brighten up
(天氣) 轉晴，放晴；變得陽光燦爛
The day started cloudy but brightened up in the afternoon.

brighten up
高興；面露喜色
He brightened up when he heard the news.

brighten * up +
使明亮；使發亮；使發光
We tried to brighten the place up by painting it.

bring * about +
導致；造成；帶來；引起
Democracy brought about great change in the lives of the people.
The changes to the law were brought about by the government because so many people were ignoring the old one.

bring * along +
把 (某人或某物) 帶來
You can bring your friends along if you like.

bring * along +
促使 (某人或某物) 發展；幫助…發展
Her coach has brought her along a lot in the last six months.

bring * around/round
說服 (某人)；使 (某人) 信服
It took me ages to bring him around/round to my point of view.

bring * around/round +
把 (某物) 帶來 (尤指帶到某人家中或約定的地方)
He brought some books around/round when he came last night.

bring * around/round
引入 (新話題)；改變 (話題、討論內容等)
He didn’t want to discuss the details, but I managed to bring him around/round and he told me everything.

bring * back +
使想起；喚起
Visiting my old school brought back memories of when I was a pupil there.

bring * back +
帶回來；歸還
He took the calculator home yesterday and hasn’t brought it back yet.

bring * down +
使 (政府或政客) 垮台
The vote of no-confidence brought the government down.

bring * down +
降低；減少；使降價
The improvements in technology have brought the prices of computers down considerably in recent months.

bring * forth +
出示；展示
The prosecution brought forth a lot of evidence against him.

bring forth +
產生；引起
The report has brought forth a lot of criticism of the policy.
Her letter to the paper brought forth a flood of supportive comments.

bring * forth +
取出 (某物)
She brought forth the diary and showed it to us.

bring * forward
把…提前
The meeting has been brought forward to this Friday instead of next week because some people couldn’t make it then.

bring in +
帶來；賺進，賺得
The job brings in two thousand dollars a month.

bring * off +
成功完成 (困難的事)；(好不容易) 做成
You robbed the bank! I can’t believe you brought that off.
If they can bring off the deal, they’ll be able to retire.

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例句：
(英) There are trees on each side of the pavement.
(美) She slipped and almost fell on the icy sidewalk.

解釋：
(英) pavement：人行道。
(美) sidewalk：人行道。

pavement 在英國亦指「路面」；在美國，路面叫做 road surface。

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(名詞) 胖 (手) 指症。在使用需要手工輸入 (無論是用鍵盤還是用觸控螢幕輸入) 的電腦時，難免會出錯。這些手工輸入時所犯的錯誤就被戲稱為「胖 (手) 指病」。
—fat finger (動詞)：輸入錯誤，通常用來指密碼輸入錯誤。

例句：
When you are using a touchscreen device, sometimes your finger makes a wrong choice; people who do so have fat finger disease. (在使用觸控螢幕裝置時，手指有時會按錯。犯了這種錯誤的人就是得了「胖指症」)

You didn’t get my email? I must have fat fingered the address. (你沒收到我的電子郵件嗎? 我一定是輸錯信箱位址了)

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英譯：
an inside job

例句：
The bank robbery was an inside job. (這起銀行搶案是內神通外鬼)

There is a growing number of Americans who believe 9/11 was an inside job. (越來越多的美國人認為 911 恐怖攻擊事件是內神通外鬼)

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(動名詞/現在分詞) 線上勘查準備行竊的場所或住宅：利用線上與場所相關的資料和服務來確定某場所或住家何時沒有人在，以便闖空門行竊。這個字是由 cyber- (網路；電腦) 和 casing (為行竊而事先勘查、偵察) 拼綴而成。
—cybercase (動詞)：線上勘查準備行竊的場所或住宅。

雖然 case 一般都當名詞用，但亦可當動詞用，是個俚語，意為「(行竊前) 預先勘查 (準備作案的場所或住家的地形和佈局)」，如 The thief was casing the joint. (這個竊賊在勘查準備作案的場所)。當動詞用的 case 已在英語中存在近 100 年，最早的引句出現在 1915 年。

是故，在您外出或出國度假期間，最好別將旅遊照片 PO 在照片分享網站上或在推特 (Twitter) 或臉書 (Facebook) 上 PO 文，因為這無異告訴精通電腦和網路的竊賊「我家現在沒有人」。專家建議，無論是 PO 照片或PO 文，都等度假回來後再做。

引句：
Data stored in digital photographs can help criminals locate individuals and plot real-world crimes, a practice two researchers called “cybercasing” in a recently published paper. The site Pleaserobme.com was one of the first to expose the problem by displaying tweets tagged with location information, although it has since stopped the practice.
—Niraj Chokshi, “How Tech-Savvy Thieves Could ‘Cybercase‘ Your House,” The Atlantic, July 22, 2010

But may we offer, perhaps, a simple fix to address some of these concerns: don’t post your vacation photos until after you return home and don’t Twitter about it while there. Simple steps like these could go a long way into protecting your home and valuables from being “cybercased” by any tech-savvy thieves.
—Sarah Perez, “Researchers Warn of Geotagging Dangers – Are You Concerned?,” ReadWriteWeb, July 22, 2010

