大昔の理工系出身なのでまともに英語の勉強をしていません。そこで、年末年始の休みに、「行方昭夫東大名誉教授と名作・モームの『赤毛』を読む」と副題の付いた「英文精読術」を読むことにしました。
非常に丁寧な解説がついているので、辞書を使う必要は全くありませんが、覚えておきたい表現が三つありましたので、それを取り上げます。
She had yielded to him, through weariness, but she had only yeilded what she set no store on. The soul which he had dimly glimpsed escaped him.
"set no store on" は辞書には "set store by" or "set store on" の項で説明がありました。
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To have faith, confidence, or belief in someone or something; to care about, appreciate, or respect someone or something.: I, however, have set store in the promise of the afterlife, so I choose to lead my life piously and devoutly.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to consider valuable, trustworthy, or worthwhile
"set no store on" だと、「重要だとは考えない」になるのですね。
Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'The Nicest Places in America' から引用します。
Bandy called Mayor Paige Brown, Pastor Jackson, and other leaders in the African American community to view the harrowing video with him at police headquarters. Then he explained he was going to release the potentially incendiary footage to the public.
"footage" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A length of film made for movies or television.: 'film footage of the riot’
・Collins Dictionary: Footage of a particular event is a film of it or the part of a film which shows this event.: They are planning to show exclusive footage from this summer's festivals.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: (a piece of) film especially one showing an event: Woody Allen's movie "Zelig" contains early newsreel footage.
先日ＴＶを見ていたら何か海外のＴＶニュースからの画像を利用した画面にこの "...footage" なる単語がちらっと映っているのに気が付きました。
Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Life Lessons From Boot Camp' から引用します。
Never argue with drill sergeants.
If you have a differing opinion, ask whether you can give yours. They'll tell you whether there's any room for discussion. If not, salute and move out smartly. Don't roll your eyes or let your attitude show, either. The drill sergeants will pick up on it and eat your lunch.
慣用句と思われる "pick up on" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Become aware of or sensitive to something.: 'she is very quick to pick up emotional atmospheres’
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to become alert to something; to take notice of something; to learn or catch on to something. She's real sharp. She picks up on everything. The cop picked up on the car with the expired license plates.
"pick up on" は日本語の空気を読むの表現に使えそうです。
Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Life in these United States' からの引用です。
Lice was detected on a student at my grandson Ryan's school, and the teacher told the girls in Ryan's first grade class to wear their hair in a bun to discourage the lice. Needing clarification, Ryan asked, "A hot dog bun or a hamburger bun?"
・Oxford English Dictionary: A hairstyle in which the hair is drawn back into a tight coil at the back of the head.
Still Aliceの巻末付録 'Excerpt from Lisa Genova's novel Inside the O'Briens' からの引用です。
The youngest thinks they should just let their mom know the information, and she can do with it what she wants. This is pretty common in families where someone has Alzheimer's. There's disagreement and people dig in their heels and take things personally. It's rife with conflict.
慣用句の "dig in their heels" は 6/30/2014" に取り上げました。
小説のStill Aliceは読み終わりましたが、巻末に付録として 'A Conversation with Lisa Genova' があり、そこから引用します。
"So which one of you did this?"
They all stare and say nothing. The Charlestown code of silence, eh?
"Who picked up my gun and left it by the sink?" he demands, his voice booming. Silence will not be an option.
"code of silence" とは何でしょう？ 英英辞書でこの項を掲載しているものは見つかりませんでしたがWikipediaに次の説明がありました。
A code of silence is a condition in effect when a person opts to withhold what is believed to be vital or important information voluntarily or involuntarily.
The code of silence is usually either kept because of threat of force, or danger to oneself, or being branded as a traitor or an outcast within the unit or organization as the experiences of the police whistleblower, Frank Serpico illustrates. Police are known to have a well-developed Blue Code of Silence. The code of silence was famously practiced in Irish-American neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts such as Charlestown, South Boston, and Somerville.
