Theodore Boone kid lawyerを読んでいます。中学生向けの小説なので私の語彙レベルでも楽に読めますが、それでも知らない表現、特に口語表現、は結構でてきます。今日取り上げるのもその一つです。
“Don’t even think about it, Theo. I’ve already talked to Judge Gantry. If he sees you in the courtroom when you’re supposed to be in school, he will stop the trial, order a bailiff to take you into custody, and haul you away. I will not bail you out of jail. You’ll sit there for days with common drunks and gang members.”
With that, Mr. Boone picked up a pipe, fired a small torch into its bowl, and began blowing smoke.
They stared at each other. Theo wasn’t sure if his father was joking, but his face certainly looked serious. He and Judge Gantry were old friends.
“Are you kidding?” Theo finally asked.
“Partially. I’m sure I’d fetch you from jail, but I have talked to Judge Gantry.”
Theo was already thinking of ways to watch the trial without being seen by Judge Gantry. Skipping school would be the easy part.
“Now shove off,” Mr. Boone said. “Let’s get the homework done.”
"shove off" の様な口語英語は使うことがないので分かりません。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal Go away: shove off--you’re bothering the customers
・Cambridge English Dictionary: used to tell someone angrily to go away: Just shove off, will you?
昨日は早朝から恒例の出勤前の花見に行きました。ソメイヨシノはまだまだこれからでしたが、山桜など満開の桜もありました。
さて、John Grishamの少年法律家Theodore Booneシリーズの三冊目に読むのは、このシリーズの最初の本でTheodore Boone kid lawyerです。少年が住んでいる町では殺人事件の裁判の話題は学校のホームルームの話題でもあります。
“Who was the better lawyer?” Mr. Mount asked.
At least ten answered at once and there was an even split between Jack Hogan and Clifford Nance.
Mr. Mount prodded them with questions like: “Which lawyer did you believe? Which would you trust? Which did the jury tend to follow?”
The food arrived and the conversation dropped dramatically.
“A show of hands,” Mr. Mount said. “And you must vote. No fence straddling. Raise your hand if you think Mr. Duffy is guilty.”
He counted ten hands. “Okay, not guilty.”
He counted five hands. “Theo, I said you must vote.”
"fence straddling" の表現は初めて見ますが、文脈から容易に意味は分かります。昔ローリング・ストーンズが "I'm just sitting on the fence." と歌っていたので覚えた "sitting on the fence" と同じ意味ですね。辞書で確認します。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. to support both sides of an issue. (As if one were partly on either side of a fence.) The mayor is straddling the fence on this issue, hoping the public will forget it. The legislator wanted to straddle the fence until the last minute, and that alone cost her a lot of votes.
・The American Heritage Idioms Dictionary（"on the fence, be" 項に飛び）: Also, straddle the fence. Be undecided, not committed, as in I don't know if I'll move there; I'm still on the fence, or He's straddling the fence about the merger. This picturesque expression, with its implication that one can jump to either side, at first was applied mainly to political commitments.
実際の裁判を学校の授業で話題にするかについては疑問ですが、三十年程昔に、娘が米国の小学校に通っていた頃、大統領予備選挙についての宿題があり、娘はチンプンカンプン、私はこんな事が小学生の宿題にと驚きながら、何か手伝った覚えがあります。
ASJ３月の会報に書かれていた質疑録に、中国の共産党が倒れたらどうなるかとの質問に対する講師の回答が次の様にありました。
Japan has one party dominance with a veneer of democracy. Machinations happen under the umbrella of the LDP. If the Communist Party collapses, what will happen?
Most likely a fractionalization of parties.
"Machinations" が分からないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Engage in plots and intrigues; scheme.: They have no place machinating behind the scenes now.
・Vocabulary.com: When a James Bond villain comes up with a plan to destroy the world, he doesn’t use a simple plan. No, he uses a machination - a complex plot that relies on numerous elements coming together to work.
Not surprisingly, machination derives from the Medieval French machina, meaning "machine." And, like many a machine, a machination is subject to going wrong, often comically (see James Bond movies). Politicians love a good machination, and their machinations are frequently exposed in the press as scandals.
機械も人間が作った物なので、陰謀が "machination" となっても不思議ではないのですね。
I'm not in the office right now, but if it's important, tweet me using the hashtag ♯YOUAREINTERRUPTING-MYHOLIDAY.
