•5．建筑•

back-alley陋巷的→卑劣的；鬼鬼祟祟的

I had no horror story to tell of a scary back-alley procedure, and I had no heartfelt regrets.

我没有什么恐怖经历来述说可怕的卑劣进程，我也没有真正的遗憾。

back-door后门→私底下的；不正当的

Even a regulated system of organ sales will not prevent the inevitable back-door organ auction.

即使器官买卖受管制，但也阻止不了不可避免的、不正当的器官拍卖。

bar铁条→障碍

A prison record can be a bar to employment, housing and loans, creating devastating effects on many minority communities.

坐牢记录会成为就业、买房和贷款的障碍，给许多少数族裔群体带来灾难性的影响。

bar铁条→阻止

Lucrative and influential professions—politics, media and entertainment, to name a few—now virtually require a period of unpaid work, effectively barring young people from less privileged backgrounds.

收入高的、有影响力的职业，比如政坛、媒体和娱乐，如今事实上都需要一定时期的无偿工作，而这实际上就把没有特权背景的年轻人挡在了门外。

bar铁条——behind bars在监笼中，在牢笼里→坐牢

More than 1 in 10 black men in their 20s or early 30s are currently incarcerated, and some experts estimate that as many as 1 in 4 black men will spend some time behind bars.

二十多岁或三十岁出头的黑人男性中，有超过十分之一的人在坐牢。一些专家估计，多达四分之一的黑人男性将会在监狱里待上一段时间。

bedrock基岩→基本原理；根本

Streets are the bedrock that makes cities great places to live. How we design and use them is a profound expression of who we are.

街道是城市宜居的根本。如何设计和利用街道，是我们自身的深刻体现。

bore孔→令人讨厌的人；无聊的人

I don’t want to be seen as puritanical or a bore, and I doubt the average individual flipping to the back of their favorite magazine for horoscopes analyzes it the way I do.

我不希望被看作清教徒或无聊的人，我怀疑普通人在翻看最喜欢的杂志时，会翻到最后面，像我一样分析着各种星座。

bricks-and-mortar砖头和灰浆→实体店

Technology is enabling more efficient online and mobile distribution of products, saving on bricks-and-mortar expense and lowering prices.

科技使产品的在线和移动配送更加高效，节省了实体店费用，降低了价格。

brim边缘——brim with充满

It’s brimming with moderate, conservative and libertarian differences over economics, national security, immigration and education.

经济、国家安全、移民和教育方面都充满温和、保守和自由主义的差异。

broach钻孔→开始讨论

That night I remember thinking that if we could have that conversation, and I could be completely honest about Facebook issues that made me feel insecure, then we would be able to broach many other difficult subjects.

那天晚上，我记得我在思考如果我们能有那次谈话，我可以完全诚实地谈论脸书上令我不安的问题，那么，我们就能够开始讨论其他难题了。

build建设——build-down逐步削减

A defense build-down is upon us and it provides a welcome opportunity to discipline the Pentagon. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman made the point: “The budget has basically doubled in the last decade. And my own experience here is that in doubling, we’ve lost our ability to prioritize, to make hard decisions, to do tough analysis, to make trades.”

削减国防预算是我们的责任，也提供了一个约束五角大楼的机会，很受欢迎。参谋长联席会议主席、海军上将迈克·马伦指出：“在过去的十年里，预算基本上翻了一番。我的经验是，在预算翻倍的情况下，我们反而没能区分优先次序、做出艰难抉择、做棘手的分析以及进行交易。”

bunk铺位——bunk in占个铺位睡觉

Bunking in with parents allows struggling young adults to save for an apartment or house, to hold out until they find a meaningful job, or to start to pay down student loans—the average being $24,000, but soaring over $100,000 for some.

回父母家占个睡铺，使得苦苦挣扎的年轻人能够省下租公寓或买房子的钱，坚持到他们找到有意义的工作，或开始偿还学生贷款（平均是2.4万美元，但有些已经飙升到10万美元以上）。

ceiling天花板——bamboo ceiling竹子天花板→竹子天花板效应（指一种无形的升职障碍）

The bamboo ceiling in Japan is real, and is even harder to break.

