绝望的主妇第一季第17集精听训练素材及相关例句和答案，适合听力检验，可以慢放。（与直播间同步）
DH S01E17 Part01-02练习及答案：
Come to a screeching point：This phrase describes a sudden and dramatic stop in movement or progress, usually caused by an unexpected interruption or obstacle. （这个短语描述了某事突然且剧烈地停止，通常是由于意外的干扰或障碍。）
1、新的商业项目在一个关键合伙人退出后戛然而止，迫使剩余的团队不得不弥补空缺，保持高风亮节，并寻找更好的机会以挽救投资。
The new business venture came to a screeching halt after a key partner pulled out, forcing the remaining team to pick up the slack, take the high road, and look for greener pastures to salvage their investment.
2、精心策划的营销活动因竞争对手推出类似产品而戛然而止，营销团队只得重新开始，另辟溪径，并使出杀手锏，以区分自己的产品。
The meticulously planned marketing campaign came to a screeching halt when a competitor launched a similar product, forcing the marketing team to go back to the drawing board, paint outside the lines, and pull a rabbit out of the hat to differentiate their offering.
3、新软件的发布因突如其来的错误导致系统故障而戛然而止，开发人员只得从头开始，保持冷静，并从根本上解决问题，然后再重新发布。
The new software launch came to a screeching halt when an unanticipated bug caused system-wide errors, prompting the developers to go back to the drawing board, keep a level head, and fix the problem at the root before relaunching.
Take the world by the storm：it means to achieve widespread success or popularity in an extremely short amount of time, often in an unexpected or dramatic manner. （在短时间内意外地获得巨大的成功或流行，通常是以一种吸引大量关注的方式。）
1、那个意外的合作视频席卷全球，让社交媒体爆炸，用户纷纷发表意见，明星们也跟风，观众们则屏息以待接下来的发展。
The viral video, featuring an unexpected collaboration, took the world by storm, causing social media to explode, leaving users to share their two cents, celebrities to jump on the bandwagon, and viewers to hold their breath for what would happen next.
2、这家创新的科技初创公司在推出其创新产品后席卷全球，促使竞争对手加大赌注，媒体跟风，投资者则全力支持这家公司。
The groundbreaking tech startup took the world by storm after launching its innovative product, prompting competitors to raise the stakes, the media to jump on the bandwagon, and investors to throw their weight behind the company.
3、这位年轻艺术家的首张专辑席卷全球，迅速登顶榜单，评论家不得不收回言辞，粉丝们惊叹不已，而业内专家则祈盼她的下一步。
The young artist’s debut album took the world by storm, skyrocketing to the top of the charts, leaving critics to eat their words, fans to stand in awe, and industry experts to keep their fingers crossed for her next move.
Send something up in flames：it means to destroy or ruin something completely, often through an impulsive or careless action. It can also refer to causing something to fail dramatically, usually when things go wrong unexpectedly. （彻底摧毁或毁坏某物，通常是通过冲动或不小心的行为。它也可以指导致某事戏剧性失败，通常是在事情意外出错时。）
1、这家科技初创公司试图进入拥挤的市场，计划彻底失败，导致投资者纷纷退出，创始人被逼到了墙角，团队则冥思苦想，寻找新的策略。
The tech startup’s attempt to enter the crowded market sent their plans up in flames, causing investors to jump ship, the founders were backed into a corner, and the team racked their brain for a fresh strategy.
2、他在公司度假活动中的鲁莽行为彻底摧毁了局面，导致人力资源部门忙得不可开交，团队成员团结一致，管理层则下达命令以防止未来的事件发生。
His reckless behavior at the company retreat sent everything up in flames, causing the HR department to have their hands full, the team to circle the wagons, and management to lay down the law to prevent future incidents.
3、CEO草率决定绕过关键的安全协议，让项目彻底失败，导致团队不得不放弃原来的设定，另辟溪径，他们现在励精图治试图从这个昂贵的错误中恢复过来。
The CEO’s rash decision to bypass crucial safety protocols sent the project up in flames, leaving the team to scrap the script, blaze a trail, they’re now moving heaven and earth in an effort to recover from the costly mistake.
今日引语推荐（Gone with the wind）
“It was only in the quiet aftermath of the storm, when the winds had ceased and the dust had settled, that she could finally see the truth that had eluded her all along: that in the pursuit of success, in the clamor [‘klæmə] for approval, she had forgotten what truly mattered. The truth was never in the accolades, nor in the money or the possessions. It was in the relationships she had nurtured, in the love she had given, in the quiet moments of peace that allowed her to breathe freely and remember who she was.”
