toad
Y
D
–noun
1. any of various tailless amphibians that are close relatives of the frogs in the order Anura (無尾目動物) and that typically have dry, warty (有疣的) skin and are terrestrial or semiterrestrial in habit. Compare frog 1 (def. 1).
2. Also called true toad. a toad of the widespread and chiefly terrestrial family Bufonidae, having relatively short hind legs used in hopping and often having at the shoulders swellings containing glands that, along with the skin, secrete an irritating fluid in defense. Compare frog 1 (def. 2).
3. any of various toadlike animals, as certain lizards.
4. a person or thing as an object of disgust or aversion. 
Paul hates Charles and apparently always has. At Charles' book signing, the flamboyant, handsome heir -- who is also possibly nuts -- also takes an instant shine to Gabrielle. The question then [arises] whether Gabrielle is dealing with two Prince Charmings, two Princes of Darkness or just two toads.
。豬怪
Serpent
。爬蟲類
boa constrictor
lizard
brontosaur
There's nothing messy about her. I feel like a brontosaur when she's about.
The restaurant that Travis calls Walt's home from is actually located in Cabazon, CA (not San Bernardino, which is about 45 miles away.) This of course is home to Claude Bell's famous concrete T-Rex and brontosaur[us].【古生】雷龍
stegosaurus
Would they risk "stegosaurus" and have [plates] of bony armor spring from the poor girl’s spine?【古生】劍龍
pterodactyl
Yes, soft folds. Not hard, mate. That's good, boy. You keep making the pterodactyl, mate.【古生】翼手龍
serpent
Be wise as [serpents], yet innocent as doves.
serpentine
of,
characteristic of,
or resembling a serpent, as in form or movement
A romantic and gorgeous film, Lucia Y El Sexo has a serpentine plot that viewers may not be able to keep up with.
If Sean Parker is meant to be this flood of enthusiasm, energy and [effusive] patronage, why isn't there more of a sense of his serpentine [deception]?
viper
Few films have so deftly explored the [tactile] aspects of cinema and no film has photographed sand with such vitality, making the dunes shift and tumble like a [slithering] [viper].
aspic
asp
Evelyn. Can't you imagine yourself as Cleopatra|talking to an asp? 角螲 (一種小毒蛇)
anura
any of various tailless amphibians that are close relatives of the frogs in the [order] Anura and that typically have dry, warty skin and are terrestrial or semiterrestrial in habit. 無尾目動物 (蛙、蛤蟆等等)
warty
wart
Bring your own soap. So you don't get warts from the other kids. That always happens at camp.
toad
The question then [arises] whether Gabrielle is dealing with two Prince Charmings, two Princes of Darkness or just two toads.
sacculate
"sacculate" 囊狀的
newt
He's pissed as a newt. 蠑螈
Spells, what do you mean, spells? The eye of a newt, toe of a frog and that kind of shit?
platypus
Tonight's big story is the sensational discovery of the month. It happened in a deep, dark forest. We have found a new species of mammal. It's a cross between an anteater, a platypus, a giraffe, and a hippopotamus. 鴨嘴獸
。鳥
aquiline
(of the nose) shaped like an eagle's beak, hooked
Her father! This is incredible. What is this guy not an expert in?He's a tennis player and an antique connoisseur and a wine expert, and he's probably gorgeous, right, with graying temples and the aquiline profile.
beak
These be fed from asshole to beak. 鳥嘴形
peck
A year later a [crow] pecks Eric’s tomb and he is somehow resurrected,
scavenger
scavenge
Rossellini began filming in secret, using scavenged film stock without sound equipment, shortly before the city was liberated in June of 1944.
hyena
vulture
haggard
haggle
ornithology
ornithological
[Chuckles] That's a very ornithological mutilation you've got there, love. That's my tribal initiation.
preen
As for Paul, he's such a vain, [preening], [foppish] creature that Gabrielle should see right through him -- which she does, in fact.
He revels in his new [prosperity], and [preens] at the adulation that's [showered] on his bullet head.
At times, her meditative glance lingers longer than usual, as in a delightful moment when a baker's wife preens to the tune of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows."
plumage
albatross
But now you give me something even worse to think about. The notion of you as an albatross around my daughter's neck for the rest of her life is too much.
ostrich
Job 39:13. "The wing of the ostrich beateth joyously, but are her pinions and feathers the kindly storks? For she leaveth her eggs on the earth and warmeth them in the dust. When the time cometh, she raiseth her wings on high and scorneth the horse and his rider."
thrush
I've brought you a thrush. 歌鶇
pheasant
You sure got a perfect day for it. Hunting pheasant. 野雞
biddy
Unfortunately, Fido's collar goes on the fritz briefly, resulting in the [demise] -- and subsequent revival -- of the lane's least beloved [old] biddy.
pullet
I'd had taken great pleasure in gunning this pullet down.
rook
There are some rooks around here that could do with a peppering. 白嘴鴉
He's all wind and whitewash, like a blinking rook.
