Week 6 Day 2

Patent Pending
My buddy Verne, a precocious automotive wizard, and I were inspired to do some inventing on our own. We thought it might be feasible to park a car parallel to a space on the street. Then, by pressing a button,we could raise the four tires off the ground slightly, while dropping two special wheels perpendicular to the curb. It would then be child's play to roll into the narrowest of parking spaces. We took the idea to Ed Greene, who runs the Ford agency in order to elicit his reaction. After a perfunctory glance at our plan, to our chagrin Ed snorted that our idea was inane, but we decided that he was just jealous of our brilliance. Tomorrow we are going to start on a computer that will enable us to measure the intelligence of the perverse automobile dealers who like to deride the efforts of junior geniuses.
申請中的專利
我的好朋友Verne是一個早熟的汽車天才，他和我常會靈機一動，靠我們自己發明一些東西。我們覺得直接平行的把車停到路上的停車位是可行的。接下來，只要按一個按鈕，就可以將車子的四個輪胎稍微抬離開地面，同時間將會降下兩個和路邊垂直的輪胎。接下來要將車子移進再窄小的停車位都是輕而易舉的事。我們將這個想法告訴一個Ford經銷商 Ed Greene，試圖引出他的反應。令我們難堪的是，他隨便的看了看我們的計畫，便輕蔑的說我們的想法很愚蠢。但是我們覺得他只是忌妒我們的聰明。明天我們就會想辦法創造一台電腦，這台電腦將可以幫助我們測試這些喜歡嘲弄年輕天才的成就的剛愎的汽車經紀人，看看她們的智商到底有多低。

Words
1. precocious 早熟的 adj.
2. perfunctory 敷衍的，馬虎的 adj.
3. chagrin 懊惱，苦惱 n.
4. perverse 故意做對的，剛愎的 adj.
5. deride 嘲笑，嘲弄 v.
6. pending 懸而未決的 adj.
7. feasible 可行的 adj. (Week 6 Day 1)
8. parallel 平行的 adj.
9. perpendicular 垂直的 adj.
10. curb 路邊 n.
11. child's play 輕而易舉的事 n.
12. elicit 引出 v. (Week 5 Day 4)
13. inane 愚蠢的 adj. (Week 5 Day 1)

Today's Idiom
red-letter day
大約在1400年，當時的教會會把重要的宗教節日在日曆上，用紅色的標記標示出來，後來就引申為假日，或是值得高興的日子。

Grammar 主詞藍色 動詞(片語)咖啡色 受詞綠色 連接詞橘色 關係代名詞紫色
1.My buddy Verne, a precocious automotive wizard, and I were inspired to do some inventing on our own.
這一句的主詞是 my buddy Verne and I，中間用兩個逗號寫出 My buddy Verne的同位語 a precocious automotive wizard，就是用來解說Verne是個怎麼樣的人。 後面的動詞則是用被動語態，表示很多東西是靈機一閃做出來的。

2.We thought it might be feasible to park a car parallel to a space on the street.
第二句很簡單，其實是we thought that it might...，that在這邊是引導出子句的字，後面的it might be +adj. + to do ...，其實就是it is + adj. + to +V.的變化句子。

3.Then, by pressing a button,we could raise the four tires off the ground slightly, while dropping two special wheels perpendicular to the curb.
then在這邊就是連接上一句的語氣。後面的while dropping的主詞就是前面的we，因為兩句的主詞相同，本來是while we dropped two special ...，就可以把相同的主詞省略，主動的動詞改成Ving的形式。

4.It would then be child's play to roll into the narrowest of parking spaces.
這句則是把it is adj. to V的句型改成 it is N. to V的方式，意思是相同的。child's play是小孩的玩具，表示很簡單，很容易的意思。

5.We took the idea to Ed Greene, who runs the Ford agency in order to elicit his reaction.
這句的who runs the Ford agency就是用who這個關係代名詞來形容Ed Greene 這個人，所以原來的句子應該是we tool the idea to Ed Greene in order to elicit his reaction。

6.After a perfunctory glance at our plan, to our chagrin Ed snorted that our idea was inane, but we decided that he was just jealous of our brilliance.
after後面可以接一個完整的句子，也可以接名詞片語，這裡就是接名詞片語的用法。to our chagrin就是對我們而言很苦惱，後面的兩個that都是引出子句的字，不是關係代名詞。

7.Tomorrow we are going to start on a computer that will enable us to measure the intelligence of the perverse automobile dealers who like to deride the efforts of junior geniuses.
be going to V.的意思就是will的意思，是未來式的表現方法之一。a computer that will enable us to measure...有兩個重點，第一個是that這邊是關係代名詞，但是不能省略，因為它是代替主詞的關係代名詞，不是代替受詞的關係代名詞，也可以用which替換。第二個是enable someone 後面要加 to V.不定詞。最後的who 也是關係代名詞，用來代替前面的主詞automobile dealers。