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）
opt in/opt-in
— phrasal verb and noun
to choose to be part of an activity, arrangement, etc.
主动选择加入
Company policy is to leave new workers out of the pension scheme, unless they choose to opt in. 公司政策是新员工除非主动要求加入，否则不把他们列入养老金计划内。(Cambridge)
For contact tracing involving cell phone tracking, Democrats surveyed are more open than Republicans to the notion of opt-in reporting.
in (someone’s) good graces
Meaning: liked and thought highly of by someone in authority
得到了……的青睐
He works late to stay in his boss’s good graces. (merriam-webster)
Michael Flynn is out of legal limbo and back in the Trump administration’s good graces, a dramatic change from the 2017 days of getting fired for lying to Mike Pence and twice pleading guilty to charges from the Mueller investigation.
hit job / hitjob
A hit job means an assassination. Here it is not used literally, but it would suggest an unfair attack deliberately designed to damage his reputation.
恶毒的诽谤
Trump’s allies view Attorney General Bill Barr’s move to withdraw charges against Flynn as the first major step in exposing the Russia investigation as a political hit job. Democrats, most notably Barack Obama, fear Barr is weaponizing the Justice Department ahead of an election.
lower (or raise or lift) the bar
lower (or raise) the standards which need to be met in order to qualify for something. 降低或提高达标的标准
“they have drastically lowered the bar for anyone who wants to call themselves a musician”
The Supreme Court seems likely to raise the bar that both Congress and local prosecutors would have to meet before they can obtain Trump’s financial records — as the justices worried about exposing future presidents to fishing expeditions — and Congress may ultimately have a harder time meeting that standard. （Axios）
a fishing expedition
mainly US
an attempt to discover the facts about something by collecting a lot of information, often secretly
（通常指秘密地）收罗信息、资料（用于调查揭示真相）
The investigators’ request for the company’s accounts is simply a fishing expedition – they have no real evidence of wrongdoing. 调查员要求查公司的账只是一个收集信息的手段——他们没有违规操作的真实证据。（Cambridge）
The Supreme Court seems likely to raise the bar that both Congress and local prosecutors would have to meet before they can obtain Trump’s financial records — as the justices worried about exposing future presidents to fishing expeditions — and Congress may ultimately have a harder time meeting that standard.
underwrite
verb [ T ] /ˈʌn.dɚ.raɪt/
underwrote | underwritten
If a bank or other organization underwrites an activity, it gives it financial support and takes responsibility for paying any costs if it fails.
（银行或其他机构）为…提供财力支持并承担经济责任 （Cambridge）
Without certification, the president would be authorized to impose a range of sanctions such as asset freezes, travel bans, visa revocations, restricting United States financial institutions from making loans or underwriting to Chinese businesses and prohibiting Chinese firms from being listed on American stock exchanges”, Senators Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mike Braun, Rick Scott, Steve Daines, Todd Young, Jim Inhofe, and Roger Wicker said on Tuesday. (Sputnik)