| Term | Definition |
|---|
| subliminal | ADJ. /低于极限的；下意识的/below the threshold. We may not be aware of the subliminal influences that affect our thinking. |
| submissive | ADJ. /屈服的；胆怯的/yielding; timid. When he refused to permit Elizabeth to marry her poet, Mr. Barrett expected her to be properly submissive; instead, she eloped! |
| subordinate | ADJ. /低级的；下级的；次要的/occupying a lower rank; inferior; submis¬sive. Bishop Proudie's wife expected all the subordinate clergy to behave with great deference to the wife of their superior. |
| suborn | V. /教唆/persuade to act unlawfully (especially to commit perjury). In The Godfather, the mobsters used bribery and threats to suborn the witnesses against Don Michael Cor¬leone. |
| subpoena | N. /传票/writ summoning a witness to appear. The prosecutor's office was ready to serve a subpoena on the reluctant witness. alsoV. |
| subsequent | ADJ. /后来的；接下来的/following; later. In subsequent lessons, we shall take up more difficult problems. |
| subservient | ADJ. /奴隶似的；奴性的/behaving like a slave; servile; obse¬quious. He was proud and dignified; he refused to be sub¬servient to anyone. |
| subside | V. /下沉；平息；减退/settle down; descend; grow quiet. The doctor assured us that the fever would eventually subside. |
| subsidiary | ADJ. /次要的；辅助的/subordinate; secondary. This information may be used as subsidiary evidence but is not sufficient by itself to prove your argument. also N. |
| subsidy | N. /政府的补助/direct financial aid by government, etc. Without this subsidy, American ship operators would not be able to compete in world markets. |
| subsistence | N. /存在；生存/existence; means of support; livelihood. In these days of inflated prices, my salary provides a mere subsistence. |
| substantial | ADJ. /坚实的；充实的/ample; solid; in essentials. The generous scholarship represented a substantial sum of money. |
| substantiate | V. /证实；验证/establish by evidence; verify; support. These endorsements from satisfied customers substantiate our claim that Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT I is the best SAT-prep book on the market. |
| substantive | ADJ. /真实的；有实质的；大量的/essential; pertaining to the substance. Although the delegates were aware of the importance of the problem, they could not agree on the substantive issues. |
| subterfuge | N. /借口；托辞/pretense; evasion. As soon as we realized that you had won our support by a subterfuge, we withdrew our endorsement of your candidacy. |
| subtlety | N. /精明；稀薄；微妙/perceptiveness; ingenuity; delicacy. Never obvious, she expressed herself with such subtlety that her remarks went right over the heads of most of her audience. subtle,ADJ. |
| subversive | ADJ. /颠覆性的；破坏性的/tending to overthrow; destructive. At first glance, the notion that styrofoam cups may actually be more ecologically sound than paper cups strikes most envi¬ronmentalists as subversive. |
| succinct | ADJ. /简洁的；紧身的/brief; terse; compact. Don't bore your audi ence with excess verbiage: be succinct. |
| succor | V. /救援；援助/aid; assist; comfort. If you believe that con man has come here to succor you in your hour of need, you're an even bigger sucker than I thought. also N. |
| succulent | ADJ. /多汁的/juicy; full of richness. To some people, Florida citrus fruits are more succulent than those from Cali¬fornia. also N. |
| succumb | V. /屈服；屈从；死/yield; give in; die. I succumb to temptation whenever I see chocolate. |
| suffragist | N. /扩大参政权；扩大妇女参政权/advocate of voting rights (for women). In recognition of her efforts to win the vote for women, Con¬gress authorized coining a silver dollar honoring the suf¬fragistSusan B. Anthony |
| sully | V. /弄脏；玷污/tarnish; soil. He felt that it was beneath his dignity to sully his hands in such menial labor. |
| sultry | ADJ. /闷热的，酷热的；放荡的；粗暴的/sweltering. He could not adjust himself to the sultryclimate of the tropics. |
| summation | N. /结算；累计；总结/act of finding the total; summary. In his summation, the lawyer emphasized the testimony given by the two witnesses. |
| summit | N. /巅峰；顶点/utmost height or pinnacle; highest point (of a mountain, etc.) The summit of the amateur mountain climber's aspirations was someday to reach the summit of Mount Everest. |
