What Got You Here Won't Get You There

Expressions

1. They stack the deck in their favor.

deck: 在这里不是甲板的意思，而是指一副牌 a set of playing cards

Irene shuffled the deck

a deck of cards

stack: （n.） 一叠；一摞 a stack of books

（v.）叠起来；摞起来；使成叠地放在...

Do these chairs stack?

They were busing stacking the shelves with goods.

2. The females swooned around him.

swoon: (v.) [swu:n] 1. 晕厥；昏倒; 2. to be extremely excited and unable to control yourself because you admire sb so much (swoon over sb)

crowds of teenage girls swooning over pop stars

He's used to having women swooning over him.

3. This didn't jibe with all of David's positives.

jibe: 1. (v.) to be the same as sth or to match it

Your statement doesn't jibe with the facts.

2. (n./ v.) 嘲讽；讥讽

He made several cheap jibes at his opponent during the interview.

He jibed repeatedly at the errors they had made.

4. David's firm was getting mauled.

maul:  [mɔ:l] (v.) 1. （动物）撕咬 to attack and injure sb by tearing their flesh

2. to touch sb/ sth in an unpleasant or violent way, especially in a sexual way 粗暴地/粗手粗脚地对待

What makes you think you've got the right to maul me like that?

3. to criticize sth/ sb severely and publicly

His latest book was absolutely mauled by the critics.

5. Then we choose a certain sweater based on the thought matrix that went into wanting in.

matrix:                                                                                                [ˈmeɪtrɪks] 1.（数学）矩阵；

2. formal, the formal social, political etc situation from which a society or person grows and develops （人或社会成长发展的）社会环境；政治局势

the European cultural matrix 欧洲文化的发源地

3. 线路网；道路网

a matrix of paths 综合交错的小路

6. Both will keep us warm and accent our eye color.

accent:这里不是口音的意思，而是指强调、突出 (v.) -- to make sth more noticeable so that people will pay attention to it

Use make-up to accent your cheekbones and eyes.

accent 做动词有“重读”的意思 to emphasize a part of a word in speech

“强调、突出”这层意思也可以用名词形式表示

In all our products the accent is on quality. （重点）

7. It came out in brusque comments, dismissive opinions, and an increased inaccessibility to his direct report.

brusque:                                                                                                [bru:sk] using very few words, in a way that seems rude 寡言无礼的

a brusque manner

“What's your name?” he asked brusquely（唐突地）.

8. There was a good chance that some distractions at his superbusy CFO job or at home might sidetrack him.

sidetrack sb (into doing sth): to make sb start to talk about or do sth that is different from the main thing that they are supposed to be talking about or doing 使转移话题/目标

I was supposed to be writing a letter but I'm afraid I got sidetracked.

9. He was already in a hole with his colleagues.

be in a hole: informal, to be in a difficult situation

be in the hole: spoken, to owe money

I was something like $16,000 in the hole already.

10. In deferring to their views, you probably hear their ideas better.

defer: 1. to delay sth until a later time

She had applied for deferred admission to college.

2. defer to sb/ sth: to agree or to accept what sb has decided or what they think about sb/ sth because you respect him or her 听从；顺从

We will defer to whatever the committee decides.

11. She nailed me and I was an oafish dad who had needlessly caused his daughter pain.

nail: to catch sb and prove that they are guilty of a crime or sth bad

It took us 10 years to nail the guy who killed our daughter.

oafish: oafish                                                                                                [ˈəʊfɪʃ] 痴呆的；笨手笨脚的 someone who is stupid or awkward, especially a man

12. My son, Bryan, suggested paring down to 50 days.

pare: (v.) 削皮；去皮

pare sth down/ back: to gradually reduce the size or amount

The training budget has been pared back to a minimum.

The workforce has been pared to the bone(= reduced to the lowest possible level).