PART 1 Expressions

1. So many of the township kids gravitated toward him.

gravitate to/ towards: formal, to be attracted to sth and therefore move towards it or become involved with it

Most visitors to London gravitate to Piccadilly Circus.

2. The unemployment rate for young black men post-apartheid shot up, sometimes as high as 50 percent.

shoot up: to increase very quickly and suddenly SYN rocket

Demand for water has shot up by 70% over the last 30 years.

3.My plan, insofar as I had one, was to go to university to be a computer programmer, but we couldn’t afford the tuition.

insofar as: (ad.) = in so far as/ in as far as , formal, to the degree that...

The research suggests that the drug will be successful, in so far as one can draw conclusions from such a small sample size.

Looking back helps insofar as it helps you learn from your mistake.

4.The poor mom isn’t thinking, I’m aiding and abetting a criminal by buying these Corn Flakes.

aid and abet: law, to help someone do something illegal 同谋, abet本身也是这个意思

We shall strike hard, without flinching, at terrorists and those who aid and abet them.

5. When you’re trying to stretch your money, food is where you have to be careful.

stretch: if you make an amount of money, food etc stretch or it stretches, you use less of it than you usually would so that you have it for a longer time

I'm going  to have to stretch this $ 20 until payday.

stretch the truth/facts: to say or write sth that is not completely true

Reporters sometimes stretch the facts to make a point.

6. Everyone pitches in.

pitch in: 1. to join others and pay part of the money towards sth

 They all pitched in and the money were collected within a few days.

2. to join others and help with an activity

Everyone pitched in with efforts to entertain the children.

7. I felt too guilty, like it would be bad karma.

karma: (n.) [ˈkɑ:rmə] 佛教里的因果报应

good/ bad karma: informal, the feeling that you get from a person, place, or action

The house had a lot of bad karma.

8. This cop was shaking us down for a bribe. “Spot fine” is the euphemism everyone uses.

shake sb down: informal, to get money from sb by using threats 勒索；敲诈

Corrupt officials were shaking down local business owners.

shakedown: (n.)  eg. a Mafia shakedown 

euphemism: [ˈjufəˌmɪzəm] 委婉语 a polite word or expression that you use instead of a more direct one to avoid shocking or upsetting sb

euphemistic :(a.) [ˌju:fə'mɪstɪk]

9. We got out and everything was fine, but it rattled us.

rattle: 本意为“发出咯咯的响声”; 引申为“使紧张，使不安” informal， to make someone lose confidence or become nervous

His mocking smile rattled her more than his anger.

It was hard not to get rattled when the work piled up.

10. The other option is to toughen up, put up this facade.

facade: [fəˈsɑːd] 来源于法语，愿意是建筑物正面，引申为 a way of behaving that hides your real fealings

Behind her cheerful facade, she's a really lonely person.

She managed to maintain a facade of bravery.

Elon Musk 里有一个类似的表达: put on/ show a ... front.

PART 2 Thoughts

Hustling is to work what surfing the Internet is to reading. If you add up how much you read in a year on the Internet—tweets, Facebook posts, lists—you’ve read the equivalent of a shit ton of books, but in fact you’ve read no books in a year. When I look back on it, that’s what hustling was. It’s maximal effort put into minimal gain. It’s a hamster wheel. If I’d put all that energy into studying I’d have earned an MBA. Instead I was majoring in hustling, something no university would give me a degree for.

非常赞同Trevor的这段话，匆匆忙忙不知所谓地过每一天，不如给自己定一个较为长期的目标并把时间集中在实现那个大目标上。还记得刚入大学的时候，根本没有想清楚对自己未来的规划，也不知道自己真正的爱好是什么，于是社团报了五个，还有各种读书俱乐部、语言角、学生会等等，学校外还参加了一大堆社会活动。大一大二在奔波忙碌中度过了，然而到了大三却发现曾经的两年仿佛什么都没有做一样，那时候很害怕实习面试官问自己，你有什么特长和优势，因为自己虽然尝试过很多，但是却没有真正拿得出手的东西。我开始意识到，比起漫无目的地做加法，不如智慧地做减法。我开始不再参加社团和其他的各种课外活动，把闲暇时间都用在学习语言上。其实我很早就开始学韩语和西班牙语，但之前一直都是断断续续地，三天打鱼两天晒网，所以虽然学了很久但都一直都是拿不上台面的水准，而在过去的一年半时间里我每周都给自己安排学习的时刻表，这一段时间是我语言提升最快速的和最高质量的时期。