TEM8
外刊例句
- Competing products are not perfect substitutes (no two brands of pasta sauce are exactly the same) and rivals cannot swoop in at once.
竞争性产品并不是完美的替代品（没有哪两个品牌的意面酱是完全一样的），竞争者也不会迅速挤入市场。
——《经济学人》 - But when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn in the middle of the night over the Gulf of Thailand and then spent nearly half an hour swooping over two large Malaysian cities and various towns and villages, there was apparently silence.
但是，马来西亚航空370航班于午夜时分在泰国湾上空大幅度调转方向，然后又在马来西亚的两个大城市及其他一些村镇的上空盘旋了将近半个小时，其间却似乎没有任何来自飞机的消息。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[verb] (especially of a bird) move rapidly downwards through the air
[动词] （尤指鸟）在空中迅速向下移动
深入解读
Swoop 一词源自古英语 swapan （猛冲、掠过），现在主要指鸟为了捕食或飞机为了袭击而“向下猛冲、俯冲”，既可以作动词也可以作名词，比如：
- 鹰俯冲下来抓一只小兔子。
The eagle swooped down to snatch a young rabbit. - 飞机看起来好像要俯冲下来轰炸小镇，所以我们赶紧冲向躲避处。
It seemed that the plane was going to swoop down and strafe the town, so we dived for cover.
鹰从空中俯冲下来猛抓猎物时，力求一举拿下，否则打草惊蛇前功尽弃，而 swoop 有个习语叫 at/in one (fell) swoop 也正是用来表示“一下子、一举”，比如：
- 他一下就判明了我既对又错。
He proved me right and wrong in one fell swoop.
从猛然袭击这个概念进一步引申用于警察或军事行动时，则表示“ 突然袭击、突击搜查、突然行动”（近义词：blitz），既可以作动词也可以作名词，常用搭配为 swoop on sb/sth ，这个含义也可以用来喻指某物突然出现，比如：
- 今天早上5点，便衣警察突击搜查了城里的三栋房子。
Undercover police swooped on three houses in the city at 5.00 this morning. - 迷雾骤然漫入。
Suddenly the fog swooped in.
另外， swoop 还可以用作及物动词，表示“（出其不意地）抓起、攫取”或“（突然）把……移位、去除、取出”，比如：
- 她追赶着孩子，猛地将他一把抱到怀中。
She rushed after the child and swooped him up in her arms. - 一阵旋风把小草堆从牧地刮走。
The whirlwind's blast swooped the haycocks off the lea.
名著用例
He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment.
他不明白伏地魔上哪儿去了，以为他随时会从黑暗中突然冲来。
出自英国作家J·K·罗琳的奇幻小说《哈利·波特》系列的第七本《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》（Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows）。《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》是整个小说系列的终结篇，交代了所有重要人物的最终命运。
同近义词
- dive: (of an aircraft or bird) plunge steeply downward through the air
- descend: move or fall downward
- pounce: (of an animal or bird of prey) spring or swoop suddenly so as to catch prey
