今日取り上げる単語もThe Art of ChoosingのSenses and Sensibilityの章からです。
The story may be apocryphal, but it gets at a basic truth: Personal happiness is always a very serious matter. It's all well and good to propose formulas and strategies to other people, but we're not sure we should trust them when our own long-term happiness is clearly at stake.
"apocryphal" で "apocalyptic" を連想したのですが、"apo" 以外は関係なさそうです。早速辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (Of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true: an apocryphal story about a former president
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: well-known but probably not true: There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Leonard Bernstein and tax returns.
駄目押しに説明が丁寧な次の辞書も見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: Urban legends ― stories about phantom hitchhikers, deep-fried rats, and spider eggs in bubblegum ― are classic examples of apocryphal tales. They're told as if they're true, but no one can ever identify their origins.
Today, any dubious or unverifiable story may be dismissed as apocryphal. If it can't be verified, it is seen as not real, true or authentic. Originally, however, apocryphal was reserved for religious writings that were not included in the Torah or the New Testament of the Bible because the divinity of the texts was not certain. These texts are known as the Apocrypha(sic.) and are included in the Septuagint (a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) and the Vulgate (a Latin Bible edited in the 4th century).
ところで "apo" は "not"、"un-" の意味があることもついでに頭に入れて置きます。
The Art of ChoosingのSenses and Sensibilityの章から引用します。
Rules of thumb like these usually serve us pretty will. They offer straightforward solution to common problems, helping us save time and energy that would otherwise be spent mulling over options and possible consequences. Though not foolproof, they're generally reliable, and they make our complex and uncertain world a little easier to understand. When we're exhausted from fighting temptation and overwhelmed by the demands of choosing well, it can be a relief to turn to these rules--known formally as heuristics--for answers.
"heuristic" はこれまでに何度か目にした単語ですが、ど忘れする単語でもあるのでこの際にしっかりと覚えたいので辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves: a "hands-on" or interactive heuristic approach to learning
いつも丁寧な説明がある私の好きな次の辞書も見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: A heuristic is a rule or method that helps you solve problems faster than you would if you did all the computing. It sounds fancy, but you might know a heuristic as a "rule of thumb."
Derived from a Greek word that means "to discover," heuristic describes a rule or a method that comes from experience and helps you think through things, like the process of elimination, or the process of trial and error. You can think of a heuristic as a shortcut. Besides finding it in philosophy books, if you are interested in computing, you'll find references to heuristic programming. You can use it as a noun or as an adjective.
覚えられたかな。名詞の場合は既に取り上げて（9/21/2010）覚えた"rules of thumb" や "trial and error" と同じ様なものなので、同時に連想できるようにしたい。
昨日は朝早くから出かけ、三十数年振りに横浜の三渓園に行きました。丁度横浜マラソンが開催されていたので根岸の沿道でトップグループの応援ができました。バスが走っていないので３０分かけて歩いていった三渓園の園内にある三重の塔より上にある展望台からは大勢のランナーがその後も続々と走っているのが見え、驚いたことには高速道路に一人の黒人ランナーがトップで走っているのが見えました。２段にもなっている高速道路を走るマラソンなんて知りません。高速道路なので沿道の応援もありません。そのランナーを見れるとは三渓園は思わぬ穴場でした。午後は中野に移動し、コンサートを見て、夜はいつもは卓球の練習なのですが、休みだったのでテニスの練習をし、忙しい日曜日でした。
さていつもの英語の勉強です。The Art of ChoosingのSong of Myselfの章からの引用です。
The music we choose to play on our stereos will probaly say more about us than the brand of stereo we play it on, as music choice is supposed to be determined purely by personal taste.
...
To rip playlist directly off a trendy music blog or a friend in-the-know, or to exactly copy outfits from a movie or magazine, is to announce to the world that we have no mind of our own.
