Theodore Boone the Abductionを読んでいます。主人公は１３歳のTheodore Boone、両親が二人共弁護士のせいで、裁判に興味を持っている少年の様です。少年の友達が行方不明になり、誘拐犯の容疑者としてLeeperが刑事に取り調べられています。
“We’d like to ask you some questions,” Slater said. “You wanna talk?” “Maybe.” Capshaw whipped out a sheet of paper and handed it to Slater, who said, “Well, Mr. Leeper, as you well know from your long career as a professional thug, you must first be advised of your rights. You do remember this, don’t you?” Leeper glared at Slater as if he might reach across the table and grab his throat, but Slater was not the least bit worried. “You’ve heard of the Miranda rights, haven’t you, Mr. Leeper?"
文脈からすると "Miranda rights" は容疑者を取り調べる際に伝える容疑者の権利の様なので、黙秘権かなと思いますが、どうでしょう？ 辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Law: Denoting or relating to the duty of the police to inform a person taken into custody of their right to legal counsel and the right to remain silent under questioning: the patrolman read Lee his Miranda rights
・Wikipedia: The Miranda warning, which can also be referred to as the Miranda rights, is a right to silence warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.
先日９歳の少女が主人公の小説The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordonを読みましたが、今度は１３歳の少年が主人公のTheodore Boone the Abduction（著者はJohn Grisham）を読みます。 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordonはジュニア向けの小説とは思えない難しい英語が結構出てきましたが、今度の本は確かにジュニア向けの様です。早速取り上げる表現も簡単な基本単語のフレーズです。
They had passed the hat at school and collected almost two hundred dollars from students and teachers. Theo and his friends figured they could get the rest of the money from their parents in the event someone came forward with crucial information. Surely, Theo had argued, the parents would cough up the money, if necessary. It was risky, but there was so much at stake and so little time. Theo eased out the back door, leaving Judge alone and confused, then sneaked around to the front and hopped on his bike.
"eased out" 文脈からするとそっと抜け出したと言う感じですが、辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to make someone leave a job or position without saying anything publicly: Senior party sources say Liddell will be eased out during the next few weeks.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs:
1. Lit. to continue moving out of something, slowly and carefully. I was able to ease on out of the parking space, but only with difficulty. I looked both ways and eased on out.
2. Fig. to leave something, such as an office or position, quietly and without much embarrassment. The bum finally eased on out of office without much public notice. He eased out while the press was concerned with some other crisis.
簡単な英語ですが、学校で習った英語からは中々出てこない表現です。
Reader's Digest Dec., 2015号の記事 Miracles that Stanned Doctorsから抜粋します。
Dr Jordan Knurr, her anaesthesiologist at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida, US immediately intubated Ruby so a machine could breathe for her. He call a code, and about a dozen other doctors and nurses crowded into the room, frantically giving advanced cardiac life support.
"call a code" の "code" が分からないので辞書を引きましたが、普通の辞書にはここでの意味にあたる説明は見あたりませんでした。そこで医学関係の辞書を見るとありました。
・Segen's Medical Dictionary: Emergency care True code noun A widely used, highly popular term for
(1) A cardiopulmonary arrest or other emergency requiring resuscitation and a coordinated all-hands-on-deck response on the part of medical personnel
(2) A call for personnel over the hospital’s PA system to respond to such an emergency
・MedicineNet.com: Code, hospital: While there is no formal definition for a "Code," doctors often use the term as slang to refer to a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest, requiring a team of providers (sometimes called a "code team") to rush to the specific location and begin immediate resuscitative efforts.
The term "Code" derives from the practice at many institutions of using "Code" designations followed by colors ("Code blue"), numbers ("Code 10") or other qualifying terms to alert personnel in the event of an emergency and to specify what type of emergency is occurring. (Code pink is often used to alert security that a baby is missing from the hospital nursery!)
There are no standard definitions or conventions for the use of "Code" designations, and each institution that uses a "Code" system can decide how to apply the system. For example, while "Code blue" refers to a cardiopulmonary arrest at many hospitals, it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing everywhere. Other types of emergencies, (for example bomb threats, terrorist activity, child abductions, or mass casualties) may also be given "Code" designations.
後者の辞書を見て思い出しました。昨年の４月１日に "code blue" を取り上げていて、"code blue" だと一般の辞書にも説明がありました。
・American Heritage Dictionary: A medical emergency in which a team of medical personnel work to revive an individual in cardiac arrest.
・Dictionary.com: (often initial capital letters) a medical emergency in which paramedics are dispatched to aid a person undergoing cardiac arrest.: Each resident has the opportunity to participate as a member of the code blue response team.
Wikipediaからの抜粋
"Code Blue" is generally used to indicate a patient requiring resuscitation or in need of immediate medical attention, most often as the result of a respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest. When called overhead, the page takes the form of "Code Blue, (floor), (room)" to alert the resuscitation team where to respond.
What's the difference between a girlfriend and a wife?
About twenty kilograms.
Here's some advice: at a job interview, tell them you're willing to give 110 per cent. Unless the job is a statistician.
これから卓球の試合に出かけます。実力の110%を出せれば良いけれど？
今年の１月のＡＳＪ例会は城西大学紀尾井町キャンパスで開かれました。
今日はその時に入手したJIU TIMES Fall 2015号の記事で見つけた単語を取り上げます。
記事のタイトルは Lecture series on social and environmental studiesで、その一部を抜粋します。
Based on this historical study of environmental theories in Europe, he further inquired how we could solve actual problems facing the world today, such as global climate change and the proliferation of new globalized environmental risks, which have major negative impacts on vulnerable ecosystems and on human health. Many of these environmental problems were shown to be anthropogenic in origin, that is to say, caused by human action.
