The Asiatic Society of JapanのBulletin No.8, Oct. 2011に掲載の９月例会の講師を紹介している個所を引用します。
Our speaker was Mr. Jason James, Director of the British Council, and this was his swan song, as he was returning to Britain in just two weeks.
この "swansong" の表現はThe Vote of Thanksの個所にも次ぎの様に出て来ました。
Mr. James had beautifully shown his own skills and qualities as a scholar of both Japanse and music. He was an outstanding, starred first student of Mrs. Yamanouchi's at Cambridge. This lecture had been a wonderful swansong on Mr. James's leaving Japan.
ここでは "swan song" or "swansong" はMr. Jamesが日本を去る前の最後の講演の意味だと分かりますが辞書での説明を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: a final performance or effort (especially before retirement): This unusual show has been described by Mr. Cattelan as his swan song.
・Wordnik: The fabled song of a dying swan; hence, a last poem or musical work, written just before the composer's death.
スペルは "swansong"/ "swan song" の他に "swan-song" もありましたが、"swan song" で載せている辞書が大半でした。
Reader's Digest 10月号を読み終えて再びThe Remains of the Dayを読みたいところですが、いったん図書館に返したので直ぐに読めないので、何年も前に買ったのですが、ほとんど読んでいない五百ページはあるMerriam Webster's Vocabulary Buildeを読むことにしました。ページ１３に昨年Bushidoを読んだ時に取り上げた "<A href="http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2010/8/13"><B>leaven</B></A>" の動名詞
"<B>leavening</B>" が取り上げられていて、Bushidoで使われている "<A href="http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2010/8/13"><B>leaven</B></A>"（名詞）とは意味がちょっと違うのでこれも覚えておきたいと思います。
"<B>leavening</B>": Something that lightens and raises; something that modifies, eases, or animates.
The word <B>leavening</B>, when used in the kitchen, usually refers to yeast or baking powder. (<B>Unleavened</B> bread is often hard and dense; when it is used in religious ceremonies, it may be intended as a reminder of past hardship.) Young children may provide the <B>leavening</B> at a family reunion, and a cheerful receptionist may be the <B>leavening</B> in an otherwise dull office.
"You're perfect for this job, Perkins, You're unflappable."
この駄洒落の面白さは漫画を見なければ分かりません。 この漫画を取り込むことは出来ますが、著作権侵害になると思いますので下記にリンク先を示しますのでそこへ行って見て下さい。
*www.cartoonz.co.uk/ger1_files/Unflappable%20final.jpg
もちろん "unflappable" の次ぎの意味も知らないと面白くありません。
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: composed and able to remain calm when facing difficult situations
Tips: When learning the word unflappable, think about a sail flapping in a stormy wind. The wind forces the sail to shake and move around uncontrollably. If someone is unflappable, he or she is not easily shaken by difficult situations. The term unflappable was first used to describe Harold Macmillan, who was Prime Minister of England from 1957-1963. Good leaders should be unflappable.
Example: In order to work in this frenetic, high-pressure job, you need to be unflappable.
今日はこれからハーフマラソンに参加します。 23日が祝日だったのでジョッギングの練習ができ、いつものコースを走り、途中の臨海公園で大きな白い鳥を見かけました。 何の鳥の種類か知っているのですが、その日本語がでてきません。一分程考えながら走り続けているとやっと「サギ」のがでてきました。これでは英語の語彙を増やす前に日本語の勉強もしないと駄目かもと思いました。認知症の症状がでてきたのでしょうか？
An old man visits his doctor and after thorough examination the doctor tells him: "I have good news and bad news, what would you like to hear first?"
Patient: "Well, give me the bad news first."
Doctor: "You have cancer, I estimate that you have about two years left."
Patient: "OH NO! That's awful! In two years my life will be over! What kind of good news could you probably tell me, after this???"
Doctor: "You also have Alzheimer's. In about three months you are going to forget everything I told you."
Reader's Digest 10月号の記事The Lowdown on Pop-upsから引用します。
WHAT: The latest retail trend: temporary shops, bars and even hotels that weren't there last week and won't be there next week.
WHY: Predictability is old hat, so staged surprises serve as drawcards for consumers.
この "drawcard" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Dictionary.com: = drawing card: a person who or thing that attracts attention or patrons.
下記の様にほとんどの辞書は "drawcard" ではなく、二語の "drawing card" の表現を掲載しています。
・Vocabulary.com: 1. an entertainer who attracts large audiences; 2. a featured article of merchandise sold at a loss in order to draw customers
・Macmillan Dictionary: a feature of an event that makes people want to come to it
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. an attraction that helps bring patrons to a place of entertainment. The comedian was a real drawing card at the night club.
Reader's Digest 10月号の特集記事INVESTING 101からの抜粋です。
Endowment plans are primarily used as a saving plan, for example, when parents want to save money for their children's university education. With endowment plans, the sum assured of death benefit is secondary and often mimimal endowment plans have a fixed time period, after which the insurance company returns your premiums plus some interest. .
