This video is originally from TED-ED. It tells us about the book Slaughterhouse-Five and the author Kurt Vonnegut. The audio version of this book can be downloaded from This Website.

  • abduct sb
    • take (someone) away illegally by force or deception
  • be out of chronological order
  • He hops (move by jumping on one foot) back and forth.
  • a middle-aged optometrist 验光师
  • If Amber does make a full recovery she will spend the rest of her life in captivity for her own protection.
  • Humiliation he endured/suffered in prison
  • take refuge in someplace
  • Allied forces
  • be utterly demolished
    • demolish/devastate/tear dowm/blast/blow up/destruct/pull down…
  • zany and outrageously
  • zany curves he generated
  • the stories are at odds with with this reality
  • set out to explore the ambiguity (uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language)
  • ditched/get rid of/give up/abandon clear-cut fortunes
  • crop up in many of this book
  • Heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.
  • the course/process of the event
  • in the vastness/immensity of universe (endless, large, wide)
  • empty heroics
    • heroic adj. having the characteristics of a hero or heroine; very brave.
    • heroic n. behavior or talk that is bold or dramatic, especially excessively or unexpectedly so.
  • from the vantage (a place or position affording a good view of something) point I could see into the front garden
  • chrono-synclastic infundibulum
  • They see devastating futures for their earthly counterparts.
  • counterparts:
    • a person or thing holding a position or performing a function that corresponds to that of another person or thing in another place
    • one of two or more copies of a legal document: duplicate/transcript
  • devastating: highly destructive or damaging. devastate, devastation
  • adherent
    • n. someone who supports a particular party, person, or set of ideas/tenets/belief
    • v. adherent to/stick (fast) to
    • adherence n. adherence to
  • hold a (bleak/strong/positive..) view of
  • get pooped and demoralized
  • demoralized
    • cause (someone) to lose confidence or hope; dispirit
    • corrupt the morals
  • a few morsels of hope
    • morsel: a small piece or amount of food; a mouthful.
  • intersperse sth. with sth.
    • He intersperses his grim assessments with more than a few morsels of hope.
  • alter ego: a person's secondary or alternative personality.