glamping

Reader's Digest 6月号のLIFESTYLE TRENDS ENTERTAINMENTはTHE LOWDOWN ON GLAMPINGでしたが、この "GLAMPING" は何でしょう？
記事を読むと直ぐに "GLAMPING" の説明がありました。
WHAT: The newest Short for "glamour camping", glamping has become a hip holiday trend.
豪華なキャンピングのことでした。　どの様に豪華かと言うと、
HOW: Glamping doesn't necessarily involve tents, and if it does, these are usually permanent, solar-powered structures, sometimes complete with hot water, remote-controlled lighting, pay-TV and even a bath.
新語の様ですが、辞書に載っているか調べます。 伝統的な辞書にはまだ掲載されていない様ですが、OneLook辞書検索には幾つも掲載している辞書のリストが出てきました。
・Word Spy: form of camping that includes expensive equipment, fine food, and other luxuries: Open from May through September, this Canadian resort is a top destination for "glamping," or glamor camping.
・Travel Industry Dictionary: Slang. Luxury camping involving a variety of high-end gear, accessories, and amenities.
・Urban Dictionary: Satisfying your craving for the outdoors and your penchant for a good meal, nice glass of wine, and a comfortable bed.: No stinky sleeping bags on the hard ground and freeze dried food for me. If its not a Glamping trip, count me out.
夏は涼しい高原に行きたいですね。 "glamping trip" なら最高です。

bottled-up passion

MURDER at the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Clubを読み始めました。　作者は前回読んだMURDER at the Tokyo American Clubと同じRobert J. Collinsで、題名のクラブはどちらも実在し、氏は両方のクラブの役員だったそうです。もちろん登場人物および事件はフィクションです。さてこのテニスクラブでも早速死体が発見されました。Tennis Clubの風呂場で発見された死体は日本人会員の Shig Manabe（パールの輸出商）で、事故死ではなく、殺人事件であり、早速警察が事件を調べ始めます。
The next meeting was to be with Kimura-san, apparently a former employee of Manabe's and certainly a man with enough bottled-up passion to have once rolled around on the ground punching and kicking "the nicest guy in the world."
"the nicest guy in the world" は殺されたShig Manabeを指しています。聴取した多くの人が彼の事を "the nicest guy in the world" と言っているのですが、括弧で囲んでいるのは多分何か隠れた裏面があるのでしょう。　今日取り上げる表現は "bottled-up passion"、特に "bottled-up" です。　辞書の説明を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: control and refrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior: He bottled up his growing sense of shame.
・American Heritage Dictionary: To hold in; restrain: bottled up my emotions.
理屈にあっている表現ですね。

tell(s)

今日の表現も先週の土曜日と同じRD６月号の記事、Las Vegas Confidentialからです。
If a casino pit boss sees something suspicious, he'll phone the surveillance agent and ask him to train his cameras on the suspect gambler. Mostly, they look for "tells", actions that don't look right.
文中の "train" は４年前に取り上げました（Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2007/04/1 ）。 今日取り上げるのは "tell" の方です。　この "tell" には引用符が付いているので、通常の "tell" の意味ではない事を示していますね。　辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (especially in poker) an unconscious action that is thought to betray an attempted deception
・Wiktionary: A reflexive, often habitual behavior, esp. one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (e.g., a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals (gives away) information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
英語を中学で習い始めて半世紀を過ぎましたが、未だに中学で覚える基本単語の意味を辞書で調べるなんて、英語は本当に難しい。（と思いつつ、試験を受ける必要はないので、実は楽しんでいます。　多分呆け防止にもなると期待し。 ）

False Advertising

RD June, 2011の Tales from the office water coolerのコーナーにあった投書です。
A bar in our neighbourhood receives lots of interesting traffic. Cars swerve into the parking lot, and the drivers would run inside only to reappear minutes later looking confused. One reason might be the sign outside: "Free Beer, Topless Bartenders, and False Advertising".
この投書は作り話なのか、実際にあった話なのか、米国ではどちらも当たっている様で判断できない。 False or Fact?

