施 ❏❏
Beauty is in the eye of beholder.