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Quote:



1. the total tube heat transfer surface area must be calculated. (not sure what sort of "tube" they mean.)




As far as that goes, total tube heat or even total tube heat transfer might be some specific term in thermodynamics.

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Quote:

"Envision success, be ready for disappointment."




Or "expect the best and prepare for the worst".

Logwood, I cannot even start to imagine how your examiners mean to assess you and your fellow candidates by giving you lists of sentences to translate without a context! In terms of translator training, I honestly think that a mere exercise in trap-recognition (no matter how clever the traps) cannot say all that much about the linguistic sensitivity in y'all.

Having said that, of course you must do the best you can, and it appears that you will do very well indeed. Best luck to you!

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Oh, they gave us articles. 3 as a matter of fact-- all in different styles. But they didn't pose much of a problem for me as a few of these sentences did. In the meeting, the orator told us that nearly most of the mistakes of previous applicants were done in the "insidious sentences" page. That's why I was particularly worried about them, and wanted to be more than sure about each sentence.

Thanks

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Idiom
Huge selection, great deals on Idiom items.
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You want two more insidious sentences? I'll give you two more insidious sentences:

A) Time flies like an arrow.

2) Fruit flies like a banana.

#152631 12/28/05 07:48 PM
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The meaning you suggest, that the male party to the date is a boob, would be a double entendre (as would the meaning that Mr. Sharon is a boob). I don't read it that way though. To say that Sharon is the booby prize though, is an insult to him. [disclaimer: I add the last sentence only for the purpose of a complete answer and clarity]




Heh, you guys and your lawyerlike disclaimers... I just wanted to say that I finally read the end of that article, and you were actually spot-on with that.

"...the name of the show lends itself to all sorts o political satire as long as the current prime minister is on the job."

#152632 12/29/05 09:30 AM
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I recently read an interview with William H Macey, and noticed he used the term gobsmacking, remembered he also used it in ( I think) Happy, Texas. Had not heard it before, but it sounds like Minnisotoan, or Iowan.

#152633 12/29/05 02:06 PM
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Hi yeo, welcome to the madhouse!


I’d say that’s from the UK, more probably. Gob is a word with many meanings, but the commonest is a crude or colloquial reference to the mouth – and its documented use in the OED predates the settlement of Minnesota or Iowa:

north. dial. and slang.
a. The mouth.
1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xx, Quhair thair gobbis wer ungeird, Thay gat upon the gammis.


There are plenty of gob~ words and phrases in regular use here, including gobsmacking to mean something like ‘truly amazing’, although interestingly the OED has nothing for either this form or in a hyphenated version. Guess it’s too new and irreverent to have found its way into widespread print yet!

#152634 12/29/05 04:01 PM
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welcome, yeo.

being from the Great Plains, I can't say that I heard gobsmacking there, and would agree with mav that it seems a cross-pond term.

a good one!


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#152635 12/29/05 04:01 PM
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Quote:

I recently read an interview with William H Macey, and noticed he used the term gobsmacking, remembered he also used it in ( I think) Happy, Texas. Had not heard it before, but it sounds like Minnisotoan, or Iowan.




Yo, yeo and welcome! And here I'd always thought the expression was Australian.

Anyway, I saw in your bio you enjoy "fictionary" -- I believe that is the same game as what we play around here, Hogwash. Check out the "yarak" thread in Wordplay and please do join us for the next round.

(off to listen for malapropisms from my cats...)

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