Unit 1

barb

n

• The teacher's barb stung his students.
• Barack Obama assumed the barb was aimed at him.

barbarous

adj

• the barbarous treatment of these prisoners of war
• It is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by arms.
• In revenge and love woman is more barbarous than man.

barefaced

adj

• a barefaced lie
• It's barefaced robbery asking such a high price for that old bicycle!

bargain

1. n

• He and his partner had made a bargain to tell each other everything.
• I've done what I promised and I expect you to keep your side of the bargain.

2. vi

• He said he wasn't prepared to bargain.
• In the market dealers were bargaining with growers over the price of coffee.

baroque

adj

• a book filled with baroque descriptions
• a somewhat baroque writing style

barrage

n

• a barrage of questions / criticisms / complaints
• In this society of "more is better", there is a non-stop barrage of words, images, noise.
• He was faced with a barrage of angry questions from the floor.

barren

1. adj

• a barren scheme / plan / exercise
• That line of investigation proved barren, so the police tried other avenues.

2. adj

• He wants to use the water to irrigate barren desert land.
• When Europeans arrived in 1722, they found the island mostly barren and its inhabitants few.

barricade

1. n

• The police stormed the barricades the demonstrators had put up.
• The police watch warily from behind a barricade, clutching bamboo shields and their long wooden lathis.

2. vt
   The rioters(暴徒) barricaded streets with piles of blazing tyres.

barter

v

• The local people bartered wheat for tools.
• They have been bartering wheat for cotton and timber.
• The market-place and street were crowded with those who'd come to barter.

beguile

v

• She beguiled them into believing her version of events.
• He used his newspapers to beguile the readers into buying shares in his company.
• I see that men still know how to beguile us women with false words.

Unit 2

bathetic

adj

• a bathetic funeral scene
• Kitson won the Perrier Comedy Award in 2002, at the age of twenty-five, and his gift is for the crafting of exquisite narratives, shows shaped like Alice Munro stories, bathetic and beautiful.

befuddle

v

• problems that are befuddling them
• Don't befuddle me with all those masses of detail.

bedeck

vt

• bedeck with jewels
• flags bedecking the balcony
• bedeck the house with hundreds of miniature lights for the party

belabor

1. vt

• He uses his newspaper column to belabor writers for even the most minor grammatical errors.
• It is not wise to belabor other people's flaws when you're hardly perfect youself.

2. vt

• Her habit of belaboring the obvious makes her a very boring speaker.
• Please don't needlessly belabored the point.

beleaguer

vt

• beleaguered by the difficult problem
• the lack of funds that beleaguers schools
• Russia’s beleaguered space science program is hoping for a rare triumph this month.

belie

1. vt

• Her energy and youthful good looks belie her 65 years.
• His cheerful appearance belie his anxious feelings.

2. vt

• Government claims that there is no poverty are belied by the number of homeless people on the streets.
• The facts of the situation belie his testimony(证词).

bellwether

n

• IBM is considered the bellwether stock on Wall Street.
• Germany is the most export-dependent economy and the bellwether of industrial Europe.
• Paris remains the bellwether of fashion industry.

beneficent

1. adj

• Mr. Smith, a true gentlemen, is always beneficent to poor.
• a beneficent couple who are regular volunteers at an orphan

2. adj

• CO2 is an essential plant food and is a beneficent, essential part of the atmosphere for this purpose.
• Furthermore, he argued that the war of opposites would eventually lead to a beneficent goal.

benign

adj

• a benign tumor(肿瘤)
• Someone tried to poison another person with mushrooms, but the mushrooms turned out to be benign.

berate

vt

• Marion berated Joe for the noise he made.
• If you set the goal too high and you already feel as if you're tired, don't berate yourself.

