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）
raise the stakes
to make a situation more urgent or more difficult to ignore
使情况更紧急；使事态扩大; 加大危险
Australia has raised the stakes in its already troubled relationship with China by backing the United States in formally declaring Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea to be illegal. （ABC）
a straw man
an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent’s real argument.
一种故意歪曲的主张（很容易被对手真实论点击败）; 谬论
The secretary asked what Americans have to show for 50 years of “blind engagement” and said the answer was little or nothing. He instead erected a straw man: U.S. policy failed, he said, because China did not evolve into a democracy when, in fact, the purpose of the policy developed by Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger was to use China as a counterweight to the Soviet Union and shape China’s foreign policy, not its internal nature. （Washington Post）
blowback
noun [ U ]/ˈbloʊ.bæk/
negative reactions or results that were not intended, such as criticism, protest, or anger
非预期的负面反应或结果，如批评、抗议或愤怒
Trump’s punches aren’t landing. Biden is avoiding heightened scrutiny while Trump absorbs the blowback for his responses to national crises. (Axios)
land a punch
1. To be successful in one’s attempt to punch someone
成功地打了某人(一拳)
2. By extension, to successfully make a point that proves or supports one’s argument.
成功地证明或支持某人的论点。
During the debate, she landed a number of punches by hammering on her opponent’s questionable connections to offshore tax havens.
Donald Trump just can’t land a punch on Joe Biden. The President, trailing in his reelection race as time ticks away, is trying everything to lure the presumptive Democratic nominee into a fight. His team taunts Biden for hiding in his basement during lockdown, and blast the 77-year-old as senile while Trump, 74, boasts about acing cognitive tests. (CNN)
place/bring/throw something into relief
to make something very noticeable, or to be very noticeable
为了使某物引人注目; 非常引人注目; 使某物相形见绌
“But overall, it paints a grim portrait of an institution that has ceased to work as it should. A course correction may be more critical now than ever before, the report says, as the nation faces ‘outsize challenges’ that place congressional shortcomings in stark relief.” （New York Times）
