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N. /规则/practical rule guiding conduct. "Love thy neigh¬bor as thyself" is a worthwhile precept.

N. /行政区/district or division of a city. Ed McBain's detec¬tive novels set in the 87th precinct provide an exciting picture of police work.

N. /悬崖；危险的位置/cliff; dangerous position. Suddenly Indiana Jones found himself dangling from the edge of a precipice.

ADJ. /匆忙的；突然的；未成熟的；草率的/rash; premature; hasty; sudden. Though I was angry enough to resign on the spot, I had enough sense to keep myself from quitting a job in such a precipi¬tate fashion.

V. /下降；下坠/throw headlong; hasten. The removal of American political support appears to have precipitated the downfall of the Marcos regime.

ADJ. /陡峭的；急躁的/steep; overhasty. This hill is difficult to climb because it is so precipitous; one slip, and our descent will be precipitous as well.

N. /大纲；摘要/concise summing up of main points. Before mak¬ing her presentation at the conference, Ellen wrote up a neat précis of the major elements she would cover.

ADJ. /精确的/exact. If you don't give me precise directions and a map, I'll never find your place.

V. /消灭；杜绝/make impossible; eliminate. The fact that the band was already booked to play in Hollywood on New Year's Eve precluded their accepting the New Year's Eve gig in London they were offered.

ADJ. /早熟的/advanced in development. Listening to the grown-up way the child discussed serious topics, we couldn't help remarking how precocious she was. precocity, N.

N. /领跑者，先驱/forerunner. Though Gray and Burns share many traits with the Romantic poets who followed them, most critics consider them precursors of the Romantic Movement, not true Romantics.

N. /捕食者/creature that seizes and devours another ani¬mal; person who robs or exploits others. Not just cats, but a wide variety of predators-owls, hawks, weasels, foxes¬catch mice for dinner. A carnivore is by definition predatory, for he preys on weaker creatures.

N. /前任；前辈/former occupant of a post. I hope I can live up to the fine example set by my late predecessor in this office.

V. /预定；预先确定/predestine; settle or decide beforehand; influence markedly. Romeo and Juliet believed that Fate had predetermined their meeting. Bea gathered estimates from caterers, florists, and stationers so that she could pre¬determine the costs of holding a catered buffet. Philip's love of athletics predetermined his choice of a career in sports marketing.

N. /困境；危险的境地；两难/tricky or dangerous situation; dilemma. Tied to the railroad tracks by the villain, Pauline strained against her bonds. How would she escape from this terrible predicament?

N. /偏爱；偏好/partiality; preference. Although I have writ¬ten all sorts of poetry over the years, I have a definite predilection for occasional verse.

V. /预先安排，使其偏向于/give an inclination toward; make suscepti¬ble to. Oleg's love of dressing up his big sister's Barbie doll may have predisposed him to become a fashion designer. Genetic influences apparently predispose people to certain forms of cancer.

ADJ. /出色的；出类拔萃的/outstanding; superior. The king traveled to Boston because he wanted the preeminent surgeon in the field to perform the operation.

V. /排挤，代替；阻止；抢占；先发制人/head off; forestall by acting first; appropriate for oneself; supplant. Hoping to preempt any attempts by the opposition to make educational reform a hot political issue, the candidate set out her own plan to revitalize the public schools. preemptive,ADJ.

V. /把自己打扮漂亮；自我满足；鸟类用嘴梳理羽毛/make oneself tidy in appearance; feel self-satis¬faction. As Kitty preened before the mirror, carefully smoothing her shining hair, she couldn't help preening over how pretty she looked.

ADJ. /可以得到的；可以抓住的/capable of grasping or holding. Monkeys use not only their arms and legs but also their prehensile tails in traveling through the trees.

N. /高级教士/church dignitary. The archbishop of Moscow and other high-ranking prelates visited the Russian Ortho¬dox seminary.

N. /序；先驱；先导/introduction; forerunner. I am afraid that this border raid is the prelude to more serious attacks.

V. /预谋，预先考虑/plan in advance. She had premeditated the murder for months, reading about common poisons and buying weed killer that contained arsenic.

N. /假定，假设；前提/assumption; postulate. Based on the premise that there's no fool like an old fool, P. T. Barnum hired a ninety-year-old clown for his circus.