Unit 3

beseech

vt

• Let him go, I beseech you!
• She beseeched him to cut out his drinking and his smoking.
• I beseech you to forgive me.

besmirch

vt

• He has accused local people of trying to besmirch his reputation.
• As soon as one politician, encouraged by this week's Supreme Court judgment, uses this opening to besmirch a rival, all politicians will immediately be tempted to do the same thing.

bifurcate

v

• The stream bifurcates into two narrow channels.
• The state has also been bifurcated into two federal territories.

bigot

n

• a religious / racial bigot
• Anyone who opposes them is branded a racist, a bigot, or a homophobe.
• A bigot is a deaf orator, and intolerance is the mark of a bigot.

bland

adj

• The food tasted rather bland, so he added some spices to pep it up a little.
• A world deprived of diversity would be a bland and boring place.
• Serle has a blander personality than Howard.

blandishment

n

• He is a tricky boy , you should be careful, don't be cheated by his blandishment so that in his purpose.
• Having failed to win the Japanese around with blandishments, an increasingly desperate-looking Senard has reached for the stick.

blasé

adj

• a blasé traveler
• People get blasé about their hometown.
• Years of extravagance has made him totally blasé.

blast

1. n

• 27 schoolchildren were injured in the blast.
• 250 people were killed in the bomb blast.

2. vt

• blast the new governor for every little misstep
• blast for the governor because of his malpractice(玩忽职守)

blatant

adj

• It was a blatant lie.
• Outsiders will continue to suffer the most blatant discrimination.
• Mr. Obama says North Korea's actions endanger its neighbors, and are a blatant violation of international law.

blazon

1. vt
   their very public canoodling(亲热) has pretty much blazoned the fact that they are having an affair
2. v

• the city's waterfront has been blazoned with banners celebrating the festival of tall ships
• There were Disney characters blazoned on the curtains, the soap, the armoire.

Unit 4

blemish

1. n

• His reputation is without a blemish.
• Every piece is closely scrutinized, and if there is the slightest blemish on it, it is rejected.

2. vt

• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.
• A scratch blemished the finish(抛光涂层) on the car.

blight

1. v

• All you can do to prevent potato blight is keep an eye on your crops.
• It was the tragedy of the Irish potato famine of 1845, in which 1m Irish perished when the potato crop on which they subsisted succumbed to blight.

2. v

• Campaigners, fear the new generation of wind farms are far too big and will blight the British landscape.
• His career has been blighted by injuries.

bliss

n

• It was a scene of such domestic bliss.
• Some people might say that ignorance is bliss and I agree with them.
• When you are really, really thirsty, that first sip of any liquid beverage is sheer bliss.

blithe

1. adj

• a blithe and carefree girl
• Everyone loved her for her blithe spirit.

2. adj

• He drove with blithe disregard for the rules of the road.
• Acts of trespass and petty theft often grew out of the blithe disregard that boys had for private property.

blueprint

vt
blueprint the schedule of events for the festival right down to the last detail

blunder

n / v

• make a terrible blunder
• The government had blundered in its handling of the affair.
• People wanted to know how they had blundered into war, and how to avoid it in the future.

blunt

1. vt

• The constant repetition of violence has blunted the human response to it.
• Age hadn't blunted his passion for adventure.

2. adj

• She has a reputation for blunt speaking.
• She is blunt about her personal life.
• If I may be so blunt, "..."

blur

1. v

• Sorrowful tears blurred her eyes.
• The mist blurred the edges of the buildings.

2. vt

• distinctions between the two are beginning to blur
• His novel is based on historical occurrences but it blurs the line between fact and fiction.

blurt

vt

• blurt out the secret
• "I was looking for Sally," he blurted, and his eyes filled with tears.
• She blurted it out before I could stop her.

bluster

1. v

• He was still blustering, but there was panic in his eyes.
• "That's lunacy(疯狂)," he blustered.

2. n

• The strong breeze driving them was setting up a bluster on the water.
• a leader who got things down without a lot of bluster

Unit 5

boggle

v

• Even I boggle at the idea of spending so much money.
• Never boggle at a difficulty.

boisterous

adj

• a boisterous but good-natured crowd
• He hardly ever speaks in India's boisterous parliament(议会).

bolster

1. n / v

• The country is free to adopt policies to bolster its economy.
• Follow your passion but bolster it with discipline.