toucan
And what kind of animal is that? That's a toucan. 巨嘴鳥
finch
I though they were strawberry finches. 雀科鳴鳥
myna
They said the mynah bird would be here later this afternoon, if you care to come back. 家八哥,鷯哥
squab
What is a squab? You know what it is. It's like a pigeon I suppose. 乳鴿
columbine
And there's some fennel for you and columbine. (似) 鴿的
magpie
Look Peter, I've never caught anyone while wearing a white coat. If the customer sees that coat, he knows you're part of the collective, so he's careful... he's careful. But without the coat you'd catch one or two magpies. 鵲,喜鵲
chaffinch
Freddy! Are you still watching TV? What about your chaffinch? Does it sing? 花雞,蒼頭燕雀
parakeet
Gotta put rosin on your bow. It's just like feeding a parakeet. 小型的鸚鵡,鸚哥
buzzard
The bird sketched by Russell Crowe's character is an [auger] buzzard, native to Africa.【美】紅頭美洲鷲,貪婪卑鄙的小人
Ah, look at them buzzards. They'll be back. You couldn't scare 'em off with artillery. I wish you wouldn't do that, Hud. They keep the country clean.
martin
It looks just like your house. Yeah, I know. We put it out every year... when the martins come back. Who are the martins? They're large swallows. The same family comes back every year to visit us. 紫岩燕,毛腳燕
craw
I wish you and Steve could like each other. We stick in each other's craw.【鳥】嗉囊 (動物之) 胃
whippoorwill
Hear the whippoorwill? You know, I've never seen one of those birds in my whole life. 北美夜鷹
gander
We'll, I'd like to take a gander [at] your haul, if you don't mind. 雄鵝【口】一眼,一瞥
Anura
2009年2月28日 星期六
Toad & Anura (續：爬蟲類 鳥類 單字大集合)
Tunic
tunic
Y
D
–noun
1. Chiefly British. a coat worn as part of a military or other uniform.
2. a gownlike outer garment, with or without sleeves and sometimes belted, worn by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
3. a woman's upper garment, either loose or close-fitting and extending over the skirt to the hips or below.
4. a garment with a short skirt, worn by women for sports.
5. Ecclesiastical. a tunicle.
6. Anatomy, Zoology. any covering or investing membrane or part, as of an organ.
7. Botany. an integument, as that covering a seed. 
This is a button from the tunic of a wagon-lit conductor.
shawl
A [woman] in a black shawl came out of the shop.
It's arresting and horrifying to watch Mr. Gosling's Danny put on a [prayer] shawl and chant sections from a religious service as he [gives] a Nazi salute
burqa
I originally wanted to work the [burqa] into that one
Never take your freedoms for granted. Blue burqa'd woman flying through the streets of [Afghanistan]...
Smock
Arid & Aridity***
arid
–adjective
1. being without moisture; extremely dry; parched: arid land; an arid climate.
2. barren or unproductive because of lack of moisture: arid farmland.
3. lacking interest or imaginativeness; sterile; jejune: an arid treatment of an [exciting] topic.
Related forms:
aridity, aridness, noun
Synonyms:
1. See dry.
3. tedious, dreary, vapid, uninspired, uninspiring.
Dry, arid both mean without moisture.
Dry is the general word indicating absence of water or freedom from moisture: a dry well; dry clothes.
Arid suggests great or intense dryness in a region or climate, esp. such as results in bareness or in barrenness: arid tracts of desert.
It's worth worrying about Léaud these days — as to whether he can do his best for directors other than Truffaut. Godard and Bertolucci have already brought out the aridity that also [withers] his persona in "The Mother and the Whore," and it's rather sad to see this dour, fatigued appearance so soon after hugely enjoying his skill in Truffaut's "Day for Night." But all we learn from his performance in this movie is that his right nipple twitches violently when he's dialing a phone.
scorch
superficial or slight burning
change of color or injury to the texture
to scorch a [dress] while [ironing]
singe
superficial or slight burning
that takes off ends or projections
to singe [hair]
singe the [pinfeathers] from a [chicken]
Isaach De Bankolé in the lead are [hot] enough to singe so many art school pencil 'staches.
broil
to broil a [steak]
charcoal
char
The fire charred the [paper].
The flame charred the [steak].
char[s], a char[woman]
with a slow zoom into the fresh-[charred] heart of a greasy, [gristle]-flecked beef [patty].
stumbling through a landscape of [incinerated] jeeps, charred [corpses], and oil wells blazing in the beyond-Coppola apocalyptic night.
to haunting shots of the men examining the charred [remains] of Iraqi soldiers and burning oil wells lighting up the night sky that prompt Swoff to observe that "the Earth is bleeding,
conflagration
a destructive fire, usually an extensive one
A conflagration destroyed [Chicago].
Bean has built a [bonfire] of contradictions and the ensuing [conflagration] illuminates a bit of the world.
crematorium
which seems like an invitation for a sackrace to the [nearest] crematorium.
precipitate
cataract
slush
[romantic] slush
In the [snow] and [slush] of New Jersey
drizzle
Toward the end, Miss Lebrun has one long [drizzling] aria of remorse—about the futility of sex without love.
Lye
Maelstrom & Pandemonium (hell)
maelstrom
Y
[meyl-struhm]
D
–noun
1. a large, powerful, or violent whirlpool.
2. a restless, disordered, or tumultuous state of affairs: the maelstrom of early morning traffic.
3. (initial capital letter) a famous hazardous whirlpool off the NW coast of Norway.
