riverine

Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。
The focus on the numbers of large, visible, and tourist-attracting mammals, while understandable and generally good news, does however tend to overshadow other indicators of Gorongosa's health and importance. That indicator would be the overall biological diversity in the park, and this is where Gorongosa really stands out. Despite all the trauma it has experienced, it is because of the variety of habitats within Gorongosa--rainforest, sand forest, riverine forest, miombo woodland, limestone caves, grasslands, and floodplain--that it may currently provide home to more species than any other park in Africa.

"riverine forest" の "riverine" は川と関係がありそうですが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Relating to or situated on a river or riverbank; riparian.: a riverine village

・Collins Dictionary: on or near the banks of a river; riparian: He had served in the Navy in Vietnam in riverine patrol boats-one of the few places Navy officers actually got shot at.

・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: living or situated on the banks of a river: But this uniquely Australian creature’s riverine habitat is being threatened by climate change, in the form of more severe and more frequent droughts, as well as by water diversion and extraction.

'The Serengeti Rules' を読み終えたところで、丁度年末になりました。今年１年間で読んだ本のページ数は例年より１５％程少ない結果でした。私の読書は会社への通勤中、昼休みの間が大半なので、コロナのお蔭で会社に行かない時期が２ヵ月強あった今年は読書時間が減ったためでしょう。来年はコロナが治まることを願っています。

forb

今日は今年の仕事納めです。つまりオフィスのお掃除が主な仕事です。
さて、Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。

The trees and tall grass eventually ended at an enormous flood-plain. We pulled off the road and climbed out of the truck to take in a breathtaking panorama. The foreground was carpeted with lush green grass and forbs, and was cut by a wide stream and its side-channels, which attracted flocks of yellow-billed storks, whistling ducks, and spur-winged geese.

木でも "grass" でもない "forbs" はどんな植物？　辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Botany A herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass.: Species were classified according to their growth form; forbs include all herbaceous dicotyledonous species (including Fabaceae).

・Collins Dictionary: a broad-leaved herbaceous plant, as distinguished from the grasses, sedges, shrubs, and trees

・Wiktionary: (chiefly ecology) Any non-woody flowering plant that is not a graminoid (a grass, sedge, or rush).
草は全て "grass" と思っていましたが、葉が細長くないクローバーなどは "forb" とよばれるのですね。 "grass" も英英辞典の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Vegetation consisting of typically short plants with long, narrow leaves, growing wild or cultivated on lawns and pasture, and as a fodder crop.: The ground was mostly barren with just short grass, where no vegetation dared to grow.
"long, narrow leaves" となっていますね。でも一般的には英語でも草は "grass" で済ましている気がします。

trophic level

Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。
Like Elton's pyramid, HSS pictured the food chain as subdivided into different levels according to the food each consumed (known as trophic levels). At the bottom were the decomposers that degrade organic debris; above them were the producers, the plants that relied on sunlight, rain and soil nutrients; at the next level were the consumers, the herbivores that are plants; and above them the predators that are the herbivores. (HSS は三人の学者の頭文字)

"trophic" は 'The Serengeti Rules' の中で何度も出てくるので覚えたい単語です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Relating to feeding and nutrition.: We also combined taxa into four functional groups based on known trophic positions and feeding preferences: primary producers, herbivores, bacterivores, or predators.

・Collins Dictionary: of or relating to nutrition: the trophic levels of a food chain

toxicologist

Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。血液中のコレステロールを下げる特効薬のもとになる物質「スタチン」を発見した遠藤氏が出てきました。
In just one month of treatment, the birds' cholesterol levels dropped by 50 percent! Endo's success in hens prompted tests in monkeys and dogs, where compactin caused 30-44 percent reductions in cholesterol. Given the close biological relationship between monkeys and humans, these results boded well for the drug's potential. Sankyo formed a Compctin Development Project team composed of Endo, pharmacologists, pathologists, chemists, and toxicologists to further develop the drug.

"toxicologist" はどんな科学者・研究者か分からないので辞書を見ます。辞書の説明は "toxicology" についてです。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The branch of science concerned with the nature, effects, and detection of poisons.: This book represents an important contribution to neurology, toxicology and pharmacology.

・Collins Dictionary: Toxicology is the study of poisons.: toxicologists attempt to identify and understand toxic hazards.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: the scientific study of the characteristics and effects of poisons: Toxicology analysis is thus mandatory in such cases and the expertise of physicians is essential.
そういえば、形容詞の "toxic" と名詞の "toxin" は知っていましたね。

homeostasis

Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。
Cannon emphasized how most organs received dual nervous inputs that, as a rule, opposed each other. With this wiring, organ activity can be increased or decreased depending on conditions. Impressed by the body's ability to adjust to disturbances. Cannon coined a new term to describe the steady states maintained in the body: homeostasis (from the Greek homeo meaning "similar" and stasis meaning "standing still").

上の引用文に出てきた "homeostasis" は 8/27/2014に取り上げていますが、辞書の説明を引用していないので今回辞書で再確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.: However, hormones that regulate physiological homeostasis in adults may be diluted, up to six-fold.

