#英文学习#

25个最常弄错含义的单词（二）

6. Bemused

What you think it means: Amused.

你认为单词的含义是：愉快的。

What it reallymeans: Confused.

单词的真正含义是：困惑的。

This is one of the many words on this list that will make you strongly dislike the English language. Despite looking all but identical to the word amused, bemused doesn’t even come close to meaning the same thing. If you are bemused then you are actually confused.

这个单词可能本清单中“荣膺”让你讨厌英语的原因之一。尽管bemused（困惑的）在拼写上跟amused（愉快的）很相似，但这两个单词的含义却并不一样。如果你bemused，说明你其实很困惑。

7. Compelled

What you think it means: To dosomething voluntarily by choice.

你认为单词的含义是：志愿选择做某事。

What it really means: To be forced or obligated to doing something.

单词的真正含义是：被迫或有义务做某事。

This is one that people get wrong and it’s rather understandable. The real definition is very close to the definition people generally use. The difference is the motivation. When people say compelled, they think the person wants to perform the action. In fact, they are forced to do it regardless of their personal feelings. Here’s an example. When you’re in court, you are compelled to give honest testimony. You may not want to, but it doesn’t matter because you have to.

这个单词被人们搞错其实倒也情有可原。它的真实定义和人们通常误用的含义很接近，但区别就在于动机如何。当说到compelled（被迫）时，人们以为说话者想做某事，但实际上，说话者是有违自身情绪而被迫去做某事的。举个例子，在出庭时，你就是compelled（被迫）如实作证的，你可能心里不情愿，但不管怎样你只能这么做。

8. Nauseous

What you think it means: To feel ill.

你认为单词的含义是：感觉不舒服。

What it really means: To cause feelings of illness.

单词的真正含义是：令人不舒服的。

This is another understandable mishap that a lot of people make. If you actually feel sick then you are nauseated. The object that made you feel ill is nauseous. Here’s how this works. If you’re at an amusement park and you’re sitting next to a full trash can, the fumes from the trash may make you feel ill. That means the fumes from the trash can are nauseous because they are making you feel nauseated.

许多人用错这个单词也是情有可原的。如果你果真感到不舒服，那么你会nauseated（作呕），让你感到不舒服的东西是nauseous（作呕的）。请看下面的例子。假设你坐在游乐园一个满满的垃圾桶旁边，垃圾桶里冒出的烟雾让你感到不舒服。这就是说，垃圾桶里冒出的烟雾是nauseous（令人作呕的），因为它让你感到nauseated（作呕）。

9. Redundant

What you think it means: Repetitive.

你认为单词的含义是：重复的。

What it reallymeans: Unnecessarily excessive.

单词的真正含义是：过剩的。

This one is tough because you can use it wrong but unintentionally use it right. When you repeat something a bunch of times, it can become redundant, but redundant expands far beyond just repeating things over and over. A popular thing companies are doing now is firing people but instead of calling it “getting fired,” they call it “eliminating redundancies.” The premise being that the employee they’re firing is unnecessary and excessive and they are thus eliminating them. In pretty much any scenario where there is simply too much of something, it is redundant.

这个单词有点复杂，因为你可能总会用错，却也不一定什么时候就用对了。当你不断重复某事很多次后，事情可能就会变得redundant（多余的），但是redundant这个词所包含的意思远不止“不断重复”。当下公司都很流行解聘雇员，但他们不会说“炒你鱿鱼”，而是称之为“裁员”；但前提是，被裁的员工是可有可无的、多余的，这样就可以裁掉了。在很多情况下，如果某事太多太剩，那就是redundant（多余的）了。

10. Enormity

What you think it means: Huge, enormous.

你认为单词的含义是：巨大的，庞大的。

What it really means: Profoundly immoral or evil.

单词的真正含义是：极其不道德的或邪恶的。

Don’t beat yourself up over this one becauseno one knows this one off the top of their head. Enormity sounds like enormousand as with many of our other examples, here we expect words that sound a liketo have similar meanings. Enormity simply means really evil. An example of how to use it is the following: “The enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazis in World War II.” It doesn’t mean the enormous crimes, it means the heinous crimes.

不要因为用错这个单词而自责，因为没多少人能不假思索地知道这个单词。Enormity（穷凶恶极）的发音和enormous（庞大的）比较相近，正如先前提过的许多例子一样，对于发音相似的单词，人们也很容易认为它们的意思也一样。Enormity是指“极其邪恶”。举个例子来说明如何使用这个单词吧。“纳粹分子在二战中犯下的罪行是enormity（穷凶恶极的）。”它不是说enormous（庞大的）罪行，而是指十恶不赦的罪行。