687. drop dead：滚蛋吧，去死吧。When he started to bother me, I told him to drop dead. 他开始骚扰我时，我叫他滚蛋。I should do all that work for you? Drop dead! 你想让我为你把这些事都干完？你想得美吧，你。但是注意，这个词还有一些意义截然不同的用法：He is drop-dead handsome. 他英俊迷人。They supply drop-dead headwear for women. 他们为女人提供漂亮的头饰品。Professor said the drop-dead date is December 31 — after that, no work will be accepted. 教授说了，最后期限是12月31日，超过了此日期就不再接受作业。“Drop Dead Beautiful”是一本小说的书名。

　　688. Nearly half of Americans say President Bush is in over his head according to a survey. in over one’s head, 被。。。弄得焦头烂额。He got in over his head with gambling problems and mounting debt. 他的赌瘾搞得他债台高筑，里外不是人。
　　689. I am suggesting this just off the top of my head. 我只是随便建议一下而已。off the top of one’s head 没有经过深思熟虑，随便想想。
　　690. a worse kind of: 更糟糕的是：Starting a start-up is hard, but having a 9 to 5 job is hard too, and in some ways a worse kind of hard. 创业固然不易，但过早九晚五的日子也不容易，常常是更不容易。He has cancer. It is a worse kind of cancer: blood cancer. He just has a 60/40 odds of living 5 years. Should he get married? 他患有癌症，是一种极为严重的癌症：血癌。他能活五年的机率只有六成。他应该结婚吗？


日期：2008-9-10　23:28:44

　　691.Wall, 墙；the Great Wall, 长城。In China, when you are in a meeting with the Chinese bureaucrats, you are talking to the brick wall a lot of times. talk with the brick wall 对牛弹琴 hit the wall无计可施： We"ve just about hit the wall in terms of what we can do to balance the budget. My neighbor always plays loud music late at night, driving everyone in the neighborhood up the wall. 我的隔壁总是半夜三更搞乐器，吵得附近是鸡犬不宁。见第466句。

　　692. roof, 屋顶；Interest in this product was "through the roof" and that the management was going through them now. 人们对这个产品的兴趣极高，负责人正在研究如何把握机会。Oil price just went through the roof as a result of the war. 因为战争，现在油价已经高得都无法承受了。through the roof 的典故出于“圣经马可2：3-5”。从这个词，人们又发展出了一个相反的说法：House prices have gone through the floor this year, so it is a good time to buy a house. 今年房地产跌得厉害，是购房的好机会。

　　693. glass ceiling:玻璃顶；因着歧视，一个人无法升职（有一种拦阻，但你却无法看见）。Non Party members face the glass ceiling in their promotion in government positions. 在政府部门中，非党员到了一定程度就无法再往上提拔了。
　　694. The sky is the limit. “天高任鸟飞”之意，或者说“上不封顶”。这是一句鼓励人的话：Work hard, young man, only the sky is the limit. 年轻人，努力吧，你的前途无可限量。
　　695. John is a funny comedian.His jokes always bring down the house. 约翰是会很逗的喜剧演员，他常常把一屋子的人要笑翻。
　　696. Kim and Karen get on like a house on fire.They are good friends and do everything together.Kim和Karen如胶似漆，干什么都要两个人一起干。
　　697. It’s on the house today. 今天由餐厅作东，一切免费。
　　698. Jim hit the roof when he found out his new car had been stolen. Jim发现车被偷了，怒气冲天。

　　699. She was very happy at the beginning of her marriage.Then her husband died and the roof caved in. 结婚开始时她过得挺滋润的，后来她老公死了，她觉得天都塌了下来。
　　700. out of the closet 走向公开（原来是躲在衣柜中）Those bureaucrats should come out of the closet. Do you have any skeletons in the closet? 你有什么见不得人的勾当吗？

日期：2008-9-12　20:25:17

　　701. You have to place your emotional keepsakes in storage to pursue your career. 你既然在追求职业，就当把那些引发情感的东西都锁到储藏室。emotional keepsake 引起感情回忆的（伤感的）纪念物品 。
　　702. You need to put your heart into English if you really want to learn it well. 如果你真想把英语学好，你就得全心地投入。I am young at heart. at heart 从根本上来说。We are all Democrats at heart. 我们打心底都是民主党人。
　　703. I jumped in the fray when my friend Christie told me she had the perfect guy for me. 我的朋友告诉我她给我物色到了一个最为般配的男友，我高兴得都发晕了。
　　704. The service is quick. It"s helpful. It"s good karma for the day. 因着美国女影星Stone的一句话，karma(报应)也立即为大众所知。但是这个词其实并不仅仅用来表达贬义，同时也有褒义，如此句: “这项服务快捷、方便，给一天带来好运气。”How people treat you is their karma, how you react is yours. 别人如何待你是别人的人生，你如何待人却是你的人生。Stone的话完全被中国记者恶意曲解，结果中国人的气不打一处来，真是Much ado for nothing.中国人经历了六十年的政治运动，还是没有学会一个简单的道理：在和平年代，凡是煽动民族情绪的运动，都是政客的别有用心。

　　705. We can be close and far away. 我们可以相距千里，但仍旧心心相印。这是你可以写给你所爱的人的一句话：Though we are hundreds of miles apart, I can feel you squeeze my hand. 虽然我俩远隔千里，但我可以感受到你这紧握我手心。They are physically close, but mentally far away.他们同床异梦。你给人打电话，可以说：So close, so far away. 远隔千里，却近在眼前。

　　706. Look back, 回首。有人主张要常常回首，这样可以少犯错误，也有人不主张回首，因为这样会徒添痛苦。所以也就有了两种人生观：Look back, reinvent yourself. 回首顾，再出发。Never look back, enjoy your life. 绝对不要回首，享受你的生活吧。朋友，你是属哪种人？
　　707. Just two or three lifetimes ago, most people in what are now called industrialized countries lived by farming. 在现在称之为工业化国家，仅仅在两三代人之前，大家都是生活中农业社会。口语里用lifetime来代替generation。
　　708. The petrochemical refining industry helped lift Singapore out of the economic baseline.石油冶炼将新加坡从简单的经济中提升了出来。Give us a baseline definition of culture. 文化最基本的定义是什么？
　　709. The bubble burst of the stock market has brought the high inflation. 股票市场的泡沫破灭带来了巨大的通货膨胀。bubble up 是“上升”的意思 bubble-up economic作长期计划的经济，例如投资教育、基础设施等。Marxism bubbled up in China in 40s. 四十年代，马克思主义在中国得到兴起。
　　710. The end of the last millennium was best remembered as the birth of the triad “Bio, Nano and Info”. 上一个千年的末期因为诞生了这三样科学而将被人纪念：生命科学、纳米技术以及信息产业。nano是nanotechnology的简称。

日期：2008-9-16　8:56:45

　　711. There are many good native eats in this town.这里的eat做“餐厅”解。native eats 经营本地风味特色的餐厅。