【熟词生义】

1.report

控告;告发 If someone reports you to a person in authority, they tell that person about something wrong that you have done.

The girlfriends of the white men in my mom’s block of flats had every reason to report a black woman—a prostitute, no doubt—living among them.

His ex-wife reported him to police a few days later...

They threatened to report him to the police.

The teacher reported him to the principal for misbehaving in class.

2.pose as sb

to pretend to be (someone or something) in order to deceive people

As far as her white neighbors knew, my mom could have been a spy posing as a prostitute posing as a maid, sent into Hillbrow to inform on whites who were breaking the law.

She posed as a student to get free admission to the museum.

undercover cops posing as drug dealers

The team posed as drug dealers to trap the ringleaders.

3.inform on sb↑

to give information about the secret or criminal activity of (someone) to the police

Despite pressure from the police he refused to inform on the other conspirators.

He informed on his own brother.

4.homeland

“黑人家园”（指过去南非种族隔离制度下的黑人有一定自治权的地区）The homelands were regions within South Africa in which black South Africans had a limited form of self-government.

My mother lied and said I was born in KaNgwane, the semi-sovereign homeland for Swazi people living in South Africa.

5.good

[only before noun] great in number, amount or degree

We were in the park, he was walking a good bit away from us, and I ran after him, screaming, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

•a good many people

•The kitchen is a good size.

•We spent a good while(= quite a long time)looking for the house.

•He devoted a good deal of(= a lot of)attention to the problem.

•There's a good chance(= it is likely) that I won't be here next year.

6.try sb (for sth)

to examine evidence in court and decide whether sb is innocent or

guilty

I come from a country where people have been arrested and tried for witchcraft—in a court of law.

He was tried for murder.

Why does it take 253 days to try a case of fraud?

【词组】

1.have your (wicked) way with sb

(old-fashioned,humorous) to persuade sb to have sex with you

to do exactly what you want to do to or with (something or someone); especially: to have sex with (someone, and especially someone over whom you have control, influence, etc.)

Just like in America, the colonists here had their way with the native women, as colonists so often do.

He has had his way with many women.

2.buffer zone

缓冲带；中立地区 A buffer zone is an area created to separate opposing forces or groups which belongs to neither of them.

an area that keeps two things separated

Indian areas were segregated from colored areas,which were segregated from black areas—all of them segregated from white areas and separated from one another by buffer zones of empty land.

There must be a 500-foot buffer zone between the river and the new buildings.

3.go to any, some, great, etc. ˈlengths (to do sth)

to put a lot of effort into doing sth, especially when this seems extreme

to try in a very determined or unreasonable way to achieve something

The government went to insane lengths to try to enforce these new laws.

•She goes to extraordinary lengths to keep her private life private.

They have gone to great lengths to make us feel welcome.

The lengths that some people will go to(=the extreme things they will do) to get a ticket!

4.slip through the cracks

to not be dealt with by a system that is designed to help you or to stop you doing something

to fail to be caught or protected by the system that was intended to catch or protect you

A million things had to go right for us to slip through the cracks the way we did for as long as we did.

Too many neglected children are slipping through the cracks.

Too many young people slip through the cracks in the healthcare system.

5.come along

to happen or appear as someone or something that might be used, chosen, etc.

My mom, however, was a rebel, and, fortunately for her, her rebellion came along at the right moment.

6.strip sb of sth

to take away property or honors from sb, as a punishment

The ultimate goal of apartheid was to make SouthAfrica a white country, with every black person stripped of his or her citizenship and relocated to live in the homelands, the Bantustans,semi-sovereign black territories that were in reality puppet states of the government in Pretoria.

•He was disgraced and stripped of his title.

They stripped the slaves of their dignity.

The pageant winner was stripped of her crown/title after the scandal. [=she was forced to give up her crown/title after the scandal]

7.contrive to

[F]If you contrive to do something difficult, you succeed in doing it.

So she stayed in town, hiding and sleeping in public restrooms until she learned the rules of navigating the city from the other black women who had contrived to live there: prostitutes.

The orchestra contrived to produce some of its best playing for years.

She contrived [=managed] to make it to the airport in time.

8.piece on the side

as part of a secret romantic relationship that is outside of your marriage or main romantic relationship

A lot of these men were foreigners, Germans and Portuguese who didn’t care about the law and were happy to sign a lease giving a prostitute a place to live and work in exchange for a steady piece on the side.

a married man with a girlfriend on the side

She had a fiancé but was seeing another man on the side.

