EXTRANEOUS
ɪkˊstreɪnɪəs

посторонний, внешний, чуждый, поступающий извне

•extraneous argument — довод, не относящийся к существу дела
•extraneous signal — помеха
•extraneous issues — посторонние вопросы
•These questions are extraneous to the problem being discussed.▫️Эти вопросы не связаны с обсуждающейся проблемой.
•It is necessary to remove from the wound any extraneous matter, such as gravel, bits of glass or china.▫️Необходимо очистить рану от всех инородных тел: песка, кусочков стекла или фарфора.
•The ballet struck me as extraneous and somewhat out of keeping with the rest of the play.▫️Балет показался мне чужеродным и идущим несколько вразрез со всей остальной пьесой.

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QUESTION

Can we say, "I encountered a mistake"? Can "mistake" go with "encounter"?

It is grammatically possible—however, it is not something that a native English speaker would say naturally.
“To encounter” means “to meet unexpectedly”, with the emphasis on “unexpectedly”—in other words, “to come across by chance”. The additional implcation is that the meeting involves some kind of difficulty or problem or hardship—or something unpleasant with regard to the subject personally.
Above all, the action “to encounter” requires some involvement on the part of the subject. That is, the subject is personally affected by the encounter. This is not the case with “a mistake”. The subject does not have to engage with the mistake in any way. The subject does not have to do anything to the mistake. The subject does not have to deal with the mistake. So, “encountered” is this case is logically inappropriate.
We do not “encounter a friend” (X); we do not“encounter a smile” (X)—but we do “encounter frowns” (✔), and we do “encounter enemies” (✔), and we do “encounter objections” (✔), and so on.

Here are some verbs that we do use with “mistake”:
• I came across a mistake.
• I found a mistake.
• I noticed a mistake.
• I spotted a mistake.

▪️encounter [ɪnˊkaυntə]
1. n
1) неожи́данная встре́ча
2) столкнове́ние, схва́тка, сты́чка
2. v
1) (неожи́данно) встре́тить(ся)
2) ста́лкиваться; име́ть столкнове́ние
3) ната́лкиваться ( на трудности и т.п.)


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MURMUR
ˈmɜːrmər

роптать, бормотать, шептать, журчать, ропот, журчание, шепот

•the murmur of the waves along the shore — шум волн вдоль берега
•She replied in a low murmur.▫️Она ответила шепотом.
•They spoke to each other in murmurs.▫️Они говорили друг с другом шепотом.
•The girl murmured something polite, and smiled.▫️Девушка прошептала что-то вежливое и улыбнулась.
•The wind murmured through the trees.▫️Ветер прошелестел листвой деревьев.

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QUESTION

What does the sentence, "She is easily mistakeable for her sister" mean?

The adjective “mistakeable” is derived from the verb “to mistake”, which does not mean “to make a mistake” or “to commit an error” generally, but specifically “to identify something incorrectly by mistake” or “to understand or perceive something in the wrong way”. The basic structure for the verb “to mistake” is:
• X mistakes Y for Z.
This means that X thinks or believes, incorrectly, that Y is Z. If Y is a person, then it means X thinks or assumes that some person is some other person. So, if Person Y looks very much like Person Z, then it would be easy to get them mixed up and think that one of them is the other, or vice versa. We can say that:
• Person Y is easily mistakeable for Person Z.
So, when we say: “She is easily mistakeable for her sister”, we mean that she and her sister look so much alike that it is easy for people to make the mistake of thinking that she is her sister.

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INSPIRATION
ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃn

вдохновение, вдох, воодушевление, влияние

•to draw inspiration — черпать вдохновение
•flash / spark of inspiration — искра вдохновенья
•inspiration movement — вдыхательное движение
•Her example was an inspiration to young people.▫️Её пример вдохновлял молодёжь.
•She had a sudden inspiration.▫️Её осенила блестящая идея.
•Where does the inspiration for your art come from?▫️Что является источником вдохновения для вашего искусства?
•She had a sudden inspiration. They would have the party outdoors!▫️И тут её вдруг осенило: у них будет вечеринка под открытым небом!

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GOBBLEDYGOOK
ˌɡɑːbəldɪˈɡʊk

специальный жаргон, абракадабра, белиберда

•legal gobbledygook — профессиональный жаргон юристов
•psychiatric gobbledygook — профессиональный жаргон психиатров
•The report is just a bunch of gobbledygook.▫️Это не отчёт, а сплошная белиберда.
•Cut through the gobbledygook and just tell me what the final cost of the car would be.▫️Пропусти эту белиберду и просто скажи мне, сколько будет составлять окончательная стоимость автомобиля.