・Collins Dictionary: the tendency of a system, esp. the physiological system of higher animals, to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus tending to disturb its normal condition or function

・Cambridge English Dictionary: the ability or tendency of a living organism, cell, or group to keep the conditions inside it the same despite any changes in the conditions around it, or this state of internal balance: Warm-blooded animals are able to achieve temperature homeostasis.
最後に引用した辞書の説明が一番素人向けで分かり易い。

straggler

Danielle Steelの小説を二冊続けて読んだので、今度はノンフィクションを読むことにしました。選んだのは Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' です。Serengetiはアフリカのタンザニアにある自然遺産となっている有名な公園があるところですね。

It is a sea of stripes. Perhaps 2,000 or more animals have gathered near a large waterhole, raising a ruckus. The zebra's calls are something between a bark and a laugh: "kwa-ha, kwa-ha," while the wildebeest seem to just mutter "huh?" These herds are stragglers from the greatest animal migration on the planet, when as many 1 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebras, and tens of thousands of other animals follow the rains north to greener grazing grounds.

"stragglers" の意味を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: The stragglers are the people in a group who are moving more slowly or making less progress than the others.: Any straggler that fell behind or got lost in the darkness was easy prey for the enemy.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a person or animal that is last in a group to do something or the last to get to or leave a place: We watched the last of the stragglers come in, three hours after the first runner.

busting my chops

Danielle Steelの'Five Days in Paris' を読んでいます。
"But we are careful. That's the whole point. Every drug has its risks, its side effects, its downside. If we weren't willing to live with that, we'd have to close our doors and start selling cotton candy at the state fair. For chrissake, Peter, stop busting my chops on this, be sensible. I want you to understand I'm going to override you on this....

"bust someone's chops" は慣用句の様です。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Nag or criticize someone.; to berate or hound in an effort to elicit action.: The boss has been busting chops all day.; The boss busted our chops all week.

・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to criticize someone in a playful way: tease: My brother likes to bust my chops.

'Five Days in Paris' を読み終えました。Danielle Steelの小説を二冊読んだだけですが、どちらも登場人物が少ないので多読本を読むのと同じようにすらすら読めます。英語が上達した様な気にさせます。

pull rank

Danielle Steelの'Five Days in Paris' を読んでいます。
His whole body seemed to be coiled with anticipated tension, he looked like a cobra about to spring. And Peter felt like his prey, as he prepared to defend himself, and the integrity of the company, but Frank had anticipated him, and he was prepared to pull rank if he had to. "I think your're just going to have to trust my judgement here.

"pull rank" の個所ですが、Frankは会社の会長、Peterは社長の身分なので地位を利用して、あるいは立場の優位性で威圧するような意味だと思いますが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Take unfair advantage of one's seniority or privileged position.: ‘someone pulled rank and took my place’

・Collins Dictionary: to make unfair use of your power or position to make people do what you want: The Federal Government threatened to pull rank and override the states with its own legislation.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to use the power that your position gives you over someone in order to make them do what you want: He doesn't have the authority to pull rank on me.
車を止めるにも "pull off" という表現がありますが、"pull" の使い方は難しい。

P.S. "pull rank" は 2/2/2015 にも取り上げていました。

winterize

Danielle Steelの'Five Days in Paris' を読んでいます。Peterの家族は夏休みの間、父親、Frankの別荘で過ごしました。
As soon as Peter could, he walked away from him, and a little while later he saw Frank talking to Katie. He could guess what about, and it depressed him watching them. It was obvious to him she was not discussing their proposed vacation. And he knew without a doubt that that little plan would never come to fruition. He didn't say anything more about it to her that night. And for the next two days, they were busy closing up the house. It had never been winterized, and they wouldn't be back until next summer.

"winterize" は冬支度の意味のようです。辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Adapt or prepare (something, especially a house or an automobile) for use in cold weather.: ‘a waterfront cottage that Dixon had winterized’

・Collins Dictionary: to prepare (a house, car, etc) to withstand winter conditions: All cabins are equipped with electric heat but not fully winterized, and can provide 3 season camping.

そうすると、夏支度は "summerize" となりますが、辞書に載っているでしょうか？
・Random House Unabridged Dictionary: to prepare (a house, car, etc.) so as to counteract the hot weather of summer: to summerize a house by adding air
・Dictionary.com:to prepare (a house, car, etc.) so as to counteract the hot weather of summer: to summerize a house by adding air conditioning.

bunion

Danielle Steelの'Five Days in Paris' を読んでいます。滞在しているパリのホテルで爆弾を仕掛けられたとの騒ぎがあり、Peterは退避中に同じホテルに滞在しているOliviaと会っています。
"That must be uncomfortable for you," Olivia said, searching his eyes, trying to see if he was unhappy, or even knew it. He seemed to be suggesting that Kate's loyalty to her father, even to that degree, was not only acceptable to him, but normal. And yet his eyes said something else. She wondered if that was what he had meant when he said everyone's shoes pinched sometimes. To Olivia, to whom privacy and discretion and loyalty meant almost everything, Peter's shoes would have given her bunions.

Danielle Steelの小説には難しい単語は余り出てきませんが、この "bunions" は全く分かりません。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A painful swelling on the first joint of the big toe.: A bunion is a bony swelling on the side of the big toe.

・Collins Dictionary: swelling of the first joint of the big toe, which is displaced to one side. An inflamed bursa forms over the joint: A bunion, or hallux valgus, is a problem that affects toe joints, most often the first joint of the big toe.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a painful swelling on the main joint of the big toe: Both surveys identified that toenail problems dramatically increased with age and that corns, calluses and bunions, increased in prevalence with age.
卓球仲間の女性に外反母趾で足が痛くて靴が履けないとこぼしている方がいますが、足の親指が曲がっていました。 "bunions" は外反母趾の事ですね。