9. in exchange for ↑

She bought me dinner in exchange for helping her move. [=she bought me dinner as a way of paying me for helping her move]

Would you like my old TV in exchange for this camera?

10.meet up

to come together with someone, either unexpectedly or as planned

People would meet up and hang out, have parties.

We usually meet up for a quick coffee in the morning.

meet up with:I met up with him as I left the building.

11.turn sb in

to give control of (someone) to the police or some other authority

to give information about the location of (someone who has committed a crime) to the police or some other authority

My mother never knew whom to trust, who might turn her in to the police.

His own parents brought him to the police station and turned him in.

The escaped prisoner turned himself in(to the police). [=he went to the police and allowed himself to be arrested]

His girlfriend threatened to turn him in.

12.stop by

to visit someone briefly

She would stop by his flat to chat; they’d go to underground get-togethers, go dancing at the night club with the rotating dance floor.

Feel free to stop by [=drop by, drop in] anytime.

I'll stop by for a short visit.

Perhaps I'll stop by the hospital...

I'll stop by to see Leigh before going home.

Could you stop by the store on the way home for some bread?

13.for ˈmy, ˈhis, ˈtheir, etc. part

speaking for myself, etc.

For my mother’s part, the fact that this man didn’t particularly want a family with her, was prevented by law from having a family with her, was part of the attraction.

For my father’s part, I know that for a long time he kept saying no.

14.run sb's life

to be in charge of a business, etc

Stop trying to run my life(= organize it)for me.

She wanted a child, not a man stepping in to run her life.

15.any number of

a large quantity of people or things

The doctors took her up to the delivery room, cut open her belly, and reached in and pulled out a half-white, half-black child who violated any number of laws, statutes, and regulations—I was born a crime.

She’s written any number of good stories.

There could be any number of reasons why he’s not at home.

16.out and about

going to different places

Enough people were out and about, black, white, and colored, going to and from work, that we could get lost in the crowd.

She is always out and about, doing one thing or another.

We've been out and about talking to people all over the country.

17.mess with sb/sth

If you tell someone not to mess with a person or thing, you are warning them not to get involved with that person or thing.

You didn’t mess with a hippo. You saw one, you ran.

That was a fact of life.

I wouldn't want to mess with him.

You'd better not be messing with me.

The company doesn't want to mess with small distributors.

He doesn't want to mess with cocaine anymore.

You are messing with people's religion and they don't like that...

18.a fact of life ↑

something that you may not like but have to accept because it is always there or always true

It's a fact of life that some people will always be racist.

The need to ration healthcare resources is a fact of life.

19.come apart

to break into parts or pieces

My memories of the hippos and the flying squads come from when I was five or six, when apartheid was finally coming apart.

The book just came apart in my hands.

— often used figuratively

a coalition that is coming apart

Their marriage is coming apart at the seams. [=their marriage is failing]

My whole life had come apart at the seams.

20.snitch on sb to sb

V [disapproving]: to tell someone in authority (such as the police or a teacher) about something wrong that someone has done

N 告密者;告发者A snitch is a person who snitches on other people.

To police the townships, the government relied on its network of impipis, the anonymous snitches who’d inform on suspicious activity.

Someone must have snitched to the police.

She snitched [=tattled,squealed] on her brother when he skipped school.

21.fed up  ADJ

very tired of something: angry about something that has continued for a long time

My gran still tells the story of when I was three years old and, fed up with being a prisoner, I dug a hole under the gate in the driveway, wriggled through, and ran off.

We've had one delay after another, and I'm starting to feel/get pretty fed up.

— usually +with

I am fed up with reading how women should dress to please men...

He had become fed up with city life...

I'm fed up with all these delays.

Consumers are fed up with rising gas prices.

22.track down

If you track down someone or something, you find them, or find information about them, after a difficult or long search.

A search party went out and tracked me down.

She had spent years trying to track down her parents...

I don't know where that old story came from, I've never been able to track it down.

23.pack sb off to

to send (someone) away to a different place

The family could have been deported, my gran could have been arrested, my mom might have gone to prison, and I probably would have been packed off to a home for colored kids.

Despite his protests, his mom packed him off to bed. [=sent him to bed]

parents packing their kids off to college