Synonyms:
2. tumult, pandemonium, bedlam.
pandemonium
–noun
1. wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos.
2. a place or scene of riotous uproar or utter chaos.
3. (often initial capital letter) the abode of all the demons.
4. hell. 
Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY.
Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' [deejay] (Samuel L. Jackson) [spins] the platters that matter; a convenience store owned by a Korean couple; and Sal's Famous Pizzeria, the only white-operated business in the neighborhood.
Sal (Danny Aiello) serves up slices with his two sons, genial Vito (Richard Edson) and angry, racist Pino (John Turturro). Sal has one black employee, Mookie (Spike Lee), who wants to "get paid" but lacks ambition. His sister Jade (Joie Lee, Spike's sister), who has a greater sense of purpose and a "real" job, wants Mookie to start dealing with his responsibilities, most notably his son with girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez).
Two of Mookie's best friends are Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a monolith of a man who rarely speaks, preferring to blast Public Enemy's rap song Fight The Power on his massive boom box; and Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), nicknamed for his coke-bottle glasses and habit of losing his cool.
When Buggin' Out notes that Sal's "Wall of Fame," a photo gallery of famous Italian-Americans, includes no people of color, he eventually demands a neighborhood boycott, on a day when tensions are already running high, that incurs tragic consequences.
roil
to render (water, wine, etc.) turbid
by stirring up sediment.
that Mr. Montand communicates in the [roil] of indecision in this old fellow as to whether he should
swivel
He swiveled his [chair] around.
he loosens up his neck and shoulders and swivels his [head]
rotary
[shag] carpets, oversize books bound in white leather, a fat rotary-[dial] telephone.
phlegmatic
phlegmatic as ever, Samantha Morton. (The best gag in the film is that Hazel’s home is forever on [fire]
sedate
We just got him sedated.
valerian
How many drops? Of the valerian?
Raucous
Traipse & Trapes
traipse
Y
D
Informal.
–verb (used without object)
1. to walk or go aimlessly or idly or without finding or reaching one's goal: We traipsed all over town looking for a copy of the book.
–verb (used with object)
2. to walk over; tramp: to traipse the fields.
–noun
3. a tiring walk.
Also, trapes. 
As if we weren't concerned enough after her disturbing debut as Jenny in Kids; traipsing across town, traumatized with the negative news that she's HIV-positive and that her infector's still on the prowl. Even by the film's scarring finale, Chlöe's kept her inner turmoil to herself.
ramble
amble
Convulsion
dawdle
dilatorily saunter, fritter away time working in a halfhearted way
to dawdle [over] a [task].
He dawdled [away] the whole [morning].
[Stop] dawdling and [help] me with these packages!
loiter
linger aimlessly
to loiter outside a [building].
dally
loiter indecisively, delay as if free from responsibilities
to dally on the way [home].
How can you dally [with] such a [serious] problem?
The acceptance of the role as artistic directors of the company is not a [dalliance]
gallivant v.
Well he'd like us to think that he's writing a novel, but we all know he just goes out and gallivants with freshmen [women] trying to relive Jane.
Languid
Opulent & Opulence (續：肥胖 錢財 貧窮 單字大集合)
opulent
Y
D
–adjective
1. characterized by or exhibiting opulence: an opulent suite.
2. wealthy, rich, or affluent.
3. richly supplied; abundant or plentiful: opulent sunshine.
Rich and visually [ornate], Murder is opulent in both style and pacing. The leisurely direction appears well-suited to most members of the large, talented cast.
。缺乏
。消瘦 Meager
。肥胖
corpulent
The film finishes by exploring hetero motifs: Encolpio discovers that he is impotent while [flailing] around on the alter of the whore-priestess, and then recovers his [virility] while pleasuring Oneothea, a corpulent [sorceress] sex therapist.
Dallessandro seeks to [advance] his career by bedding anyone who is able to help him, from [corpulent] lady motel owners, to the gay boyfriend of a movie star's ex-husband.
lump
Not all of the material on Left of the Middle [fares] as well, however, such as the Alanis Morissette sound-alike "Intuition," but Imbruglia need not worry about being [lumped] into the copycat category; for the most part, she has a style all her own.
plump
The book, a fictional diary of a [plump] 30-something London office worker
... who is not [plump] and is from Texas, there was [gnashing] and [wailing]
And reality is what he's been lacking [in] a love life based largely on his [inflamed] fantasies about the [plump] wife (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) of the local baker (Vincent Gallo, playing an American in France).
What did you plump for? Um, the soup and fried sole.
buxom
is a philanderer whose adventures are forgiven by his [merry], [buxom] wife, Alma
portly
The circus's [portly] owner recalls a humiliating incident involving the company's clown.
It could be anyone, though -- from ominous Uncle Eric to portly nightclub manager Garvey,
cetacean
blubber
The [child] seemed to be blubbering something about a lost ring. 鯨脂,鯨油
[thick], blubber lips, blubber-[faced].
Penn even tries to evoke the working-class [blubber] of the original version's star, Broderick Crawford
whalebone
Oh, come now. Mashers went out with whalebone corsets and hairnets. 鯨鬚,鯨鬚製品
pudgy
short and fat or thick
an [infant's] pudgy fingers.
