Vocabulary Flashcards
PLATEAU (n)
pl.: plateaus (US), plateaux (UK)
- a large flat area of land that is high above sea level
- a period during which there are no large changes
Ex.: “There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” (Bruce Lee)
BLAND (adj.)
= with little colour, excitement or interest; without anything to attract attention
Ex.: Although choreographers occasionally seek out the beautiful, they’re most instructed to hunt the blan.
TATTY (adj.)
= in a bad condition because it has been used a lot or has not been cared for well
Ex.: Nobody recognises the dancers as they head for freezing upstairs rooms in tatty gymnasiums.
JADED (adj.)
= not having interest or losing interest because you have experienced something too many times
Ex.: The new dancers are younger and hungrier and less jaded than the older.
LOUSY (adj.)
= bad, disgusting or umpleasant from louse (s.n.) [lice (pl. n.)] = piolho[s]
MEDIOCRE (adj.)
MEDIOCRITY (n.)
(adj. ) = just acceptable but not good; not good enough
(n. ) = the quality of not being very good at something or not very good at anything in particular, or something that is not very good
Ex.: It’s getting to the point where mediocrity is acceptable.
NOTORIOUS (adj.)
= famous for something bad
Ex.: One website has become notorious for TV and pop-video production companies scrounging for trained people to work for nothing but ‘exposure’.
SCROUNGE (v.)
= to get things, especially money or food, by asking for them instead of buying them or working for them
(“mendigar”, )
Ex.: One website has become notorious for TV and pop-video production companies scrounging for trained people to work for nothing but ‘exposure’.
RUTHLESS (adj.)
RUTHLESSNESS (n.)
(adj. ) = not thinking or worrying about any pain caused to others; cruel
(n. ) = the quality of not thinking or worrying about any pain caused to others when deciding what you need to do
Ex.: Of the fleets of talented dancers who try, only a quarter make it, the rest can’t process the ruthlessness - to dance in London is hard on the soul.
SARTORIAL (adj.)
= relating to the making of clothes, usually men’s clothes, or to a way of dressing
Ex.: If you aren’t the right height, the right face, hair or sartorial style, then don’t expect a look in.
PREREQUISITE (n.)
= that must exist or happen before something else can happen or be done
Ex.: There’s much to despise about the city, where talent and a reptilian grade of resilience, although prerequisites, provide no guarantee of success.
RESILIENCE (n.)
= the ability of people or things to recover quickly after something unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc.
Ex.: There’s much to despise about the city, where talent and a reptilian grade of resilience, although prerequisites, provide no guarantee of success.
HUSTLE (v.)
- [transitive] hustle sb + adv./prep.
= to make sb move quickly by pushing them in a rough aggressive way
Ex.: He grabbed her arm and hustled her out of the room. - [transitive] hustle sb (into sth)
= to force sb to make a decision before they are ready or sure
Ex.: All the family felt that Stephen had been hustled into the engagement by Claire.
HARD-PRESSED (adj.)
= experiencing great difficulty or distress
Ex.: He was hard-pressed to get the work done on time.
COUNTERACT (v.)
= to act in opposition to
Ex.: The doctor prescribed pills to counteract the high blood pressure.
INEVITABLE (adj.)
= impossible to avoid or prevent; certain to happen.
Ex.: We reached the inevitable dog days of summer.
SEDENTARY (adj.)
= characterized by or requiring a sitting position: sedentary work.
PASSABLE (adj.)
= capable of being passed; adequate, fair, or acceptable: a passable speech.
Ex.: The actors gave passable performances, but the singers seemed unrehearsed.
HILARIOUS (adj.)
= arousing great merriment; extremely funny.
Ex.: He was feeling hilarious from the champagne.
RAVAGE (v.)
= wreak great destruction or devastation
Ex.: Novelist Edward Docx has spent almost a decade travelling to the Amazon, watching as multinational companies ravage the land he loves.
CLAMOUR (n.)
= loud noise; a protest; demand
Ex.: The crazed clamour of the night – growls, hoots, croaks – has died away and for a moment there is almost hush.
TRIBUTARIES (n.)
= streams that flow into a larger stream or other body of water.
Ex.: There are approximately 1,250 tributaries that service the main river, 17 of which are more than 1,000 miles long.
RESURGENT (adj.)
= regaining a previous degree of activity, influence, or success
Ex.: Ignorant as I was, the most surprising discovery when I first visited was that oil is one of the main resurgent threats to the region.
INDIGENOUS (adj.)
= innate; inherent; natural; aboriginal
Ex.: The uncontacted are indigenous peoples,” she explains, “who, either by choice or by chance, sometimes as a result of previous traumatic experiences, sometimes not, live in remote isolation from their national societies.
ENMESHED IN
= to get someone or a group involved in some problem
Ex.: There are hundreds of Indian groups from one end of the forest to the other – many of them now enmeshed in legal cases or “integration projects” or other demoralising fiascos – but those that most often capture international attention (ironically) are the uncontacted.
SLAUGHTER (v.)
= the savage killing of an animal or people
Ex.: “I spoke to Mashco-Piro women when they were first contacted,” says Castillo. “And they were terrified of disease, of being slaughtered, of their children being taken into slavery.
LOGGER (n.)
= one who logs trees, a lumberjack
Ex.: And now they see the loggers and the oil companies coming in a little further every year.
DREDGE UP
DREDGER = draga (embarcação ou estrutura flutuante destinada a retirar areia, lama ou lodo do fundo do mar, de rios e canais)
DREDGE UP
1) Literally, to take out material in order to increase the depth of a body of water.
2) To bring something back into discussion or importance, especially something unpleasant.
Ex.: Peruvian security forces have launched an unprecedented operation to destroy the unlawful gold-mining dredgers that are now killing off river habitats by dredging up river-silt ( a fine deposit of mud, clay, etc, esp one in a river or lake).
CONCESSIONS (n.)
= concessões
Ex.: Since my first visit to Peru in 2003, the amount of land that has been covered by oil and gas concessions has increased fivefold – almost 50% of the entire Peruvian-owned Amazon.
