make an effort

'My mum's really good at listening and she really made an effort to understand how we felt. There's six in our family, so it was really time consuming.'

名词‘effort’指努力、尽力。‘make an effort’是全力做某事。

例如：‘I made an effort to cover all the reading material’我尽力完成所有的阅读工作。

‘I am making an effort to meet new people, so hopefully I won’t feel lonely anymore.’‘He is making no effort to hide his disgust about the news.’

consume

'My mum's really good at listening and she really made an effort to understand how we felt. There's six in our family, so it was really time-consuming.'

动词‘consume’指消耗、花费、耗尽，也有无节制的吃喝的意思。

例如：‘My car consumes a lot of gas.’我的车子很耗油。

‘The effort to win the dancing competition consumed all her energy.’她耗尽所有精力争取赢得舞蹈比赛。

‘She is on a special diet that only allows her to consume 1200-1300 calories a day.’她有一套特殊的饮食食谱，每天只能吸收1200-1300的卡路里热量。

‘Time-consuming’是指花费大量的时间或是浪费时间

例如：‘My mum was very good at listening and she really made an effort to understand on how we felt. There were six in our family so it was very time-consuming.’妈妈的优点是她很有耐心倾听孩子的感受，我们家有6口人，因此妈妈要花费很多时间倾听我们诉衷肠。

immerse

'My mother is really good at telling bed time stories, I remembered being really immersed in the tales, really involved in everythingand hanging on every word.'

动词‘immerse’是浸没，沉浸，专心，深陷于的意思。

例如：‘Kids need to learn to immerse their heads in water in order to swim.’儿童要学会游泳就必须学着把头浸在水里。

再例如：‘I remember being really immersed in the tales, really involved in everything and hanging on every word.’我记得对这些故事非常着迷，专注地听每一个词语。

hang on

'My mother is really good at telling bed time stories, I remembered being really immersed in the tales, really involved in everythingand hanging on every word.'

'Hang on'这个动词短语有保留、保有、紧紧抓住不放等意思。

例如：‘As an exile, he hangs on to the old way of life not knowing that life has moved on in his old country.’他虽然流亡在外，仍然坚持保留原有的生活方式却不知道祖国并未保持原状而已经进一步的发展了。

如果有人在电话上告诉你‘hang on’，是请你等一下的意思。这是电话交谈的常用语。

例如：‘Could you hang on please I’ll just check if he’s available.’请等一下，让我查一下他是否有空接听电话。

再例如：‘Hang on! I'm not quite ready, I left my phone upstairs.’等一下，我还没有准备好，我把电话留在楼上了。

另外，'hang on every word’指专注地听。

例如：‘I remember being really immersed in the tales, really involved in everything and hanging on every word. ’我记得对这些故事非常着迷，专注地听每一个词语。

scare to death

‘My mum is very good at letting me and my sister do things that scare her to death, like riding horses or motorbikes.’

'Scare to death'通常使用在口语里形容一个人感到极度惊恐、害怕。

例如：‘My mum is very good at letting me and my sister do things that scare her to death, like riding horses or motorbikes.’妈妈很会让我们姐妹去做她特别害怕的事，比方说骑马或是骑摩托车之类的活动。

与'scare to death'类似的日常用语包括‘scared stiff’ 或是 ‘frightened to death.’另外一个类似的口头语是‘scare the hell out of’.

例如：‘The trip to the wood at midnight really scared the hell out of her.’午夜时分的森林之行把她吓得要死。