字神帝國英語天地

❥1. hug: 擁抱
Hug me, please.
➛抱抱我吧。

Finland: Young renters offered cheap flats at care home

冬天來了，20個最道地講法的英文，讓你溫暖又舒適哦！

兩種情形看起來有些相似，但實質卻有很大區別——這種情況我們在日常生活中偶爾會遇到。用英語應該如何表達？
　　
1. There's a fine line between drinking socially and alcoholism. 

The longest river in the world, the Nile, flows through the north-western area of Africa, and then into the Mediterranean Sea.
世界上最長的河流尼羅河，流經非洲西北部，最終匯入地中海。

With just 10% of the population being left-handed, it can be easy for everyone else to forget we're living in a right-handed world. But aside from making it tough to cut a straight line with a pair of scissors designed for righties, being a southpaw can also have some subtle effects on our physical and mental health.
〄 由於左撇子在人口中比例僅為10%，所以人們很容易忽略這樣一個事實，即自己正生活在一個右撇子的世界。除了很難以專為右撇子設計之剪刀裁出直線之外，左撇子的習慣對個人的身體和心理健康還有著微妙的影響。
　　
The brains and bodies of lefties may operate differently than those of right-handed people (and in mixed-handed people, who may have different dominant hands for different tasks). "Handedness seems to be determined very early on in fetal development, when a lot of other things about your future are being determined as well," says Ronald Yeo, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin. Here's a look at some of the most common facts about being left-handed, and what it might really mean for your health.
〄 習慣用左手的人，其大腦和身體的運轉方式可能和右撇子有所不同 （對雙撇子來說，不同任務中他們會習慣用不同的手。）“人的許多特點在胎兒時期就已經形成了，慣用手似乎也不例外，”德克薩斯州大學奧斯丁分校的心理學教授，博士羅奈爾得楊說。下面我們會探討有關左撇子的一些常識以及左撇子對健康的影響。
　　
It's not just genetics
〄 左撇子不一定都是遺傳因素導致的。
Scientists aren't exactly sure why some people are left-handed, but they know that genes are responsible about 25% of the time, says Yeo. Left-handedness does tend to run in families, he says, "but noticeably less than other inherited traits, like height or intelligence."
〄 科學家們並不確定為什麼有些人是左撇子，但是他們確信，左撇子的遺傳因素占到25%。“左撇子的確會在家族內部遺傳，但與體重和智力等其他遺傳特性相比，其遺傳幾率卻要小很多。”羅奈爾得楊教授說。
　　
It's linked to stress in pregnancy
〄 左撇子與懷孕期間的壓力有關。
In one British study, the fetuses of super-stressed pregnant women were more likely to touch their faces more with their left hands than their right. This could be the first signs of a left-handed child, say the researchers. Other evidence supports that theory. In one 2008 Swedish study of moms and their 5-year-old children, women who were depressed or stressed during their pregnancies were more likely to have mixed- or left-handed kids. In other studies, babies with low birth weight, or born to older mothers, were more likely to be lefties as well.
〄 英國一項研究顯示，壓力較大的孕婦生出的孩子 更傾向於用左手摸臉。這可能是左撇子在嬰幼兒時期的第一個徵兆。而其他研究結果也證實了這一結論。2008年，瑞典的一項研究顯示，孕期較為壓抑或壓力較大的婦女，她們的寶寶成為左撇子或雙撇子的可能性更大。其他研究還顯示，出生時體重較低的嬰兒或高齡產婦生產的嬰兒成為左撇子的幾率更大。

"I'm a real go-getter who always thinks outside the box, demonstrates thought leadership, and proactively motivates myself!" If this sentence made you cringe, you're not alone. These phrases come from the new CareerBuilder survey on the best and worst Resume terms。

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.