04.13.06
slave away
slave away (at something) — work very hard
Almost every graduate student in Cambridge must know Ms Laurie Friday — at least her signature on your admission letter. For the first time, I had a chance to meet her in at a party (she is really tall). Quite interestingly, every student who wanted to talk to her had almost the same opening line, “I still remember your signature on my letter!” To one student, Ms Laurie replied, “When you slave away to get your degree, I think at least you deserve a signature from me.”
04.12.06
the horse is not judged by the saddle
the horse is not judged by the saddle —German proverb [reference]
A quite useful phrase. The Chinese equivalent is: "The man is not judged by his look; the sea is not measured by a spoon."
tick off
tick someone off — to annoy someone [dict]
In Friends, when Chandler saw lumber all over the apartment and Joey busy building something, he said to Joey in anger: "Did a forest tick you off?"
04.11.06
water under the bridge
water under the bridge — A past occurrence, especially something unfortunate, that cannot be undone or rectified [dict]
In Veronic Mars, Veronic met her ex-boyfriend, Troy. Troy told her that his feelings for her remained unchanged. But Veronic replied, “You are water under the bridge.”
04.10.06
help out the cause
help out —be of help, as in a particular situation of need [dict]
Our security group has its own blog, called "light blue touchpaper". However, for the past few weeks, there had been no new posts. Someone said to me, "Feng, your talk in the workshop was interesting. Why not write something on the blog. Help out the cause." So I posted one article there. The phrase "help out the cause" is often followed by "of something" — for example, help out the cause of freedom.
04.07.06
shakeup
shakeup — A thorough, often drastic reorganization [dict]
In 24, Karen, sent by the vice president to assist the reconstruction of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), was involved in a conspiracy to absorb the whole CTU into the Homeland Security Department. However, she told her boss that she couldn't take over CTU when it was still effectively functioning in searching for a runaway terrorist. She said, "A shakeup right now will hamper that search."
04.05.06
on the horizon
on the horizon — within view, not too far away [dict]
When I asked a research student about his work in progress, he said, "I have a couple of new ideas on the horizon".
04.04.06
sitting ducks
Sitting ducks — An easy target or victim [dict]
In Prison Break, Michael had to find another escape route. However, his cell-mate found it too risky. He cautioned, "If officers come to check the cell at night, we are sitting ducks."
04.03.06
lay down
lay down — give up [dict]
In Lost, Jack wanted to get back all the medicine that Sawyer had stolen. So he decided to play the gambling game with Sawyer. It turned out that Jack was a card shark — he won all the fruits that Sawyer had. Finally, Jack staked all fruits and challenge Sawyer, "I am all in." "So this is the move that you want me to lay down?" asked by Sawyer.