The second couple notice [subtle] changes in the hitherto [dweeby], [pudgy], socially awkward Adam,
cellulite
He's already got a bunch of cellulite. Look at all that goop. (肥胖者大腿等處的) 脂肪團
sebaceous
Why is Uncle Arthur always in the bathroom? He has to drain his sebaceous cyst. You know that.【生理】似油脂或皮脂的
baste
moisten (meat or other food) while cooking, with drippings, butter, etc.
Mama ain't cookin', bastin' floppin' pork chops.
。高矮胖瘦
stature
the height of a human or animal body.
She was rather [small] in stature.
Thomas Jefferson was a man of [great] stature.
Film noir is rarely about heroes, but about men of small [stature], who are lured out of their timid routines by dreams of wealth or romance. Their sin is one of [hubris]: These little worms dare to dream of themselves as rich or happy.
Nixon has his way with Frost through the first three [sessions], telling long stories, reinforcing his presidential [stature] and digressing when his [interlocutor] attempts to put him on the spot.
goes from television stardom on "E. R." to another try at [leading]-man stature on the big screen.
dapper
He looked very dapper in his new [suit].
to [walk] with a dapper step
The Ninth Gate stars a [solemn] and [dapper] Johnny Depp as a rare-book hustler.
However, Paula abandons her studies because she's fallen in love with [dapper], [handsome] Gregory Anton.
squat
stubby
of the nature of or resembling a stub
short and thick or broad, thick-set or squat
stubby [fingers]
stocky
of solid and sturdy form or build, thick-set and, usually, short
Rose first attempts to seduce sweet but stocky [Rodney]
stout
bulky in figure, heavily built, corpulent, thickset, fat
She is getting too stout for her dresses.
Yes, your cheeks are pink, and your legs are stout.
The character that Joseph Cotten plays in this version was changed from a [stout], humorously sardonic elderly man to a young, handsome one in order to serve as a potential love interest for Ingrid Bergman in the film, and in order to appeal more to the audience.
Why don't we hear what Susie has to say? That's stout of you, but perhaps Susie may not care to air her views in public.
pudgy
short and fat or thick
an [infant's] pudgy fingers.
Look around you. Each and every one is special. Look at my salesgirls. That pudgy one. Or the brunette outside. I spend my days at my clients' feet. Why else would I do this job?
scrubby
low or stunted, as trees
I bring a little bit of non-[glossiness] to glossy movies, and it’s cool that I get to do that, but [normally] I look like a scrubby teacher’s assistant.
stunted
runt
an animal that is small or stunted as compared with others of its kind
would you believe a runt like that is getting married?
cf. palsy
paltry
ridiculously or insultingly small
a paltry [sum] [coward]
"Good Lord, man," he tells Marvin, "do you mean to say you'd bring down this immense organization for a [paltry] $93,000?"
Madam, your dildos are not to compare with what I've seen. Indeed, they're paltry ware.
puny
of less than normal size and strength, weak
unimportant, insignificant, petty or minor
when we conceive a work of art, is always to some extent a stand-in for the [puny] or [pitiful] one that we have been personally landed with.
You look right puny for goin' on seven.
cretin
Of course, if you talk enthusiastically about your work in advertising, you sound like a total cretin.【醫】矮呆病患者,愚侏病者
So what is it you want? Tell me, what? Some private school full of idiots and daddy's boys? The same as your moronic cousin who's over twenty and still in high school? Give me a break with that cretin!
15-year-olds the recent American screen has produced in this age of adolescent [cretins] and horny [toads].
atrophy
I just... I guess the dancing phase of my life is over. I'm afraid my skill atrophied.【醫】萎縮,發育停止,虛脫
The colour is so fresh and gorgeous, the misty [atrophic] lips, and this pale skin, wetness but putrefied.
Tell us what it feels like not to feel. Well, I have pretty good sensation, actually, not too much atrophy.
adenoids
I don't like Laura Pritchard. She's got adenoids. Nonsense. She's a most agreeable girl, and I want you to be very nice to her.【醫】腺樣增殖體,肥大的腺組織 (指小兒咽扁桃腺而言)
infinitesimal
I don't give one infinitesimal damn what Lil thought or thinks.【數】無窮小的, 無限小的
And when I realize the infinitesimal part of this I possess, it makes me shudder.
colossal
gargantuan
gigantic, enormous, colossal
From his early days with Roger Corman, Demme [possessed] both a gargantuan humanism and a light touch.
monolithic
a boat with a monolithic [hull]
and the resulting scandal is accompanied by a media frenzy of [monolithic] proportions.
menhir
There he encounters [stalwarts] like Jean-François Jardie, as [dapper] as a flying ace in his leather jacket, and Le Bison, a sort of [human] menhir.
mammoth
Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.
monstrosity
the state or character of being monstrous
Harold? Why you purchased that monstrosity, I have no idea.
。財務
。稅捐稽徵
。金銀財寶
。貧窮
Favela
Opulent
Papal
papal
Y
[pey-puhl]
D
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to the pope or the papacy: a papal visit to Canada.
2. of or pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church.
