racket

Hopes and Prospects by Noam Chomskyを読んでいます。
The China market was opened by the "poison trade" and the "pig trade," as they were called. The poison trade turned China into a nation of opium addicts; the pig trade brought kidnapped Chinese workers to the United States to build railroads and perform other hard labor. Profits from the narcotrafficking racket also covered the costs of the Royal Navy and its imperial role, the administration of India, and the purchase of U.S. cotton, which fueled the early industrial revolution much in the way oil does today.
"racket" に「大騒ぎ/大騒ぎする」の意味があることは前に覚えましたが、上に出てきた "narcotrafficking racket" は麻薬での大騒ぎではなく、麻薬取引を示しているようです。辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: an illegal activity that makes money: a smuggling racket
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a dishonest or illegal activity that makes money: They were jailed for running a protection/prostitution racket.
麻薬取引は不正な金儲けであるのは言うまでもないですね。

appropriate

小説が続いたので今度はNoam Chomsk著の"Hopes and Prospects" を読むことにしました。図書館で受け取った時にちょっと厚めの本だったので別の本にすれば良かったと思いましたが期限を１回延長すれば途中でReader's Digestの８月号を読んでも何とか期限内に読めるでしょう。
今日採り上げる単語はPart 1: Latin America, Year 514: Globalization for Whom?からです。
Perhaps the most extreme of the many disasters visited upon Haiti since its liberation was the invasion by Woodrow Wilson in 1915, restoring virtual slavery, killing thousands--fifteen thousand according to Haitian historian Roger Gaillard--and opening up the country to takeover by U.S. corporations. The shattered society was left in the hands of a murderous, U.S.-trained National Guard serving the interests of the Haitian elite, mulato and white, who are even more predatory and rapacious than is the norm in Latin America and who regulary appropriate the aid sent to the country.
上の引用文に出てきた "appropriate" の意味は私の知っている形容詞の意味ではそれこそ "appropriate" ではありません。動詞としてまったく違う意味があるにちがいません。辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
1: to take exclusive possession of : annex: no one should appropriate a common benefit
2: to set apart for or assign to a particular purpose or use: appropriate money for the research program
3: to take or make use of without authority or right: The economy has been weakened by corrupt officials who have appropriated the country's resources for their own use.
・Cambridge English Dictionary:
1. to take something for your own use, usually without permission: He lost his job when he was found to have appropriated some of the company's money.
2. to keep an amount of money to use for a particular purpose: The government have appropriated millions of pounds for the project.
引用文の "appropriate" は悪い意味の方ですね。

in cards

昨日の午後台風が通り過ぎ、雨風が収まったので、来月の10kmランに備えてジョッギングをしました。上空は雲っているにも拘らず、江戸川の河口付近から富士山が見えました。西の方は晴れてきたのに違いない。葛西臨海公園には彼岸花も咲いていました。残暑も少しおさまって来たようです。さて、Japan Times Online, Aug. 20にあったタイトルです。
Bigger Sakurajima eruption not in cards despite outburst
記事のサブキャプションは次ぎのようになっていました。
Despite its violent outburst over the weekend, experts are guardedly optimistic that Mount Sakurajima is not due for a life-threatening eruption soon.
と言うことは、"not in cards" で起こりそうもないの意味のようです。辞書で確認します。
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Destined or fated to happen; predicted or foreseen: I don't think another child is in the cards for them.
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus: to be likely to happen: "So you think there'll be an election next year." "I think it's on the cards."
辞書での用例には、上に引用した辞書以外も含め全て "in/on the cards" と定冠詞の "the" が付いていました。この意味の由来はトランプ占いから来ているようです。 This term, originally put as on the cards , alludes to the cards used in fortune-telling. [Early 1800s]

double

"double" は日本語にもなっている英語で、「２倍」、「二重」の意味しか知りませんが、"How To Win Friends and Influence People" に出てきた次ぎの "double" は別の意味であることは間違いありません。
"If you come at me with your fist doubled," said Woodrow Wilson, "I think I can promise you that mine will double as fast as yours; but if you come to me and say, 'Let us sit down and take consel together, and, if we differ from each other, understand why it is that we differ, just what the points at issue are,' we will presently find that we are not so far apart after all, that the points on which we differ are few and the points on which we agree are many, and that if we only have the patience and the candor and the desire to get together, we will get together.
早速辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: clench: doubled his fist
・Wiktionary: to clench: He doubled his fists.
そう言えば、 "double" には何かを折る（普通は二つに）意味もありましたね。

All-seeing, all-snacking

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a religious elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table sat a large basket of apples. A nun had made a note and stuck it on the basket: "Take only ONE. God is watching."
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cockies. A child had written a note: "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