“只有在风暴的宁静余波中，当风已经停息，尘土已然落定，她才终于看清了那一直逃避她的真相：在追求成功、争取他人认同的过程中，她遗忘了真正重要的东西。真相从来不在于荣誉、金钱或财物，它存在于她曾经培养的人际关系中，存在于她曾给予的爱中，存在于那些让她能够深呼吸并记起自我的宁静时刻。”
“They had often laughed at the absurdity of fate, at how life seemed to mock their plans, sending them down roads they never chose, making them face enemies they never saw coming, and sometimes, even forcing them to make sacrifices they thought they could never make. But now, with the weight of those experiences resting on their shoulders, they had come to understand that, in truth, those very trials, the hardships that seemed insurmountable [ˌɪnsə’maʊntəbl], had shaped them into who they were—stronger, wiser, and somehow, more human.”
“他们常常嘲笑命运的荒谬，嘲笑生活如何戏弄他们的计划，把他们推向他们从未选择的道路，让他们面对他们从未预见的敌人，有时，甚至迫使他们做出他们曾以为永远无法做出的牺牲。但现在，背负着这些经历的重量，他们终于明白了一个事实：事实上，正是这些看似无法逾越的困难，塑造了他们成为现在的自己——更强大、更睿智，也可以从某种程度上讲，更加人性化。”
DH S01E17 Part03-04练习及答案：
Have dibs on something: it means to claim a right or priority over a person or object, often informally or playfully. It is commonly used to express the idea of reserving or securing something before others can take it. （对某人或某物的优先权或所有权，通常以非正式或开玩笑的方式表达。这一短语常用于表明在他人之前“预定”或“保留”某物。）
1、在遗产拍卖会上，他自信地宣布自己对祖父钟有优先权，让其他人只能争夺残羹冷炙，而他则乐在其中，抓住机会，展示出他慧眼识珠的能力。
During the estate sale, he confidently proclaimed that he had dibs on the grandfather clock, leaving others scrambling for crumbs while he reveled in his ability to strike while the iron was hot, showcasing his keen eye for treasure.
2、作为那张古董书桌的继承人，她早早声明了所有权，坚持说自己已经“预定”，而其他人还在犹豫不决，让她轻松敲定协议，显得她的精明操作毫无破绽。
When the rare first edition of the novel was brought into the shop, the collector immediately exclaimed, “I have dibs on that!”, leaving the rest of the group to eat their hearts out, knowing his sharp eye for value always gave him the upper hand.
3、兄弟俩经常针锋相对地争论琐事，但这次，一个人宣称对最后一块蛋糕有“优先权”，引发了激烈的争吵，诸如“先来先得”和“占有即为所有”这样的短语在餐桌上此起彼伏。
The brothers often locked horns over trivial matters, but this time, one declared dibs on the last piece of cake, sparking a spirited argument where phrases like “finders keepers” and “possession is nine-tenths of the law” flew across the table.
Up a creek without a paddle：it means to be in a difficult, challenging, or hopeless situation with no clear solution or means of escape. The phrase conveys a sense of being stranded or helpless in the face of adversity. （身处困难、具有挑战性或无助的境地，且没有明确的解决方案或脱困方法。这个短语传达了在逆境中感到孤立无援的状态。）
1、当证据对他不利时，他已然是深陷泥潭，试图挽回颜面，但每次推卸责任或歪曲事实的尝试都让他陷得更深。
When the evidence turned against him, he was up a creek without a paddle, scrambling to save face, but every attempt to shift the blame or spin the narrative only deepened the mire he had created.
2、在公司意外破产后，员工发现自己身处绝境，试图挽救生计，而高管却选择置身事外，让他们独自承受破碎梦想的重担。
After the company’s unexpected bankruptcy, the employees found themselves up a creek without a paddle, trying to salvage their livelihoods while the executives washed their hands of the mess, leaving them to carry the weight of shattered dreams alone.
3、由于没有备用计划且资源枯竭，他们确实是陷入困境，试图时光倒流的努力毫无效果，而项目逐渐失控，合作伙伴开始撤资，放弃曾经的共同愿景。
With no backup plan and dwindling resources, they were well and truly up a creek without a paddle, their efforts to turn back the clock proving futile as the project spiraled out of control, and their partners began pulling the plug on their once-shared vision.
