1. play a / the role of… 扮演……的角色, 在……中发挥作用。
e.g. (1) He plays the role of the old king in our school play.
(2) Besides eating, exercising plays an important part / role in losing weight.
(3) In the fields of education, health and research, computers will continue to play an important part.
2. succeed in doing sth. 成功地做某事
e.g. He succeeded escaping from the prison.
The doctors succeeded in saving the patient’s life.
succeed v. success n. successful adj. successfully adv.
fail v.
fail to do something 未能；不能……；忘记
e.g. The car failed to stop at the red light.
I fail to see the reason.
failure n.失败
e.g. Failure is the mother of success.
3. owe 欠 owe sb. sth. 欠某人某物= owe sth. to sb.
e.g. I owed him 1,000 yuan.= I owe 1,000 yuan to him.
owe … to… 归功于……
e.g. (1)They owed their riches to oil.
有了石油才有他们的财富.
(2) She owes her good health to diet and exercise.
(3) The young writer owed his success to his teacher’s encouragement.
(4) He owes his success more to luck than to ability.
(5) I owe ten dollars to my sister.
(6) We owe our parents a lot.
owing to 意为“由于”。
e.g. They decided to postpone the trip, owing to bad weather.
Owing to the drought, crops are short.
4. 在英语中有一些表示时间，条件，方式或让步的从句有时可以省略一些成分： 如果从句的主语和主句一致，而且从句谓语动词又包含be，那么这个主语和be动词都可以省略。
e.g. (1) While still a student, she played roles in many film.
= While she was still a student, she played roles in many film.
(2) Be careful while crossing the street.
= Be careful while you are crossing the street.
(3) When asked about the secret of his success, Spielberg…
=When he was asked about …
(4) Don’t talk while (you are) eating.
(5) When (he was) asked how he got first place, he suddenly became cheerful.
(6) If (they are) operated by computer in the future, manY of the trains will have no drivers.
5. take off
(1) 脱掉，除去
Take your coat off.
You should take off your toys off the table.
(2) 起飞，跃起，飞起，突然离开
The plane will taken off in 5 minutes.
When they saw the police coming, they took off in the opposite direction.
(3) 在（某期间）休息
I’d like to take the next Friday off.
(4) 从（价格）减去……，减价
They are taking 50% off all goods in that shop.
(5) 突然成功或成名
The new dictionary has really taken off.
6. beat，defeat和win有什么区别
(1)beat，defeat都表示在战斗中或竞赛中“战胜、打败(对手)”，后接竞争对手，可以互换。
e.g. beat the competitor/the country/the team…
打败对手/国家/那个队……
I can beat/defeat you at swimming. 我游泳比得过你。
He was defeated/beaten at chess. 他棋下输了。
We defeated all the other players in the game.
我们在比赛中战胜了其他的对手。
(2)win“战胜、赢得”， win a game/a prize/an honour其宾语通常是比赛、战争、奖品或表尊重、崇拜之类意义的词。竞争对手不能作其宾语。
e.g. By her hard work，she won herself a place on the school team.
在刻苦训练下，她在校队里赢得了地位。
His poem won the first prize of ten dollars.
他的诗获得了10美元的一等奖。
Our team won the game 8 to 7.
我们队以8比7赢了那场比赛。
He won by five points.
他以5分的优势获胜。
He won her love at last.
他终于获得了她的芳心。
Our team lost the game and was very unhappy.
Our team was defeated/ beat in the game and was very unhappy.
7. on the air 正在播出的，播送
e.g. His show is on the air at six o’clock.
What’s on the air now?
These programmes come on the air every day.
Is that radio show still on the air?
8. speed n. 速度
at a / the speed of 50km per hour
at a low/ high speed
with great speed
v. 加快，飞跑
I saw a car speeding away.
The time sped quickly.
9. cruel
a cruel master 残暴的主人 a cruel disease 痛苦的疾病
a cruel scene 凄惨的景象 a cruel punishment 残酷的处罚
was cruel to 对…… 残酷
e.g. The girl’s stepmother was cruel to her when her father was away.
He was cruel to his dog.
他虐待他的狗。
It is cruel of you to bully your friend like that.
你如此欺凌朋友真是残酷。
cruel adj. --- cruelty n.
be good to sb. be polite to sb.
be loyal to sb. be rude to sb.
10. work on: do an activity which needs time and effort
Here he worked on a short film,…
(1) He is working on an article.
(2) They are working on the wall newspaper.
11. afford的用法
及物动词，其主要用法如下：
(1)“担负得起(……的费用、时间)”，常与can，could，be able to连用，表示“有足够的(时间、金钱等)条件(做某事)”。
afford +n./ pron.
e.g. Now many people can’t afford the medical treatment in the country.
现在在农村许多人看不起病。
I can’t afford the time for it.
这时间我花不起。
afford to do sth.
e.g. Before liberation many people couldn’t afford to go to school.
解放前，许多人上不起学。
We can’t afford to buy this new house.
我们买不起这新房子。
(2)提供，供给，给予(正式用语)
afford sth.
e.g.The trees afford a pleasant shake.
这些树提供阴凉。
afford sb.sth./afford sth.to sb.
e.g.Reading affords us pleasure.
阅读使我们快乐。
History affords lessons to us.
历史给我们提供经验教训。