取り上げる単語は "anthropogenic" で、"anthropo" が含まれているので人類/人間と関係していることが分かります。しかも、直ぐ後に意味を説明する表現、"caused by human action"。が続いているので意味は分かりますが、一応辞書での説明も見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (Chiefly of environmental pollution and pollutants) originating in human activity: anthropogenic emissions of sulfur dioxide
・Vocabulary.com: Anthropogenic is an adjective that describes changes in nature made by people. If your town has rerouted water from the river for drinking water, that is an anthropogenic activity. Whenever you see the word root anthro, you can bet there’s a person involved, and anthropogenic is a particularly good example. From the Greek anthropogenes, meaning "born of man,” anthropogenic can refer to any changes in nature that are caused by people -- like the existence of roads or cities where once there were forests. Most often, you will hear anthropogenic as an adjective describing pollution -- such as the anthropogenic causes of the hole in the ozone layer.
今日覚えたい単語はThe Japan Times OnlineのJan.18の記事にありました。
India yet again feels the wrath of terrorism
India's government has failed to develop a cohesive counterterrorism strategy and is hamstringing its military to a dangerous degree.
"hamstring" は確か足のどのかの腱の意味があったと思いますが、動詞だと何の意味になるのでしょう。辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to make ineffective or powerless: cripple: hamstrung by guilt: The company claims it is being hamstrung by government regulations.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to limit the amount of something that can be done or the ability or power of someone to do something: The company was hamstrung by traditional but inefficient ways of conducting business.
・Online Etymology: 意味は分かりましたがどうしてこの様な意味があるのか語源辞典を見ます。
1640s, "to disable, render useless," a figurative verbal extension from hamstring (n.) "tendon at the back of the knee." Cutting this would render a person or animal lame. Literal sense of the verb is attested from 1670s. Since it is a verb from a noun-noun compound, hamstrung as a past participle is technically incorrect.
腱を切られたら確かに "ineffective or powerless" になるでしょうね。
昨年の８月に左足のくるぶし付近に痛みを感じて以来、ジョッギングで３～５km程走ると痛みが必ず出てくるようになったのですが、くるぶしはkneeではありませんが、やはり何かの腱が有って、そのxxx-stringが傷つき、それで痛みが出てくるのでしょうか？ それとも単なる老化現象の一つ？
Jan.17のThe Japan Times Onlineの記事に大阪人の気質に触れている個所がありました。
Comparing Osaka with almost any other Japanese city is akin to likening a bloodied steak to boiled chicken. Its people, a sassy, friendly breed, with a legendary, often ribald sense of humor, carry a swagger you don’t see elsewhere. Unlike Tokyo, where the stranger is largely ignored or, at best, banished to peripheral vision, in Osaka you are sized up: its men and women look you straight in the eye, your presence is frankly appraised.
"sassy" が分からないので辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Lively, bold, and full of spirit; cheeky: She manages a brash, confident, and sassy manner that works well in the part, but is not overdone to the point of being unwelcome.
・Cambridge English Dictionary:
a. rude and showing no respect: a sassy young girl
b. confident or showing confidence: a sassy little black dress
・Vocabulary.com: Sassy means "bold or fresh." If you see your teacher in the grocery store with her attractive, well-dressed husband and you charge right over to say, "Who's the hunk?" that's being very sassy.
Sassy comes from saucy, as in: bold, spicy, and impertinent. It's fun to be sassy when talking with friends, but when you start saying things to teachers, bosses, and other people's parents that would embarrass a more timid or manners-minded person, you probably have crossed the line from sassy to inappropriate. The same goes for sassy dressers you have to know when to leave the neon heels at home.
"sassy" は "saucy" から来た言葉ですか。大阪の寿司屋で筆で変わった味の醤油（？）やタコ焼きにかけてあるソースを思い起こしました。
"kondo" が "tidy it up" を意味する英語になったとのThe Japan Timesの記事を昨年の４月２３日に紹介しました。今度はその近藤さんの本がUSA Todayの週刊ベストセラーになったと言う記事がThe Japan TimesのJan.16にありました、以下はその抜粋です。
Japan author’s decluttering book tops U.S. best-seller list The English version of a Japanese book on how to declutter rooms topped U.S. newspaper USA Today’s weekly best-seller list on Thursday.
...
The decluttering book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” was first published in Japan in December 2010 and its English edition hit U.S. shelves in October 2014.
...
Her new book, “Spark Joy,” launched this month, also made the USA Today list, coming in third place.
"tidy it up" は知っていましたが、"declutter" は知らなかったので覚えたいと思います。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Remove unnecessary items from (an untidy or overcrowded place): there’s no better time to declutter your home
・Collins Dictionary: to simplify or get rid of mess, disorder, complications, etc, from: declutter your life
それにしても近藤さん凄いですね。その内に “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”を読んでみたい気になりました。
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordonの中の一節です。
I don't believe in any actual thinking God that marks the fall of every bird in Australia or every bug in India, a God that records all of our sins in a big golden book and judges us when we die--I don't want to believe in a God who would deliberately create bad people and then deliberately send them to roast in a hell He created--but I believe there has to be something.
これは作者、Stephen King、の考えを反映しているのでしょうね。
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordonを読み終わりました。
主人公の少女が最後に死んでしまう結末で、自然と言えば自然ですが、嘘っぽくても、私はハッピーエンドの方が好きですね。
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