8/23/08 LE Notes 2

vocab. con't:



perturb - (a little bit hl) to annoy, piss off, agitate, disturb.  



That professor may be famous, but his [haughty attitude] perturbs me to no end.



insolent

imperious

If something is [imperative], you have to do it; it is [required] 

(although if you have an imperative air, it may suggest merely that you're [accustomed] to giving orders). 

{Imperious} applies mainly to people and their {gestures} or {actions}: 

An imperious woman is impatient and determined to have her way; she will not [brook] restraint. 

{Imperious} has a {pejorative} [edge],

whereas something [imperative] is [not] necessarily good or bad. 





piss off, tick off - both very colloquial.





aggravate - can mean to annoy or irritate, or to worsen a preexisting condition. 



She is easily aggravated by [loud music].



The economic downturn was aggravated by an [un]expected change in trade policy.



Avoid caffeine, [as] it will only aggravate your heart condition.



exacer[b]ate

make some[thing] worse. cf. [a]meliorate

exasperate

cause some[one] to become frustrated and upset.

pontificate

lacerate





scatter-brained - (col) absentminded, unable to remember where one puts things, forgets appointments and people's names, etc.  



Don't be offended that [he missed your birthday]; he's just naturally scatter-brained.





extemporaneous - done without special preparation, or without relying on notes/a script. Used to describe: a speech, a performance, a lecture, etc. 



This doesn't necessarily imply a lack of preparation in the negative sense. 



impromptu is similar but implies no planning. 

Off the cuff is a synonym.  

Off the top of one's head is probably the best colloquial synonym.  





marsupial - Did you know that there is only one species of marsupial in North America? (opossum)



possum

to [feign] sleep or death. 

The baseball broke the window, but the children [played possum] when asked who had thrown it.  





counterintuitive - describes a quality of some thing or situation that [is] contrary to what one would suspect in accordance with logic or intuition.  



The idea that helping mosquitoes, rather than destroying them, may be the way to eradicate malaria is pleasingly counterintuitive, [even if] it would mean more mosquito bites at night.



apprehension

the faculty or act of apprehending, esp. [intuitive] understanding; perception on a direct and immediate level.  

malaria

caused by a para[si]tic proto[zo]an, by a mosquito of the genus A[no]pheles. (單複同)

malaise

Major studios, [buttressed] by solid summer B.O. and synergies with growth sectors like consumer products and cable TV, 

have withstood the economic [malaise].

Wilson’s near-fatal [malaise] was later attributed to his breakup with Kate Hudson.





Expressions for talking about language exchange:



Attention to detail is critical. Letting mistakes go uncorrected [only] reinforces them.



Languages always have more than one way to express the same idea. 



Rephrasing the same idea as many ways possible is the best way to develop [facility] in a variety of styles: formal, written, colloquial, spoken, slang, etc.



[Take] a systematic approach.



speak [at] the paragraph length - develop the skills necessary to organize a large amount of information into several sentences of natural, logical speech.