student deferment

本のタイトル、Tuesdays with Morrieは著者のMitchが受けるMorrieの授業がTuesdaysから来ています。
I finish that first course with him and enrol for another. He is an easy marker; he does not much care for grade. One year, they say, during the Vietnam War, Morrie gave all his male students A's to help them keep their student deferments.
Morrieは全ての男子生徒にＡを与える、優しい、別の見方をすると男女差別する教師ですね。そうすると、"student deferments" は卒業を延ばす留年ではありませんが何でしょう？
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: official permission to do required military service at a later time: the policies of military deferment
・Cambridge English Dictionary: temporary delay in taking someone into the military forces: They got draft deferments as graduate students.
なるほど、兵役の猶予ですか。ただ、 "deferment" には学生ローンの支払い猶予の意味でも使われるので文脈に注意する必要がありますね。
Dr Gibson said the amendment would retain the reintroduction of maintenance grants and the deferment of fee payment until after graduation.
"deferment" はこの後にも次ぎの様に出てきました。
When the professors learned that students who did not maintain a certain grade point average could lose their "deferments" and be drafted, they decided not to give any grade.
この文なら辞書を見なくても意味は分かりましたね。

insidious decay

SNSのALCOM WorldにあるPaperback Clubで紹介されていたTuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albomを読み始めています。　これは実話のようです。 Mitch Albomは主にスポーツ関連のジャーナリストで、ＴＶの番組(Ted KoppelのNightline)で恩師がＡＬＳ（筋萎縮性側索硬化症）を患っているのを知りました。Mitchは再び恩師の所に通い、人生の授業を受けます。
The two men spoke about the afterlife. They spoke about Morrie's increasing dependency on other people. He already needed help eating and sitting and moving from place to place. What, Koppel asked, did Morrie dread the most about his slow, insidious decay?
"insidious decay" の "insidious" ですが、馬鹿の一つ覚えで、「内密の」とか「こっそりと」のような意味しか知らないので、ここでの使い方とちょっと合いません。辞書で他の意味・用例を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: working in a subtle or apparently innocuous way, but nevertheless deadly ⇒ an insidious illness: At the other end lurks an altogether more insidious disorder called sleep apnoea.
・Macmillan Dictionary: something that is insidious is dangerous because it seems to be harmless or not important but in fact causes harm or damage: the insidious effects of gossip
なんとなくニュアンスが分かってきた様に思えますが、丁寧な説明のあるVocabulary.comも見てみます。
If something is slowly and secretly causing harm, it's insidious ? like the rumors no one seems to listen to until suddenly someone's reputation is ruined.
Insidious is related to the Latin noun, īnsidiae meaning "ambush" which comes from the Latin verb, īnsidēre "to lie in wait for." This is very fitting as an insidious rumor or problem is one whose negative effect is not realized until the damage is already done. Similarly, an insidious disease develops internally without symptoms, so that you don't realize right away that you are sick.
なるほど、"inside" と関係があるのですね。知らない間にこっそりと内部に入り込んだ悪魔ですね。

Norm ChomskyのHopes and Prospects

昨年の秋に読んだNorm ChomskyのHopes and Prospectsには日頃なんとなく感じていることを明快に記述しています。
The prevailing doctrine that "expansion is the path to security," like official doctrine generally, should be interpreted in the light of Adam Smith's principle of international affairs, which I quoted earlier. The phrase "security" does not refer to the security of the population; rather to the security of the "principal architects of policy"--in Smith's day "merchants and manufacturers," in ours megacorporations and great financial institutions, nourished by the states they largely dominate.
(Excerpts from "Hopes and Prospects" by Noam Chomsky)

One age fits all

A woman was shopping for something to wear to her 50th high school reunion when a group of teenage girls came into the same shop to try on dresses for their school formal.
"Gross," complained one girl loudly to her friends, "this dress makes me look 40 years old."
"May I have it?" called out the woman. "That's just what I'm looking for!"
(from Reader's Digest October, 2013)
年齢・若さは相対的な問題でもあります。

ring

"ring" を読み終えましたが、小説のタイトルとなった "ring" は最後の頃に次ぎのように出てきました。 "You have to show it to someone who hasn't seen it before." And as the tape propagated the week's lag time would probably be shortened. People who were shown the tape wouldn't wait a week to make a copy and show it to someone else. How far would this ring expand?