N. /前兆/forewarning. We ignored these premoni¬tions of disaster because they appeared to be based on childish fears.

ADJ. /荒唐的/absurd; ridiculous. When he tried to downplay his youthful experiments with marijuana by saying he hadn't inhaled, we all thought, "What a preposterous excuse!"

N. /特权/privilege; unquestionable right. The presi¬dent cannot levy taxes; that is the prerogative of the legisla¬tive branch of government.

V. /预示/foretell. The vultures flying overhead presaged the discovery of the corpse in the desert.

N. /预示能力/ability to foretell the future. Given the current wave of Japan-bashing, it does not take prescience for me to foresee problems in our future trade relations with Japan.

N. /预感/feeling something will happen; anticipa¬tory fear; premonition. Saying goodbye at the airport, Jack had a sudden presentiment that this was the last time he would see Jill.

N. /声望；威信/impression produced by achievements or repu¬tation. Many students want to go to Harvard College not for the education offered but for the prestige of Harvard's name.

ADJ. /自大；轻狂；专横/overconfident; impertinently bold; tak¬ing liberties. Matilda thought it was somewhat presumptu¬ous of the young man to have addressed her without first having been introduced. Perhaps manners were freer here in the New World.

ADJ. /自命不凡；华而不实；自大/ostentatious; pompous; making unjusti¬fied claims; overly ambitious. None of the other prize win¬ners are wearing their medals; isn't it a bit pretentious of you to wear yours?

ADJ. /超自然的/beyond what is normal in nature. Mal¬colm's mother's total ability to tell when he was lying struck him as almost preternatural.

N. /借口；托辞/excuse. He looked for a good pretext to get out of paying a visit to his aunt.

V. /导致，促使；击败；盛行/induce; triumph over. He tried to prevail on her to type his essay for him.

ADJ. /普遍的；流行的/widespread; generally accepted. A radical committed to social change, Reed had no patience with the conservative views prevalent in the America of his day.

V. /撒谎；支吾，搪塞；糊弄/lie. Some people believe that to prevaricate in a good cause is justifiable and regard such a statement as a "white lie."

N. /猎物；受害人，牺牲品/target of a hunt; victim. In Stalking the Wild Asparagus, Euell Gibbons has as his prey not wild beasts but wild plants. alsoV.

ADJ. /整洁的；精准的，精确的/very precise and formal; exceedingly proper. Many people commented on the contrast between the prim attire of the young lady and the inappropriate clothing worn by her escort.

ADJ. /原始的；与时间同在的/existing at the beginning (of time); rudi¬mentary. The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.

V. /打扮/groom oneself with care; adorn oneself. The groom stood by idly while his nervous bride-to-be primped one last time before the mirror.

ADJ. /史前的；质朴的/characteristic of earlier times; primitive; unspoiled. This area has been preserved in all its pristine wildness.

N. /困难，困苦；短缺，缺少/hardship; want. In his youth, he knew hunger and privation.

V. /探测/explore with tools. The surgeon probed the wound for foreign matter before suturing it. also N.

ADJ. /忧郁的；忧心忡忡的；心存疑虑的；有疑问的/doubtful; unsettled; questionable; per¬plexing. Given the way building costs have exceeded esti¬mates for the job, whether the arena will ever be completed is problematic.

N. /倾向；自然倾向/inclination; natural tendency. Watching the two-year-old voluntarily put away his toys, I was amazed by his proclivityfor neatness.

V. /推迟；延期/postpone; delay or put off. Looking at four years of receipts and checks he still had to sort through, Bob was truly sorry he had procrastinated for so long and not finished filing his taxes long ago.

V. /刺；刺激；激励/poke; stir up; urge. If you prod him hard enough, he'll eventually clean his room.

ADJ. /浪费的/wasteful; reckless with money. Don't be so prodigal spending my money; when you've earned some money yourself, you can waste it as much as you want! also N.

ADJ. /巨大的/marvelous; enormous. Watching the champion weight lifter heave the weighty barbell to shoul¬der height and then boost it overhead, we marveled at his prodigious strength.

N. /奇才；天才/marvel; highly gifted child. Menuhin was a prodigy, performing wonders on his violin when he was barely eight years old.

