English Is a Crazy Language

Word + Transcription	Translation	Definition	Synonyms, Antonyms	Set Expressions	Examples
to be best off	быть в состоянии	to be able to do smth.	Syn: capable of, able to Ant: incapable of, unfit for		English is the language of over sixty percent of the world’s radio programs, many of them beamed, ironically, by the Russians, who know that to win friends and influence nations, they’re best off using English.
indispensable	важный, необходимый (to, for), не допускающий исключений	important or useful that it is impossible to manage without them	Syn: necessary Ant: unnecessary, needless; useless	indispensable to life – жизненно необходимый	It’s invisible, inescapable, indispensable, and we take it for granted.
vagary	каприз, причуда; выходка	unexpected and unpredictable changes in a situation or in someone’s behaviour which you have no control over.	Syn: caprice, freak, whim	to follow the vagaries of fashion – следовать капризам моды	But when we take the time, step back, and listen to the sounds that escape from the holes in people’s faces and explore the paradoxes and vagaries of English
purport	иметь целью, претендовать (на что-л.), заявлять	purport to be/be purported to be to claim to be something, and give the impression that it is true, even if it is not	Syn: claim, pretend	purported invention предполагаемое изобретение	How can expressions like “I’m mad about my flat,” “No football coaches allowed,” and “I’ll come by in the morning and knock you up” convey such different messages in two countries that purport to speak English?
lunacy	безумие; (умо-) помешательство; психоз	mental illness, snth that seems very strange or foolish	Syn: psychosis; derangement, craziness, mental disease Ant: sense, discretion	this / it is sheer lunacy - это просто безумие	Still, you have to marvel at the unique lunacy of the English language, in which your house can simultaneously burn up and burn down.
marvel	изумляться, удивляться; восторгаться, восхищаться (тж. чем-л., кем-л. - at, of, on, upon)	to feel great surprise or admiration for something, especially someone’s behaviour	Syn: be amazed; be astonished; admire	to do marvels – творить чудеса	Still, you have to marvel at the unique lunacy of the English language, in which your house can simultaneously burn up and burn down.
rigid	непоколебимый, непреклонный, несгибаемый, стойкий	very strict and difficult to change	Syn: stiff., hard, tough, unbending, unyielding, inflexible Ant: unstable, non-persistent	bore rigid – очень сильно надоедать scare rigid – очень сильно напугать	In the rigid expressions that wear tonal grooves in the record of our language, beck can appear only with call, cranny with nook, hue with cry, main with might, fettle only with fine, aback with taken, caboodle with kit, and spic and span only with each other.
misperceive	неправильно понимать	to understand or think of something in a wrong way	Syn: misapprehend, misconceive, miss, overlook Ant: understand; realize, become aware	to perceive colours – различать цвета	He misperceives colours. – Он не различает цвета. Because we speakers and writers of English seem to have our heads screwed on backward, we constantly misperceive our bodies, often saying just the opposite of what we mean.
engender	возбуждать, вызывать, порождать, рождать	to be the cause of a situation or feeling	Syn: beget; cause Ant: to result in, to happen	engender a decline –вызвать снижение	In his essay “The Awful German Language,” Mark Twain spoofs the confusion engendered by German gender by translating literally from a conversation in a German Sunday school book: “Gretchen.
spoof	обманывать, надувать, водить за нос; высмеивать, разыгрывать (кого-л.); пародировать	make fun of someone, a light humorous parody	Syn: deceive; cheat, make fun of	a spoof on a horror movie – пародия на фильм ужасов	In his essay “The Awful German Language,” Mark Twain spoofs the confusion engendered by German gender by translating literally from a conversation in a German Sunday school book: “Gretchen.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31