なるほど、日本の警察にも、いや警察だけではなく、役所、政党、企業など仲間内の不祥事やら悪い行いを隠していることが多々ありますが、最近は内部告発のせいか色々と驚く程の不正行動が明るみに出てきていますね。
上の説明に出てきた警察による "Blue Code of Silence" についてのWikipediaの説明もついでに引用します。
Blue Code of Silence: The blue wall of silence, also blue code and blue shield, are terms used in the United States to denote the informal rule that purportedly exists among police officers not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes, including police brutality. If questioned about an incident of alleged misconduct involving another officer (e.g. during the course of an official inquiry), while following the code, the officer being questioned would claim ignorance of another officer's wrongdoing or claim to have not seen anything.
Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読んでいます。
She and you and your family and her colleagues probably disregarded any number of symptoms as fluke, or normal, or chalked them up to stress, not enough sleep, too much to drink, and on. This could'ved gone on easily for a year or tow or longer.
"chalked them up to" は12/19/2011に取り上げているので復習です。
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To attribute something to something else (which is stated after "to").: They're a very young team, so we'll chalk this loss up to inexperience and nerves.
・Wiktionary: To attribute or account for something.: Chalk it up to fear that he didn't finish.
Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読んでいます。
She could only stomach watching the Alice Howland video once. She used to be so eloquent, so comfortable talking in front of any audience. Now, she overused the word thingy and repeated herself an embarrasing number of times.
アルツハイマーになったら使いそうな言葉とは、アルツハイマーでなくとも歳をとると多用する例のあれですね。 一応 "thingy" を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A person or thing whose name one has forgotten, does not know, or does not wish to mention.: So, I am going to have to buy one of those memory card thingies.
・Macmillan Dictionary: used for referring to something when you do not know or cannot remember the name of it: Hand me one of those red thingies over there.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: sometimes used if you can't remember someone's or something's name: Can you pass me that thingy - you know, that clip thing for holding papers together.
英語では "thingy" の他にも "something" を使うはずと思っていたら、他の場面でAliceが "something" を次のように使っていました。
"You don't want vanilla, you want something chocolate."
"Okay then, I'll have something chocolate."
Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読んでいます。
After their first dinner alone together at the Squire, Alice and Lydia walked down Main Street without talking. The line of luxury cars and SUVs parked along the curb, outfitted with bike racks and kayaks bungeed on roofs, crammed with baby strollers, beach chairs, and umbrellas, and sporting license plates from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey in addition to Massachusetts signaled the summer season officially in full swing.
"bungeed" ですが、バンジージャンプしか連想しないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A long nylon-cased rubber band used for securing luggage and in bungee jumping.: Also, my car was so old the bumper was tied on with a bungee cord.
・Collins Dictionary: a type of stretchy rope consisting of elastic strands often in a fabric casing: Police say the bungee cord had not been secured properly.
なるほど、バンジージャンプで使われるような太いゴム紐で車の屋根に取り付けていたのですね。
朝寝床からでるまえにラジオでAFNを聴くことがありますが、今朝は珍しくクラシックのピアノ音楽（クラシックと言っても乙女の祈りとかサティーのジムノペディの様な軽い曲ばかりでしたが）が流れています。しばらく聴いていると 'Due to a government office close AFN service is not available.' のアナウンスが聞こえました。一瞬何のことかと思いましたが、前日のニュースで、米国議会でもめていて政府機関が閉鎖されるとあったのを思い出しました。日本の話でなくて良かった
さて、Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読んでいます。
"Look, I think you jumped the gun going to see a neurologist. He looks at your set of symptoms and sees Alzheimer's, but that's what he's trained to see, it doesn't mean he's right.
主人公のAliceがアルツハイマーの初期段階だと医者から言われましたが、夫のJohnはアルツハイマーと断定するのはまだ早いと考えています。
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