“竹子天花板”（职场的晋升空间中）在日本是真实存在的，而且更难打破。

ceiling天花板——brass ceiling黄铜天花板→黄铜天花板效应（指存在于军队和执法部门中、阻止女性进一步升迁的无形障碍）

Our military has met its diversity quota and broken the so-called brass ceiling.

我们的军队达到了多样性配额，打破了所谓的“黄铜天花板效应”。

ceiling天花板——glass ceiling玻璃天花板→玻璃天花板效应（指一种无形的升职障碍）

So even if not all these women will kick through the glass ceiling, a lot fewer of them may be mopping the kitchen floor.

因此，即使这些女性并不能都穿透玻璃天花板，但她们当中只会擦厨房地板的人也更少了。

cement水泥→巩固，加强

And while the Prius cemented the firm’s international green reputation, millions of thirsty SUV’s and large trucks sold here by the company each year stand as stark testament to a contrary view.

普锐斯巩固了该公司在国际上的绿色环保声誉，但是这家公司每年在这里出售的上百万辆耗油的越野车和大卡车都明显地证明了相反的情况。

chock木楔——chock-full充满

Our approach at WestEd, where I currently conduct education research, streamlines a school’s typical social calendar that is usually chock-full of family fun nights, holiday carnivals and parent-teacher conferences.

我目前在进行“旧金山西部教育”研究，我们使用的方法简化了学校典型的社交安排——通常都是些欢乐家庭之夜、节日嘉年华和家长会。

corner角落——cut corners抄近路→投机取巧；走捷径

Cutting corners could easily hurt students more than it helps.

投机取巧很容易伤害学生，而不是帮助他们。

cornerstone柱石，基石→基础

Privacy with respect to reproductive choices has been a cornerstone of American culture for decades, and some parents choose not to disclose the use of gamete donation.

几十年来，关于生育选择的隐私一直是美国文化的基石，一些家长选择不公开配子捐赠。

cubicle格子间→办公室

I leave out the white collar people in cubicles desperate to work an extra hour.

我没有考虑那些窝在格子间里拼命地想要多工作一个小时的白领。

cusp（叶形饰的）尖头→风口浪尖

We’re at the cusp of a new age of manufacturing.

我们正处于制造业新时代的风口浪尖上。

dent凹槽——make a dent弄个凹槽→稍微减少；影响

None of it has made a dent in overall levels of piracy, and bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are unlikely to fare any better.

这些都没有影响到盗版的整体水平，像《禁止在线盗版法案》和《保护知识产权法案》这样的法案也不太可能达到更好的效果。

dent凹槽——make no dent没有弄个凹槽→没有影响

President Obama’s “clinging to guns and religion” controversy made no dent in the polls in 2008.

奥巴马总统关于“执着于枪支和宗教”的争论在2008年的民意调查中没有产生任何影响。

dent凹槽——put a dent使有凹槽→削减

Second, I doubt that ending drone strikes would substantially reduce anti-Americanism in the Islamic world or put a dent in radical recruitment.

其次，我怀疑结束无人机空袭会大幅减少伊斯兰世界的反美情绪，或削减极端分子的成员招募。

drain下水道→耗尽

Quite simply, collecting becomes a problem when the time, energy, or money expended on acquiring, maintaining, displaying, updating or upgrading the collection drains the collector of resources needed for family, friends, community, work or self.

简单来讲，获取、维护、展示、更新或升级所收集的物品所花费的时间、精力或金钱耗尽收集者的家人、朋友、社区、工作或自我发展所需的一切资源时，收藏就成问题了。

draw画线，画图——draw-down逐步削减

In the 1970s and 1990s the debates surrounding force reductions focused almost exclusively on how they would affect strategy and budget. Today legislators are considering another draw-down.

