病院の食事は軽く、手術の日は丸一日絶食、もっとも点滴で栄養は摂っていますが、それで体重が減ったかと思いきや、反対に1.5も増えていました。手術前を含め3週間程卓球とテニスを休んでいるのが原因の様です。退院時に後2週間はスポーツはできないと医者に言われているのでまだまだ体重が増えそうです。しかし丁度オリンピックの最中なので退屈はしません。
さて、入院前ですが、サンデル教授のThe Case against Perfectionを読みました。
In India, the number of girls per 1,000 boys has dropped from 962 to 927 in the past two decades. India has banned the use of prenatal diagnosis for sex selection, but the law is rarely enforced. Itinerant radiologists with portable ultra-sound machines travel from village to village, plying their trade. One Bombay clinic reported that, of 8,000 abortions it performed, all but one were for purposes of sex selection.
"plying their trade"の "ply" は昨年取り上げていましたが、今回の意味あるいは用法ははちょっと違います。
Collins English Dictionaryを見ると、
1.to carry on, pursue, or work at (a job, trade, etc)
3.to sell (goods, wares, etc), esp at a regular place
6.also intr (esp of a ship) to travel regularly along (a route) or in (an area) ⇒ to ply between Dover and Calais, to ply the trade routes
とあり、前回は6の例に近かったのですが、今回の意味は上の1と3に近いと思います。いつものように他の辞書も見ます。
・Vocabulary.com:apply oneself diligently: “Ply one's trade”
Ply means to work steadily at something. If you've got a lemonade stand and you're busy perfecting your recipe and seeking out customers, you're doing a good job of plying your trade.
A ship that regularly travels a particular route plies that route. When someone offers you food or drink, often in hopes of getting something in return, they're plying you: "If I ply you with cake, will you take my dog for a walk?" The noun ply is very different from the verb, referring to layers or strands. Four-ply yarn is made up of four strands. Plywood is made of many layers of wood glued together.
流通が発達したので今はほとんどいませんが、"ply"の意味はほぼ絶滅した行商を思い出すと良いかも知れません。
The Case against Perfectionを読み始めました。副題はETHNICS IN THE AGE OF GENETIC ENGINEERINGとあり、中々興味の湧くテーマです。著者はＮＨＫのＴＶ番組表で見掛けたハーバード白熱教室（番組自体は見ていませんが）のMichael J. Sandel氏で、新聞などでも話題になっていたので名前だけは知っています。
初っ端の話は、"... a couple decided they wanted to have a child, preferably a deaf one. Both partners were deaf, and proudly so. Like others in the deaf-pride community.
...
In hopes of conceiving a deaf child, they sought out a sperm donor with five generations of deafness in his family. And they succeded. Their son Gauvin was born deaf." とちょっと信じがたい内容から始まり、人間が人工授精、ＧＭ、クローン生物の生成と自然の営みを超える行為を始めていますが、どこまで許せて、何がどうして許せないかと言う複雑な問題を次々と提示していきます。中々興味が湧く内容ですが、このブログではもっぱら英語に焦点を当てます。 さて、この本から最初に取り上げたい単語が出てきた個所を次に引用します。
Genetic enhancement is possible for brains as well as brawn. In the mid-1990s scientists managed to manipulate a memory-linked gene in fruit flies, creating flies with photographic memories. More recently researchers produced smart mice by inserting extra copies of a memory-related gene into mouse embryos. The altered mice learn more quickly and remember things longer than normal mice.
"brawn" は初めて見る単語ですが、brainsとの対比なので体力を意味しているのかなと想像します。辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: 1.strong well-developed muscles 2.physical strength, esp as opposed to intelligence: "That's because most true nobleman are inbred morons with more brawn than brains .
・Macmillan Dictionary: physical strength, especially when compared with mental skill and intelligence: a job that needs brains, not brawn
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: 1. physical, muscular strength; 2. powerful muscles: The expression "brains over brawn" asserts the idea that mental fortitude and ability is more important than physical strength.
なるほど、筋力、体力を示しているのですね。"more brawn than brains" あるいは "brains over brawn" で覚えると良いようです。
昨日予定通り退院できました。まだ歩き方や座る角度により傷口が痛みますが数日の内に痛みは消える事を期待しています。
Five surgeons from big cities are discussing who makes the best Patients to operate on.
The first surgeon, from New York, says, 'I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.'
The second, from Chicago, responds, 'Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.'
The third surgeon, from Dallas, says, 'No, I really think librarians are the best, everything inside them is in alphabetical order.'
The fourth surgeon, from Los Angeles chimes in: 'You know, I like construction workers ... those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over.'
But the fifth surgeon, from Washington, DC shut them all up when he observed: 'You're all wrong! Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable!
入院前に用意していた覚えたい単語のリストが二週間分程溜まっているので明日から当分はそれを投稿します。
Reader's Digest 6月号に15のTriviaクイズが載っていました。 米国人向けの問題でもあり、何れも難しいクイズですが、その内の５題を紹介します。
1. What familial similarity links Margaret Thacher, Julia Roberts and Willam Shakespeare?
2. Which nation comprises at least 13,667 islands?
3. The Order of the Elephant is the highest honour awarded by which European contry?
4. Which came first: the Iron Age or the Bronze Age?
5. In golf, what is a snowman?
ちなみに私が答えられたのはたったの一問だけでした。
インターネット時代なのでWebで調べれば解答できるでしょうね。（多分第一問はそれでも難しいでしょう。）
これから3泊4日の予定で旅行にでかけます。 と言っても行き先は歩いて十分の病院です。
と言うわけで、少なくとも3～４日間はこのブログをお休みします。
Which spelled-out numbers can replace each X to create words?