| sumptuous | ADJ. /奢侈的；华丽的/lavish; rich. I cannot recall when I have had such a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast. |
| sunder | V. /分裂/separate; part. Northern and southern Ireland are politically and religiously sundered. |
| supercilious | ADJ. /自大的；傲慢的/arrogant; condescending; patronizing. The supercilious headwaiter sneered at customers whom he thought did not fit in at a restaurant catering to an ultra¬fashionable crowd. |
| superficial | ADJ. /肤浅的；浅薄的/trivial; shallow. Since your report gave only a superficial analysis of the problem, I cannot give you more than a passing grade. |
| superfluous | ADJ. /不必要的；多余的/unnecessary; excessive; overabundant. Betsy lacked the heart to tell June that the wedding present she brought was superfluous; she and Bob had already received five toasters. Please try not to include so many superfluous details in your report; just give me the facts. superfluity, N. |
| superimpose | V. /添加/place over something else. Your attempt to superimpose another agency in this field will merely increase the bureaucratic nature of our government. |
| supersede | V. /取代；推迟/cause to be set aside; replace; make obso¬lete. The new bulk mailing postal regulation supersedes the old one. If you continue to follow the old regulation, your bulk mailing will be returned to you. |
| supplant | V. /篡位；取代/replace; usurp. Bolingbroke, later to be known as King Henry IV, fought to supplant his cousin, Richard III, as King of England. |
| supple | ADJ. /柔顺的；顺从的；柔韧的/flexible; pliant. Years of yoga exercises made Grace's body supple. |
| supplicate | V. /恳求；祈祷/petition humbly; pray to grant a favor. We supplicate Your Majesty to grant him amnesty. |
| supposition | N. /假定；假想/hypothesis; the act of supposing. I based my decision to confide in him on the supposition that he would be discreet. suppose,V. |
| suppress | V. /镇压；抑制；查禁/stifle; overwhelm; subdue; inhibit. Too polite to laugh in anyone's face, Roy did his best to suppress his amusement at Ed's inane remark. |
| surfeit | V. /饮食过度；恶心/satiate; stuff; indulge to excess in anything. Every Thanksgiving we are surfeited with an overabun¬dance of holiday treats. also N. |
| surly | ADJ. /粗暴的；阴沉的；板着脸的；无礼的/rude; cross. Because of his surly attitude, many people avoided his company. |
| surmise | V. /猜测/guess. I surmise that he will be late for this meeting. also N. |
| surmount | V. /克服/overcome. Could Helen Keller, blind and deaf since childhood, surmount her physical disabilities and lead a productive life? |
| surpass | V. /超越/exceed. Her SAT I scores surpassed our expectations. |
| surreptitious | ADJ. /暗中的；秘密的/secret; furtive; sneaky; hidden. Hoping to discover where his mom had hidden the Christmas pre¬sents, Timmy took a surreptitious peek into the master bed¬room closet. |
| surrogate | N. /代理；代替/substitute. For a fatherless child, a male teacher may become a father surrogate. |
| surveillance | N. /监视；监督/watching; guarding. The FBI kept the house under constant surveillance in the hope of capturing all the criminals at one time, |
| susceptible | ADJ. /易受影响的；易感动的；易患病的/impressionable; easily influenced; having little resistance, as to a disease; receptive to. Said the patent medicine man to his very susceptible customer: "Buy this new miracle drug, and you will no longer be sus¬ceptible to the common cold." |
| sustain | V. /支撑；延续/experience; support; nourish. He sustained such a severe injury that the doctors feared he would be unable to work to sustain his growing family. |
| sustenance | N. /食物；生计/means of support, food, nourishment. In the tropics, the natives find sustenance easy to obtain, due to all the fruit trees. |
| suture | N. /缝合；缝合处/stitches sewn to hold the cut edges of a wound or incision; material used in sewing. We will remove the sutures as soon as the wound heals. alsoV. |
| swagger | V. /大摇大摆；自大/behave arrogantly or pompously; strut or walk proudly. The conquering hero didn't simply stride down the street; he swaggered. also N. |
| swarm | N. /一大群；挤满，占满，蜂拥/dense moving crowd; large group of honey¬bees. At the height of the city hall scandals, a constant swarm of reporters followed the mayor everywhere. alsoV. |