dope

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事、Las Vegas Confidentialの一節です。
A first-time visitor, I want to peel back the facade and see what makes Las Vegas tick.
I plan to go behind the scenes at some of the town's most famous casinos to get the inside dope on the city that, as Frank Sinatra once said in a film, is the only place where money really talks. It says "goodbye".
この "tick" の用法（"what makes something/someone tick" Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2011/04/23 ）は以前とりあげた表現ですね。　今日気になったのは "dope" の意味です。 Las Vegasからの連想で麻薬が頭に浮かんだのですが、前にinsideがあるし、文脈からしても違います。　辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: the dope all the information or latest news about someone or something; dope on: What’s the dope on Kate’s new boyfriend?
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: information especially from a reliable source: the inside dope
・Infoplease: Slang.information, data, or news: What's the latest dope on the strike?
語源を見ると、なんと薬の意味と関係がありました。
Sense of "inside information" (1901) may come from knowing before the race which horse had been drugged to influence performance. （excerpt from Online Etymology)

eschew

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事、8 Tips on How to Stay Frugalから4番目のTip: Stay On Top Of Technologyの個所です。
You don't have to be an early adopter or jump on acquiring the latest gadget, but years of eschew new technology can make you seem like a dinosaur, or worse, just plain slow to grasp new things. These days, technology isn't just a luxury. Many items are functional and helpful, and don't have to be expensive.
"eschew" は以前にも見たことのある単語の気がしますが、思い出せません。　辞書を引きます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds: a psychologist who eschews the traditional methods of psychotherapy
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: to intentionally avoid something, especially on moral or practical grounds; Eschew is stronger, more dramatic than avoid. Use eschew to make a statement about keeping away from something out of principle: Ever since Brian stopped drinking alcohol, he has eschewed any party where he knew drinks were being served..
上の辞書でも触れていますが、"eschew" の用法は次ぎのWiktionaryの注に有るように、限定されています。
The verb eschew is not normally applied to the avoidance or shunning of a person or physical object, but rather, only to the avoidance or shunning of an idea, concept, or other intangible.

friendly fire

東北大震災の関係で、私の住んでいる区も隣の区のどちらも恒例の花火大会を今年は中止しました。　そんな中で、"friendly fire" と言う、外面は良いが、恐ろしい意味の単語を知りました。　USA Todayから二つの記事を引用します。
・"Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere," Col. Hamid al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked "in very good coordination with NATO" to avoid friendly-fire incidents. "We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO."

・Mary Tillman, the mother of the former pro football player who died from friendly fire in Afghanistan, calls on Obama to withdraw McChrystal's appointment because of his alleged role in seeking to cover up details of her son's death.
"friendly fire" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: shots fired at you accidentally by soldiers from your own army
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: during a war, shooting that is hitting you from your own side, not from the enemy: Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire when a mortar bomb hit their truck.
・Wiktionary: Weapons fire from allied or friendly forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces or enemy fire.
・DOD Dictionary of Military Terms: In casualty reporting, a casualty circumstance applicable to persons killed in action or wounded in action mistakenly or accidentally by friendly forces actively engaged with the enemy, who are directing fire at a hostile force or what is thought to be a hostile force.
何故か福島原発事故も "friendly fire" と同じだなと思いました。

pull through

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事、TALES OF A TIGER MOTHERは、米国人男性と結婚し、二人の娘を育てた中国人（系？）の女性がその育児や躾について本を書いたところ大きな反響があり、その著者へのインタビュー記事です。
I wonder if some of the permissive parents who are criticising me are even close to their kids. My kids have been 100 percent supportive. There were some very harsh words directed at me. And it's because of my children and my husband, my parents and sisters, that I was able to pull through. In some ways, I think this is evidence in favour of how I've raised my kids that they supported me so well.
難しい単語はもちろん苦手ですが、この "pull through." の様な基本的な単語を組み合わせた口語的な連語はさらに苦手です。　辞書で意味を調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary:
a. to manage to stay alive after you have been very sick or very badly injured: Don’t worry, your dad’s going to pull through.
b. to succeed in a very difficult situation, or to help someone to do this: He said the support of his family had pulled him through.
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: to succeed in dealing with a difficult period, or to help someone do this: He'd never have managed on his own, but his colleagues have pulled him through: It was a crisis year for the company, but we have pulled through.
英単語・イデオムが分からない、中々覚えられないのは、私にとっては困難な状況ですが、 I will never be able to pull through this situation. でしょう。