All of this is done up with a lot of trumpet calls, several parchment [documents], a few parades, a little papal diplomacy, and the background presence of character actors like Trevor Howard. His function in movies like this is to step forward in court from time to time, clear his throat, say, "My lady..." and then summarize the plot.
chapel
His body will repose in the [chapel] for two days.
pulpit
It's gonna be fine, as long as it blows up the pulpit.
It was a bully pulpit from which to challenge rabble [rousers] like the gay-hating Anita Bryant.
oratorio
musical composition based upon a religious theme, without action, costume, or scenery
canonical
canonical [hours]
Albigensian
It was used by the Cathars to defend themselves during the Albigensian crusades in the 13th century.
Rastafarian
Among the many gifted actors gleefully [chewing] the scenery are Gary Oldman as an unbalanced Rastafarian pimp,
scatology
eschatology
who has just finally delivered the eschatological [sermon] on class that has been building up in him.
Hierophant
Burqa
burqa
Y
D
n.
A loose, usually black or light blue robe that is worn by Muslim women, especially in Afghanistan, and that covers the body from head to toe.
I made another film with Chloë last year for a different series. I originally wanted to work the burqa into that one, but it didn’t happen, so we did this as a separate little thing. She was a very good sport. My last project was in 10 parts, each 28 minutes long, so for now I just want to make really short things.
babushka
Do they still possess [fugitive] feelings instilled by a long-forgotten babushka?
wimple
[Nuns] march past in step, their wimples [bobbing] up and down in unison.
their Adam’s apples [bobbing] up and down in excitement
cloak
but the material remains [cloaked] by the very propriety, stiff manners and emotional [starchiness] the picture delineates in such copious detail.
mantle
[earth's] mantle
The mantle of [darkness] obscured the view.
and the "popular kids" have Oscars on their [mantles]
burnoose
there must have been a shortage of [burnooses] in Europe while both pics were in production
shawl
A [woman] in a black shawl came out of the shop.
It's arresting and horrifying to watch Mr. Gosling's Danny put on a [prayer] shawl and chant sections from a religious service as he [gives] a Nazi salute
lapel
Essentially, all it means is, you'll be able to go on your own rather than as someone's escort, and that you'll get a white carnation for your lapel.
Smock
Piffle
piffle
Y
D
Informal.
–noun
1. nonsense, as trivial or senseless talk.
–verb (used without object)
2. to talk nonsense.
Origin:
1840–50; perh. akin to puff
They plot and connive as the enemies and friends of the two queens, and are not above murder most foul or murder most timely. It is all jolly good fun.
Reviewers generally turned thumbs down on Timothy Dalton's performance as Lord Henry Darnley, Mary's second husband and king-consort, saying it was one-dimensional and shallow. However, Darnley himself was something of a piffling lightweight -- talented only at indolence and drunkenness.
Perhaps Dalton was simply [mirroring] history.
The film is not without its faults, namely, a sometimes-uninspired script and a sometimes-revisionist interpretation of history that sanitizes machinating Mary. However, the costumes, music, and settings are evocative of the era, and the Protestant-Catholic feuding and double-dealing keep the plot moving at a gallop.
rigmarole
She showed no interest in him at all initially, which makes sense because he's a completely uninteresting guy. But for someone like Von Sloneker, that's just inciting. so he swung into action with a full rigmarole about how he...
Garrulous
Regal ***
regal
Y
[ree-guhl]
D
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to a king; royal: the regal power.
2. befitting or resembling a king.
3. stately; splendid.
Synonyms:
2. See kingly.
Kingly, regal, royal refer to that which is closely associated with a king, or is suitable for one.
What is kingly may either belong to a king, or be befitting, worthy of, or like a king: a kingly presence, appearance, graciousness.
Regal is esp. applied to the office of kingship or the outward manifestations of grandeur and majesty: regal authority, bearing, splendor, munificence.
munificent
–adjective
1. extremely liberal in giving; very generous.
2. characterized by great generosity: a munificent [bequest].
Royal is applied esp. to what pertains to or is associated with the person of a monarch: the royal family, word, robes, salute; a royal
–noun
a portable reed (蘆葦) organ of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Redgrave is magnificent. Not only does she become Mary physically (like Redgrave, Mary was tall, red-haired, and beautiful), she also becomes Mary psychologically (regal and domineering at one moment, frivolous and restive the next).
Jackson is equally magnificent as Elizabeth, molding her screen persona into the attractive, politically clever, ambitious queen who could be as soft and warm, or as cold and ruthless, as her job demanded. To watch Redgrave and Jackson go for the throat is a jousting [match] of the first rank.
baton
sceptor
mace
regalia
prerogative
It wouldn't be any great tragedy, if some of these people lost their class prerogatives.
Dissipate
Proletarian (續：人馬 單字大集合)
proletarian
Ya. (形容詞 adjective)
1. 無產階級的
n. (名詞 noun)
1. 無產者;勞工
But Fink, who claims to be the poet of the working man, is not interested in a real proletarian, and spends most of his time staring at his typewriter in despair. He has writer's block.
