Inglish_04/09/09

far cry: 差别悬殊
His last statement was a far cry from his first story.

in a nutshell:简言之；概括地说；总而言之

Do you see where he's going with this? In a nutshell, Raskalnikov thought such individuals are justified in doing anything, including murdering ordinary people, if they have a good purpose..

bum rap: 不公正的惩罚/判决
Introversion also gets a bum rap.

hands down: 轻而易举的(无疑的)

The second piece of bread won hands-down in taste tests every time.

flying colors: 飘扬的旗帜,胜利,成功

He passed the examination with flying colors。

rattle off 飞快地说出
The next time you or one of your people starts rattling off the obvious truth by heart, wonder about whether it's obvious because it's true, or true because it's obvious.

bare bones: 梗概

The professor asked him to present the bare bones of his thesis.

sleight of hand: 花招; 手段; 手法敏捷 (prestidigitation, quick fingers)

They're masters of drug trial sleight-of-hand and know research methods inside out.

on the prowl : 徘徊;悄悄调查寻找

While some affairs may start because the cheating husband is "out on the prowl" looking for a mistress, other affairs may start because a mistress is knowingly on the prowl for a married man.

well-rounded:丰满的; 多才多艺的; 面面俱到的; 有表达力的

Is it OK if children are not "well-rounded," as long as they are following their curiosities?

pan out: 结果成功，有成果；If something, for example a project or some information, pans out, it produces something useful or valuable. (INFORMAL)

Bored of waiting to see how the current swine flu pandemic will pan out?

nitty-gritty: 事实真相，本质

When you get down to the nitty-gritty, when you ask specific questions about specific friends, it’s surprising how often you don’t know the answer