(名詞) 擔心不久的將來地球將會被某一宇宙事件摧毀的強烈且非理性的恐懼感。

引句：
There are 19 million 2012-related Google hits, and a vast number of those are concerned with a real world’s [sic] and not the Roland Emmerich film that cashes in on rampant fear and on the tastes of those who enjoyed the way he destroyed the world in “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”…This latest bit of cosmophobia is based on the Maya or Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which, set up to run for 5,125 years, appears to terminate on or about Dec. 21, 2012, thus wrecking the key holiday shopping season.
—John Bogert, “Here comes the end of the world—again,” Daily Breeze, October 22, 2009

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(名詞) 危機就是轉機。亦寫成 crisatunity。這個字是由 crisis 和 opportunity 拼綴而成，因此它的含意並非只有「危險」(danger) 而已，還有「機會」(opportunity)，也就是危機就是轉機。

引句：
Abortion-rights groups, which see contributions rise when their opponents are in power, have long known about crisatunity, even if they didn’t call it that.
—New York Times, 8 Jan. 2010.

None of these ideas are new. Legislators have been half-heartedly jawing about them for years. But the state’s budget “crisitunity,” as Homer Simpson would say, has finally created the incentive to do a few right things.
—Providence Journal, 26 Jan. 2009.

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give * off +
發出、散發出或冒出 (氣味，氣體、液體等)
The police stopped the van because it was giving off a lot of black smoke.

give * off +
擺出 (某種樣子)
She gives off an air of nobility.

give off
擴大，擴展 (事業規模等)
The company is giving off all over the country.

give onto +
(門窗等) 面向，朝向
The French windows give onto the lawn.

give * out +
分發
I earn extra money by giving out brochures on the street.
Somebody was giving leaflets out in front of the underground station.

give out
(身體部位) 出問題；(體力) 衰退；(機器) 故障，壞掉
His heart finally gave out under the strain.
I hope this car doesn’t give out in the middle of the desert.

give out
用光，用盡，耗盡
The water gave out after a week in the desert.

give * out +
公布；發佈
They gave the names of the winners out last night.

give * out +
發出、放出 (聲、光等)
The sun gives out light and heat to the earth.

give over
停止 (做某事)
They were making a lot of noise so I told them to give over.

give over
停止 (某活動)
The police told the rioters to give over.

give * over +
交付；委託
We’ve given the premises over to the new company.

give * over to
獻身於；把…獻給；專心致志於
He gave himself over to finding his son.

give * over to
移交給
After her death, they gave control of the estate over to her niece.

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(名詞) 沒有作用的環保技術，尤指安裝在現有的建築物上、但對於降低該建築物之自然資源使用率沒什麼助益的設備。亦寫成 ecobling。

引句：
Doug King, a visiting professor of building engineering physics at the University of Bath and author of the new report, said that it had become fashionable for people to install renewable energy at home but warned against it. “Eco-bling describes unnecessary renewable energy visibly attached to the outside of poorly-designed buildings – it’s a zero-sum approach,” he said. “If you build something that is just as energy-hungry as every other building and then put a few wind turbines and solar cells on the outside that addresses a few per cent of that building’s energy consumption, you’ve not achieved anything.
—Alok Jha, “Eco-bling and retrofitting won’t meet emissions targets, warn engineers,” The Guardian, January 20, 2010

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數量詞測驗3

文法能力測驗目錄

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Anybody want to share a bottle of red? A group of Chinese winemakers have claimed the new world record for the world’s biggest ever bottle of wine.

The 15ft (457 cm) high bottle contains an astonishing 1,850 litres of booze, produced by Wang Chen Wines in Liaoning, northern China.

That’s over three times the amount held by the previous record-holders, Austrian winemakers Kracher, whose bottle held 490 litres of Grande Cuvee TBA NV No.7 2005.

‘We are very proud, and the wine is very good. We have all had a glass from the bottle to celebrate,’ said a company spokesman. (Metro)

《字詞解析》

red — (n.) 紅葡萄酒 (= red wine)。

winemaker — (n.) 葡萄酒製造商。

15ft (457 cm) — (n.) 15 英尺 (457 公分)。測量單位縮寫後可與數值寫在一起或分開，如 heights of 5, 10, and 20 cm, from 1.2m to 1.8m。縮寫後的測量單位，複數也不加 s。

astonishing — (adj.) 令人驚訝的；驚人的。

booze — (n.) (口語) 酒 (alcoholic drink)。在此指的是 wine。booze 亦可當動詞用，意為「喝酒」(to drink alcohol)。

over three times the amount — (phr.) 某數量的三倍多。英文表示倍數的寫法為「倍數詞 + 數量」，而超過幾倍要用「more than 或 over + 倍數詞 + 數量」，如 more than double that amount, over three times the amount。

record-holder — (n.) 紀錄保持者。

have a glass — (v.) 喝一杯。

延伸閱讀：新聞英語的語法結構

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例句：
(英) Hang your suit in the wardrobe.
(美) Hang your overcoat in the closet.

解釋：
(英) wardrobe：衣櫥；壁櫥。
(美) closet：衣櫥；壁櫥。

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(名詞) 自動撥打並播放預錄語音的電話。亦寫成 robo-call。

引句：
Obama also recorded an automated robocall to urge Massachusetts voters to support the Democrat, and he cut a Web video with the same message.
—Janet Hook, “Healthcare overhaul may depend on Massachusetts Senate race,” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2010

These calls are nothing but political spam, and since it is possible to thwart computer-spam transmissions, surely the technology exists, or can be devised, to block robocalls. I am aware of the First Amendment implications of what I am proposing, and they weigh on me. But I should be able to keep my home free of robocalls — an odious invasion of privacy, a burden on my precious time and a barrier to real and possibly important phone calls — if I so choose.
—Howard Schneider, “Spam, When the In-Box Is My Ear,” The New York Times, October 31, 2009

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(名詞) 鮮少受到重視且鮮少獲得研究資助的罕見癌症。

引句：
When Kate became ill, with a rare cancer called clear cell sarcoma, she reacted practically, and generously. She started a fund for research and treatment of “orphan” cancers like hers and played benefit concerts with her children Rufus and Martha Wainwright to swell its coffers.
—Robert Everett-Green, “Goodbye sweet harmony,” The Globe and Mail, January 20, 2010

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(名詞) 查看電子郵件時不知不覺地暫停呼吸。亦寫成 e-mail apnea。

引句：
Researchers say that the stress of not being able to process information as fast as it arrives, combined with the personal and social expectation that, say, you will answer every e-mail message, can deplete and demoralize you. … Author Linda Stone, who coined the term “continuous partial attention” to describe the mental state of today’s knowledge workers, says she’s now noticing, get this, “e-mail apnea“: the unconscious suspension of regular and steady breathing when people tackle their e-mail.
—Paul Hemp, “Death by Information Overload,” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 2009

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