。人馬
cohort
retinue
cavalcade
splinter
When reality seems to [splinter], there is only one answer, and it is: "Reality has seemed to [splinter]."
coterie
this is the kind of rarified romance that should [garner] a select coterie of dedicated fest and arthouse followers,
Writer/director Sally Potter takes her time, with only six features released after her 1983 debut, The Gold Diggers. Her 1992 movie Orlando helped push Tilda Swinton from the Derek Jarman coterie into the larger indie movie world, but Potter’s own films since have sat pretty firmly on the [fringes] of art house territory.
esoteric
Threnody
bevy
group of birdsa bevy of boisterous [sailors]
The film is similar to Gray's first feature in its tragic tale of a family divided by violence and corruption, but also seriously underdeveloped, with a [bevy] of characters whose motivations seem [puzzling] at best.
There are several references to filmmaking in the text, Anderson’s [knack] for wordplay and a bevy of almost insignificant details that help paint a unique picture.
troupe
Continuing on their way, the [knight] and [squire] encounter a troupe of [performers], including a couple named Joseph and Mary who have a young child.He has a briefly bright encounter with a theatrical troupe of [dwarfs] who entertain him with a bit of playful make-believe,
Set in Taipei like his other movies (save for parts of What Time Is It There?) and starring Tsai's regular troupe of [players], the movie [trains] the director's [un]blinking gaze on the breakdown of the [nuclear] family.
squire
As the film opens, a [knight], Antonius Blok, and his [squire], Jöns, have just returned from the Crusades to a Sweden being ravaged by the plague.
In the West of England there was a Squire Allwothy.
(in England) a country gentleman
esp. the chief landed proprietor in a district
...or, as he was called usually by the company, who affected what Nate called "napping English", the squire, who was [leader] of the opposite faction.
posse
a body or force armed with legal authority
who travels with a [posse] of two smaller thugs and almost drowns him in a swimming pool.
she snaps to a sex-star-[posse] roundtable during the course of her View-like "topical discussion chat-reality show."
but also a host of incidental but memorable characters, from a [hapless] Japanese exchange student to a prom queen and a posse of barely [pubescent] nerds.he has his own home, a luxury car, and [posse] of friends who do double duty as his crew,
clique
congeniality, exclusiveness.
cliques in a [school]
"Christian Jewels," the most devout and popular clique of girls in the [school],
We're having a hell of a time breaking into the social world here. It seems very [cliquish]. I don't know what it is. We didn't get into the good golf club.
The boys and I were only trying to help. You and your boys. There's a very old bylaw in this institution about gangs or cliques. We don't like them. We don't want them.
ring
selfish, dishonest.
a [gambling] ring
ilk
We don’t socialize with people of that [ilk]
among Tarantino and his [ilk]
Set in an unspecified time "not so long ago," Metropolitan pokes affectionate fun at [Stillman's] ilk.
Like most films of its ilk, nothing of consequence really happens,
cahoot
Jin Ping is actually in cahoots with illegal private doctors,It's my lovely mother, isn't it? She's behind all this. She's in cahoots with Maria.
caboodle
Kit and caboodle, son.
chum
But the action stems from the arrival of his [chum], Warren, who comes bearing $15,000 he has stolen from his self-made father
She and her [college] chum Alice (Chloe Sevigny) decide to arrive in a cab rather than on foot, but that hardly matters.
Scout's [ever]-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with [precocious] young Dill Harris (a character based on Lee's [childhood] chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna),
crony
I think he may be one of [us]," Harvey winks to one of his cronies.
Johnny Ross, who is scheduled to testify against his Mob [cronies] before a Senate subcommittee in San Francisco.
a scurrilous hatchet job on Clinton [crony] Vernon Jordan.
You trashed my fiscal year, and now, you and your crony here [egg] these media vultures...
brethren
pl. of brother
The brethren will meet at the [church].
and therefore lacking a hero's necessary sense of protectiveness over [his] brethren.
There have been many movies about psychos invading the homes and overturning the domestic bliss of innocent families, but in the capable hands of Curtis Hanson, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle rises above most of its brethren.
throng
presses together or forward, with common aimand everyone throngs in the street to watch, [perched] on stoops like kids in an Andy Hardy picture.
a throng of [memories].
He thronged the picture [with] stars.
swarm
contemptuousA swarm of [dirty] children played in the street.
Surging with colors, music, the ever-present [swarming] multitudes and the vitality of its youthful characters,
Before long, wishes-gone-wrong have left the neighborhood [swarming] with tiny spaceships, crocodile armies, giant [boogers].
rabble
The [nobility] held the rabble in complete contempt.
It was a bully pulpit from which to challenge rabble [rousers] like the gay-hating Anita Bryant.
ragtag
Milk rouses a [ragtag] army of street boys and Harvard graduates.
proletarian
But Fink, who claims to be the poet of the working man, is not interested in a real proletarian
a self-professed proletarian [radical] who [stumbles] into the social sphere of a group of well-off Upper East Side twentysomethings calling themselves the SFRP.
Will it end under proletarian dictatorship?
foreman
He is single and independent, rooms with his parents in their [grubby] worker's home, [gripes] about his low pay and harsh [foreman], and spends his Saturday nights drinking beer in the pub.
fink
a strikebreaker
a labor spy
an informer, stool pigeonWell, being a fink is a thirsty work.
Somebody saw him here. I don't know who. Maybe you got a fink around.
The Mentaculus really works! You knew about it? Well... They must have finked me out.
Jacks an accountant for the Mob. He finked to the FBI. Hes been skimming off the top, and now the kids are marked.
nark
British Slang. a stool pigeon or informer.