I met very nationalistic and very leberal thinkers as well. One shoudd check facts and back them up: check for wool being pulled over one's eyes.
"wool being pulled over one's eyes" の意味が分かりません。一瞬、目からうろこを連想したのですが、意味が通りません。辞書を引くと全くのその反対の意味でした。
"pull the wool over someone's eyes" で次の説明があります。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. to deceive someone. You can't pull the wool over my eyes. I know what's going on. Don't try to pull the wool over her eyes. She's too smart.
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: to deceive someone These people who claim to have paranormal or supernatural powers are just pulling the wool over people's eyes.
・The American HeritageR Idioms Dictionary: Deceive or hoodwink someone, as in His partner had pulled the wool over his eyes for years by keeping the best accounts for himself. This term alludes to the former custom of wearing a wig, which when slipping down can blind someone temporarily.
ASJ Marchのレクチャーは三井財閥を支えた実業家である益田 孝とCharles Lang Freerの関係の話でした。
Charles Lang Freer was an American industrialist and art collector, best known for his large collection of Asian and American Art which he donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1906....Smithsonian's first major donations from a private individual.
...
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) and Masuda Takashi (1848-1938) initiated their relationship in an odd, almost comically contentious manner. Freer, a Detroit industrialist began collecting Japanese art in the late 1880s. By 1907, on the occasion of his second of five visits to Japan, he had his first encounters with Masuda, the founder of the modern Mitsui conglomerate and leader of a new breed in Meiji era Japan--the industrialist art collector/tea ceremony afficianado. Masuda accused Freer to his face of pillaging Japanese patrimony and intrigue encountered by Freer during his several months visit in 1907 bordered on French farce.
ASJでの話はいつも私の全く知らないことが多いので関心します。 "patrimony" も知らなかった単語なので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Heritage: an organization that saves the world’s cultural patrimony by restoring historic buildings
"patrimony" は元々 Property inherited from one’s father or male ancestor.の意味でした。
Reader's Digest １月号の定番記事 "Smart Animals" からの抜粋です。
記事中のBabettaは猫でSophieは犬です。
One day, while sitting on the verandah, watching their frolicking with amusement, I realised that Babetta was in serious training mode with Sophie. She would run the length of the backyard fence with Sophie in tow, then jump over the fence into the bushland on the other side. Sophie would follow her to the fence but then stop abruptly, unable to clear it.
"tow" に引っ張る意味がありますが、"in tow" は慣用句として覚えた方が良さそうです。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Accompanying or following someone: trying to shop with three children in tow is no joke
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If you go somewhere with a particular person in tow, they are with you: She arrived at the party, with a tall, silver-haired man in tow.
Reader's Digest １月号の記事 "Swim for Your Life" から引用します。
Twenty long minutes passed before the boat reappeared. It stopped, and Gaylene and Els realised that a small landing craft was coming towards them. Els, who'd kept her emotions in check, snapped out of survival mode. She cried and screamed.
"in check" を辞書で見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Under control: a way of keeping inflation in check
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: under restraint or control: trying to keep his emotions in check
Reader's Digest １月号の記事からの引用です。
Why Athletes are Better than Ever Today, billions of customers have a ticket to the Olympics or the World Cup with the flick of a remote control. As a result, most sports enthusiasts are now spectators to the elite as opposed to participants in the quotidian - a huge population of recliner-bound footballers.
文脈からすると "quotidian" は "elite" の対語なので普通の人を指しているようですが、知らない単語なので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane: his story is an achingly human one, mired in quotidian details
・Cambridge English Dictionary: ordinary: Television has become part of our quotidian existence.
・Vocabulary.com: Quotidian is a fancy way of saying "daily" or "ordinary." Quotidian events are the everyday details of life.
When you talk about the quotidian, you're talking about the little things in life: everyday events that are normal and not that exciting. Going to the store, doing chores, working or going to school, and brushing your teeth are all quotidian. If you take a spaceship to Mars, that would be unusual and extraordinary: the opposite of quotidian.
以前（1/8/2015）、（11/9/2009）にとりあげた "cameo" が Reader's Digest １月号の記事 "Stories about women are largely untold" に出てきました。
Although the basic outlines of the suffragette story are well known, and characters such as Emmeline Pankhurst (played in cameo by Meryl Streep) will be familiar to most, much of the detail is an invaluable history lesson.
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