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）
West Texas Intermediate 西德克萨斯中质原油(WTI)
West Texas Intermediate crude surged 24.67% to settle at $25.32 per barrel, for its largest single-day percentage gain in history. Given WTI’s 59% decline this year a smaller gain, of course, now accounts for a much larger percentage move
International benchmark Brent 国际基准布伦特原油
International benchmark Brent jumped 21% to settle at $29.94 per barrel, in what was also its best day on record.
hold fire (or hang fire )
to delay making a decision
延缓作出决定
Ideally we would settle the matter now, but I think we should hang fire until the general situation becomes clearer. 理想的状况是我们现在就把这个问题给解决了，但我认为我们还是等总体局势更为明朗之后再作决定为好。
New York Times: “In recent days, the two sides have settled on a tentative, uneasy truce. They have agreed to hold fire on public sniping over the virus and to look for ways to cooperate to slow the contagion. Some American officials had recognized that the deteriorating state of relations — at the worst point since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 — was impeding global efforts to fight the pandemic.”
take sth in your stride
UK (US take sth in stride)
to deal with a problem or difficulty calmly and not to allow it to influence what you are doing
从容处理，对…泰然处之
When you become a politician, you soon learn to take criticism in your stride. 等你成了政治家，你很快就会学会对他人的批评泰然处之。
Most people know immunologist Anthony Fauci as the doctor at the forefront of the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — the grey-haired, bespectacled man who stands alongside President Donald Trump at pandemic press conferences. The job has reportedly earned him a personal security detail due to threats of violence. He takes it seriously, but also in stride.
dial back
To lessen something, especially in intensity； to restrain (a feeling or action)；reduce in frequency or intensity.
减少强度; 抑制(一种感觉或行为); 减少频率或强度
Although he has occasionally stepped in to correct or dial back claims President Trump has made about the nation’s effort to stop the virus, Dr. Fauci has emphasized that he and Trump are working together well. （CBS）
backlog
noun & verb
a large number of things that you should have done before and must do now
积压的工作
I’ve got a huge backlog of work to do. 我有大量积压的工作要做。(Cambridge)
As the US health care system has scrambled to track the spread of coronavirus, one of the nation’s largest commercial labs has faced a backlog of tests that ballooned in the last two weeks, and has delayed results in some cases up to 10 days. 10 days for test results, 160,000 backlogged tests: The struggle to keep pace with the pandemic in the US. (CNN)
bailout
noun [ C usually singular ] /ˈbeɪl.aʊt/
the act of helping a person or organization that is in difficulty, usually by giving or giving or lending money
（通常指从经济上）帮助（某人或机构）脱离困境
Three years of huge losses forced the bank to seek a government bailout. 长达3年的巨额亏损迫使银行向政府寻求援助。
The administration assembled the $50 billion emergency bailout package to ease a financial crisis in Mexico. 管理部门筹划了总值达500亿美元的一揽子紧急经济援助计划，以缓解墨西哥的金融危机 (Cambridge)
The European Union has weathered the storms of eurozone bailouts, the migration crisis and Brexit, but some fear coronavirus could be even more destructive.
gobble up
to swallow or eat hastily or hungrily in large pieces; gulp. to seize upon eagerly (often followed by up):
狼吞虎咽; 大口吞食;很快地用掉
After being gone for so long, they gobbled up all the local news.
However, the international market for the hotly-demanded items is proving to be extremely competitive. As Hajdu noted, many other countries also did not have sufficient stockpiles, and are therefore looking to gobble up the available PPE on the global market.
redundancy
noun /rɪˈdʌn.dən.si/
redundancy noun (NOT EMPLOYED) [ C or U ]
a situation in which someone loses their job because their employer does not need them
失业，被解雇，被裁减
The economic downturn has meant 10,000 redundancies in the Northeast. 由于经济衰退，东北地区有一万人失业。（Cambridge）
Unite said that 28,000 workers will be suspended and will receive 80% of their pay. Under the plan, the UK government will pay 80% of salaries up to £2,500 ($3,093) a month. British Airways will then cover any earnings above that, to ensure that all employees earn 80% of their monthly salary. Unite and British Airways agreed that there will be no unpaid temporary lay offs and no redundancies during this period, according to the press release.
body bag
A body bag, also known as a cadaver pouch or human remains pouch (HRP), is a non-porous bag designed to contain a human body, used for the storage and transportation of corpses. Body bags can also be used for the storage of corpses within morgues. 尸体袋子
The Defense Department is working to provide 100,000 body bags to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Thursday. FEMA requested the body bags from the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, a Defense Department spokesman, said the department and the DLA “have a longstanding arrangement with FEMA to procure key commodities from DLA’s industrial partners during crisis response operations.”
