behind the eight ball

I, ROBOTを読んでいます。
Powell brushed his mustache the wrong way, "So help me, Mike, another fool remark out of you, and I'll take away your rattle and teething ring."
"All right. You're the genius of the team. I'm just a poor sucker. Where do we stand?"
"Right behind the eight ball. I tried to work it backward through the 'finger,' and couldn't. So we've got to work it forward."
上の引用文中に出てきた "behind the eight ball" は慣用句の様です。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: At a disadvantage.: don't let cash-flow crises put you behind the eight ball

・Collins Dictionary: in trouble or in a difficult situation: If a child doesn't get the basics in primary school they are way behind the eight ball.

・American Heritage Dictionary: In trouble or an awkward position, out of luck, as in His check bounced, leaving Jim behind the eight ball with his landlord. The term comes from pocket billiards or pool, where in certain games if the number eight ball is between the "cue ball" and "object ball" the player cannot make a straight shot.
ビリヤードにそんなルールのあるゲームがあるのですね。

go to pot

AsimovのI, ROBOTを読んでいます。

U.S. Robots had to get the bugs out of the multiple robot, and there were plenty of bugs, and there are always at least half a dozen bugs left for the field-testing. So they waited and relaxed until the drawing-board men and the slide-rule boys had said "OK!" And now he and Powell were out on the asteroid and it was not OK. He repeated that a dozen times, with a face that had gone beety, "For the love of Pete, Greg, get realistic. What's the use of adhering to the letter of the specifications and watching the test go to pot? It's about time you got the red tape out of your pants and went to work."
慣用句らしい "go to pot" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Deteriorate through neglect.: the foundry was allowed to go to pot in the seventies

・Collins Dictionary: If something goes to pot, it loses all its good qualities because nobody looks after it or works at it.: The neighbourhood really is going to pot.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be damaged or spoiled because people are not working hard on it or caring for it: I'm afraid I've let the garden go to pot this summer.
語源も知りたくなったので調べるとThe Word Detectiveに次の記述がありました。
All my little clients had "gone to pot" in the figurative sense meaning "deteriorated or destroyed," but I would never have dreamt of them "going to pot" in the original sense of the term. Around 1542, when the phrase first appeared, "to go to pot" was to be cut up like chunks of meat destined for the stew pot. Such a stew was usually the last stop for the remnants of a once substantial cut of meat or poultry, so "going to pot" made perfect sense as a metaphor for anything, from a national economy to a marriage, that had seen better days. Early uses of the metaphor were usually in the form "go to the pot."

How many people work here?

Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 'HOW TO CRAFT A COMEBACK' からの引用です。
Reporter: "How many people work at the Vatican?"
People John XXIII: "About half."
以前読んだことのあるジョークで、会社の受付嬢に "How many people work here?" と尋ねたら、このエピソードと同じ答えが返って来たのがありましたが、実際にもある話なのですね。

Toddler Carpenter

昨日の答えは "river" です。やはり小学生レベルの問題だったのだと思いました。つまり、私の英語レベルはネイティブの小学生以下ですね。
さて今日はReader's Digest 6月号の記事 'LIFE in the United State' から引用します。
Toddler walks by with a hammer.
ME: What are you going to make?
TODDLER: Noise

幼い子は面白い事を言いますね。私の3歳の孫はついこないだ、「頑張っているんだから」と言って、立ったままウンチをしていました。

What Am I?

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事 'BRAIN GAMES' から引用します。
私は誰でしょうというクイズです。
What Am I?
I run but never walk. I gurgle but don't talk. I have a bed but never sleep. And I have a mouth but never eat.
What am I?
問題としてはEASYのランクになっていましたが、私には難しく、直ぐ答えを見てしまいました。
答えは明日。

of biblical proportions

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事 'RESCUE DOG' から引用します。
When he heard me, he swam to shore, ran out of the water, beelined right to me, and launched into a reverberating full-body shake of biblical proportions. He completely drenched me with mud and pond water, and not for one second did it make me angry.
"biblical" では聖書の事しか連想できないので "biblical proportions" の意味が分かりません。辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Very great; on a very large scale.: We need rainfall of biblical proportions to bring us back to normal.

・Collins Dictionary: Very great; especially, exceeding previous records in scale.: of biblical proportions; with biblical fury

・Urban Dictionary: This refers to something which happens on the grandest scale possible on earth. This includes apocalypse, major war etc.: We cannot allow you to continue research on this weapon, it would cause a disaster of biblical proportions.
この意味での "biblical" は通常 "of biblical proportions" という慣用句的な使い方をする様です。

sesquipedalian

Reader's Digest 5月号の単語クイズは "sesquipedalian" (words a foot and a half long) でした。単語クイズでいつもは１５問中１０点前後しか正解できないのですが、初めて１３点取れました。これはネイティブなら当然知っている単語も知らないものが多くあるくせに、むしろネイティブにも難解な単語を知っているという偏った知識をもっているのでしょう。さて、分からなかった２語は次の単語です。
QUESTION
　
"triskaidekaphobia": A. dread of magician B. hatred of cats C. fear of the number 13
"phantasmagoria": A. dreamlike scene B. elief in ghosts C. mime show

ANSWER
"triskaidekaphobia": C. 例文 Many hotels go from floor 12 to 14, a nod to guests with phantasmagoria.
"phantasmagoria": A. 例文 "I Am the Walrus" is a phantasmagoria of sound and imagery.
余り役に立たない単語ですね。

clothes for gym

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事 'Your True Stories in 100 Words' から引用します。
At breakfast, my sister Rose announced, "I need clothes for gym." Dad just shook his head and kept on eating. This went on for several days. Finally, one morning Rose said, "Dad, I have to bring clothes for gym today." At that moment, Dad pushed his chair back, stood up, and said, "Listen here. I don't know who this Jim guy is, and I feel bad for him, but I got five girls in this here house, and I'm afraid Jim is just gonna have to get his own darn clothes!"
一年前から会社帰りにジムに寄ってランニングをする習慣がついて来ましたが、2か月に一度程ジム用のパンツ、Tシャツ、靴下、タオルの内のいづれかの一点を忘れる事があります。その時は事務用の服で代用できないので困ります。

guy wire

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事 'Surprising Facts About Skyscrapers' から引用します。
By some measures, the 2,063-foot KVLY-TV tower near Blanchard, North Dakota, is the tallest structure in the United States. It's held up by guy wires, but it does the job. "You need to cover a large area to get to enough people," Doug Jenson, chief engineer at KVLY-NBC, told medium.com.
"guy wire" とは面白い表現ですね。辞書の説明を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: a cable, wire, or rope that is used to brace something (especially a tent)

・Wiktionary:(Alternative spelling of guy-wire) A metal guy rope used to stabilize a tall structure (such as a radio mast).

Tom One or Tom Two?

Reader's Digest 6月号の記事 'LIFE in the United State' から引用します。
Although I'd been dating a woman for several months, I guess I din't know her as well as I thought. One day I called, and her ten-year-old son answered.
"Hi," I said. "It's Tom. Can I speak with your mam?"
He responded, "Are you Tom One or Tom Two?"