1.words and expressions
pregnant
I don't like baseball movies that go into slow motion when the batter hits a home run, to notify me that it's a pregnant moment.
ADJ 耐人寻味的；意味深长的；心照不宣的；A pregnant silence or moment has a special meaning which is not obvious but which people are aware on f.
There was a long, pregnant silence. 当时出现了长时间耐人寻味的沉默。
a deceptive peace, pregnant with invisible threats.一种和平的假象，潜伏着许多无形的威胁
usage。
一个妇女怀孕几个月，可以说She is ... months pregnant.
问她怀孕了几个月，字面上固然可以说：How many months are you pregnant? 但是一般更多说How pregnant are you? 这里的how不是问状态，而是问怀孕的程度，亦即时间的长短。
说怀某个孩子，用pregnant with或pregnant for，但用with较多。pregnant with her third child怀上她的第三个孩子 / pregnant for Peter怀着彼得。
pregnant with还可以转义为“孕育着、蕴涵着、预示着（某种事件或局面）”。words pregnant with emotion蕴涵着激情的言词 She kept a silence which was pregnant with indications of how much more she could say. 她保持沉默，但这暗示着她还有好多的话要说。
litter
This kind of prose is littered with precipitous cliffs and lacy spiderwebs...
这个及物动词的搭配有点特别。它的直接宾语（也是被动句的主语），可以是乱丢各处的杂物或垃圾，也可以是上面到处有杂物或垃圾的地方或表面。
前一种搭配的。【例如】There were books littered all over the room. 满屋子到处乱丢着书。后一种搭配则更为多见。【例如】The boy has littered his room with toys. 男孩子的房间里乱丢着许多玩具（主语是人，杂物用with引入）。/ Clothing littered the floor. 地板上乱丢着衣服（主语是杂物。/ The roof of the main building was littered with over five hundred antennas. 主楼屋顶上架满了五百多根天线。/ Mistakes littered the text. 错误连篇。/ History is littered with such examples. 历史上这种例子屡见不鲜。/ Alzheimer's litters the brain with tiny bits of a substances called plaque. 老年痴呆症使得脑子里到处乱放着小块的叫做癍块的物质（参见strew条）。
dead centre
...you’d see families sitting at square tables in the dead center of square rooms.
本来是形容词，但在若干场合可以当作副词使用，表示“完全”、“十分”。【例如】dead ahead正在前头 / dead certain确信 / dead drunk酩酊大醉 / dead easy易如反掌 / dead right十分正确 / dead slow慢吞吞 / dead straight笔直 / dead sure蛮有把握 / dead tired疲惫不堪。/ His parents were dead against the marriage. 他的父母坚决反对这门亲事。
反之，dead加了后缀-ly，反而成了个纯粹的形容词，意思是“致人死命的”或是“噩耗频传的”。【例如】Cyanide is a deadly poison. 氰化物是一种致人死命的毒药。/ This past Aug. and September were the two deadliest months on record for Iraqis... (Newsweek, Oct. 30, 2006, p. 49) 今年八、九两月是有记录以来伊拉克人丧生最多的月份…
■dead与die
英语往往以表示状态的dead来代替表示变化的die。【例如】He is dead. 他死了（代替He has died.）。/ He has been dead for ten years. 他死了十年了（代替He died ten years ago.）。/ He was dead on arrival at the hospital. 他送到医院时已经死亡（代替He had died before arrival at the hospital.）。
但是有关于死亡当时的时间、地点、情状等附带说明时，不能用dead，要用die。【例如】Two of them had died (*had been dead) during the rescue. 其中两人在抢救当中死去。
累计死亡人数时也应该用动词die。【例如】the names of 1,622 US soldiers who have died(*are dead) in Iraq (The Associated Press, May 24, 2005) 在伊拉克阵亡的1622名美军士兵的名字。
touch off
New sights touch off thoughts that otherwise wouldn’t have entered the writer’s mind.
引发;触发;引起
If something touches off a situation or series of events, it causes it to start happening.
Is the massacre likely to touch off a new round of violence?
大屠杀有可能触发新一轮的暴行吗？
click into place
I’m often amazed, dipping into my past, to find some forgotten incident clicking into place just when I need it.
Click into place 豁然开朗、恰好吻合
have a feeling for
In only two paragraphs we have a feeling not only for the tackiness of the New California landscape...
Feel for 同情
If you feel for someone, you have sympathy for them.
2.summary