20世纪70年代和90年代，围绕裁军的辩论几乎完全集中在如何影响战略和预算上。今天，立法者正在考虑另一项逐步裁军。

edge（建筑物的）边缘→优势

College students want to know what courses and majors will give them an edge in their careers.

大学生想知道什么样的课程和专业会对他们的职业生涯有所帮助。

edge（建筑物的）边缘——cutting-edge/leading-edge尖端的，最前沿的

This aesthetic is just the surface of Apple’s deeper design principle: that cutting-edge technology should be easy to use.

这种美学观只是苹果公司深度设计的表面现象，“一切尖端技术应以易用为准”才是其设计原则。

So we’re doing some really leading-edge stuff in the community.

所以，我们正在该领域做着最前沿的工作。

engineer工程师→设计；策划；精明地处理

Can they engineer a reversal of fortune?

他们能改变命运吗？

gatekeeper门卫→把关人

The university is society’s gatekeeper. Students see degrees as tickets of admission to the big show: the marketplace.

大学是社会的把关人。大学生把学位看作劳动力市场这场大秀的入场券。

gatekeeper门卫→控制者

The public has always relied on and been affected by gatekeepers who have the power to shape public opinion.

公众一直依赖并受到那些有权左右公众舆论的控制者的影响。

grit粗砂→勇气

Sometimes, it turns out, we like a little grit in our entertainment.

事实证明，娱乐中我们有时还需要一点勇气。

hook钩链——hook up with sb.勾搭上某人；迷恋上某人

Silence is golden—never more so than when you think your friend has hooked up with a jerk, or a freak.

沉默是金，即便你认为朋友已经迷上了一个混蛋，或是一个怪胎，你也要保持沉默。

hothouse温室→过分保护的环境

Third, there’s the social cost of being raised in a hothouse.

第三，在温室里长大有社会成本。

house房子→存放

The relevant data isn’t all housed in spreadsheets; community residents know which people and areas are at the highest risk of violent crime.

相关数据并不仅仅是存放在电子表格里的；社区居民知道哪些人和哪些区域的暴力犯罪风险最高。

house房子→家庭

Ahouse divided cannot stand.

家庭内讧难维系。

house房子——housebroken（宠物等）受过训练不在室内便溺的→好管教的；有礼貌的

Employers who believe that applicants with jobs are vetted—proven, competent,housebroken—should keep that in mind.

认为有工作的求职者已经经过审查的雇主应该记住这一点：这样的求职者经得住考验、有能力、好管教。

I-beams工字梁→顶梁柱；关键

Principles are the I-beams of civilization’s architecture, designed to withstand the forces of social upheaval.

原则是文明这幢建筑物的顶梁柱，旨在抵御社会动荡之风。

line线条——on the line在分界线上→处境危险

The script is so great that she puts herself on the line for it. She pushes it through and gets the green light.

剧本太棒了，为此她冒了险。她推进剧本，并获得了批准。

map地图——map the limits设限

Gordon Gekko may have declared that “greed is good” in the movie Wall Street, but by chasing his example, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen’s character in the film) contributes to his father’s heart attack and earns himself a prison sentence, examples that help us map the limits of what we’d do for more money.

戈登·盖柯可能在电影《华尔街》中宣称“贪婪是一种善”，但通过效仿他，巴德·福克斯（查理·辛在电影中饰演的角色）导致他父亲心脏病发作而陷入牢狱之灾，而这些例证在我们想要挣更多钱时帮助我们约束自己。

mosaic马赛克（建筑方面的一种砖）→地理文化上的马赛克（变迁）现象

These locations appeal to such a variety of life stages not because they are “one size fits all”, but because they are diverse mosaics of different kinds of places. In Jane Jacobs’s words, they are “federations of neighborhoods”, where virtually everyone, no matter their age, ethnicity, religion, level of education, sexual orientation or income, can find a niche where they feel welcome and comfortable.

