2. senator   noun   

原句: "This will give proffesors the opportunity to make a choice," said state senator Andrew Dinniman.

意思: a member of a senate

字源: Middle English (denoting a member of the ancient Roman senate): from Old French senateur, from Latin senator, from senex ‘old man’. 

例句: She has served as a Democratic senator for North Carolina since 2009.



3. moot   adjective   

原句: Wonders whether the traditional textbook will soon be moot.

意思: unlikely to happen and therefore not worth considering

字源: Old English mōt ‘assembly ’or‘ meeting’ and mōtian ‘to converse’, of Germanic origin; related to meet. The adjective (originally an attributive noun use: see moot court) dates from the mid 16th cent.; the current verb sense dates from the mid 17th cent. 

例句: He argued that the issue had become moot since the board had changed its policy.



4. peer   verb   

原句: Jesse Schell, the 40-year-old game designer and Carnegie Mellon professor peered out at the 400 or so attendees of 2010's DICE Summit.

意思: to look closely or carefully at sth, especially when you cannot see it clearly

字源: late 16th cent.: perhaps a variant of dialect pire or perhaps partly from a shortening of appear.  n. Middle English: from Old French peer, from Latin par ‘equal’. 

例句: He went to the window and peered out.



5. premise   noun   

原句: He began his speech with the premise that a real-life game could be stacked on top of reality.

意思: a statement or an idea that forms the basis for a reasonable line of argument

字源: late Middle English: from Old French premisse, from medieval Latin praemissa (propositio) ‘(proposition) set in front’, from Latin praemittere, from prae ‘before’ + mittere ‘send’. 

例句: His reasoning is based on the premise that all people are equally capable of good and evil.