Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder 词根笔记（14）TRACT
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1.每篇文章介绍一个词根及四个含有词根的单词
2.单词的详细内容包括音标、定义、例句及解释
TRACT comes from trahere, the Latin verb meaning “drag or draw.” Something attractive draws us toward it. Something distracting pulls your attention away. And when you extract something from behind the sofa, you drag it out.
TRACT来自拉丁动词trahere，意思是“drag or draw”。attractive的东西会吸引我们。 distracting的东西会分散你的注意力。 当你从沙发后面extract某物时，你将其扯出。
1.traction/ˈtrækʃən/
The friction that allows a moving thing to move over a surface without slipping. 附着摩擦力，牵引力，拉力
• The spinning wheels were getting no traction on the ice, and we began to slip backward down the hill. 手纺车在冰上没有牵引力，我们开始向后滑下山。
A tractor（拖拉机） is something that pulls something else. We usually use the word for a piece of farm machinery, but it's also the name of the part of a big truck that includes the engine and the cab. Tractors get terrific（很大的） traction, because of their powerful engines and the deep ridges（皱摺） on their huge wheels. A cross-country（越野的） skier needs traction to kick herself forward, but doesn't want it to slow her down when she's gliding, so the bottom of the skis may have a “fish-scale（鱼鳞纹）” surface that permits both of these at the same time.
2.retract/rɪˈtrækt/
(1) To pull back (something) into something larger. (2) To take back (something said or written). 1.（使）缩回;（使）缩入;（使）收起；2.收回，撤回(所说的话或写的东西)
• She was forced to retract her comment about her opponent after it was condemned in the press. 在媒体遭到谴责后，她被迫撤回对她的对手的评论。
The prefix re- (“back”) gives retract the meaning of “draw back.” Just as a cat retracts its claws（爪子） into its paws（脚掌） when they aren't being used, a public figure may issue a retraction in order to say that he or she no longer wants to say something that has just been said. But it's sometimes hard to know what a retraction means: Was the original statement an error or an outright（彻底的） lie? Sometimes a politician even has to retract something that everyone actually assumes is the truth. Thousands of citizens were forced to publicly retract their “wrong” ideas by the Soviet government in the 1930s and the Chinese government in the 1960s. Someone wrongly accused may demand a retraction from his accuser（控告者）—though today it seems more likely that he'll just go ahead and sue.
3.protracted/prəˈtræktəd, prəˈtræktɪd/
Drawn out, continued, or extended.延长的；拖延的；持久的
• No one was looking forward to a protracted struggle for custody of the baby. 没有人期待为婴儿的监护权进行长期的斗争。
With its prefix pro-, “forward,” protracted usually applies to something drawn out（拉长，拖长） forward in time. A protracted strike（罢工） may cripple（破坏(组织、体系)） a company; a protracted rainy spell （(某种活动、天气等的)一段短暂时间，一阵）may rot（(使)腐烂） the roots of vegetables; and a protracted lawsuit occasionally outlives（比…持久） the parties（（法律协议或辩论中的）一方） involved. Before the invention of the polio（小儿麻痹症） vaccines, polio's many victims had no choice but to suffer a protracted illness and its aftereffects（后遗症）.
4.intractable/ɪnˈtræktəbəl/
Not easily handled, led, taught, or controlled.难驾驭的;难对付的；(问题或情况)棘手的,难处理的
• Corruption in the army was the country's intractable problem, and for many years all foreign aid had ended up in the colonels' pockets. 军队腐败是该国难以解决的问题，多年来所有的外国资助都落在了上校的口袋里。
Intractable simply means “untreatable,” and even comes from the same root. The word may describe both people and conditions. A cancer patient may suffer intractable pain that doctors are unable to treat. An intractable alcoholic（酗酒者;嗜酒如命的人） goes back to the bottle immediately after “drying out（戒酒）.” Homelessness（无家可归）, though it hardly existed thirty years ago, is now sometimes regarded as an intractable problem.
