What's The BRT You See Everywhere?

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a broad term given to a variety of transportation systems that, through improvements to infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling, attempt to use buses to provide a service that is of a higher quality than an ordinary bus line. Each BRT system uses different improvements, although many improvements are shared by many BRT systems. The goal of such systems is to at least approach the service quality of rail transit while still enjoying the cost savings of bus transit. The expression "BRT" is mainly used in North America; elsewhere, one may speak of Quality Bus or simply bus service while raising the quality.

Err... We are catching the trends of North America.

My Cup Runneth Over

"My Cup Runneth Over" is a quote from the King James Version of the Bible (Psalms 23:5) and means "I have more than enough for my needs" though interpretations and usage may vary. Notably, it can be employed sarcastically to indicate that someone, e.g. one's host, is being less than generous.

Let's see some examples:

This week, I finished paying off my mortgage, my arthritis improved, and my first grandchild was born. My cup runneth over.

Janet was speechless with happiness when she saw how many of her friends and relatives had joined together to give her a surprise party. "My cup runneth over." she finally said.

Words and Expressions

On the news:
The soap-opera enthralled the country, with Italians sounding off on whether they agreed with Veronica -- and whether they thought Berlusconi, 70, would submit to his wife, 20 years his junior.

Well, instead of saying "He is three years younger than me." now you should say "My brother is my junior by three years. / My brother is three years my junior." to liven your writing.

"Here I am, saying I'm sorry. I was recalcitrant in private, because I am playful but proud too. Challenged in public, the temptation to give in to you is strong. I can't resist," said Berlusconi.

recalcitrant
adjective FORMAL
(of a person) unwilling to obey orders or to do what should be done, or (of an animal) refusing to be controlled.

This word is originated from Late Latin, and would be very cool to insert it into your future piece. But remember, don't induge in "big words" as simpe words really have the job done most of the times...even better than the biggies.

Knowledge Points About WHO

WHO is a frequent word in recent news item, which stands for World Health Organization. But you know how it pronounce? (sounds like a pretty stupid question, huh?) Pronouncing WHO as W-H-O is definitely correct, but I got another pronunciation when I listened to CNN boardcast today.

It is pronounced [hu:], the same way you pronounce the word "who".

But wait... why the emblem of WHO looks like this? A poisonous snake intertwisting a staff? What the heck is that?

Relax, let's do some reading...

WHO's emblem was chosen by the first World Health Assembly in 1948. The emblem consists of the United Nations symbol surmounted by a staff with a snake coiling round it. The staff with the snake has long been a symbol of medicine and the medical profession. It originates from the story of Aesculapius who was revered by the ancient Greeks as a god of healing and whose cult involved the use of snakes. (Aesculapius, incidentally, was so successful at saving lives that, the legend goes, Hades the god of the underworld complained about him to the supreme god Zeus who, fearing that the healer might make humans immortal, killed Aesculapius with a thunderbolt.)

Ha... the myth part in brackets is really intriguing. Hope theses little tips help. =)

Pecking Order

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.

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."

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.

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.

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！)

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.

Put Out to Pasture

put out to pasture - to make someone stop working at their job because they are too old to be useful. Etymology: based on the tradition of keeping farm animals that are too old to work in a pasture. (land covered with grass)

Examples:

Please don't put me out to pasture. I have lots of good years left.

This vice president has reached retirement age. It's time to put him out to pasture.

At 62, he felt he was not ready to be put out to pasture.

He felt he was still too young to be put out to pasture.

English Words

bet the ranch/farm
to risk everything you have because you are certain of something.

No matter how confident you are in the future, you should never bet the farm on one idea.

TV networks are obviously willing to bet the ranch on special sports events - they paid millions to broadcast the Olympics.

take for a ride
1. to deceive someone.

You really took those people for a ride. They really believed you.

I was taken for a ride on this matter.

2. to take away and murder a person. (Underworld.)

Mr. Big told Dennis to take Ring for a ride.

benchmark
to measure (a rival's product) according to specified standards in order to compare it with and improve one's own product.

Benchmarking the competition is not the only way to get into an excessively crowded market.

Few New Words Learned

It's not as if the Chinese have been parsimonious. In the past decade or so, retail sales have been growing at a frenetic pace, the market for luxury goods has witnessed the highest growth in the world, cars have become commonplace and property prices driven to stratospheric levels.

“money borrowed at today's stratospheric rates of interest.”

People salt money away for children's education, medical bills and retirement.

The farmer's wife salted a lot of fish and hams away for the winter.