2. vt

• She came with me to bolster my confidence.
• Good news bolstered the morale of the troops.

bombast

n

• There was no bombast or conceit in his speech.
• You need less bombast and more substance in this speech on human rights.

bonhomie

n

• For all the recent bonhomie, there are lots of potential strains with the current occupant of the White House.
• the bonhomie of strangers singing together around a campfire
• The atmosphere on the first day, beneath a surface bonhomie, was tense.

boo

n / v

• "Boo!" they shouted, "Get off!"
• The audience booed as she started her speech.
• People were booing and throwing things at them.

boon

n

• The new software will prove a boon to Internet users.
• You know saving the rainforest is good for biodiversity. But it may also be a boon to human health.

boorish

adj

• boorish behavior, such as yelling for service in restaurants
• So far, his boorish behavior has gotten him suspended four times from Twitch and banned three times from Twitter.

bootless

adj

• a bootless effort to get tickets to the sold-out game
• That effort will be bootless.

bound

1. n

• Changes in temperature occur slowly and are constrained within relatively tight bounds.
• a forceful personality willing to go beyond the bounds of convention

2. adj

• I am bound and determined to write a novel before 30.
• He's too bound up in his work to have much time for his children.

3. adj
   The train is bound for Huaqiao.

Unit 6

boycott

vt

• The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections.
• We are asking people to boycott goods from companies that use child labour.

bracing

adj

• bracing sea air / summer evening breeze
• The idea that getting fired might be a good thing is a bracing idea for young graduates, even Stanford ones.

brake

v

• A seagull swooped down in front of her car, causing her to slam on the brakes.
• He suddenly stepped on the brake and the car stopped at once.

brash

adj

• Beneath his brash exterior, he's still a little boy inside.
• On stage she seems hard, brash and uncompromising.
• a brash request to get something for free

brassy

adj

• a brassy customer insisted on arriving late and still being taken first
• a brassy reporter who shot celebrities' private lives

bravado

n

• "You won't get away with this," he said with unexpected bravado.
• Mere bravado, perhaps, but many Venezuelans fear he may be serious.
• How much of this is bravado, how much rumour and how much fact is hard to say.

bravura

adj / n

• It was a bravura performance by Denzel Washington.
• In a final bravura the ballerina appeared to be floating in water.

brazen

1. adj

• The traffickers(毒贩) are getting ever more brazen.
• his brazen admission that he was cheating
• They're quite brazen about their bisexuality, it doesn't worry them.

2. v

• Now that everyone knew the truth, the only thing to do was to brazen it out.
• A filmmaker willing to brazen the criticism that such a violent film was sure to provoke(激怒).

breach

v

• The government is accused of breaching the terms of the treaty.
• The newspaper breached the code of conduct on privacy.

brevity

n

• Embrace brevity, but do not sacrifice readability.
• But don't let its brevity fool you -- there's a lot going on in that code!

Unit 7

bribe

v

• He was accused of bribing a senior bank official.
• They bribed the guards with cigarettes.

bridle

v

• Try to bridle your criticism next time so that it is helpful and not hurtful.
• She was forced to bridle her anger.

brisk

adj

• walk at a brisk pace
• There is a brisk market in old movie posters.
• She answered the phone in a brisk voice.

bristle

v

• His lies made her bristle with rage.
• This has made many bristle, especially the families of the 1,100 victims who have never been identified.

brittle

1. adj

• Brittle things break easily.
• Those tablets were not baked, only dried in the sun and were, therefore, very brittle.

2. adj

• a brittle selfish person
• a brittle apology that was anything but heartfelt

broach

vt

• She was dreading(担忧) having to broach the subject of money to her father.
• Finally I broached the subject of her early life.
• If you're invited for a second interview, you can broach any sensitive topics from your past then.

bromide

n

• The meeting produced the usual bromides about macroeconomic policy, third-world debt and the environment.
• His speech had nothing more to offer than the usual bromides about how everyone needs to work together.

brook

vt

• He would brook no interference with his plans.
• Republicans in their states are fiercely loyal to Trump and would not brook dissent(异议).

browbeat

vt

• The boss browbeat me into taking on all this extra work.
• They were browbeaten into accepting the offer.

bruit

vt

• This rumour has been bruited about for years.
• It was bruited about that the king was dead.