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QUERULOUS
ˈkwerələs

ворчливый, недовольный, постоянно недовольный, брюзгливый

•querulous voice — жалобный голос
•querulous tone — жалобный тон
•'But why can't I go?' he said in a querulous voice.▫️— Но почему я не могу пойти? — жалобно спросил он.
•He was naturally querulous and jaundiced in his views.▫️Он был по природе желчен и пристрастен в своих взглядах.
•There'll be no rest for me with this querulous adolescent.▫️С этим вечно недовольным подростком мне не будет покоя.

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QUESTION

What is the difference between ‘it is not an ordinary book.’ vs ‘it is no ordinary book.’? When to use which one?

The sentence with “not”, in which the verb is negated, is an ordinary, standard sentence like anynegative sentence, which is the opposite of an affirmative sentence. The sentence simply denies the idea that the book is an ordinary book, just as “The Earth is not flat” denies the idea that the Earth is flat.
The sentence with “no”, which negates the noun, is an understatement, a kind of literary device or figure of speech. Understatement deliberately makes something sound less than we really want to make it sound, and this has the opposite effect. That is, it makes the sentence a more powerful way of saying the opposite.
The best way to understand the device of understatement is to look at a simple example:
That’s no easy task.
Notice, we are negating the noun “task” with “no”. We are not negating the verb and saying: “That is not an easy task”. Of course, the negative sentence “That is not an easy task” means that the task is difficult. However, the understatement “That’s no easy task” means that the task is extremely difficult.
Here are some other examples of this kind of understatement:
He’s no Einstein. (→ He is very unintelligent.)
That’s no small achievement. (→ It is a very great achievement.)
That’s no big deal. (→ That does not matter at all.)
It’s no secret. (→ Everybody knows about it.)
That was no mean feat. (→ It was a huge achievement.)
So, “It’s no ordinary book” means “It is an exceptional book” or “It is an extraordinary book”.

▪️deliberately [dɪˊlɪbǝrətlɪ] adv
умы́шленнно, наро́чно
▪️understatement [ˏʌndəˊsteɪtmənt] n
1) сде́ржанное выска́зывание, зама́лчивание
2) преуменьше́ние

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WISTFUL
ˈwɪstfl

задумчивый, тоскливый, тоскующий

•wistful glance — задумчивый взгляд
•He had a wistful look on his face.▫️У него было задумчивое / тоскливое выражение лица.
•'That's the house where I was born,' she said wistfully.▫️"Вот дом, где я родилась", - сказала она с тоской.
•She was wistful for a moment, then asked, “Do you remember the old playground?”.▫️Она на мгновенье задумалась и спросила: "Помнишь старую игровую площадку?"

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QUESTION

Is the sentence "the concert is starting tomorrow" grammatically correct?

No. When we use the present continuous tense as a future tense, it’s usually for things that we’ve arranged to happen in the near future, e.g., “I’m having supper with my parents tonight.” We can also use it for situations where a process is already in motion and the event will happen very soon, e.g., “The concert is starting in ten minutes, so hurry up.”
If the concert is scheduled for tomorrow, that’s just too far in the future for the present continuous tense because the musicians aren’t getting ready as we speak. Also, we wouldn’t use ‘start’: the whole concert will, presumably, be performed tomorrow. Since a concert is a scheduled event, we’d be most likely to use a present tense as a future tense, where ‘is’ means ‘takes place’ or ‘occurs’: “The concert is tomorrow.”
Now, “The new concert series is starting tomorrow” is possible because this is something that has been arranged to begin in the near future. But even then, “The new concert series starts tomorrow” is more likely.

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FASTIDIOUS
fæˈstɪdɪəs

привередливый, изощренный, разборчивый, брезгливый

•fastidious plant — требовательное растение
•fastidious smiles — презрительные улыбки
•She is very fastidious about personal hygiene.▫️Она очень привередлива в вопросах личной гигиены.
•He is fastidious about keeping the house clean.▫️Он очень требователен по поводу содержания дома в чистоте.
•Though being far from fastidious, he refused to eat it.▫️Будучи далеко не привередливым, он всё же отказался от такой еды.
•She was too fastidious to do anything that might get her dirty.▫️Она была слишком брезглива, чтобы выполнять какую-либо грязную работу.

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TRENCHANT
ˈtrentʃənt

резкий, острый, четкий, колкий, ясный, определенный, режущий

•trenchant blade — острое лезвие
•trenchant speech — ясная /чёткая/ речь
•trenchant argument — сильный аргумент
•Stockman became one of the President's most trenchant critics.▫️Стокман стал одним из самых резких критиков президента.
•The book belonged to my father, and his trenchant comments are found passim — both in the margins and between the lines of text.▫️Эта книга принадлежала моему отцу, и его резкие комментарии можно найти повсюду: как на её полях, так и между строчками текста.