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(名詞) 在細菌滋生的鍵盤上打字所引起的腸胃疾病。亦寫成 QWERTY tummy。

引句：
One common bug that researchers have turned up is staphylococcus aureus, a classic causer of food poisoning, signs of which include nausea and diarrhea. Accordingly, stomach sicknesses caught from computer equipment have been dubbed “qwerty tummy” after the “Q-W-E-R-T-Y” keys on a keyboard.
—”Your keyboard can give you food poisoning,” MSNBC.com, July 2, 2010

No one wants to have to look at a dirty keyboard. Too often, people don’t bother to wash their hands after eating or using the restroom. Not only is this unhealthy for you in many ways…it can also end up causing you to fall ill with QWERTY Sickness.
—Chris Pirillo, “A Cleaning a Day Will Keep the QWERTY Tummy Away,” Chris.Pirillo.com, July 3, 2010

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A 12-year-old boy with 12 fingers and 12 toes won’t be having surgery to remove his extra digits – because they are not affecting the functions of his hands and feet.

Ouyang Guangchun, from Songpo village in southern China’s Hunan province, is the only member of his family with the condition known as polydactylism.

It is not unusual for children to be born with additional digits, but it is rare for the extra digits to look and function normally.

Guangchun’s mother said: “If people don’t look at his hands or feet carefully, they can hardly tell any unusualness, as the extra digits are growing so naturally with the others.”

Strangely, three months before the birth of Guangchun, his family’s sow also labored a weird shaped piglet, which had eight legs, two mouths and four ears.

“The pig died two days later. It possibly was a bad omen to the family, leading to the birth of my son with extra fingers and toes,” the mother added. (Orange News)

《字詞解析》

digit — (n.) 手指 (finger)；腳指 (toe)。這個字平常大多作「數字」解。

polydactylism — (n.) 多指症。

unusualness — (n.) 稀奇；不尋常；與眾不同。為 unusual 的名詞。

sow — (n.) 母豬。這個字亦可當動詞用，意為「播 (種)」，但發音與母豬的 sow 不同。

labor — (v.) 分娩。

weird — (adj.) 古怪的；離奇的。與 strange, eerie 等同義。

piglet — (n.) 小豬。

omen — (n.) 預兆；兆頭。(a) good/bad omen：好/壞預兆。

延伸閱讀：新聞英語的語法結構

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(名詞) 交際花。

雖然中文「交際花」帶有貶抑的意味，專指跟很多男子約會的女子，但根據 Urban Dictionary 的解釋，social butterfly 亦可指男性，不過這片語經過演進後現在主要是指性格外向、社交能力強，能適應各種社交場合的女性。她們在聚會上穿梭於人群中，表現得優雅、從容，且瞭解每個群體談論的話題並能參與其中。她們社交手腕高明，長袖善舞，無論在任何社交場合都能如魚得水。

例句：
Kerry is definitely a social butterfly. She’s got friends everywhere. (凱莉肯定是個交際花。她到處都有朋友)

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(名詞) 神經法律學。亦寫成 neuro-law。

這是一門新興的學問，旨在研究神經科學 (neuroscience) 上的發現對法律規則與標準的影響，換言之，就是研究在司法體系中應用神經科學證據和理論的原理與實務。神經法律的原理與實務將是未來司法辦案的趨勢，因為它強調的是用科學辦案、用大腦蒐證。

引句：
But what about people who rape and murder — should we feel empathy for them? Should they be allowed to argue in court that their brains made them do it? Enter the new world of “neurolaw” — in which neuroscience is used as evidence in the courtroom.
—Barbara Bradley Hagerty, “A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret,” NPR, June 29, 2010

The extent of that revolution is hotly debated, but the influence of what some call neurolaw is clearly growing. … Proponents of neurolaw say that neuroscientific evidence will have a large impact not only on questions of guilt and punishment but also on the detection of lies and hidden bias, and on the prediction of future criminal behavior.
—Jeffrey Rosen, “The Brain on the Stand,” The New York Times, March 11, 2007

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(名詞) 啟示疲乏：由於經常有人對現有或潛在的環境問題發出可怕的警告，越來越多人對這些環境問題的興趣或熱度反而降低了。

引句：
The lingering question is whether the collapse of the climate campaign is also a sign of a broader collapse in public enthusiasm for environmentalism in general. Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, two of the more thoughtful and independent-minded figures in the environmental movement, have been warning their green friends that the public has reached the point of “apocalypse fatigue.”
—Steven F. Hayward, “In Denial,” The Weekly Standard, March 15, 2010

Heading into one of the most important climate-change summits ever, global warming has an image problem. For the first time in 25 years, a majority of Americans rank economic concerns above environmental ones, a major poll shows. People also are exhibiting signs of what some environmental experts call “apocalypse fatigue.”
—Mike Lee, “Climate-change skeptics getting warmed up,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, December 6, 2009

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