Chiefly Australian Slang. an annoying person.
Don't know what you're getting so narjed about, you nicked the bloody thing, didn't you?
pariah
When Maria (Adrienne Shelly) gets pregnant by the high school quarterback, she's [dropped] by her boyfriend, drops out of school, and her father drops dead of a heart attack. Maria's hard-bitten mother treats her like a pariah.plebeiansturdy... plebeian... plenty of body.
social have-nots, unskilled worker at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.
He's a [snarky], shaved-head, bow-tie-wearing [mis]anthrope who would be utterly amazed if he knew how his files got into the hands of two [peons] at a gym.
thrall
Don't order me around. I am not your [thrall].
Jack Burden suffers from an insufficiency of ego and finds himself in [thrall] to a bully.
and director Michael Lehmann is [in] thrall with the hipness he tries to chronicle.
valet
they realize (in the words of the [valet] in Elaine May's movie "A New Leaf") that they are carrying on in their own lifetimes a tradition that was dead before they were born.
lackey
I am a imperialist lackey.
wetback
Jimmy got a kitchen full of wetbacks, most of them relatives. Those people breed like chickens.【美】【口】非法入境的農業勞工 (尤指非法入境的墨西哥勞工)
Proletarian
Eschatology
eschatology
Y
D
–noun Theology.
1. any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.
2. the branch of theology dealing with such matters.
Charlie, pining hopelessly for an era of civic responsibility and disinterested paternalism, represents an idea of conservatism that has now disappeared altogether; he is the most obvious dinosaur.
Tom, who claims to be a socialist, turns out to have more in common with Charlie than not. Audrey, who is guided through life by literary classics, has no more of a sense of class entitlement than Tom does.
Nick, just as game to fight a duel as to participate in a déclassé, nationally televised ball featuring debs from the hinterlands and their military escorts, is a romantic fatalist who would be at home everywhere and nowhere.
Sally is fully endowed with poise and decorativeness, but she wants to be a pop star. Jane, who will probably be the first to get married, may also be the first to go on television. Cynthia has such a deeply rooted sense of privilege that she seems fated to end up in a Page Six scandal.
Each of them is attempting to juggle two sets of values. At one point near the end, Tom and Fred are in a bar with Charlie, who has just finally delivered the eschatological [sermon] on class that has been building up in him.
They spot a guy in his late thirties, and Charlie appeals to him for confirmation of his ideas. The graybeard doesn’t laugh or walk away, but says, in effect, just get on with things. The point is clear, if unspectacular: realism and compromise are necessary if you want to stay alive.
limo
sedan
bimbo
nether
Stygian
limbo
the project fell into [limbo] and later found [light] as an HBO television series helmed by Mark Steven Johnson.
and that freed him to get on with things, to end his [limbo] in San Clemente, Calif.
perdition
Meanwhile, an Indian girl is lured down the road to [perdition] by a sensuous general (Sabu).
excruciate
Flagellant
expiate
penance
Purgatory
Hierophant
Amber
amber
Y
D
–noun
1. a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin (樹脂) of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator: used for making jewelry and other ornamental articles.
2. the yellowish-brown color of resin.
–adjective
3. of the color of amber; yellowish-brown: amber fields of grain.
4. made of amber: amber earrings.
"Urban haute bourgeoisie," or U.H.B. (pronounced UB), is a term coined by Charlie, who is obsessed with the ongoing failure and imminent doom of his class.
Stillman obviously thinks something of the sort himself—the movie’s title is subtle in its archly irrelevant grandeur, but you wonder if Twilight of the Gods didn’t cross his mind. (At one point, Tom’s bedside book is shown to be Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West.)
Fifteen years on, the picture looks positively prophetic in its choice of villain. The smirking, ponytailed Sloneker may possess a bona fide title, but he is the future of the moneyed class: trashy, smug, narcissistic, abusive, enthroned in his Hamptons beach house.
The members of the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, by contrast, are preserved in amber, however temporarily—they are serious young people, most of them apparently virgins.
calcification
mortar
plaster
and there is a Wall of Shame [plastered] with the photos of the girls back home who have dumped them.
gelatinous
The leaves are covered with gelatinous [ooze]. Whatever the trouble is, it's everywhere.
gluttony
glutinous
viscous
that viscous [stew] of naïveté, insecure leader-lust, psychotic self-righteousness, and [medieval] imbecility?
stodgy
a stodgy Victorian [novel]
a stodgy business [suit]
Depp's leisurely quest leads through a [posh], [stodgy] landscape of libraries, lecture halls, and back-alley biblio [troves] atingle [with] hissed warnings
Smock
Apposite
apposite
Y
D
–adjective
suitable; well-adapted; pertinent; relevant; apt: an apposite answer.
Metropolitan is an unashamedly literary film. Tom is unmistakably an offspring of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s sincere young heroes, although the world he enters is more closely knit and fundamentally provincial than Fitzgerald’s haut monde.
It is, in fact, a [fishbowl] out of Jane Austen.