这些地方之所以能吸引到如此多不同年龄的人，并不是因为它们是“一体适用”，而是因为它们是各种不同地方的马赛克变迁。用简·雅各布斯的话来说，它们是“社区的联邦”，几乎每个人，无论他们的年龄、种族、宗教、教育程度、性取向或收入，都能找到自己受欢迎和舒适的好地方。

nail钉子——nail down用钉钉住→确定，明确

Social etiquette on this really hasn’t been nailed down.

这方面的社交礼仪还没有被确定下来。

niche壁龛→（舒适的、合适的）地方/工作/生活等

I had to travel precisely the world to find just such a comfortable, agreeable niche as this to live in. It seems incredible almost.

我得走遍全世界才找得到这样一个舒服、惬意的地方生活，这几乎让人难以置信。

notch槽口——top-notch顶尖的

But after more than a decade with women in de facto combat roles, there are still people who question whether women have the strength of body and mind to be top-notch combat leaders.

但是，女性在参与实际战斗十多年后，仍然有人质疑女性是否有足够的身心力量成为顶尖的战斗领袖。

office办公室—— the Oval Office椭圆形办公室→总统办公室

It says next nothing, though, about how a presidential candidate will perform when confronted with the unexpected and even expected difficulties that inevitably challenge the occupant of the Oval Office.

然而，接下来却没有提到总统候选人遇到意想不到的甚至是意料之中的困难时，他将如何表现，这些困难会不可避免地挑战总统办公室的主人。

peg钉；桩——force a square peg into a round hole硬要把一个方形的钉子钉进一个圆孔里→勉强

Instead of forcing a square peg into a round hole (and being disappointed when, after all of our efforts, it still doesn’t fit), we should instill in our boys the notion that they are as diverse and infinite as the stars.

我们不应该勉强把一个方形的钉子钉进一个圆孔里（然后感到失望，因为我们尽了一切努力还是不行），我们应该灌输给男孩子这样一个观念：他们和星星一样是多样的、无限的。

picket尖木桩——picket line警戒线；纠察

The union balked and took to the picketlines.

工会（罢工人员）犹豫了一下，然后走向警戒线。

plan平面图——master-plan蓝图，总体规划

We are also advancing two projects in Africa, a research center in Gaborone, Botswana, and the master-plan for a new tech-centered city of 250,000 outside of Nairobi, Kenya.

我们还推进了非洲的两个项目，位于博茨瓦纳首都哈博罗内的研究中心以及位于肯尼亚首都内罗毕郊外的、拥有250000人口的、以科技为中心的新城市蓝图。

porous多孔的，有气孔的→有漏洞的；松懈的

US Departments of Defense and their contractors are recognizing that their defenses are essentially porous to attack.

美国国防部和承包商认识到，他们的防御系统实际上是有漏洞的，容易受到攻击。

privy厕所（尤指户外厕所）—— be privy to sth.了解内情

Very few people are privy to what little data gets collected, so the evidence supporting this or that conclusion about students today is necessarily anecdotal.

很少有人了解收集到的小数据，所以当今关于学生这样或者那样说法的证据必然是道听途说的。

roof屋顶——through the roof捅破屋顶→暴涨，飞涨

Internet service providers are not regulated as utilities, so prices are through the roof, with constant increases and fees.

互联网服务提供商不像公用事业公司那样受到监管，因此价格会不断上涨，直至暴涨。

rut凹槽——in a rut千篇一律，一成不变

Still, the numbers point to a GOP stuck in a rut.

尽管如此，这些数据还是指向了一成不变的共和党。

screw螺丝钉——screw up弄糟，搞砸

You might not want to screw up those payments in order to earn $400 a week for a seven-week harvesting season.

你不会在为期七周的收割季节里为了赚每周四百美元而搞砸了那些薪酬。

shutter百叶窗→倒闭

Over the next decade, I watched several independent stores—followed by major chains—shutter. But a few of us hung on.

