Navel *** & Umbilicus (續：中心 怠忽職守 單字大集合)

navel



Y

D

–noun 

1. umbilicus (def. 1).  



2. the central point 

or 

middle of any thing or place. 



3. Heraldry. nombril. the point in an escutcheon between the middle of the base and the fess point.



C

naval (adj.), navel (adj., n.) 

 

The adjective referring to the navy is spelled naval; 



the navel is the small dent in the middle of the abdomen where the umbilical cord was once attached; a navel orange has a similar-looking feature on one end. 



The words are homophones, pronounced NAI-vuhl.





　

Bening's full-bodied performance, on the other hand, achieves a level of complexity and coherence that eludes the rest of the film. Modulating expertly [between] Deirdre's self-pitying rationalizations and explosive fits of temper, the actress [channels] qualities she's conveyed memorably in her previous roles, 



from her marital frustration in "American Beauty" to her self-absorbed love of play-acting in "Being Julia." Thesp uses her voice to richly theatrical effect when reading Deirdre's navel-gazing poetry, yet resists the [temptation] to either [demon]ize or [caricatur]ize her.



navel-gazing

–noun Slang. 

excessive absorption in self-analysis 

or 

focus on a single issue. 





。中心

umbilicus

the [umbilical] cord 

naval

The adjective referring to the navy is spelled naval

navel

a [navel] orange

when reading Deirdre's navel-gazing poetry, yet resists the [temptation] to either [demon]ize or [caricatur]ize her.

You'd better watch it. Your navel's showing.

As an overly serious showman whose self-[aggrandizing] navel-gazing embodied the elements that would eventually turn back the progress of the '60s counterculture and whose pretensions overwhelmed his talent; or as a [martyr] for self-expression deserving of worship.

cinch

A cinch, the perfect score. 繫肚帶【俚】簡單的事情,有把握的事情

It was really his [wonderful] enthusiasm for everything he saw that cinched the [deal].

You know, getting out of town's not gonna be a cinch for you.



cadre

Military. the key group of officers and enlisted personnel necessary to establish and train a new military unit

They hoped to form a [cadre] of veteran party [members].

when a frustrated [cadre] of student environmentalists attempts to liberate... The [animals] won't budge. 

Mike demonstrates an unwavering commitment to his craft and draws a [cadre] of defiantly loyal pupils including Joe, an LAPD cop. 

It seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese [agents] into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone,

Rohmer was editor-in-chief of their next effort, Cahiers, from 1956-63, during which the journal attacked the status quo in French films and revered a [cadre] of American and Italian directors including Hitchcock, John Ford and Howard Hawks. 

I need a new man to coordinate a revamped intelligence division. Paris is demanding something more than the same old photos ...showing Chinese cadre[s] screwing peasant girls in the rice paddies. And if anyone can shake those boys up, it's you.

caucus

U.S. Politics . a meeting of party leaders to select candidates, elect convention delegates, etc

Farragut North was born out of Howard Dean’s 2004 [campaign] for the Presidential [nomination]. Author Beau Williamson worked Dean’s campaign and set his play in Des Moines, Iowa, kicking off just before the Iowa caucuses and following the [political] maneuvering and [backstabbing] undertaken to score a nomination for one Democratic candidate.



implode

and DiCaprio is just as credible when Frank comes close to striking his wife during their [horrific] fights as he is when he quietly [implodes] with his own regret.

Meanwhile, as the adults in the neighborhood begin to [emotionally] implode,

accordion

The [roof] of the car accordions to let in sunlight and fresh air.  

The impact accordioned the car [beneath] the truck.

After a credit sequence of generic French accordion [music] played over color postcards of the city

squelch

Lonesome Jim has the import of a deliberately [squelched] sitcom, or a home movie that's poisoned by unhappiness but shown anyway for [stray] laughs.

scrunch

crunch, crush, or crumple

contract, squeeze together: I had to scrunch my [shoulders] to get through the door.

to squat or hunker (often fol. by down)

He threw a scrunched [up] bag...



centrifugal

Neil Armfield does put his smacked-out couple on one of those [centrifugally] forceful amusement park,

kingpin

Bucho is a wealthy but casually bloodthirsty drug [kingpin] who rules a seedy Mexican border town.

we're reminded of how this evil [drug] kingpin killed the Mariachi's girl and put a bullet through his hand,

When Tracy's modest dreams of a happy life [catch] the attention of feared [criminal] kingpin Bradley "The Jockey" Thompson,



nexus

a means of connection, tie, link

What Denis does make clear is that her characters have fallen into a world where all is chaos and dread, and White Material is a powerful and troubling study of the nexus of power, privilege, arrogance, and violence.



