| 释义 |
vicious circleˌvicious ˈcircle (also ˌvicious ˈcycle) noun [singular]   - Abused children often grow up to abuse their own children - it's a vicious circle.
- I had to destroy, once and for all, the vicious circle of poverty and economic stagnation.
- Many are in a vicious circle of mismanagement and underfunding, as governments, fed up with incompetence, squeeze their cash.
- Poor care in turn begat defensiveness and so on, in a vicious circle.
- The whole sorry affair became a vicious circle.
- Think of the vicious circle of hyperventilation.
- This vicious circle is more precisely specified in Chapter 7.
an extremely difficult or complicated problem► dilemma a situation in which it is very difficult to decide what to do, because all the choices seem equally good or equally bad: · It is a common dilemma: Should you stay where you have friends and family, or take that good job in a far-away city?face a dilemma: · With a child on each opposing team, Dad was faced with a dilemma: which supporters should he sit with? ethical dilemma: · Writers are debating the ethical dilemma raised by the parents who did not want their Siamese twins separated. ► catch-22 a situation in which you cannot do one thing until you do another thing, but you cannot do that thing until you do the first thing, with the result that you can do neither: · It's catch-22 -- she can't get a job unless she has experience, and she can't get experience unless she has a job.a catch-22 situation: · It's a catch-22 situation: The project won't receive government money until it is shown to be successful, but it cannot be successful without adequate funds. ► no-win situation a situation in which something bad will happen whatever you decide to do: · It's a no-win situation -- if I tell him, he'll be upset, but if I don't he'll be mad at me for not telling him.· Hospitals are in a no-win situation, since protecting patients' privacy may conflict with protecting the health of doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. ► a chicken-and-egg problem/situation/dilemma a difficult situation in which you do not know which of two things was the cause of the other and which was the result, because neither could exist if the other did not: · We all hate lawyers, but they're in business because so many people sue each other: it's a classic chicken-and-egg situation.· The airport faces a chicken-and-egg dilemma: Airlines won't add more flights unless there is more demand, and there won't be more demand until there are more flights. ► vicious circle a situation in which one problem causes another problem, that then causes the first problem again, so that the whole process continues to be repeated: · Many people who diet put on even more weight when they stop, creating a vicious circle.· More and more teenagers are caught in a vicious circle of drug addiction and crime. a situation in which one problem causes another problem, that then causes the first problem again, so that the whole process continues to be repeated |