溫哥華英文教練，致力于地道英文表達

所謂“自相矛盾”是指某些單詞包含了相互矛盾的意思；“彼此無關(guān)”是指一個單詞有幾層意思，而各層意思之間完全無關(guān)。不結(jié)合上下文，我們無法判斷它們到底是什么意思。

Agape 做形容詞講是“目瞪口呆的”(發(fā)音a’geip)，如She stood there with her mouth agape. 做名詞講是“基督之愛”，從基督教的發(fā)展來看，上帝愛世人就是agape(發(fā)音相應(yīng)變?yōu)閍’gapi)，后來，這個詞擴展到朋友之愛（pholio）、親情之愛(brotherhood)、夫妻之愛(eros)、鄰里之愛、同事之愛，乃至“愛你的仇敵”……例句：God’s own agape is revealed when He sent His one and only son into the world, so that through Him we could have life.

Cleave 做動詞講，有“劈開”和“粘住；堅持；依戀”之意。之所以自相矛盾，是因為劈開了，怎么還粘得住？ He still cleaves to his ideals. Racial problem cleaves America society.

Commencement 做名詞講，有開始的意思，如the commencement of the financial year （財年開始）；也有“畢業(yè)典禮”的意思，如The president gave a commencement address today to the University of California. 畢業(yè)典禮是一個結(jié)束，所以這個詞是自相矛盾的，不過想想也正常，一個結(jié)束，不就是一個新的開始嗎？

Fuse 做動詞講，有“熔化”和“融合”之意。喂，熔化了，還能合在一起么？暈！ He skillfully fuses these fragments into a cohesive whole. I have fused the lights.

Fain: 做副詞、形容詞講，是樂意地、樂意的，如I would fain do as you ask. 我欣然聽候你的吩咐；但是也有“強迫的”意思，如此一來就凌亂了，Great Britain was fain to devote its whole energy … to the business of slaying and being slain

Flammable和inflammable跟上面那組一樣，這兩個看上去是互為反義的詞，其實是一個意思，都是“易燃的，易怒的”，它們的反義詞是nonflammable。

Invaluable 做形容詞講是“無價的；極其珍貴的”。通常，前綴in有表示否定的含義，我們知道valuable是“無價的；極其珍貴的”，因此會想當然地認為invaluable是valuable的反義詞。結(jié)果上當了。它們二者是一個意思，其反義詞是worthless, useless, dispensable等。另外一個表示同樣含義的詞是priceless，通常less這個后綴也表否定，但priceless卻不是“沒有價值”，相反，是“價值連城的”，與invaluable近義。

Iterate做動詞是“強調(diào)；重申；反復(fù)說”的意思，在前面加re這個前綴意思不變。

Lick 做動詞是“舔”的意思，這很多人都知道，但這個詞還有個常見的意思，那就是“重創(chuàng)；重挫；打敗”。例句：The cat licked its paws clean. Manchester licked Chelsea last Friday in an English Premier League match.

Oversight 做名詞有“監(jiān)管”的意思，還有“失察”的意思，想想看，監(jiān)管又失察？例句：It is an oversight on my part. He has general oversight of the training.

Ravel 做動詞是“拆開；解開”的含義，前面加一個否定前綴un，變成unravel意思還是一樣。我們看兩個例句：He could unravel a knot that others wouldn’t even attempt. I could not ravel this piece of string; it’s all in knots. 需要特別注意，ravel會出幺蛾子，因為它除了“解開”的意思以外，也有“解不開；使糾纏”的意思，比如He raveled the reel of thread up. 相對來講，另外一組表示“纏繞”和“解開”的詞，tangle and untangle就要清楚很多，tangle就是“纏繞”，如My hair tangles easily. Untangle就是“解開”，如People are trying to untangle several reels of film.

Ravish 做動詞講有“強暴；搶奪”的意思，也有“使入迷，使陶醉”的意思！神馬玩意兒！斯德哥爾摩綜合征嗎？來看兩個例句：The melodious opera ravishes the audience. During the Second World War, my hometown was ravished and robbed.

Subject 做名詞講有“主語；主題”的意思，同時又包含“臣民；仆從”之意，這一“主”一“從”合體相當?shù)姆至选?/p>

Swear，既有“咒罵”，She fell over and swore loudly. 也有“發(fā)誓”的意思，He swore revenge on the man who had killed his father.

Sanction做名詞講有“制裁”和“批準”的含義。大家自行判斷下面的例句中Sanction的含義。The UN Security Council imposes a new round sanction to that country. Without the sanction of the White House, that aid acts on his own.

Terrific 做形容詞講有“極好的”之意，但也有“可怕的”的含義；既是“極好”，又哪來“可怕”？例句：You look terrific. His body presented a terrific emblem of death.

這個名單或許還會拉長，我希望不要太長。

Tony個人微信號：525474947