Unit 8

buck

v

• Bucked the trend to outdo everyone else and just wore the same clothes they had in previous years.
• He wants to be the tough rebel(叛逆者) who bucks the system.

budge

v

• The Americans will not budge on this point.
• The government refused to budge.
• If he refuses to budge, the Syrian people will bring him down in the end—on their own, and bloodily.

bulge

n

• the bulge of a gun shape in his pocket
• trying to get rid of the bulge around his middle

bully

n / v

• If I had been there, I would not have let him bully you.
• I fell victim to the office bully.
• the school bully

bumptious

adj

• be bumptious over one's inferiors(下级)
• a bumptious young man whose family wealth gave him a sense of entitlement

bungle

vt

• a bungled robbery / raid / attempt
• Don't let him mend your bike. He's sure to bungle the job.

buoy

vt

• In May they danced in the streets, buoyed by their victory.
• They are buoyed up by a sense of hope.
• The sudden improvement in his health buoyed him up.

buoyant

adj

• They are all in buoyant mood that they believe the situation will be better.
• You will feel more buoyant and optimistic about the future than you have for a long time.

burgeon

vi

• Plants burgeon from every available space.
• When spring is coming all trees began to burgeon.
• My confidence began to burgeon later in life.

burlesque

n / v

• a burlesque of Victorian society
• a work burlesquing Sherlock Holmes
• Several important 20th-century performers got their start in burlesque.

Unit 9

burnish

v

• The agency hired a New York public-relations firm to burnish Washington's image.
• He is burnishing his sword.
• He burnished the floor of the ballroom(舞厅) to a soft luster.

buttress

vt

• arguments buttressed by solid facts
• The treaty will buttress the cause of peace.
• The theory has been buttressed by the results of the experiment.

byzantine

adj

• a bill to simplify the tax byzantine structure
• rules of byzantine complexity

cache

n

• A huge arms cache was discovered by police.
• The cache consisted of documents and private letters.
• Police found a cache of stolen cars in the woods.

cachet

1. n
   The president placed his cachet on the project so that it can move on smoothly.
2. n

• a movie director with great artistic cachet
• His research in Antarctica gave him a certain cachet among other scientists.
• He regarded the possession of real estate as a cachet of respectability.

cacophony

n

• the cacophony of a pet store full of animals
• The sounds of barking dogs and sirens added to the cacophony on the streets.

cavalier

1. n
   It is a novel about the dashing(风度翩翩的) cavaliers and gracious ladies of the South before the Civil War.
2. adj

• They are too cavalier in their treatment of others.
• She has a cavalier attitude about spending money, so she is short of money at the end of a month.
• He has a cavalier disregard for the rights of others.

cajole

v

• He cajoled me into agreeing to do the work.
• I managed to cajole his address out of them.
• I can't cajole any money out of my father.

calcify

vt

• a calcified theory
• Rickets(佝偻病) is a disease of children characterized by a failure of the growing bones to calcify normally.

calibrate

vt

• instructions on how to calibrate a thermometer
• He should not calibrate his policies to fit what he hopes will be acceptable to his Republican opponents.
• He carefully calibrates the dosage(剂量) of a medicine.

Unit 10

calligraphy

n

• His calligraphy is vigorous and forceful.
• Her calligraphy as well as her painting can be rated as superb works of art.
• My suggestion is landscape plus Chinese calligraphy.

callous

adj

• a callous disregard for the feelings of others
• his callous disregard for human life
• It was probably some kittens, the abandoned and unwanted offspring of a family pet, discarded by a callous owner.

callow

adj

• a callow young man
• It is a story about a callow youth who learns the value of hard work and self-reliance.

calumniate

v

• The short-lived Sedition Act of 1798 made it illegal to calumniate the President of the United States.
• Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbour, nor oppress him by violence.

camaraderie

n

• They have developed a real camaraderie after working together for so long.
• There is great camaraderie among the teammates.

catharsis

n

• He wrote out his rage and bewilderment, which gradually became a form of catharsis.
• The author calls reading a perfect practice of catharsis.

camouflage

v / n

• The soldiers camouflaged themselves with leaves.
• Her size was camouflaged by the long loose dress she wore.

canard

n

• The charge that Harding was a political stooge may be a canard.
• That canard were proved to be true later.

candor

n

• She spoke with candor about racism.
• I also want to thank my colleagues for the candor and cooperative spirit that they brought to the discussions.
• I was impressed by the candor of his statement.

canon

1. n

• the canon of polite society
• the canon of good student

2. n

• the Shakespeare canon
• "Wuthering Heights" is a central book in the canon of English literature.