" in-the-know" 、動詞の "know" に定冠詞が付いている変わった表現です。文脈からするとここでは音楽に詳しい、精通しているの意味の様ですが、辞書で確認します。"in-the-know" の項目はありませんでしたが、ハイフンのつかない "in the know" で次の説明がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Be aware of something known only to a few people: he had a tip from a friend in the know: the horse was a sure bet
・Collins Dictionary: aware or informed: The woman next to her would be in the know, though as far as the others were concerned, they'd have met only on the journey.
・Macmillan Dictionary: people in the know have more information about something than other people: Those in the know say he will resign before Christmas.
ハイフンの使い分けは前にも本で読んだことがありますが、未だによく分かりません。
The Art of ChoosingのA Stranger in Strange Landsの章に6/16/2010に取り上げた表現が出て来ました。
One civilization can no longer fully consume another, and it also cannot set up a giant barrier to keep the other out. Tolerance and respect don't cut mustard, either, especially not when deeply held beliefs and lives are at stake.
辞書の説明通り、この引用文でも否定形で使われていました。
cut mustard: To suffice; to be good or effective enough.; Give me the bigger hammer. This little one just doesn't cut the mustard. This idiom usually appears in negative polarity contexts: “doesn't cut the mustard”, “can't cut the mustard”, and so on.
The Art of ChoosingのSong of Myselfの章に誰でも知っている単語、"roast" ですが、私も知っている "roast beef" の "roast"とは全く違う意味で使われていました。
Once in office, though, Bush was criticized for parroting certain mantras with little regard for "the realties on the ground." "In his roast of the president at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, comedian Stephen Colbert "praised" Bush by saying, "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday--no matter what happened Tuesday."
さあ、この "roast" の意味は何でしょう？ 辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A banquet to honor a person at which the honoree is subjected to good-natured ridicule.: Occasions like this one - celebrations, toasts, roasts - have a tendency to look back on what has been achieved, what happened when, what is retained in the old memory banks.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: an event at which someone is honored and people tell jokes or funny stories about that person in a friendly way/a banquet honoring a person (as a celebrity) who is subjected to humorous tongue-in-cheek ridicule by friends
なるほど面白い意味ですね。西洋の宴会では "roast beef" は付き物なので出来た意味なのでしょう。しかし、対応する適当な日本語は、少なくとも一語ではないですね。
今日の表現もThe Art of Choosingの第二章 A Stranger in Strange Landsにあったものです。
More and more, we're creating global organizations that link diverse groups of employees in locations around the world, and at the same time strive to implement standardized policies and practices in order to ensure the highest degree of efficiency. In the process, though, such organizations may inadvertently run afoul of cultural differences in workers' expectations.
"afoul" は知らない単語ですが、"run afoul of" は慣用句の様でもあります。 "run afoul of" で調べると、その説明を載せている辞書はそれほど多くはありませんが、主な辞書では次の例がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Come into conflict with; go against: the act may run afoul of consumer protection legislation
しかし、"afoul" で検索すると、どの辞書にも説明がありました。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to experience problems, punishment, or harm because you do not obey a rule or disagree with a powerful organization, group, or person: He was 15 when he first ran afoul of the law.: At one point Seeger fell afoul of the US government for his anti-war actions.
・Vocabulary.com: If something goes afoul, it goes badly wrong. When a prank falls afoul of the law, it crosses the line from just a joke to something much more serious.
Use the adjective afoul to describe things that conflict or clash. If a politician goes afoul of the rules about using taxpayer money for person items, she's bound to pay for it in votes. Likewise, a party guest might accidentally go afoul of the etiquette about how much candy to grab from a fallen pinata. The original nineteenth century meaning of afoul was nautical, describing tangled ropes or lines on a ship.
"afoul" は "run" の他にも "fall" や "go" の動詞と共に、"run/fall/go afoul of" の形で使われる事が分かりました。
The Art of Choosingの第二章 A Stranger in Strange Landsの冒頭を引用します。
On an August morning over 40 years ago, Kanwar Jit Singh Sethi woke at dawn to prepare for the day. He began with a ceremonial bath; wearing only the kachchha, the traditional Sikh undergarment of white drawstring shorts, he walked into the bathing room of his family's Delhi home.