どこかの神は化学兵器だけを見張っているのでしょう。

Few people are logical

Few people are logical. Most of us are prejudiced and biased. Most people are blighted with preconceived notions, with jealousy, suspicion, fear, envy and pride. And most citizens don't want to change their minds about their religion or their haricut or communism or their favorite movie star. (Excerpt from How to Win Friends and Influence People)

thresh out

Holesが読み終わったので次ぎの本を借りるまでのつなぎに読んでいる "How To Win Friends and Influence People" からです。
Come to think it over, I don't entirely agree with it myself. Not everything I wrote yesterday appeals to me today. I am glad to learn what you think on the subject. The next time you are in the neighborhood you must visit us and we'll get this subject thresh out for all time. So here is a handclasp over the miles, and I am.
"threshold" は技術的な文では馴染み深い単語ですが、上の文に出てきた "thresh out" 全然知らない表現です。　辞書を見ます。
"thresh out" の意味を掲載している辞書は余りありませんでしたが、次ぎの辞書に "thrash out" と同じとして次ぎの説明と例を載せていました。
・American Heritage Dictionary: Discuss fully, especially to resolve a
problem, as in We'll just have to thrash out our ideas about where to go on vacation. [Late 1800s]
・Random House Unabridged Dictionary: thrash out or over,to talk over thoroughly and vigorously in order to reach a decision, conclusion, or understanding; discuss exhaustively.

gag

HOLESで主人公のStanleyは脱走したZeroを探し出せ、二人で密かに矯正所に戻って来ました。
Zero handed down a box of cereal. Stanley carefully poured some cereal into his mouth. He didn't want to put his dirty hands inside the box. He nearly gagged on the ultra-sweet taste. They were sugar-frosted flakes, and after eating nothing but onions for more than a week, he had trouble adjusting to the flavor.
動詞の "gag" で思い浮かべるのは「猿ぐつわをする」ですが、上の "gag" はそうではありません。辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to be unable to swallow because you feel as if you are going to vomit (=bring food back up from your stomach): Frank gagged on his seafood.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to experience the sudden uncomfortable feeling of tightness in the throat and stomach that makes you feel you are going to vomit: Just the smell of liver cooking makes me gag.: I tried my best to eat it but the meat was so fatty I gagged on it.
・Oxford English Dictionary: choke or retch: he gagged on the wine
吐き気を催すとまでは言いませんが、私も昔は甘いものが苦手でしたが、最近は少しなら饅頭でも食べるようになりました。でも今でも羊羹や最中は苦手で、２～３ミリ程度の厚さでお茶があれば食べます。
HOLESからブログに採り上げた単語は三つだけで読み終えました。しかしとても面白かったので同じ著者の作品が図書館にないか調べたのですが、残念ながらありませんでした。

cab

HOLES by Louis Sacharは評判通り中々面白い話です。今日採り上げる単語も知らない単語ではなく、知っている単語の知らなかった意味です。
Mr. Pendanski filled all the canteens, then climbed back into the cab of the pickup. He still had to bring water to Group E. Stanley could see them digging about two hundred yards away.
"cab" と来ればタクシーと思っていましたが、上の "cab" は明らかにタクシーではなく、車の運転席（あるいは運転席以外の席の可能性もありますが）だと容易に推測できます。辞書での説明を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: the front part of a bus, train, or truck where the driver sits
・Vocabulary.com:a compartment at the front of a motor vehicle or locomotive where driver sits
やはり運転席を示すようです。

canteen

面白いと聞いたので、HOLES by Louis Sacharを読むことにしました。罪を犯した少年の矯正所での話なので、多分中学生あるいは小学生の高学年向けだと思います。　濡れ衣で矯正所に送られた主人公 Stanleyが矯正所に着いて支給された物の中に "canteen" がありました。
　 He was also given white sneakers, an orange cap, and a canteen made of heavy plastic, whcih unfortunately was empty.
私の知っている "canteen" は会社や学校の食堂、あるいは酒を飲む場所でしたが、上の "canteen" は明らかに別物です。　しかし、この単語は次ぎの例のようにこの後も何度も出てくるので意味は辞書を引かなくても分かります。
"Hey, uh, Theodore," he said, going after him. "Do you know where I can fill my canteen?" 一応辞書の説明を確認します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a small container for carrying water or another drink, used especially by soldiers or travellers
・Vocabulary.com:　A canteen is a store that sells food and drink at an institution like a camp, college, or military base. A canteen can also be a small container used to carry water to drink.
If you’re at summer camp, you can buy snacks at the canteen. This kind of canteen is a little shop. At the canteen, you can buy little things like potato chips or a can opener. A canteen is like a convenience store. The other kind of canteen is good if you’re going on a hike -- fill it up with water and put it in your backpack, since there probably aren’t any of those other kinds of canteens out in the woods.