Caliber & Calibrate

caliber



Y

n. (名詞 noun)

          1.    口徑;直徑

          2.    才幹

          3.    水準,程度





calibrate



Y

D



–verb (used with object) 

1. to determine, check, or rectify (矯正) the graduation 

of 

(any instrument giving quantitative measurements). 



2. to divide or mark with gradations (階段性變化), graduations, or other indexes of degree, quantity, etc., as on a thermometer (溫度計), measuring cup, or the like.

3. to determine the correct range for (an artillery gun, mortar (er, 迫擊砲), etc.) by observing where the fired projectile (til, 拋射體) hits. 



4. to plan or devise (something) carefully 

so 

as to have a precise use, application, appeal, etc.: a sales strategy calibrated [to] rich investors. 





　

The emotional nuance[s] in Eric Rohmer's movies 

are so carefully calibrated that 



at times 

we seem to be watching the [enactment] of a theorem.【數】定理;命題



What [rescues] his best films [from] desiccation 

is 

the playfulness behind the theorizing -- he's a genial philosophe. It may be a little maddening, on occasion, 





watching 

his people act [out] their moral comedies within such a [circumscribed] radius; 



the greatest art isn't so finicky, 

so tamped-down. 



tamp

用黏土(或沙子等) 填塞(裝有炸藥的洞口)

搗實(泥土), 砸緊,敲緊





But Rohmer, although he's made movies touched with greatness such as Claire's Knee and the uncharacteristically free-form Le Rayon Vert, is best understood for the modesty of his designs. 



He's not out to jostle our complacencies 

but 

only to give them a little nudge. 



He's a moralist of a particularly comfy and bourgeois sort -- he massages the notions his art-house patrons already have about people and life and the sexes. There are no shocks of recognition in Rohmer's movies, just little frissons of feeling.





peg

of a [budget] currently pegged [at] $8.65 

The [feature] on the chief of police was pegged on the [riots].  

to peg away [at] a [homework] assignment.  

I guess that'll take him [down] a peg! 

stud

latch bolt

sheath hilt cylinder

Pallet 



elliptical syncopate

syntax 

permutation & combination

corollary

an immediate consequence or easily drawn conclusion

as a kind of microcosmic [analogue] (and [corollary])

corroborate (confirm)

He corroborated [my account] of the accident. 

[evidence] to corroborate his testimony

Castigate