| swarthy | ADJ. /暗的；有雾的/dark; dusky. Despite the stereotypes, not all Italians are swarthy, many are fair and blond. |
| swathe | V. /包装物；绷带/wrap around; bandage. When I visited him in the hospital, I found him swathed in bandages. |
| swelter | V. /闷热；中暑/be oppressed by heat. I am going to buy an air conditioning unit for my apartment as I do not intend to swelter through another hot and humid summer. |
| swerve | V. /转向；突然转向/deviate; turn aside sharply. The car swerved wildly as the driver struggled to regain control of the wheel. |
| swill | V. /痛饮/drink greedily. Singing "Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum," Long John Silver and his fellow pirates swilled their grog. |
| swindler | N. /骗子/cheat. She was gullible and trusting, an easy victim for the first swindler who came along. |
| sybarite | N. /纵情逸乐之徒/lover of luxury. Rich people are not always sybarites; some of them have little taste for a life of luxury. |
| sycophant | N. /马屁精；阿谀奉承者/servile flatterer; bootlicker; yes man. Fed up with the toadies and flunkies who made up his entourage, the star cried, "Get out, all of you! I'm sick of sycophants!" sycophancy, N. |
| symbiosis | N. /共生现象/interdependent relationship (between groups, species), often mutually beneficial. Both the croco¬dile bird and the crocodile derive benefit from their symbio¬sis: pecking away at food particles embedded in the crocodile's teeth, the bird receives nourishment; the croco¬dile, meanwhile, receives proper dental hygiene. symbiotic,ADJ. |
| symmetry | N. /对称；匀称/arrangement of parts so that balance is obtained; congruity. Something lopsided by definition lacks symmetry. |
| synoptic | ADJ. /概要的/providing a general overview; summary. The professor turned to the latest issue of Dissertation Abstracts for a synoptic account of what was new in the field. synop¬SiS, N. |
| synthesis | N. /合成/combining parts into a whole. Now that we have succeeded in isolating this drug, our next problem is to plan its synthesis in the laboratory. synthesize,V. |
| table | V. /搁置/set aside a resolution or proposal for future con¬sideration. Because we seem unable to agree on this issue at the moment, let us table the motion for now and come back to it at a later date. |
| tacit | ADJ. /默许的；会意的/understood; not put into words. We have a tacit agreement based on only a handshake. |
| taciturn | ADJ. /沉默寡言的/habitually silent; talking little. The stereotypi¬cal cowboy is a taciturn soul, answering lengthy questions with a "Yep" or "Nope." |
| tactile | ADJ. /触觉的/pertaining to the organs or sense of touch. His callused hands had lost their tactile sensitivity. |
| taint | V. /污染，感染；污点/contaminate; cause to lose purity; modify with a trace of something bad. One speck of dirt on your utensils may contain enough germs to taint an entire batch of preserves. |
| talisman | N. /护身符；避邪物/charm to bring good luck and avert misfortune. Joe believed the carved pendant he found in Vietnam served him as a talisman and brought him safely through the war. |
| talon | N. /鸟爪/claw of bird. The falconer wore a leather gauntlet to avoid being clawed by the hawk's talons. |
| tangential | ADJ. /外围的；切线的/peripheral; only slightly connected; digressing. Despite Clark's attempts to distract her with tan¬gential remarks, Lois kept on coming back to her main question: why couldn't he come out to dinner with Super¬man and her? |
| tangible | ADJ. /可触摸的；真实的/able to be touched; real; palpable. Although Tom did not own a house, he had several tangible assets-a car, a television, a PC-that he could sell if he needed cash. |
| tanner | N. /皮革工人；6便士/person who turns animal hides into leather. Using a solution of tanbark, the tannertreated the cowhide, transforming it into supple leather. |
| tantalize | V. /逗弄；使其干着急/tease; torture with disappointment. Tom loved to tantalize his younger brother with candy; he knew the boy was forbidden to have it. |
| tantamount | ADJ. /同等的/equivalent in effect or value. Though Rudy claimed his wife was off visiting friends, his shriek of horror when she walked into the room was tantamount to a confession that he believed she was dead. |
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