The worst thing that can happen to a student who is learning a foreign language is to get into the hands of people who are bent on studying curious and rare words that are not used in natural conversation:

“Many people share this idea that a language is “sophisticated” to the extent that it has a large vocabulary. In this view language is a store of words – the thicker the dictionary, the better the language. The kind of person who believes this usually delights in etymology or the collection of linguistic curios, rare words that no one ever uses in natural conversation [Greene, 2011: 127].

wickedly funny – любила озорные шутки

The Trump family lauded her in a statement as "a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend".

"Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country," the statement added. "She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination."

Ivanka Trump, who was said to be very close to her mother, said in an Instagram post she was "heartbroken".

"Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modelled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action. She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance," she wrote.

Donald Trump was Ivana's second husband. Her first, Alfred Winklmayr, was an Austrian ski instructor and friend who she reportedly married in order to obtain Austrian citizenship.

That marriage allowed her to leave Czechoslovakia, her communist home country, without defecting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62187716

In 2022 the new Australian PM is more cautious in the choice of words, though he could not refrain from the threat to cold-shoulder Putin.

In 2014 Tony Abbott said he would “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin over the downing of MH17, claiming his conversation with the Russian president at the G20 would be “the toughest conversation of all”.

Tony Abbott’s threat to “shirtfront” the Russian president during an international summit prompted a dictionary to broaden its definition of the word beyond its Aussie rules meaning.

Russian officials ridiculed the threat made by the Prime Minister at a news conference last month, warning that President Vladimir Putin was a judo expert.

Now the Macquarie Dictionary online will offer alternative definitions of “shirtfront,” including “to confront someone with a complaint or grievance.” Previously the dictionary made it two words and put the definition as: shirt fronter, a head-on charge aimed at bumping an opponent to the ground.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have mocked the macho image of Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Germany dominated by the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the leaders sat down for their first meeting of the three-day G7 summit in the sweltering Bavarian Alps on Sunday, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, asked if their jackets should come off – or if they should even disrobe further.

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The UK Ministry of Defense assesses that the Kremlin’s continued framing of its invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a war is actively hindering Russian force generation capabilities.

Продолжающееся определение Кремлем своего вторжения в Украину как "специальной военной операции", а не войны, активно препятствует возможностям России по формированию своих боевых сил, поскольку исключает законные карательные меры.

https://www.bbc.com/russian/live/news-61845923

tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.

Всё к лучшему в этом лучшем из миров

The title Brave New World derives from Miranda's speech in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I.
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.
— William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206
Shakespeare's use of the phrase is intended ironically, as the speaker is failing to recognise the evil nature of the island's visitors because of her innocence. Indeed, the next speaker replies to Miranda's innocent observation with the statement "They are new to thee..."
Translations of the title often allude to similar expressions used in domestic works of literature: the French edition of the work is entitled Le Meilleur des mondes (The Best of All Worlds), an allusion to an expression used by the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and satirised in Candide, Ou l'Optimisme by Voltaire (1759). The first Standard Chinese translation, done by novelist Lily Hsueh and Aaron Jen-wang Hsueh in 1974, is entitled "美麗新世界" (Pinyin: Měilì Xīn Shìjiè, literally "Beautiful New World").
 

Historians were left blushing when they deciphered ancient Roman graffiti carved into stone near Hadrian's Wall.

The insulting comment, inscribed more than 1,700 years ago, was unearthed near Hexham, Northumberland.

It featured words written about someone called Secundinus beside an image of a phallus - typically used as a Roman symbol of good luck or fertility.

However, experts believe its true meaning would have left the subject "less than amused".

Roman epigraphy specialists recognised the message, found at the Roman site of Vindolanda, as a mangled version of the words Secundinus cacator, which translates into English as "Secundinus, the shitter".

АИТ: These are the children from the coloring books come to life, the children they mean on the signs we pass in Union, New Jersey, that say CHILDREN AT PLAY and DRIVE CAREFULLY, WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN- these are the girls and boys who live next door, the lads who are always asking for the jalopy and getting into jams and then out of them again in time for the final commercial- the kids whose neighbors aren't the Silversteins and the Landaus, but Fibber McCee and Molly, and Ozzie and Harriet, and Ethel and Albert, and Lorenzo Jones and his wife Belle, and Jack Armstrong! Jack Armstrong, the All-American Goy!- and Jack as in John, not Jack as in Jake, like my father . . .

РПТ: Деток с такими носиками рисуют в книжках, про таких написано на дорожном указателе перед Юньоном, в штате Нью-Джерси: «Осторожно, играют дети! Учти, водитель, мы любим наших детей!» Это девочки и мальчики, которые «вокруг нас», которые убеждают своих прижимистых родителей сменить уже наконец старую развалину, пока не кончилась рекламная пауза, но соседи у них не Сильверштейны и Ландау, и если там попадается какой-то Джек, то это сокращенное от Джона, а не от Якова, как зовут моего папашу!

So what are Russian TV viewers seeing of the war? What messages are they hearing over the airwaves? Below is a snapshot of what ordinary Russians would have picked up, on Tuesday 1 March, while channel-hopping across the country's key TV stations, which are controlled by the Kremlin and its corporate allies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60571737 

channel-hopping ['ʧæn(ə)lˌhɔpɪŋ] ; ; channel-surfing быстрое переключение телевизионных каналов (в поисках чего-л. интересного) channel-hopping N-UNCOUNT Channel-hopping means switching quickly between different television channels because you are looking for something interesting to watch. [BRIT] (in AM, use channel-surfing)

So what are Russian TV viewers seeing of the war? What messages are they hearing over the airwaves? Below is a snapshot of what ordinary Russians would have picked up, on Tuesday 1 March, while channel-hopping across the country's key TV stations, which are controlled by the Kremlin and its corporate allies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60571737 

channel-hopping ['ʧæn(ə)lˌhɔpɪŋ] ; ; channel-surfing быстрое переключение телевизионных каналов (в поисках чего-л. интересного) channel-hopping N-UNCOUNT Channel-hopping means switching quickly between different television channels because you are looking for something interesting to watch. [BRIT] (in AM, use channel-surfing)