接下来的十年，我目睹许多独立书店倒闭了，接着，大型连锁书店也倒闭了。但是，我们几家存活下来了。

square广场——square with与……一致，与……相符

“Disparate impact” theory also doesn’t square with the Constitution.

“差别效果”理论与宪法也不相符。

stake out立桩标出→突出

Thomas Bertonneau, the author of the article, “Down with Research Papers!” argued that students should instead be assigned essays, focusing on concise arguments staking out a point of view rather than long, informative surveys of a subject.

《打倒论文！》的作者托马斯·贝尔托诺认为，应该要求学生写出论据简洁、观点突出的文章，而不是对一个研究对象进行冗长又翔实的调查。

steamroll用压路机碾→以不可抗拒之力压倒，碾压

Voters, especially in states that hold later primaries, may legitimately feel cheated by having one candidate steamroll the others before those voters had their say in the matter.

选民，尤其是后来才举行初选的那些州的选民，可能会有法律上被蒙骗的感觉，因为在选民就这个问题有发言权之前，有一名候选人的选票已经碾压其他候选人。

stepping stone垫脚石→跳板

Ideally, the industries, employers and colleges at the heart of great internships still exist—paid positions transparently advertised and filled,stepping stones to full-time jobs, opportunities genuinely focused on education and training.

理想的情况下，行业、雇主和大学仍是实习的核心——公开招募的有薪岗位、全职工作的跳板、真正注重教育和培训的机会。

stovepipe烟囱——stovepipes of大量的

And the effect of this polarity is pointing to the creation of stovepipes of thought, in which knowledge of valid opposing ideas has waned.

这种对立的后果直指如烟囱般大量思想的产生，由此，对有效分歧的认知已经变弱了。

tacky（漆、胶、颜料等）尚未干透的→俗不可耐的，不雅观的，低级趣味的

Because our next door neighbor’s tacky decorations went up on Black Friday, and we know they won’t come down before February unless we do something about it.

因为我们隔壁俗不可耐的装饰在黑色星期五出现了，我们晓得除非我们采取措施，否则这些装饰在二月份之前不会消失。

threshold门槛→基本条件；基本要求

With turnout of 43.4 percent, participation fell far short of the threshold required by the Constitution, and perhaps more important, short of the 61.7 percent observed in the last parliamentary elections.

投票率为43.4%，远远低于宪法规定的门槛，或许更重要的是，远远没有达到上次议会选举中所遵循的61.7%。

tower塔楼→（像塔楼一样）高出，胜过

We raise boys to be warriors, demanding in subtle and overt ways that they tower over others in contests and conquests.

我们把男孩培养成勇士，以既微妙又明显的方式要求他们在比赛和征服中胜过他人。

vault拱顶→保险库

Protecting student data doesn’t have to mean that we lock it in a vault and throw away the key.

保护学生数据并不意味着我们把它锁在保险库里，然后把钥匙扔掉。

wall墙——blue wall of silence静默的蓝墙，沉默的蓝墙（一种潜规则：指警察用说谎或其他方式来保护其他犯错误的警察）

The infamous “blue wall of silence”—the tendency of police to defend against any accusations of wrongdoing—has compounded the problem.

臭名昭著的“静默的蓝墙”——警察倾向于反对任何不当行为的指控——加剧了这一问题。

wedge楔子——the thin end of the wedge（得寸进尺的）开端；（可能有重大后果的）小事

But investors will fear the shifting pattern of demand and supply could make this renegotiation the thin end of thewedge.

但投资者担心供需格局的改变可能意味着此次合同重谈仅仅是一个开端。

window窗户——broken windows破窗→破窗理论，破窗效应

The author calls for a crackdown on traffic violations large and small, emulating the “broken windows” approach to suppressing crime in the 1990s.

作者呼吁打击大大小小的违反交通规则的行为，效仿20世纪90年代的“破窗效应”来镇压犯罪。

window窗户——out the window突然失去了的；浪费了某样东西的

Age appropriateness is a factor, but universal rules are out the window.

年龄适宜是一个因素，但普遍的规则是不存在的。