trialed

'100 Essential Things You Didn't Know'（前回書いたように正式な題名はもっと長いのですが、省略します。）を読んでいます。
Simple geometry can create beautiful designs but it can also provide unexpectedly elegant solutions to awkward design problems. An interesting example of a far-reaching simple idea is the problem of how to design an aircraft carrier's flight deck. When the US and Royal Navies first trialed the idea of launching and landing aircraft from stationary and moving ships during the period 1910-17, it was a pretty hazardous business.
"trial" は動詞の "try" の名詞形と思っていましたが、動詞でもあるのですね。　辞書で "trial" の動詞の項の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: with object Test (something, especially a new product) to assess its suitability or performance.: ‘all seeds are carefully trialed in a variety of growing conditions’
・Collins English Dictionary: to test or make experimental use of (something): the idea has been trialled in several schools
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to test something in a formal way to discover how effective or suitable it is: We will trial the new drug in several hospitals.
スペルについては他の辞書も見たところ "trialed" と "trialled" の両方とも使われている様です。

hypotenuse

一寸長いタイトル名の '100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Math and the Arts' を読み始めました。題名からtriviaな内容だろうと予想しましたが、その通りでした。但し、タイトルが長いので借りた時はタイトルの半分 '100 Essential Things You Didn't Know' までしか意識していませんでしたが、このメモを書いて気が付きました。この手の本としては意外に結構難しい数学の話も出てきて、ネイティブスピーカーでも知らないと思われる単語も時々出てきますが、そんな単語はここでは取り上げることはよして、覚えたいと思う単語のみ取り上げます。
最初に取り上げるのは "hypotenuse" で、ネパールの国旗の話に出てきました。
There has been much murder and overthrow of the royal family in 2007 about whether the flag should be changed to signal the country's new begining, but proposals for a conventional rectangular flag were defeated.
The most striking thing about this unique flag design is that the two diagonal lines forming the hypotenuses of the triangles are not parallel.

私は知らなかったのですが、 "hypotenuse" の意味はネパールの国旗を知っていれば文脈から推測できます。
しかし、この単語はネイティブスピーカーなら誰でも知っていそうなので覚えたいと思います。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The longest side of a right triangle, opposite the right angle.: ‘Can we have any other Pythagorean triangles with a Fibonacci number as the hypotenuse (the longest side)?’
・Collins English Dictionary: the longest side of a right triangle, located opposite the right angle: The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the other two sides squared.

a level five's gonna do it

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読み終わりましたが、小説最後から二番目の段落にある表現で分からない箇所があります。最後の二つの段落を引用します。

"Just so you know, I'll need something real hot and spicy to go with it!" Sayoko cracked as she continued sorting. "Nothing short of a level five's gonna do it for me today. This mess definitely takes the prize."
The band of sunlight coming through the window stretched across the cluttered floor to the threshold of the dimly lit tatami room. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Sayoko's face from temple to chin and fell to the floor.

"level five's gonna do it" の意味がどうも分かりません。辞書を見ても見当がつかないので原書の「対岸の彼女」を借りて調べることにしました。

この箇所は「うんと辛いもの奢って！　辛５レベルじゃなきゃやってらんない。この部屋はすごすぎる」となっていました。そうですか、最高に辛いレベル５の意味だったのですね。
"This mess definitely takes the prize." は皮肉的な表現ですね。

Who is jerk?

Reader's Digest 7/8月合併号のジョーク特集から
A woman walks into a doctor's office with both of her ears burned.
"What happened?" asks the doctor.
"While I was ironing my blouse, the phone ring, and I picked up the iron instead of the phone," she says.
"That explains one ear, but what about the other?"
"The jerk called again."

double over

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいます。
A road runs along the banks of a river. Summer grasses grow tall and thick beside it. Two teenage girls are walking on the far bank, skirts rippling in the breeze, hair flickering in the sun, something funny making them double over with laughter. Suddenly they look across the water and spy the teenage Sayoko standing on the opposite shore.

