Reader's Digest １1月号の記事 "36 False Facts" の内の一つのfactです。
Flush Rotation
A flushed toilet doesn't drain the other way in the opposite hemisphere. The Coriolis effect doesn't apply to water in toilets.
"Coriolis" も、それに対応する日本語も知りませんが、それが何を示しているかは "drain the other way in the opposite hemisphere" で直ぐに分かりました。台風などの回転する向きが北半球と南半球とでは地球の自転の影響で反対になる話ですね。辞書で "Coriolis" を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Physics: An effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. On the earth, the effect tends to deflect moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern and is important in the formation of cyclonic weather systems.: You might be wondering: If the Coriolis force turns winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, why do winds go counterclockwise around large systems, such as hurricanes, north of the equator?
百科事典の説明も見てみましょう。 次の文はWikipediaの1st Para.からの引用です。
In physics, the Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of moving objects when the motion is described relative to a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with counter-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right. Although recognized previously by others, the mathematical expression for the Coriolis force appeared in an 1835 paper by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, in connection with the theory of water wheels. Early in the 20th century, the term Coriolis force began to be used in connection with meteorology.
トイレの水の回転方向が地球の自転の影響、"Coriolis effect"、で北半球と南半球では反対とは少なくとも日本人は誰も、考えていないと思います。
"Coriolis effect" を確認するために南半球に行きたいところですが、申し込んでいた２月のニュージーランドツアーが催行中止になり、いつか別の機会に行くことになりました。代わりと言っては何ですが、明日から九州の温泉旅行に行くので、ブログはしばらくお休みします。では皆さま良い正月をお迎え下さい。
Reader's Digest １1月号の記事 "Call the Vatican" から引用します。
He was born into a troubled country, which had been illegally annexed by Ethiopia, its Marxist neighbour. Zerai's early life was backdropped by the brutal 30-year war for independence, which the Eritreans eventually won in 1991.
こんな風に "backdrop" を動詞として使えるのですね。 辞書で用例をチェックしましたが、次の辞書の例の他は皆名詞としての項目しかありませんでした。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Provide a background or setting for: an ornate fountain, and at its center, backdropped with golden spray, a statue of a young girl
What's the opposite of opposite?
Consider yourself bamboozled.
Note: bamboozle: Fool or cheat (someone): Tom Sawyer bamboozled the neighborhood boys into doing it for him. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Scene: Science Class
Question: Why would we not see meteors if Earth had no atmosphere?
Answer: Because we'd all be dead.
Scene: Second-grade Class
Question: How can we show respect to others?
Answer: If you have a piece of meat, you shouldn't give it to anyone else if you've already licked it.
Scene: Social studies Class
Question: What does right to privacy mean?
Answer: It's the right to be alone in the bathroom.
思い出しました、アメリカでトイレ（大用の）にドアが付いてないのもあったことを。
Reader's Digestの定番記事 "Laughter The Best Medicine" １1月号からの引用です。
A crafty young bard named McMahon,
Whose poetry never would scan,
Once said, with a pause,
"It's probably because I'm always trying to cram as many extra syllables into the last line as I possibly can.
" "scan" は日本語にもなっているスキャナーの動詞ですが、それに対応する日本語の「走査する」の意味ではないですね。辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: literature if poetry scans, it has a regular rhythm (=pattern of beats): These are poems that neither rhyme nor scan.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to conform to a metrical pattern: this poem scans well
・Cambridge English Dictionary: specialized literature If a poem or part of a poem scans, it follows a pattern of regular beats: This line doesn't scan - it has too many syllables.
オーストラリアのメルボルン市では木宛にEmailを送れると言う記事 "When You Give a Tree an Email" がReader's Digest １1月号にありました。
I am not a Mr or a Mrs, as I have what's called perfect flowers that include both genders in my flower structure, the term for this is monoecious. Some trees species have only male or female flowers on individual plants and therefore do have genders, the term for this is dioecious.
Some other trees have male flowers and female on the same tree. It is all very confusing and quite amazing how diverse and complex trees can be.
記事に説明があるので "monoecious" は雌雄同株を指していることが分かりますが、一応辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (Of a plant or invertebrate animal) having both the male and female reproductive organs in the same individual; hermaphrodite.: Now monoecious trees occur in the endangered species list more than you would expect by chance.
・Dictionary.com: Biology. having both male and female organs in the same individual; hermaphroditic.: Shrubs, with monoecious or dioecious flowers in catkins, and aromatic foliage.
Reader's Digest １1月号の記事 "25 Things You Need to Know About Sleep Right Now" の24番目に "Spooning: uncomfortable but popular" とあり、その説明を読むと、
31% of couples from the same study slept facing the same direction. Spooning was beaten out only by the roomier back to back (42% of couples). Face to face was the position of choice for 4% of partners.
"Spooning" とは一体どんな寝方なのでしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: (Of two people) lie close together sideways and front to back with bent knees, so as to fit together like spoons.: She spooned up against him, hooking her chin on his neck.
・Dictionary.com: (of two people) to nestle in close contact with one another, as when both are lying on their sides with their knees drawn up, the back of one person tucked into the front of the other like the bowls of two spoons: They spooned without shifting position the whole night through.
なるほどね、スプーンを重ねた状態から来た言葉ですか。
In 1987 Geoffrey asked whether I'd let him paint my portrait. It was done in pastel over several sittings and he gave it to me framed as a Chrismas present.
Our sitters included a Catholic bishop in full robes, a former Deputy Premier of Victoria, as well as an Ansett pilot in his uniforrm.
日本語ならモデルになったとでも言うところですが、"sitting/sitter" のこの用例は一般的なのでしょうか、辞書で確認しますす。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A period of time spent as a model for an artist or photographer.: The portrait was completed in the artist's studio in Suffolk after five sittings in January.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a single occasion of continuous sitting (as for a portrait or meal): He finished the portrait in one sitting.
・Macmillan Dictionary: someone who sits or stands in a particular position while an artist paints or photographs them
"sitter" はベイビーシッターだけでは無いのですね。
My two passions eventually merged in the mid-1970s when I travelled regularly to Asia to work for World Vison as a photo-journalist. My beats were Bangladesh, India, Sri Lnka, Thailand, Indonesia and the Phillippines.
この "beats" の意味は文脈から推測できますが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A person’s area of interest: his beat is construction, property, and hotels
・Wiktionary: An area of a person's responsibility, especially in journalism, the primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
"What's wrong, Billy?" asked the priest.
"I need you to pray for my hearing." said Billy.
The priest put his hands on Billy's ears and prayed. When he was done, he asked, "So, how's your hearing?"
"I don't know," said Billy. "It isn't until next Tuesday."
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