None of these allusions are exactly concealed by the director, who also wrote the script. Austen is virtually a character in the story, but Stillman manages to avoid its seeming coy when,
for example, Tom and Audrey argue about the "immorality" of the young players in Mansfield Park (Tom, characteristically, has not read the book, but relies on Lionel Trilling’s account, since critics spare the reader needless toil by supplying the writer’s views as well as their own).
The dialogue is ostentatiously written; every character wields subordinate clauses and uses words like however and nevertheless. The combination of stilted speeches and deft behavioral acting sometimes seems peculiar, but it is also peculiarly apposite.
Like Austen, Stillman wears his irony lightly and deploys it affectionately.
incontinent
contingent
contingent [liability]
Our plans are contingent [on] the weather.
Have the [Scottish] contingent arrived at the meeting yet?
extraneous
pertinent
It might be [pertinent] for you to make the suggestion to the president.
The lawyer wanted to know all the details [pertinent] to the case.
Klaws, a nice middle-aged couple who just happen to specialize in mild S&M and bondage photographs. The [pertinent] photo shoots are represented as silly,
cogent
the brief affair serves as a cogent [illustration] of how the film conveys only a fraction of the nuances and layers of the book.
His remarks were an entirely [cogent] and candid summing up of the state of affairs, and, among the [cadre] of Nixon haters,
Flabbergast
Effigy
effigy
Y
D
–noun
1. a representation or image, esp. sculptured, as on a monument.
2. a crude representation
of
someone disliked, used for purposes of ridicule.
—Idiom
3. in effigy, in public view in the form of an effigy: a leader hanged in effigy by the [mob]. 
Redgrave's performance in Julia garnered an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. However, members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, burned effigies of Redgrave and picketed the awards ceremony in the spring of 1978 to protest against both Redgrave and her support of the Palestinian cause.
In her acceptance speech, Redgrave announced that neither she nor the Academy would be intimidated by "a small bunch of Zionist hooligans - whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world, and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression." Her statement was greeted by both applause and boos from the audience.
torso
actor's nicely [sculpted] torso than his [face]
That big fifties body—a Buick that smiles—is very different from Mol’s slenderly elegant [torso].
Harron feasted again and again on Christian Bale’s smooth, [muscled]-up torso.
Danny achieves his essential being in the grotesque scene wherein he wraps his [torso] with a [tallis], samurai style, and begins to [daven] his sieg heils.
bust
he sees the bust of [Marx] turn into the head of an ape.
rumination
rumen
maw
but backward into the [maw] of time.
paunch
loin
"My Own Private Idaho," with two young hustlers wandering the West and [noodling] among the [tenderloin] drifters in downtown Portland.
haunch
peg
prosthesis
prosthetic
shin
knuckle
Just knuckle [down] for an hour or so and [finish] the work.
Angelina Jolie has said that she was attracted to the story of Christine’s refusal to knuckle [under] and of her martyrdom,
sinew
Is there, in the midst of all this muscle, no sinew that serves no appetite of Norfolk's, but is just Norfolk's? There is!
Areola
Staunch & Stanch
staunch
Y
D
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object), noun
–adjective
1. firm or steadfast in principle, adherence, loyalty, etc., as a person: a staunch Republican; a staunch friend.
2. characterized by firmness, steadfastness, or loyalty: He delivered a staunch defense of the government.
3. strong; substantial: a staunch little hut in the woods.
4. impervious to water or other liquids; watertight: a staunch vessel.
Also, stanch.
C
stanch, staunch (adj., v.)
Both the verb, meaning “to stop the flow of blood or another liquid,” and the adjective, meaning “watertight, leakproof, sound” and, figuratively, “steadfast, strong,” come from the same medieval French root, the verb estancer (or estanchier).
Our English verb is usually spelled stanch, but staunch also appears frequently in Edited English; the adjective is nearly always spelled staunch, although stanch does occur.
Stanch may be pronounced STAHNCH, STAWNCH, or (especially as a verb) STANCH. Staunch usually is said either STAWNCH or STAHNCH. 
The crux of the film is the staunchly Catholic More's refusal to acknowledge King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw)'s break from the church to divorce his first wife and marry Anne Boleyn (an unbilled Vanessa Redgrave). Sir Thomas willingly goes to the chopping block rather than sacrifice his ideals.
Director Fred Zinnemann retains the play's verbosity without sacrificing the film's strong sense of visuals. The impeccably chosen cast includes Wendy Hiller as Sir Thomas' likably contentious wife Alice,
John Hurt as the deceitful Richard Rich (More's put-downs of this despicable character provide some of the film's biggest laughs), Orson Welles as a dour Cardinal Woolsey, Leo McKern as the ambitious Thomas Cromwell, and Susannah York as More's daughter Margaret.
invincible
cannot be conquered in combat or any manner
an invincible [army] [courage]
impregnable
a place cannot be taken, proof against attack, 銅牆鐵壁是也
an impregnable [fortress] [virtue]
indomitable
unyielding spirit, or stubborn persistence, 不屈不撓是也
indomitable [will].
no suffering is so dire that it cannot be [endured] and then [erased], to be [replaced]—in Rachel’s case—with an indomitable [smile].
pertinacious
importunate
importunate [demands] from the children for attention.
and as he thereafter gravely turns aside the [importunities] of his mistress, a [drab] teacher
restive
a restive [horse].
Boyle has always been a [restive] director
Nubile