Blow up in one’s face：A plan, effort, or situation to fail disastrously or unexpectedly, often causing harm, embarrassment, or negative consequences for the person involved. （某件事或计划出人意料地失败，通常以戏剧性或灾难性的方式发生，给相关人员带来尴尬或损害。）
1、他们的秘密交易彻底失败，因为媒体得知了风声，丑闻随之一发不可收拾。曾经强大的二人组现在被密切关注，艰难地抵御四面楚歌。
Their secret deal blew up in their faces when the media caught wind of it, causing the scandal to snowball out of control. Now, the once-powerful duo finds themselves under the microscope, struggling to keep the wolves at bay.
2、实验因意外的化学反应以失败告终，使实验室变成了混乱的场景。曾经信心满满的团队，如今面对清醒的现实：他们的过度自信正是他们的致命弱点。
The experiment blew up in their faces when an unexpected chemical reaction occurred, turning the lab into a scene of chaos. Their confidence, once riding high, crumbled as the team faced a sobering reality: their overconfidence had been their Achilles’ heel.
3、他试图削弱竞争对手的策略适得其反，当举报者揭发了他的行为后，事情彻底失控。他试图伤害别人，却搬起石头砸了自己的脚，不仅名声受损，还陷入了恶果交织的困境。
His strategy to undermine the competition blew up in his face when a whistleblower revealed his actions. While attempting to damage others, he ended up shooting himself in the foot, tarnishing his reputation and finding himself in a web of consequences.
今日引语推荐（Gone with the wind）
“In the quiet of the night, when the world falls still and all the noise of the day fades into the background, you begin to understand something profound about yourself—that beneath the facades we carefully construct, beneath the personas we wear to fit in, there lies a vulnerability, a rawness, that defines us. It is this truth, uncomfortable as it may be, that when acknowledged and embraced, allows us to break free from the prison of our own making and live more authentically.”
“在寂静的夜晚，当世界安静下来，所有白日的喧嚣都已退去时，你会开始理解一些关于自己的深刻真理——在我们小心构建的外表下，在我们为了融入而佩戴的面具下，隐藏着一种脆弱，一种未曾装饰的本真，正是它定义了我们。正是这种真相，尽管不舒服，却能让我们在承认并接受后，从自己编织的囚笼中挣脱出来，过得更真实。”
“There are moments in life when the storms that rage within us seem far more terrifying than anything that might come from the outside world; when our own fears, insecurities, and doubts form such a tempest that we lose sight of the simple truth that, in the end, we are stronger than we think. It is in those moments, when everything seems to fall apart, that we must remind ourselves that the very things that seem to be our undoing are often the catalysts for our greatest transformation.”
“人生中有些时刻，当我们内心翻涌的风暴似乎比外界任何的风雨都更可怕；当我们自己的恐惧、不安与疑虑形成的暴风雨遮挡了我们洞悉简单真理的视线：最终，我们比想象中的更强大。正是在那些一切似乎崩塌的时刻，我们必须提醒自己，似乎要摧毁我们的那些事情，往往是促使我们最伟大蜕变的催化剂。”
DH S01E17 Part05-06练习及答案：
A lip service: it refers to verbal expressions of support, agreement, or commitment that lack sincerity or follow-through. It often describes insincere promises or declarations made to appease others or maintain appearances without genuine intent to act. （口头承诺 —— 过语言表达的支持、同意或承诺，但缺乏真诚或行动。这通常用来描述虚假的承诺或声明，其目的是取悦他人或维持表面形象，而没有真正的执行意图。）
1、他对工作场所平等的口头承诺不过是表面文章，试图敷衍了事，却没有解决显而易见的问题——性别薪酬差距。
His lip service to workplace equality was little more than window dressing, a hollow attempt to tick all the boxes without addressing the elephant in the room—the gender pay gap.
2、那位政客对环境改革表示了口头上的支持，发表了描绘美好前景的演讲。然而，他的行动证明这只是迎合大众的行为，让倡导者们感到被冷落在一旁。
The politician offered lip service to environmental reforms, delivering speeches that painted a rosy picture of change. Yet his actions proved he was merely paying heed to the gallery, leaving advocates feeling left out in the cold.
3、她的老板对在工作场所实现平等的理念表示了口头支持，承诺看似面面俱到。员工们很快意识到这不过是开出又一个空头支票，因为实际实施的政策只是杯水车薪。
Her boss gave lip service to the idea of promoting equality in the workplace, making promises that seemed cover all the bases. Employees quickly realized it was just another case of empty promises, as the policies implemented turned out to be a drop in the bucket.