"double over" の意味を辞書で調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: OFTEN PASSIVE to bend forward because you are in pain or because you are laughing a lot: be doubled over with something: She was doubled over with pain.
・Free Dictionary: bend over or curl up, usually with laughter or pain: "He doubled and vomited violently"
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To bend over at the waist, often due to pain or laughter.: I doubled over laughing when Jeff told that Joke at the meeting.
"doubled" も色々な意味に使われるのですね。

pulling in the dough

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいます。
"There's a lady in my building who takes in work at home. Some kind of design work, I guess, but I don't really know. She thinks nothing of sending her boy over to play and not coming to get him till six and seven in the evening. Of course, all that time, she's doing her work. Talk about brazen!"
"That's some nerve--using you as a free babysitter while she's pulling in the dough. And so blatantly."

慣用句の様な "pulling in the dough" の意味を調べましたが、どの辞書にもその様な慣用句は見当たりません。 しかし、"pull in" に次の意味があることが分かりました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal Earn a specified sum of money.: you could pull in $100,000’

・Collins Dictionary: If you pull in an amount of money, you earn or collect that amount.: I only pull in 15,000 a year as a social worker.

なるほど、それなら "dough" にお金の意味があるのは以前（9/30/2015）取り上げているので "pulling in the dough" は簡単に言えば "earn money" ですね。

once-over

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいます。
Since it was the season for the customer year-end cleaning anyway, she felt no pangs of guilt; she simply told herself that giving the house a thorough buffing-up for the new year took priority over taking Akari on outings to the park or the children's museum.
She'd started work at the begining of June, so the house had suffered more than six months of neglect. Her quick, weekly once-overs had missed many pockets of accumulating dust and grime.

ここでの "weekly once-overs" は文脈からすると「一週間に一度の簡単な掃除」と推測できますが、 "once-overs" でそんな意味になるのでしょうか？　辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A piece of work that is done quickly.: Give your body a once-over with a loofah sponge, then finish with a final warm water rinse.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: the act of quickly cleaning a place: Would you mind giving the carpet a once-over with the vacuum cleaner?
・Macmillan Dictionary: to clean something very quickly: I’ll just give the bathroom a quick once-over.
推測は当たっていましたね。

jumping out of their skins

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいます。
Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the fear that had gripped her moments before began to ebb. "We just have to get a knife. If we catch them alone and wave a knife in their face, they'll be so scared, they'll be practically throwing their money at us. Especially when they see your blond hair. They'll be jumping out of their skins." She felt calmer now. Nanako was staring at her, her face still a blank. In the middle of that blankness a mouth gaped open.
"jumping out of their skins" は慣用句の様ですね。意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal　Be extremely startled.: I nearly jumped out of my skin when Guy fired his revolver.
・Collins Dictionary: to be very startled: And so starts the thrill-a-minute adventure that we guarantee will make you jump out of your skin.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: used with almost, nearly, etc., to say that someone is suddenly surprised or frightened very much by something: I didn't hear her come in, so I nearly jumped out of my skin when she spoke to me.

ho-hum

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいます。
As before, Aoi and Nanako hung out together after school, meeting up to go to the river, buying something to eat along the way, talking and laughing endlessly about the new caste system. It came from everything being so dull all the time, Nanako asserted. So totally ho-hum. Day in and day out, their world, their lives, their grades, everything always the same. And because of that, people got antsy and looked for ways to stir things up. Ranking everybody in an arbitrary caste system let them feel important. It was how they kept from going out of their minds.
英語らしくない表現の "ho-hum" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Used to express boredom or resignation.: ‘Now I don't need those sights in my head as I prepare to return to work… ho-hum.’

・Collins Dictionary: You can use ho hum when you want to show that you think something is not interesting, remarkable, or surprising in any way.: Ho hum, another nice job down the drain.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: an expression used when someone is bored, or when they accept that something unpleasant cannot be stopped from happening: So I need to do it all again. Ho-hum.
語源が気になり他の辞書も見ると次の辞書に由来について記述がありました。
・McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions: mod. dull; causing yawns of boredom. (Ho-hum is a representation of the sound of a yawn.) Clare played another ho-hum concert at the music hall last night.
なるほど、納得。

I was Napoleon

Reader's Digest 7/8月合併号のジョーク特集から
Therapy
A psychologist congratulated his patient on making good progress, but the patient wasn't buying it. "You call this progress?" he snapped. "Six months ago, I was Napoleon. Now I'm nobody!"

この患者を半年後のトランプ氏に置き換えて想像して見ました。
A psychologist congratulated his patient on making good progress, but the patient wasn't buying it. "You call this progress?" he snapped. "Six months ago, I was President. Now I'm nobody!"