grain

丁度３０年前米国のシカゴに駐在することになった時に会社の仲間から餞別で頂いた本があります。　何が欲しいかと訊かれて、私が指定した物ですが、結局ほとんど読みませんでした。　その本は A Practical Handbook of Common Mistakes in English Among Japanese Students and Businessmen （松本安弘、松本アイリン共著）で、９８３ページもあり、読むには根気が必要ですが、２年前に入った今の会社ではマニュアル等の翻訳や海外とのメールのやり取りをしていますが、一つのマニュアルの翻訳が終わるとちょっとの間仕事が暇になる時があるので、その時に読む事にしています。

"veneer" vs. "plywood" の項目の説明文にあった単語で覚えたいものがありました。
"plywood": Wood built up of two or more thin sheets of wood glued togeter under pressure, usually with their grains at right angles to one another, used in building, cabinet work, etc..
覚えたい単語は "grain" です。　意味は木目の事である事は辞書を引かなくても文脈から分かりますが、一応確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: the arrangement, pattern, or direction of fibers in substances such as wood, stone, cloth, or paper: There were deep cracks along the grain of the wood.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
a: the stratification of the wood fibers in a piece of wood
b: a texture due to constituent particles or fibers (the grain of a rock)
c: the direction of threads in cloth
辞書で確認して良かった。　木目以外にも石、布、紙にも使えるとは。　もっともその場合日本語で何と言うのか知りませんが。　ついでなので、ハンドブックにあった "veneer" の説明も引用しておきます。
"veneer": The walls are finished in natural wood, often a hardwood, a thin surface layer of beautifull, expensive, fine quality wood glued to cheaper or stronger wood.

sarcophagus

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事、LESSONS OF CHERNOBYLに何度も出て来る単語があり、日本の福島原発の事故にも関係がありそうなので覚えたいと思っています。
Twelve times a month, Sergei Akimovich Krasikov takes a train across the abandoned land near the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station and reports for work at a structure enclosing Reactor No. 4 known as "the sarcophagus".
この引用文は記事の冒頭の文ですが、文の最後の単語、"sarcophagus" はこの後にも次ぎの様に使われています。
The sarcophagus was built 25 years ago in a panic, as radiation streamed into populated areas after an explosion at the reactor, and now it is riddled with cracks.
"sarcophagus" は２５年前のメルトダウンを起こしたチェルノビルの原子炉を囲った建造物である事が分かります。　辞書で "sarcophagus" がどの様に説明されているか調べます。
・Wiktionary:
1. A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.
2. (informal) The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed reactor at the power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine
上の1.の意味はどの辞書にも載っていますが、2.の説明を載せている辞書は他には見た当たりませんでした。　
Wikipediaに関連の記事があったので抜粋して引用します。
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus or stone coffin is a massive concrete envelope surrounding the nuclear reactor unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
しかしこの "sarcophagus" も万全な物ではなく、新しい "sarcophagus", New Safe Confinement (NSC) が２０１３年に完成の予定で建造中がそうです。
A part of the Shelter Implementation Plan funded by the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, the NSC is designed to contain the radioactive remains of Chernobyl Unit 4 for the next 100 years. It is intended to replace the present sarcophagus, that was hastily constructed after a "beyond design-basis accident" destroyed reactor 4 on April 26, 1986.
福島の原子炉の幾つかはいづれ "sarcophagus" で閉じ込め無くてはいけない様になるような気がします。　その際は、くれぐれも "beyond design-basis accident" などと言って、NSCを作るような羽目にならない様お願いしたい。