13. kind of — to some small degree
Examples: She wasn’t beautiful. But she was kind of cute. It kind of gives us an idea of what’s happening.
14. crawl— v. to move or progress slowly or with great difficulty Examples: I crawled out of bed at nine-thirty.
Hairpin turns force the car to crawl at 10 miles an hour in some places.
14.mystery— n. 1. the quality that sth./sb. has when they seem strange, secret, or difficult to understand or explain
Examples: It is an elaborate ceremony, surrounded in mystery. Her dark glasses gave her an air of mystery.
mystery— n. 2. an event, situation， etc. that people do not understand or cannot explain because they do not know enough about it
Examples: The source of the gunshots still remains a mystery.
What happened to the paintings after that is an unsolved mystery. 15.humble— a. 1. simple and ordinary, but useful or effective
Examples: There are restaurants, both humble and expensive, that specialize in these dishes. This delicious meal was made of humble ingredients.
— a. 2. not considering oneself or one’s ideas to be as important as other people’s Examples: It is, in my humble opinion, perhaps the best steak restaurant in Great Britain. Defeat and failure make people humble.
16. wardrobe— n. a piece of furniture like a large cupboard that you hang clothes in Examples: This wardrobe is actually a secret entrance to a playroom.
The windows and the wardrobe were shaking as if there was an earthquake or something similar. 17. avalanche— v. (of a mass of snow, ice, etc.) to descend rapidly down a mountainside Examples: A pile of books avalanched out of the shelf. A snow step avalanched.
18. pristine— a. extremely fresh or clean
Examples: This island used to be a near-empty oasis of white sand and pristine waters. No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. 19.no-nonsense— a. simple and straightforward
Examples: I knew I should thank her, but the memory of her no-nonsense, crisp class style still intimidated me.
She saw herself as a direct, no-nonsense, modern woman. 20. go a long way— to help a lot to sth.
Examples: The new standards adopted will go a long way towards protecting human health.
The administration believes that these measures will go a long way to ensure the stability of the financial system.
21. wag— v. （of the tongue） to move rapidly in talking
Examples: What set tongues wagging was the age difference between the two partners. You must stop visiting that woman; tongues are beginning to wag. 22. short-hand— n. a shorter but less clear way of saying sth.
Examples: The fiction that “he” is a neutral short-hand for “he or she” is no longer acceptable to many.
When we describe a three-year-old as smart, it’s short-hand for “smarter than other three-year-
49
olds.”
23. fragment— n. a small piece of sth. that has broken off or that comes from sth. larger Examples: She reads everything, digesting every fragment of news.。 The fragment of the talk lodged in his small brain.
24. stick up— to raise up or point upwards above a surface Examples: The cat’s ears stuck up.
He said he wanted to see her stick up her thumb.
25. sympathetic— a. 1. caring and feeling sorry about someone’s problems 2. willing to give approval and support to an aim or plan
Examples: She was very sympathetic to the problems of adult students. 26. fluent— a. able to speak a language very well
Examples: She studied eight foreign languages but is fluent in only six of them. He speaks fluent Russian.
27. whizz— v. to move very quickly, often making a sound like sth. rushing through the air Examples: Stewart felt a bottle whizz past his head. A car whizzed past.
28. rear— v. to look after a person or animal until they are fully grown
Examples: Both father and mother have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness.
I was reared in east Texas.
29. scent— n. 1. a pleasant smell that sth. has
Examples: Flowers are chosen for their scent as well as their look. The ripe fruits have a wonderful scent. scent
— n. 2. the smell of a particular animal or person that some other animals, for example dogs, can follow
Examples: A police dog picked up the murderer’s scent. Many kinds of insect find their mates by scent. 30. drift— v. to move slowly on water or in the air Examples: The boat slowly drifted out to sea. The clouds drifted across the sky.
31. sprinkle— v. to scatter small drops of liquid or small pieces of sth. Examples: Sprinkle the meat with salt and place it in the pan. I sprinkled cocoa over my latte. I Exercises: Comprehension
A. First Reading: Read the text and answer the following questions. Some gossip came into the author’s ear. What was it about? Could you compare this girl with her roommate? What did the American students think of the girl? What did the author find about this girl from the talk?
What difficulty did the girl have to face besides language? Give an example. Suggested Answers
1.The gossip was about a freshman girl from China.
2.Her roommate is a born-and-raised American while she is a Chinese; the Chinese girl wore a
50