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）
lat fee 固定费用，统一收费
noun [ C ] (also fixed fee)
an amount that is charged or paid that does not change according to the amount of work done, or the number of times something is used:
She agreed to do the work for a flat fee, rather than charge an hourly rate.
Flat fee means that you may order as many items as you like for one fixed delivery fee. Unfortunately, flat fee is only applicable to all the items within a specific Express Delivery option. Multiple Express Delivery options (e.g., Same-Day 3-hour and Scheduled Delivery) will incur multiple delivery fees.
curbside delivery 送货到家门口
Curbside delivery means that the driver will place your package at the nearest accessible curb near your house/building. If you live down a road or driveway that the delivery truck cannot access without causing damage to the truck, we will be unable to complete delivery. You may require assistance to move any large and/or heavy curbside deliveries, so please plan accordingly. This service does not include set up or assembly of items or removal of packaging materials.
Usually curbside delivery means that the items you are purchasing are delivered into a garage or covered porch just not through the threshold of. your home. Although some companies will bring your order into your foyer or entry of your home. It really depends on the store and the delivery company.
Curbside Pick-Up (Curbside Order Pick-Up)
在商店门口取事先在线买的东西；在商店停车场制定地方去在线买的东西
Just follow these easy steps:
Place your order on homedepot.ca. Choose the Pick Up In-Store option during checkout and select your desired store location for order pick-up.
You will receive two (2) separate emails – an initial Order Confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your order, followed by a Curbside Order Pick-Up Notification email when your order is ready at a Home Depot location.
When you arrive at your Home Depot location, follow the signage and park in the designated pick-up area.
Call the phone number listed on the signage and let one of our associates know you’re there for Curbside Pick-Up. Have your order number on-hand.
Turn off your vehicle, stay inside and open your trunk. One of our associates will bring your order to your vehicle and place in your trunk.
recast
verb [ T ]/ˌriːˈkæst/ recast | recast
If you recast something, you change it by organizing it in a different way.
通过以不同的方式组织来改变它。
The shake-up aims to recast the company as a federation of flexible and competing subsidiaries. （Cambridge）
PARIS — If anyone thought the coronavirus crisis might prompt Emmanuel Macron to set aside his push to recast the West’s relations with Russia, this week proved them wrong. (Euro Politico)
neighbourly
adjective UK (US neighborly)/ˈneɪ.bɚ.li/
friendly or helpful to your neighbours
友善的；助人为乐的
It was very neighbourly of you to do her shopping for her. 你帮她到商店买东西，真是好心。(Cambridge)
“We must reinvent our relations with Russia without waiting for Trump, who, if he is re-elected, will relaunch a dynamic between the United States and Russia without taking into account the interests of Europe,” Védrine said in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro in August. “The relationship we need must be realistic and prudent, but neighborly,” he said in another interview. (Euro Politico)
pitch in
— phrasal verb with pitch verb informal
to start to do something as part of a group, especially something helpful
投入；参与；（尤指）支援
If we all pitch in together, it shouldn’t take too long. 如果我们齐心协力，不会用很长时间。
[ + to infinitive ] When I bought this house, all my friends pitched in to help fix it up. 我买下这所房子时，所有的朋友都来帮忙收拾。
My brother pitched in with an offer of help. 我弟弟主动提出来帮忙。
After we had seen the video everyone started pitching in with comments on its faults. 看完录像后，我们大家都纷纷评论其不足之处 (Cambridge)
He says the US needs to work quickly to find a cure, pitch in to rebuild the global economy and protect the ‘liberal world order’, adding ‘not even the U.S. can in a purely national effort overcome the virus.’ (Daily Mail)
pathos
noun [ U ] literary /ˈpeɪ.θɑːs/
the power of a person, situation, piece of writing, or work of art to cause feelings of sadness, especially because people feel sympathy
（境况、文章、艺术品或人的）感染力
There’s a pathos in his performance which he never lets slide into sentimentality. 他的表演有一种感染力，而他从不让这种感染力变成过分的感伤。（Cambridge）
The EU “must act before it’s too late,” Italian President Sergio Mattarella, a man not known for drifting into pathos, warned in a televised address to the nation on Friday. （Politico）
non-starter / nonstarter.
noun [ C ]informal
an idea, plan, or person with no chance of success
无成功希望的人（或想法、计划）
The proposal was a non-starter from the beginning because there was no possibility of funding. 这项提案从一开始就不切实际，因为不可能获得资金支持。(Cambridge)
For Germany and its northern allies, the idea is a nonstarter. Even as they’ve put in place massive rescue packages for their own populations, they’ve shown little willingness to help their southern neighbors. Though Italy insists it can pay back whatever it borrows and is only asking its eurozone partners to effectively co-sign its loans, not to foot the bill, many economists doubt it would be able to do so.
be left holding the baby
UK (US be left holding the bag)
to suddenly have to deal with a difficult situation because others have decided that they do not want the responsibility
被迫独立撑起局面，不得不承担起（别人丢下的）责任
The other investors pulled out of the project and we were left holding the baby. 其他投资者从该项目里撤出后，我们不得不独立撑起局面。(Cambridge)
Germans fear they would be left holding the bag. While pooling debt might make economic sense for the eurozone as a whole, in Germany — where former Chancellor Helmut Kohl only managed to sell the common currency in the 1990s by promising Germans they wouldn’t end up paying other countries’ debts (“The community carries no liability for the obligations of its members”) — violating the euro’s founding principle would count as a historic betrayal. (Politico)
crotchety
adjective informal /ˈkrɑː.tʃə.t̬i/
often in a bad mood and easily annoyed
脾气坏的，爱发脾气的，易恼怒的
By the time the meal began, the youngest children were getting tired and crotchety. 到开饭的时间，最小的孩子已经累了，耍起性子来 (Cambridge)
During the euro crisis, it was fairly easy for Berlin to dismiss the calls for eurobonds by pointing out that the likes of Greece and Spain had only themselves to blame for the troubles they faced. Merkel took little offense at being cast as the crotchety schoolmarm chiding Southern Europeans for not “doing their homework.”