。怠忽職守

inadvertent

unintentional, heedless

engage in some rapid male bonding and inadvertently [swap] cell phones right before Wyatt jets off on a business trip to London.

Acclaimed Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel steps back behind the camera for her third feature film with this tense thriller concerning a woman who fails to recognize the people surrounding her as well as their intentions after inadvertently killing a dog while driving on the highway.

Still unaware of what has happened, the husband contends with the reserved and inadvertently seductive presence of his wife's look-alike (also played by Adjani), a schoolteacher who frequently comes to tutor his son while his wife is away.

perfunctory 

His performance was perfunctory and [lack]luster.

felt fresh in those films, but here it just seems perfunctory and warmed [over] 

scamp

to do or perform in a hasty or careless manner

If you don't [like] the assignments, just don't do them, but don't scamp them.

feckless 

ineffective, incompetent, futile

feckless [attempts] to repair the plumbing. 

since feckless [dreamers] seem more alive onscreen than ordinary folk.

Both women draw men into their [vortex]. These men tend to be male versions of herself — nice, sensitive, [feckless], uncertain, tentative.

effete

futile

Shame demonstrates the [futility] of escaping the consequences of [war]. 

Shot in high-contrast 16 mm black and white, the film follows the futile [attempts] of captain of industry Richard (John Marley) and his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), to escape the [anguish] of their empty marriage in the arms of others. 



slurp

slur

pass over lightly or without due mention or consideration (often followed by over)

The report slurred [over] her contribution to the enterprise.

pronounce (a syllable, word, etc.) indistinctly by combining, reducing, or omitting sounds, as in hurried or careless utterance 

Sunny was never moaning. Maybe the occasional slur, but... and Maria shook Sunny.

dereliction

dereliction of [duty]  

blending cheap electronics, hand-adjusted tech, church architecture, [dereliction] and an overall sense of [entropy]. Have no doubt that this is going to look like a Gilliam film.

Pic is particularly [derelict] on the last count, as it presents a Bettie Page with no active emotional life and scarcely a sexual one.

The would-be nun tries to become a useful saintly creature by bringing in a [flock] of poor derelicts. 

And when the girl gives up her holy calling and returns to her dead uncle's farm with a [rabble] of derelicts and beggars to make [amends] for what she has done,

Delia's twisted emotional liberation—charity-pumping a [derelict] teen—seems more [device] than epiphany.

derelict

You're 35 years old, Mr. Vale. Why are you such a derelict? Such a piece of human junk? The answer's simple. You're a scanner, but you don't realize it, and that has been the source of all your agony.



。時間

tardy 

Tom is always tardy for [school]

and Bergman received his first nomination as Best Director, cementing (if tardily) his status as the leading foreign art-movie director.

anachronistic

Austere, underlit, uncompromisingly lackadaisical at three hours, and [anachronistic] in a half dozen ways

The presence of Norman Jewison may have had something to do with the [anachronistic] feeling of this romantic comedy,

They are acutely aware that they are [anachronisms].



quotidian

daily: a quotidian [report]

usual or customary, everyday: quotidian [needs].

ordinary, commonplace: paintings of [no] more than quotidian artistry.

(of a fever, ague, etc.) characterized by paroxysms that recur daily.

Alongside this quotidian [malaise] are the characters' attempts to achieve contact through [dis]simulation, such as when Anne challenges her elderly neighbour, who may or may not have written a letter [purporting] to be from an abused child in the [adjoining] apartment.

Set in post–Civil War 1940, the movie dreamily [documents] a rural village's [quotidian], but does it so [elliptically] that, as is the vogue in recent Asian cinema, half the story and all of the backstory must be sought at the movie's [fringes], between its scenes, and in its silent ruminations.

leeway

extra time, space, materials, or the like, within which to operate, margin: With [ten minutes'] leeway we can catch the train. 

a degree of freedom of action or thought: His instructions gave us [plenty] of leeway.

(Also called sag.) Nautical. the amount or angle of the drift of a ship to leeward from its heading.

Aeronautics. the amount a plane is blown off its normal course by cross winds. 

What about you, George? I can attack with three divisions in 48 hours. I'd give myself some leeway. Ike wants a realistic estimate, George.【海】【空】風壓差,偏航

To hold on to the catalogue, we need some leeway. The lab has to wipe the slate clean.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do. And that gives you a lotta leeway.

















Navel