pecking order - the social hierarchy in a flock of domestic fowl in which each bird pecks subordinate birds and submits to being pecked by dominant birds; a hierarchy among a group, as of people, classes, or nations
A researcher had said two years ago that China would become the No 2 in the world's economic pecking order in 2018.
Martin is quite high in the pecking order these days.
To clamber up the pecking order, he slaves away nights and weekends at the office.
There's a clearly established pecking order in this office.
He started as a clerk but gradually rose in the pecking order.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Let's Get Red
Houston Rockets is now on the verge of squeezing himself into the second round of NBA play-off, but apparently Blazer doesn't want to succumb in the red occean. Leading the game 3-2, and with Game 6 due on April 30, it's going to be another intense match. Will Yao spell his mojo in the red ocean again? Or will the rockets fail to soar at home? Answers are just hours away. For now, just get red!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Give Somebody a Piece of Your Mind
give sb a piece of your mind, INFORMAL
to speak angrily to someone about something they have done wrong:
I'm going to give that mechanic a piece of my mind if the car's not fixed this time.
"No, I've never seen one," said a local farmer. "Thank goodness, because if I had they would certainly have got a piece of my mind."
to speak angrily to someone about something they have done wrong:
I'm going to give that mechanic a piece of my mind if the car's not fixed this time.
"No, I've never seen one," said a local farmer. "Thank goodness, because if I had they would certainly have got a piece of my mind."
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Epidemic or Pandemic?
Now the buzz word is swine flu, and two associated words - epidemic and pandemic. So what is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic? Luckily, I found the answer on wiseGEEK within a few clicks. To put it simply, pandemic > epidemic.
Here is the explanation in full, a bit long but worth reading.
Epidemics and pandemics refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is two-fold. First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected. In the most extreme case, the global population is affected by a pandemic.
An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected. However, in the case of a pandemic, even more of the population is affected than in an epidemic.
Let's take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let's further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn't catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.
Now let's take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.
To put a finer point on it, if the entire nation was affected but the rate of incidence never rose above that of an epidemic, it would still be considered an epidemic, even though the disease was nationwide.
Conversely, you might have a small population in a remote area of Africa, for example, that is nearly 100% affected by an illness or health problem. Because the incidence is so high, and the area relatively widespread in that it is affecting an entire population, this could be termed pandemic.
You can see with these subtle but significant differences how the terms might be confusing, but normally epidemics that grow out of hand due to the nature of the disease and other factors, turn into pandemics.
A pandemic may be regionally localized if it involves more cases than a simple epidemic; and an epidemic may be widespread if not enough of the population is affected to term it pandemic. Though in this latter case, you might still see it termed pandemic by some, just because the geographical area is so widespread.
Here is the explanation in full, a bit long but worth reading.
Epidemics and pandemics refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is two-fold. First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected. In the most extreme case, the global population is affected by a pandemic.
An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected. However, in the case of a pandemic, even more of the population is affected than in an epidemic.
Let's take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let's further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn't catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.
Now let's take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.
To put a finer point on it, if the entire nation was affected but the rate of incidence never rose above that of an epidemic, it would still be considered an epidemic, even though the disease was nationwide.
Conversely, you might have a small population in a remote area of Africa, for example, that is nearly 100% affected by an illness or health problem. Because the incidence is so high, and the area relatively widespread in that it is affecting an entire population, this could be termed pandemic.
You can see with these subtle but significant differences how the terms might be confusing, but normally epidemics that grow out of hand due to the nature of the disease and other factors, turn into pandemics.
A pandemic may be regionally localized if it involves more cases than a simple epidemic; and an epidemic may be widespread if not enough of the population is affected to term it pandemic. Though in this latter case, you might still see it termed pandemic by some, just because the geographical area is so widespread.
Misnomer
On the news: The World Organisation for Animal Health said on Monday that the name swine flu is a misnomer as the deadly virus has origins among birds and humans as well as pigs.
misnomer
noun [C]
a name that does not suit what it refers to, or the use of such a name:
It was the scruffiest place I've ever stayed in, so 'Hotel Royal' was a bit of a misnomer.
It's something of a misnomer to refer to these inexperienced boys as soldiers.
misnomer
noun [C]
a name that does not suit what it refers to, or the use of such a name:
It was the scruffiest place I've ever stayed in, so 'Hotel Royal' was a bit of a misnomer.