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QUESTION

Which is grammatically correct, “We did the best thing. No one could do better than we did” or “We did the best thing. No one could have done better than we did”?

Both are grammatically correct. Which one we use depends on when we make the statement.
If we make the statement immediately after doing “the best thing”, then the situation is still current, and we use the simple present “could do”, because the time of the action of doing is specified as “current” by the context.
If we make the statement some time after doing the action that we consider “the best thing”, then we use the perfect modal “could have done” because the action is now well in the past and is not part of the current situation.

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BAMBOOZLE
bæmˈbuːzl

обманывать, мистифицировать, надувать, налагать запрет

•They were bamboozled by con men into buying worthless land in the desert.▫️Их надули мошенники, убедив купить бросовую землю в пустыне.
•He bamboozled his professors into thinking that he knew the subject well.▫️Одурачив своих профессоров, он заставил их поверить, что хорошо знает эту тему.

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QUIBBLE
ˈkwɪbl

придираться, спорить о мелочах, каламбур, игра слов

•a stylistic quibble — стилистическая уловка
•quibble over words — спорить о словах
•Let's not quibble over pennies.▫️Давайте не будем препираться из-за мелочей.
•Let's not quibble over minor details.▫️Давайте не будем препираться из-за незначительных деталей.
•He spent the entire evening quibbling about the historical inaccuracies in the television series on World War II.▫️Весь вечер он только и делал, что придирался к историческим неточностям в этом телесериале о Второй Мировой войне.

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QUIRK
kwɜːrk

причуда, галтель, высмеивать

•quirk of fate — причуда судьбы, неожиданный поворот судьбы
•historical quirk — превратность судьбы
•Everyone has their little quirks.▫️У всех свои странности. / Каждый сходит с ума по-своему.
•By a strange quirk of fate they had booked into the same hotel.▫️По стечению обстоятельств, они забронировали места в одном отеле.
•Wearing red shoes every day is just one of her quirks.▫️Каждый день носить красные туфли — всего лишь одна из её причуд.
•Years later, by a strange quirk of fate, she found herself sitting next to him on a plane.▫️Годы спустя, по странной прихоти судьбы, она оказалась рядом с ним в самолёте.

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QUESTION

Is it grammatically correct to use the plural verb, "were" to refer to the clause, "a pair of shoes" in this sentence, "My son bought a pair of shoes which were very expensive"?

In the phrase “a pair of shoes” the word “shoes” takes precedence over “pair”, so the word “which” refers to “shoes”, not to “pair”, and therefore the verb has to be “were”.
We could simply get rid of “a pair of” and say:
My son bought shoes that were very expensive.
As you can see, getting rid of “a pair of” does not affect the meaning of the sentence in any way. Without “a pair of” we would obviously use “were”, since we are talking about “shoes”. When we add “a pair of” to the sentence, we are still talking about “shoes”.
It is important to keep in mind that the relative pronoun “which” (like “that” or “who”) can, grammatically, refer to “shoes”, not to “a pair”. Take a look at this sentence:
I noticed a couple of boys, who were kicking a ball around in the playground.
Notice that the relative pronoun “who”refers to “boys”, not to “a couple”, and the verb is therefore “were”. “A couple of” is similar to “a pair of”, grammatically. Both are treated as secondary to the plural noun that comes after them.

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WIDDERSHINS
ˈwɪdəʃɪnz

против часовой стрелки; в противоположном направлении

•The steps spiralled around widdershins .▫️Ступени закручивались спиралью против часовой стрелки.
•The clock hand began to spin widdershins.▫️Стрелка часов начала вращаться в противоположную сторону.
•Members of the cult dance widdershins around the fire.▫️Члены культа танцуют вокруг костра против часовой стрелки.

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ANTEDILUVIAN
ˌæntɪdɪˈluːvɪən

допотопный, архаичный, старомодный человек

•He has antediluvian notions about the role of women in the workplace.▫️У него допотопные представлений о роли женщин на работе.
•They found evidence in the Middle East of an antediluvian people previously unknown to history.▫️Они нашли доказательства существования на Ближнем Востоке допотопных людей, ранее неизвестных истории.

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JUXTAPOSE
ˌdʒʌkstəˈpəʊz

сопоставлять, накладывать друг на друга, помещать рядом

•a display that juxtaposes modern art with classical art — выставка, на которой современное искусство соседствует с классическим
•a style of decor that juxtaposes antiques with modern furniture — стиль декора, в котором предметы старины соседствуют с современной мебелью
•juxtapose unexpected colours and shapes — сочетать самые неожиданные цвета и формы
•New technologies are juxtaposing with traditional.▫️Современные технологии соседствуют с традиционными.
•The fauvists juxtaposed strong colors.▫️Фовисты помещали рядом яркие цвета.

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