haywire

小説Ringから採り上げる最後の表現です。
Two years ago, during the boom in interest in the ocult, the newsroom had received ten million submissions. Something had gone haywire. And it would happen again, allowing the new virus to run rampant.
"haywire" は "barbed wire" や "chicken wire" の様に農園で使われるワイヤーの一種、干草を束ねるワイヤーの様に思われますが、"go haywire" は慣用句の様で、何か別の意味があるのでしょう。辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: (of things) not functioning properly; disorganized (esp in the phrase go haywire)
・Macmillan Dictionary: go haywire (informal): to stop working or behaving correctly: The TV had gone completely haywire.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
1: being out of order or having gone wrong; the radio went haywire
2: emotionally or mentally upset or out of control: crazy: is going haywire with grief
"go haywire" というフレーズがありますが、haywire に何故か、気が狂ったり、故障している状態を示す意味があるのですね。
小説Ringを読み終えました。結末は読者に委ねるという手を使ったところがニクイと思いました。不幸メールをビデオにし、そのビデオを見た人は一週間後に死ぬというのがミソの様ですが、何故そんな事があり得るのか想像力の乏しい私にはちょっと馬鹿馬鹿しい話でもありました。この小説は映画にもなったそうで、この手の話が好きな人が多いのも確かでしょう。

rebar

Ringは終わりに近くなってきました。AsakawaとRyujiは井戸に投げ捨てられたSadakoの遺体を見つけるために井戸をに入ります。
"Give me a hand here," said Ryuji. He'd grabbed a piece of rebar poking out from a crack in the concrete lid and was trying to pull the lid onto the downhill slope.
"rebar" は初めて見る単語なので辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: (civil engineering, US & Canadian) a rod that provides reinforcement in concrete structures: Pieces of stucco dangled from rebar and an armada of ambulances gathered behind police tape.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a steel rod with ridges for use in reinforced concrete: Origin of REBAR: reinforcing bar First Known Use: 1953
なるほど、 "reinforcing bar" からできた言葉ですか。

pregnant pause

Ringの主人公Asakawaとその友人のRyujiは医者のNagaoを訪ね、問い詰めます。
Nagao's eys grew wide with astonishment, and his jaw started to quiver. After a pregnant pause, Ryuji said, "Now, shall I tell you why you have that scar on your shoulder?" Ryuji leaned over and streched his neck until his lips were almost touching Nagao's shoulder.
"pregnant pause" とはどんな "pause" なのでしょうか？さっぱり見当が付きません。辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: full of meaning or possibilities that have not yet happened or been expressed: pregnant pause/silence: "OK, let's move on," said Bartlett after a long and pregnant pause
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: filled with meaning or emotion because of what is going to happen or be said: There was a pregnant pause before the winner was announced.
何でこんな意味があるのかについてVocabulary.comは次ぎの説明をしています。
Pregnant comes from Latin, and literally means "before giving birth" ? prae-, like pre- means "before" and gnasci is a root that means "be born." Pregnant can also mean "filled with something," like inspiration or "rich in significance or implication," like your pregnant pause before answering your friend's question, "You like my new boyfriend, don't you?"
なるほど、意味深な "pause" ですね。

scare up

先日 "scare the crap out of me" を採り上げましたが、その "scare" とは全く関係なさそうな "scare" が小説 Ringに出てきました。
In a lane in front of Kinomiya Station was a small one-story house with a shingle by the door that read Nagao Clinic: Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Asakawa and Ryuji stood in front of the door for some time. If they couldn't pull any information out of Nagao, it'd be sorry, time's up! There was no more time to scare up new leads.
"scare up" が慣用句の様な気がします。とにかく辞書で調べます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to find or get together with considerable labor or difficulty: scrape up: managed to scare up the money: I can probably scare up my old textbooks if you need them.
・Wiktionary: (figuratively) To find or procure, especially something not easily found or procured: With the current budget crunch and the Fingertip case inactive, I couldn’t scare up much enthusiasm.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to search for and find someone or something. Go out in the kitchen and scare some food up. I'll see if I can scare up somebody to fix the broken chair.
やはり "scare up" は慣用句でしたね。でも "scare up" がどうしてこの様な意味になるのか不思議です。

Banned practice

I would never let my kids watch the opera.
Too much sax and violins.

(Reader's Digest October, 2013)