1.words and expressions
With the bottom of the harbor the past became a major character in Mitchell's work,giving it a tone both elegiac and historical
elegiac expressing sadness , especially about the past or people who have died.
对比elegant 优雅的
the mosaicist was finicky about fitting the pieces together until he got them right.
finicky Insisting capriciously on getting just what one wants; difficult to please; fastidious:
a finicky eater. 挑食者
Don't leap up to it with a vapid phrase saying what the man said.\adj
1. lacking intelligence, interest, or imagination• 愚蠢的; 乏味的; 缺少灵性的:
»vapid conversation 平淡无奇的对话
when you first heard them they sounded so felicitous that you didn't give them a second thought.
felicitous (especially of words 尤指言辞)
chosen well; very suitable; giving a good result 贴切的；恰当的；妥贴的
SYN apt , happy : a felicitous turn of phrase 贴切的措辞
if his language is so tangled that it would embarrass him
tangle adjective
1. twisted together in an untidy way 缠结的；混乱的；紊乱的:
tangled hair / bed clothes 凌乱的头发/床上用品
2. complicated, and not easy to understand 复杂的；纠缠不清的:
tangled financial affairs 错综复杂的财务
the seemingly simple use of a tape recorder isn't simple;infinite stitchery is required.
stitchery means needlework,文中来形容tape recorder 的使用需要用心与多次重复。
...,like the library, it subsisted on the whims of a capricious public.
subsist ~ (on sth) to manage to stay alive, especially with limited food or money
(尤指靠有限的食物或钱)维持生活,度日:
Old people often subsist on very small incomes. 老人往往靠十分微薄的收入艰难度日。
2. (formal) to exist; to be valid 存在；有效:
The terms of the contract subsist. 合同条款有效。
whim noun[C, U]
a sudden wish to do or have sth, especially when it is sth unusual or unnecessary
心血来潮；一时的兴致；突发的奇想:
He was forced to pander to her every whim.
她每次心血来潮他都不得不依随她。
We bought the house on a whim.
我们一时冲动买了这所房子。
My duties seem to change daily at the whim of the boss.
我的职责似乎随着老板的兴致每天改变。
the whims of fashion 时尚的变化多端
She hires and fires people at whim. 她随心所欲地雇用人和解雇人。
somewhere behind every drab institution are men and women who have a fierce attachment to what they are doing and are rich repositories of lore.
This is a person talking to the reader directly, not through the filter of a writer.
talk directly 对比 through the filter of a writer.
on the verge of
你不必担心 怎么讲
your worries are over.
2.summary
you are still scribbling sentence A when he zooms into sentence B.You drop Sentence A and pursue him into Sentence B,meanwhile trying to hold the rest of Sentence A in your inner ear and hoping Sentence C will be a dud that you can skip altogether,using the time to catch up.
your inner ear is clogging up with sentences you want to grab before they slip away.
这两句太到位了，完全是我刚开始听英语听写时候的状态！动词的运用值得学习！