Upset the apple cart: it means to cause disruption or to spoil carefully laid plans, often unintentionally. It typically describes an action or event that disturbs the status quo or creates chaos in a well-ordered situation. （造成混乱或破坏精心制定的计划，通常是无意的。这种说法常用来形容某种行动或事件扰乱了现状，或在有序的环境中制造了混乱。）
1、他突然辞职打乱了计划，董事会不得不接管职责，而竞争对手则嗅到了水中的血腥味，计划抓住机会攫取权力。
His abrupt resignation upset the apple cart, leaving the board to pick up the slack while the company’s rivals smelled blood in the water and strategized to make a power grab.
2、市长决定提高税收，这打乱了计划，小镇上的批评者对改革只做了口头上的支持，而紧张的情绪暗流涌动，随时可能爆发成抗议活动。
The mayor’s decision to increase taxes upset the apple cart in the small town, with critics offering only lip service to reforms, as tensions bubbled under the surface, threatening to boil over into protests.
3、意外的合并打乱了计划，让员工感觉自己像棋盘上的卒子，而公司高管对透明化的承诺只是夸夸其谈，同时他们暗中策划会让员工未来赌上一把的变动。
The unexpected merger upset the apple cart, leaving employees feeling like pawns in a chess game, as corporate executives paid lip service to transparency while plotting moves that would throw the dice on their futures.
Tilt at windmills：it means to engage in futile or imaginary battles against perceived problems or enemies, often as a result of misjudgment or exaggerated idealism. The phrase originates from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote, where the protagonist mistakenly attacks windmills, thinking they are giants. （与想象中的敌人或无意义的问题战斗，通常源于误判或过度理想主义。该短语起源于塞万提斯的小说《堂吉诃德》，书中主人公错误地将风车当作巨人攻击。）
1、董事会坚持打那些无关紧要的官司，就好比是在庸人自扰，浪费时间对牛弹琴，只见树木不见森林，而且不能最大限度利用可以调配的资源。
The board’s insistence on fighting irrelevant lawsuits felt like tilting at windmills, wasting time beating a dead horse, while failing to see the forest for the trees and to make the most of all the resources at their disposal.
2、她热衷于没事找事，提倡已被遗忘的书法艺术，许多人却将此视为覆水难收，但她的热情始终不减，努力点燃余烬，为传统注入新生命。
She devoted herself to tilting at windmills, championing the forgotten art of calligraphy, a cause dismissed by many as water under the bridge, but her passion was unyielding, striving to ignite the embers of tradition and breathe new life into a fading craft.
3、诗人对抗现代冷漠的斗争仿佛是在攻击假想敌，她的诗句犹如黑暗中的一支蜡烛，但这些努力却似乎落在贫瘠的土地上，批评者则执意要折断她的翅膀。
The poet’s battle against modern apathy felt like tilting at windmills, her verses a desperate attempt to light a candle in the dark, but they only seemed to fall on barren ground, with critics determined to clip her wings.
今日引语推荐（Of human bandage）
“There are times when a man’s heart is so full of longing that it makes no difference what he knows or what he doesn’t know; his mind, all agitated and confused, will reach out for that one thing that seems to hold the key to his desires, and it is in that moment that he is both the prisoner and the captor of his own emotions, caught between his ideals and the harsh reality of his desires, never understanding that the struggle within him is the true bondage.”
“有时候，一个人的心充满了渴望，毫不在乎他知道什么或不知道什么；他的心思，充满了激动与困惑，将会伸出手去抓住那个似乎能解开他所有欲望的东西，而正是在这一刻，他既是自己情感的囚徒，也是自我情感的捕获者，夹在自己的理想与欲望的残酷现实之间，永远不明白的是，内心的挣扎才是真正的束缚。”
“To be free, one must first surrender, not to another, but to oneself, for how can a man know the boundaries of his freedom if he has not first acknowledged the invisible chains that bind him? It is only in the moment of surrender that the heart finds its true release, for only then can we see that the greatest bondage is not the outward circumstance, but the invisible, unacknowledged constraints of our own making that imprison us from within.”
“要获得自由，一个人首先必须屈服，不是屈服于别人，而是屈服于自己；因为如果一个人没有首先承认那些束缚他的无形锁链，他怎么能知道自由的边界呢？正是在屈服的那一刻，心灵才能获得真正的解脱，因为只有那时我们才能看到，最大的束缚并不是外在的环境，而是我们自己无形、不被承认的约束，它们将我们困在内心深处。”