V. /亵渎/violate; desecrate; treat unworthily. The mem¬bers of the mysterious Far Eastern cult sought to kill the British explorer because he had profaned the sanctity of their holy goblet by using it as an ashtray. alsoADJ.

ADJ. /放荡的；放肆的；不检点的/dissipated; wasteful; wildly immoral. Although surrounded by wild and profligate companions, she nevertheless managed to retain some sense of decency.

ADJ. /深刻的/deep; not superficial; complete. Freud's remarkable insights into human behavior caused his fellow scientists to honor him as a profound thinker. profundity, N.

N. /过量；过剩/overabundance; lavish expenditure; excess. Freddy was so overwhelmed by the profusion of choices on the menu that he knocked over his wine glass and soaked his host. He made profuse apologies to his host, the waiter, the bus boy, the people at the next table, and the attendant handing out paper towels.

N. /祖先/ancestor. The Roth family, whose progeni¬tors emigrated from Germany early in the nineteenth cen¬tury, settled in Peru, Illinois.

N. /后裔/children; offspring. He was proud of his prog¬eny in general, but regarded George as the most promising of all his children.

N. /预言；疾病警告/forecasted course of a disease; prediction. If the doctor's prognosis is correct, the patient will be in a coma for at least twenty-four hours.

N. /发射；导弹/missile. Man has always hurled projectiles at his enemy whether in the form of stones or of highly explo¬sive shells.

N. /无产阶级的；蓝领的/member of the working class; blue collar person. "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains" is addressed to proletarians, not preppies. So is Blue Collar Holler. proletariat, N.

N. /迅速增长，倍增；扩散/rapid growth; spread; multiplication. Times of economic hardship inevitably encourage the proliferation of countless get-rich-quick schemes. proliferate,V.

ADJ. /多产的；丰富的/abundantly fruitful. My editors must assume I'm a prolific writer: they expect me to revise six books this year!

N. /冗长的；啰嗦的/tedious wordiness; verbosity. A writer who suf¬fers from prolixity tells his readers everything they never wanted to know about his subject (or were too bored to ask). prolix,ADJ.

N. /序（诗歌，歌剧的）/introduction (to a poem or play). In the pro¬logue to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare introduces the audience to the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.

V. /拖延/make longer; draw out; lengthen. In their deter¬mination to discover ways to prolong human life, doctors fail to take into account that longer lives are not always happier ones.

ADJ. /显著的；突出的；卓越的/conspicuous; notable; sticking out. Have you ever noticed that Prince Charles's prominent ears make him look like the big-eared character in Mad comics?

ADJ. /随意混合的；打乱的；随便的/mixed indiscriminately; haphazard; irregular, particularly sexually. In the opera La Boheme, we get a picture of the promiscuous life led by the young artists of Paris.

N. /岬；海角/headland. They erected a lighthouse on the promontory to warn approaching ships of their nearness to the shore.

V. /提升；促进/help to flourish; advance in rank; publicize. Founder of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman ceaselessly promotes the welfare of young people everywhere. 0

V. /提示；鼓动；迅速及时的/cause; provoke; provide a cue for an actor. Whatever prompted you to ask for such a big piece of cake when you're on a diet?

V. /发布；公布/proclaim a doctrine or law; make known by official publication. When Moses came down from the mountain top all set to promulgate God's commandments, he freaked out on discovering his followers worshipping a golden calf.

ADJ. /倾向于/inclined to; prostrate. She was prone to sudden fits of anger during which she would lie prone on the floor, screaming and kicking her heels.

V. /迅速增长，传播，扩散/multiply; spread. Since bacteria propagate more quickly in unsanitary environments, it is important to keep hospital rooms clean.

N. /推进剂/substances that propel or drive forward. The development of our missile program has forced our sci¬entists to seek more powerful propellants.

N. /自然倾向/natural inclination. Convinced of his own tal¬ent, Sol has an unfortunate propensity to belittle the talents of others.

ADJ. /预言的/foretelling the future. I have no magical prophetic powers; when I predict what will happen, I base my predictions on common sense. prophesy,V.

N. /亲近；血缘/nearness; kinship. Their relationship could not be explained as being based on mere propinquity; they were more than relatives, they were true friends.

V. /劝解；平静；安抚/appease. The natives offered sacrifices to propitiate the gods.