It's something of a misnomer to refer to these inexperienced boys as soldiers.
酒桶
某人上周买了一坛好酒放在小院走廊上。
第二天他发现少了五分之一，便在酒桶上贴了“不许偷酒”四个字。
第三天，酒又少了五分之二，他非常生气又贴了“偷酒者重罚”五个字。
第四天，酒还是被偷，只剩下了五分之一，他的肺都快气炸了。
好友知道了此事，就对他说：“笨蛋！你不会在酒桶上贴上【尿桶】二字，看谁还偷喝?”
他觉得挺有道理，就照办了。
第五天他哭了。
桶满了…
第二天他发现少了五分之一，便在酒桶上贴了“不许偷酒”四个字。
第三天，酒又少了五分之二，他非常生气又贴了“偷酒者重罚”五个字。
第四天，酒还是被偷，只剩下了五分之一，他的肺都快气炸了。
好友知道了此事，就对他说：“笨蛋！你不会在酒桶上贴上【尿桶】二字，看谁还偷喝?”
他觉得挺有道理，就照办了。
第五天他哭了。
桶满了…
Monday, April 27, 2009
Swine Flu is Here
After rounds of unmerciful baptism of avian flu, we have got something new here -- swine flu. Swine flu is technically more virulent than its avian congener as it would transmit from human to human via your everyday coughing and spitting. The good news amid nowaday combined glooms - economic meltdown and swine influenza - is that we are now better prepared and equiped to deal with these threats, be it pathologically or economically.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A Broken Vitas Dream
We were there, but we were barred from entering a stadium packed with feverish audience, where Vitas was holding his first-ever concert in Guangzhou. Ticket scalpers downed dramatically this time compared to 李宇春's concert in March. Unfortunately, we failed to reexperience the victory we had last time and were left "ticketless" after an hour-long ticket hunt. Zoe said that was a real-life lesson of supply-and-demand, and I couldn't agree more.
Though we had a shitty experience, the subsequent events that night somewhat made up Zoe's disappointment and reoriented her on a happy track. What were the events? Top secret only between Dennis and Zoe. =)
Though we had a shitty experience, the subsequent events that night somewhat made up Zoe's disappointment and reoriented her on a happy track. What were the events? Top secret only between Dennis and Zoe. =)
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Shit is Not Everything
Sorry about this disgusting topic... 好多朋友以为shit等于中文的“屎”，其实不然。今天就让我们看看形形式式的屎。
耳屎= ear wax (我不知道大家的耳屎是不是蜡状的。。。耳朵好像分油耳和旱耳的吧。。然后今天碰巧看到，耳屎的医学名称叫cerumen，这个词就算了。。看看就够。)
眼屎= sleep (英文的眼屎其实就是 sleep。。。没想到吧)
鼻屎: booger - dried状 / snot - slippery状 (比较恶心的物体，不过记记这两个单词，总有一天会come in handy.)
人的屎: stool (这个才是我们拉出来的屎，shit原意是指狗拉出来的屎。。。不要搞混了。比如你上街不小心踩到狗屎，你就可以大叫 I'm shitty today! 这里的shitty 表示 unfortunate, unpleasant，不过在广州市区比较难踩到shit，所以如果你有幸踩到，一定要抓紧机会用出shitty这个词！)
耳屎= ear wax (我不知道大家的耳屎是不是蜡状的。。。耳朵好像分油耳和旱耳的吧。。然后今天碰巧看到，耳屎的医学名称叫cerumen，这个词就算了。。看看就够。)
眼屎= sleep (英文的眼屎其实就是 sleep。。。没想到吧)
鼻屎: booger - dried状
人的屎: stool (这个才是我们拉出来的屎，shit原意是指狗拉出来的屎。。。不要搞混了。比如你上街不小心踩到狗屎，你就可以大叫 I'm shitty today! 这里的shitty 表示 unfortunate, unpleasant，不过在广州市区比较难踩到shit，所以如果你有幸踩到，一定要抓紧机会用出shitty这个词！)
Muffin-Top
What's muffin-top? No textual explanation. This picture says it all!
A very lively English word! In Cantonese, we call this "腩鱼肚". XD
Also, love handlers and belt overhang are words that have the same meaning of muffin-top.
A very lively English word! In Cantonese, we call this "腩鱼肚". XDAlso, love handlers and belt overhang are words that have the same meaning of muffin-top.
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