儒琴英语词汇选自欧美报刊文章以及英语原文小说。坚持学习英语今日词汇，有助于阅读和理解当今欧美主流媒体的新闻时事报道和英语文学作品。
儒琴英语词汇（English Words and Phrases of the Day）
on the back foot/put someone on the back foot
If someone is on the back foot, or if something puts them on the back foot, they feel threatened and act defensively.
感到受到威胁，会做出防御性的行为
What’s happening: Republicans slammed the companies for alleged anti-conservative bias, but Democrats largely narrowed their focus to possible competitive abuses, putting the CEOs on their back feet and producing some surprising admissions. （Axios）
go down the rabbit hole
Used especially in the phrase going down the rabbit hole or falling down the rabbit hole, a rabbit hole is a metaphor for something that transports someone into a wonderfully (or troublingly) surreal state or situation. On the internet, a rabbit hole frequently refers to an extremely engrossing and time-consuming topic. (dictionary.com)
是一种比喻，指将某人带入一种奇妙的(或麻烦的)超现实状态或情况。在互联网上，“兔子洞”通常指非常引人入胜和耗时的话题。
Wednesday’s House antitrust hearing with the CEOs of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple went down some politically fraught rabbit holes, but also saw tech’s most powerful figures face sharper questions than they’ve seen before from Washington. (Axios)
boxed in
adjective [ after verb ]
If someone or something is boxed in, he, she, or it cannot move, because of other people or things that are too close.
被困住的；被堵住的
Foreign Minister makes clear Australia will not be boxed in when it comes to China or the US. (ABC)
grandstanding
noun [ U ] /ˈɡrænˌstæn.dɪŋ/
acting or speaking in a way intended to attract the good opinion of other people who are watching
（言行的）哗众取宠，炫耀卖弄
Attorney General Bill Barr finally testified Tuesday before the raucous House Judiciary Committee, where grandstanding and bomb-throwing tactics by lawmakers have become a staple of oversight hearings in the Trump era. （Axios）
vituperative
adjective formal /vaɪˈtuː.pə.reɪ.t̬ɪv/
A vituperative spoken or written attack is full of angry criticism.
辱骂的；谩骂的
In that pursuit, it has engaged in economic and military coercion, vituperative diplomacy, unfair trade practices, disregard of many elements of international law, and cyber theft and other forms of espionage aimed at acquiring trade and technology secrets. （National Interest）
write off
To decide that someone or something will not succeed and so to stop giving them your attention and energy
决定某人或某事不会成功，因此停止给予他们你的注意力和精力；认定…不重要（或无用）; 忽视
Which is why it may be premature to write Trump off, says Kim Hoggard, a former government staffer who served in both the Reagan and George HW Bush administrations. （ABC News）