"endowment plans" は上の記事にもあるように貯蓄あるいは保険の一種です。 辞書にも説明があるか調べます。
"endowment plans" で掲載している辞書は見あたりませんでしたが、"endowment policy", "endowment insurance", "endowment life policy", "endowment life insurance" で次ぎの様な説明がありました。
"endowment policy": a life assurance savings scheme designed to pay out a lump sum when the policy matures,
"endowment insurance": life insurance for a specified amount which is payable to the insured person at the expiration of a certain period of time or to a designated beneficiary immediately upon the death of the insured
"endowment life policy": Alternative term for endowment policy
"endowment life insurance": A life insurance policy that provides benefits for a specified period (for example, 20 years or until age 65) and that may be redeemed at face value if the insured is alive at the end of the specified period. Thus, payment is made regardless of whether the insured lives or dies, although the cost of the policy is quite high compared with other types of life insurance.
何れも一定期間の満期に達するか中途で死亡した場合に一定の金額が支払う保険でした。記事の "endowment plans" と同じ種類の保険でしょう。
The autor, inventor, and anal-rentive cleanliness nut from Michigan already buffs and spit shines his entire house, and now he has figured out a foolproof method for giving his floors a little extra sheen while simultaneously supplying the next generation with a head start on a life of Felix Ungerism.
"spit shines" と言う表現も面白いと思いますが、"anal-rentive" と言う奇妙な表現が気になるので辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: analor anal-retentive giving too much attention to details in a way that annoys people
・Wiktionary:
1. (Freudian psychology) Preoccupied with achieving order and control and with collecting, possessing, and retaining objects.
2. (by extension) Overly obsessive concerning small details.
・American Heritage Dictionary: Indicating personality traits, such as meticulousness, avarice, and obstinacy, originating in habits, attitudes, or values associated with infantile pleasure in retention of feces.
・Vocabulary.com: a stage in psychosexual development when the child's interest is concentrated on the anal region; fixation at this stage is said to result in orderliness, meanness, stubbornness, compulsiveness, etc.
心理学から来た言葉の様ですが、いわゆる偏執狂も "anal-rentive" personと言えそうです。
ところで写真を載せたので既にお分かりと思いますが、この魅力的な掃除機の仕組みは：
How? Nardone has glued and sewn microfibre dust mops onto baby pyjamas
（写真はWebから探したものですが、雑誌のRDに載っていた.掃除機の方がもっと魅力的な赤ちゃんでした。）
Stress, depression behind twentyfold 10-year increase in resignations of first-year educators
"resignations" があるので、一年目の先生が辞める事だと推測できます。記事の本文を読んでみます。
The number of first-year teachers who left their job for health reasons has increased twentyfold over the past 10 years, with most citing apparent emotional issues, an education ministry survey has found.
一応辞書で "bolt" を確認します。
・WordNet 3.0: leave suddenly and as if in a hurry: “The listeners bolted when he discussed his strange ideas”
・Wiktionary: To flee, to depart, to accelerate suddenly: Seeing the snake, the horse bolted: The actor forgot his line and bolted from the stage.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to break away from or oppose one's previous affiliation (as with a political party or sports team
例文の様に "bolt" 後に名詞がある適当な例文は辞書には見あたりませんでした。
さて、Sierra Nevada山脈での遭難事故の記事の続きです。 遭難者のSeanは奇跡的に助かり病院に運ばれました。
After arriving at the hospital, they found Sean lying on a gurney in a hallway. "We thought you were dead!" Megan said. Sean was pretty banged up. Besides shattering his kneecap, he had ruptured a tendon.
"was pretty banged up" は "怪我がひどかった" の意味の様ですが、辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: [usually passive] informal American: to damage something such as a vehicle: How did your truck get all banged up?
・American Heritage Dictionary: Damage, injure, as in Banging up the car a second time will make Dad very unhappy, or Mother fell down the stairs and was all banged up. The verb to bang alone had this meaning from the 1500s on, up being added in the late 1800s.
車をぶつけて駄目にするイメージは "banged up" で容易に浮かぶので直ぐに覚えられそうです。
The long underwear covering his left leg was shredded, and bright red blood soaked the abraded flesh around his kneecap.
He gingerly inspected the wound. With effort, he got back on his feet, but his injured leg buckled beneath him, and he fell face-first into the snow.
最後の文にある "buckled" ですが、 "buckle" で直ぐに思い浮かべるのは自動車のシートベルトで、"buckle up" は習慣になっているのですが他の意味が出てきません。 辞書を見た方が早いので、いつもの様に OneLookで検索します。 ("gingerly" は以前赤毛のアンを読んだ時に前に取り上げました。 Ref. blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2009/10/7 )
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: to bend or become bent, often as a result of force, heat or weakness: The intense heat from the fire had caused the factory roof to buckle.: Both wheels on the bicycle had been badly buckled.: I felt faint and my knees began to buckle.
・American Heritage Dictionary: To give way; collapse: My knees buckled with fear.
・Macmillan Dictionary: to suddenly become weak and bend: I could see his knees buckle after that last punch.
"buckle" にこんな意味があるのですね。
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