次ぎの単語のXの個所を何かの数字のスペルに換えると正しい単語になります。
1. HXY
2. POXTATE
3. WXY
4. CAX
5. NEXRK
6. OXNION
例として1番の答えを示します。 XはONEで、正しいスペルはHONEYとなります。
一問難しい問題がありますが、ヒントは昨日投稿した記事と関係があります。
今日はパイもどき（？）を食べる日だそうです。 パイを食べる正式なパイの日は3月14日でした。
今年のReader's Digest 3月号にパイ(Pi)についての次ぎの記事がありました。
Global Pi Day elebrations on March 14 (to represent 3.14) often involve the baking, throwing and eating of pies - after their area and circumference have been calculated. If you miss out, July 22 (to represent 22/7) is Pi Approximation Day, so why not eat something approximating a pie - a pastie, sausage roll or Turkish pide, perhaps?
とりあえず私は缶ビールでカンパイでもしようっと。
今日の単語もＲＤ6月号の闘病記からです。
We discovered the cancer by accident one November Sunday in 2000. Our son Terry had invited friends for a sleepover to celebrate his 12th birthday Terence had been having stomach cramps for weeks. Suddenly he was lying on the bed, doubled over in pain. Our family doctor ordered him to the emergency department.
We were immediately triaged through. Not a good sign, I thought. When Terence returned from a scan, the doctor said, almost as an aside: "There's a shadow on his kidney. When hs's feeling better, you should take a look at it."
"triage" は聞き覚えのある言葉ですが、意味を思い出せません。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
a: the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors
b: the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care: Nurses do triage in the emergency room.
・Collins English Dictionary: .(in a hospital) the principle or practice of sorting emergency patients into categories of priority for treatment: Hopefully any kind of nurse triage system would offer this safe and sensible advice.
辞書の説明は名詞に対してですが、動詞も名詞も同じ "triage" です。
思い出しました。最近日本語にもなってきた用語でカタカナで見た事のある言葉です。
One $200 pill a day. A shot at more life. Sutent might have more serious side effects - rashes, fatigue, stomach distress, storokes - but Terence was game. He began taking it on Nobember 15.
この "game" は以前に調べた "game" （http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2009/5/6）の意味（"power/skill to influence others"）とも違いますね。
Reader's Digest 6月号の記事、Boy on a Bike、Rwandaなど戦争で荒廃したアフリカの国々で自転車を組み立てる活動をしているBike Town AfricaのJean-Paul氏と自転車組立ての手伝いをしている少年との話です。
Asking a child (or even an adult) to assemble bikes all day without riding one is tantamound to torture. So, at around 5pm, I take him outside with a bike I know to be assembled properly and gesture for him to get on and have a spin. The gestures don't work, so I ask a translator to tell him to go for a ride. His eyes grow solemn at the news, and although the bike is built for someone half as tall as he is, he gamely throws a leg over and wobbles down an alley and around the corner.
"gamely" の意味を辞書で調べます。
・Collins English Dictionary: in a brave or sporting manner: As her physical education instructor looks on, she wields a sword and gamely repulses the "attack" of her bigger opponents.
・Vocabulary.com: in a plucky manner: “he was seen by a shepherd, gamely negotiating a particularly tricky section of the mountain road to San Doloroso”
・Cambridge English Dictionary (game): willing to do things that are new, risky or difficult: "I'll look after the baby," he said gamely (= bravely).
となると、形容詞は "game" で、 "game" に "gamely" に対応する意味があるかも確認します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary (game): willing to do things that are new, risky or difficult: It was a difficult challenge, but Roberta was game.: She's game for anything.
・Macmillan Dictionary: prepared to join in with or to try a new, difficult, or dangerous activity: He's such fun ? always game for anything.
Online Etymology Dictionaryに "game" のこの様な意味は闘鶏の意味から来たと次ぎのような説明がありました。
"brave, spirited," 1725, especially in game-cock "bird for fighting," from game (n.). Middle English had gamesome (adj.) "joyful, playful, sportive."
追記、先週の腹痛は厄介な病気の発見につながりました。医者に、直すには手術しかないと言われ、後でインターネットで確認したところ確かにその様なのと、直るまでは卓球やテニスができないのが私にとって重大な問題なので、早急に手術をしてもらう事にしましたが、病院の都合で入院手術は来週の火曜日と決まりました。切腹は初体験なので一度位は経験するのも悪くないなと思うことにします。
巨大な波を求めて挑戦したサーファーの記事、Finding the PERFECT WAVE（Reader's Digest 6月号）にあった単語がきになりました。場所はSan Diego, CA 沖のCortes Bankで並みの高さは23.4mにも達したそうです。
The Bank became an obsession for Flame. In 1990, he and a gonzo surfer and bush pilot named Mike Castillo decided to see it for themselves. From a tiny Cessna about 100m up, Flame and Castillo were shocked to find a titantic, unruly wave unloading onto the submarine reef.
"gonzo surfer" の "gonzo" は日本語の様な響きがありますが、何でしょう。 辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: having a very strange or unusual quality: gonzo humor; a gonzo comedian; gonzo journalism (=journalism that treats a subject in a very personal, unusual, and often shocking way)
・Oxford English Dictionary: bizarre or crazy: the woman was either gonzo or stoned
発音はゴンゾウではありません。私にはガンゾウと聞こえます。
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