これは著者の父親が結婚した時の事を記述している個所です。著者はインド出身の移民で、現在は米国に住んでいます。両親は親達が決めた結婚式当日まで会った事のない相手と結婚する多くのインド人の例を具体的に示しています。私が興味を覚えたのは "drawstring" の単語で、直訳すると引っ張る紐・糸ですが、後に 'shorts' があるので、"drawstring shorts" はゴムではなく紐で落ちないように縛るタイプの下着の様です。 "drawstring" の説明を辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: a cord, ribbon, etc, run through a hem around an opening, as on the bottom of a sleeve or at the mouth of a bag, so that when it is pulled tighter, the opening closes: Sir, here, let me loosen your hood's drawstring - it is too tight.
・Dictionary.com: a string or cord that tightens or closes an opening, as of a bag, clothing, or the like, when one or both ends are pulled.: Even the hair dryer was displayed on a shelf in a decorative and pretty drawstring bag.
中々便利な単語ですね。
Unlike the dogs in the Seligman experiment, the panther displays his paralysis not by lying still, but by constantly moving. Just like the helpless dogs, however, he cannot see past his confinement: "It seems to him there are / a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world." Whether the bars are real or metaphorical, when one has no control, it is as if nothing exists beyond the pain of this loss.
"see past" は文字通り解釈すると「過去を見る」ですが、ここでは時間的な過去の意味では変です。 "see past" と言う慣用句があるか調べたが見当たりません。しかし、慣用句に "can't see beyond the end of your nose" があり、"can't see past the end of your nose" とも言うことが分かり、その意味を辞書で見ると、
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: : if you can't see beyond the end of your nose, you think so much about yourself and what affects you that you do not see what is really important These people are so busy making money, they can't see beyond the end of their nose.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. to be narrow-minded; to lack understanding and perception. She is so selfish she can see no further than the end of her nose. You don't care about any one but yourself. You can't see any further than the end of your nose.
と書かれていました。引用文の "cannot see past" はこの慣用句 "can't see past the end of your nose" の意味で使われていると思いました。
The Art of Choosing by Iyengar Sheenaを読み始めました。うろ覚えですが、確かＮＨＫの番組のスーパープレゼンテーションでIyengar Sheenaのプレゼンを聴き、地元の図書館の蔵書にこの本があったので読むことにしたのだと思います。
第一章The Call of the Wildは動物園の動物は餌を自分で探す必要がなく、天敵から身を守る必要のない天国の様な環境に住んでいるが、何の選択もできない生活であると説明しています。そこからの一部を引用します。
Due to these physically and psychologically harmful effects, captivity can often result in lower life expectancies despite objectively improved living conditions. Wild African elephants, for example, have an average life span of 56 years as compared to 17 years for zoo-born elephants. Other deleterious effects include fewer biths (a chronic problem with captive pandas) and high infant mortality rates (over 65 percent for polar bears.)
覚えたい単語は "deleterious" です。前に "harmful effects" とあるので "harmful " と同じような意味と推測できますが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Causing harm or damage: divorce is assumed to have deleterious effects on children 丁寧な説明があるVocabulary.comも離婚が子供に与える影響に触れています。
If something is deleterious, it does harm or makes things worse. Smoking has obvious deleterious effects on your health, not to mention your social life.
My parents were worried that their divorce would have a deleterious effect on us kids, but in the end it was less harmful than watching them fight all the time. For most plants, a lack of sunlight has very deleterious consequences, but there are some plants that actually do very well in the dark. It's a wonder, given how well-established the science is, that we continue to do things that are deleterious to the fragile ecosystem. We must be willing to live with the deleterious effects.
さて、こんな事を言うと不敬と思う方がいるかも知りませんが「一見天国の様な所に住んでいるが選択の自由の無い」の個所を読んで皇太子妃雅子様の事を連想しました。
I'm now in high school, so when I ran into my third-grade teacher, I doubted she would remember me.
"Hi, Miss Butcher," I said.
"Hi, Eddie," she replied.
"So you do remember me?" I asked.
"Sure. You don't always leave a good impression, but it is a lasting one."
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