パート3のテスト2に登場するIf you wouldn’t mind.というフレーズの意味を問われる会話。韓国で出ている初級者向けのリスニング教材の本番テストにも収録されています。これまで正直この会話がピンときていませんでした。If you wouldn’t mind.という応答もしっくりきていなかったんです。ちょっと大げさというか、あまりTOEICにも登場しないような表現でしたし。。。
今回ようやく理解できたのでその報告です。If you wouldn’t mind.というのは相手が乗り気でないことをお願いする場合に使うということがポイントですね。
（ウィズダム） if you don't [wouldn't] mind｟話｠ 〖文頭文尾で〗(依頼や許可を求める表現に添えて)もし差し支えなければ.
（ロングマン） spoken if you don't mind also / if you wouldn't mind a) used to check that someone is willing to do something or let you do something: If you don't mind, I think I'll go to bed now. I'd like to stay a while longer if you don't mind. We'll go there together -that's if you don't mind.
Then what if I come by tomorrow anyway, just to pick up the key?
依頼者は遠まわしではありますが「鍵を渡したいから来てもらいたい」と伝えているのでこの造園会社の人はThen what if ...?で代替案をあげているのですね。ただ、明日は大雨ですよね。ですからcome by tomorrow anywayと提案したもののjust to pick up the keyと鍵を取りに行くだけで仕事はしないよと伝えています。
What if ...?という表現はTOEICでは代替案を伝える時によく使われています。insteadをつけて代替案であることを明示することもあるようです。
What if we just buy new videoconferencing equipment instead?
What if we push that oak bookcase all the way back against the wall, instead of having it standing next to the sofa?
「大雨にもかかわらず家に来い」という無茶振りをしている依頼主。TOEICの世界は常識的な人が多いですから、そこは申し訳ないと思うのでしょう。だからこそif you wouldn't mindという応答を使ったのでしょう。
TOEICでif you wouldn't mindやif you don't mindが使われるケースはやはり相手が第一に望まないことを依頼・提案する時に使われています。最初の例は、そのまま待っていていいかという相手に車を移動させてくれと依頼していますし、2番目の例も仕事のオファーについて相手に待ってくれとお願いしています。
Should I wait here while you check? - Actually, if you wouldn’t mind moving your truck, that’d be great, since we’re expecting some other deliveries shortly.
We’d like to offer you a sales position with us. - I’m very flattered. But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a day or two to talk it over with my family, since taking the job would require us all to relocate.
このブログでも紹介させてもらったThe National Museum of African American History and Cultureの開館がいよいよ迫ってきました。入場は無料ですが、混雑を避けるために時間指定のチケットを配布しているようです。そこで使われていたのがtimed passesという言葉でした。
WASHINGTON — The fast-approaching opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s latest museum has gained a lot of interest, and while entry is free, eager attendees had to sign up for “timed passes” that became available Saturday morning.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opens Sept. 24. after a dedication ceremony that President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, a limited amount of passes for the opening weekend as well as dates through October became available online and by phone. But by noon, all passes for opening weekend, as well as the next several weekends, were all booked.
Many weekday passes through October were still available.
DESCRIPTION This timed pass grants you admission to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. You may enter the museum during the time you select and remain as long as you wish. The historic significance and high visibility of the museum are attracting an unprecedented number of local, national, and international visitors. Due to the level of interest, this Timed Pass system is available to admit as many visitors as possible while maintaining a secure, safe and smooth flow of people into the museum. Timed Passes for the general public and nonprofit organizations are free of charge.
Things You Need to Know • Timed Passes for September and October are available now. To view available dates for Timed Passes in October, please click to the right of ‘September’ in the calendar. • Passes for November and December will be released in September. Additional release dates will be announced shortly. • There are 6 passes available per email address. • This is not a pass for a tour, your visit to the museum will be self-guided. • Please be prepared for large crowds and extended wait times. • While we will do our best to honor the scheduled time on your passes, your actual entry time is subject to building capacity and safety. • Each timed pass has a unique entry code and can only be used once. • The National Museum of African American History and Culture is open 364 days each year. Regular hours of operation are from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm. • For more information, visit https://nmaahc.si.edu
あと気になった表現はThe National Museum of African American History and Culture opens Sept. 24. after a dedication ceremony that President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend.のdedication ceremony。「落成式」「竣工式」の意味になるようです。
（オックスフォード） dedication [countable] a ceremony that is held to show that a building or an object has a special purpose or is special to the memory of a particular person
Good Afternoon and Happy Mother's Day! Congratulations to Tokyo Pride Parade on celebrating your fifth anniversary. I am proud to be the first U.S. Ambassador to speak here and join you in making Golden Week Rainbow Week!
In America, we strive to live up to the promises of freedom and equality on which our country was founded. The fight for full civil rights has been waged by African-Americans, women, people with disabilities, and the LGBT community. The courage of committed individuals who fight for justice reminds all of us that when one person is discriminated against because of what they look like, what god they believe in, or who they love - none of us are truly free. Today we reaffirm that LGBT rights are human rights.
In the United States, in Japan, and around the world, too many LGBT students are bullied, LGBT adults face discrimination, and LGBT teenagers commit suicide in heartbreaking numbers. Today we recommit ourselves to fight intolerance and cruelty, to reach out to those who are suffering.
Young people need to know that there are people who love them the way they are. The elderly should not face discrimination when they visit their partner in a hospital. And everyone should be able marry who they love. When we understand our differences, treat everyone with respect, and celebrate our diversity - that's when we will be able to build a world at peace.
DOING BAD BY DOING GOOD Despite its checkered past on gay rights—the State Department expelled gay employees in the 1950s—the United States under President Barack Obama has dramatically changed its policy. In February 2015, the State Department appointed Randy Berry as the first U.S. special envoy for LGBT rights. At the time, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized the importance of “defending and promoting” the rights of LGBT individuals to American diplomacy. More recently, the U.S. ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji marched in the Stockholm Pride Parade, and in India, the U.S. Embassy lit up its facade in rainbow colors after the June shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
Yet in much of the Arab Middle East, where populations overwhelmingly oppose homosexuality (including 95 percent of Egyptians and 97 percent of Jordanians), LGBT-rights promotion is more complicated. There, widespread hostility to gay rights puts the United States in a difficult position. One might argue that just as Washington has aggressively advocated for women’s rights and the welfare of religious minorities across the globe, so too should it consistently and publicly back gay rights, even if that means rebuffing foreign governments. Such a forceful approach, however, contradicts the wishes of many LGBT people actually living in the Arab Middle East.
June is LGBT pride month, an annual anti-discrimination effort made official last year with a proclamation from President Obama.
LGBT -- meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender -- is a widely accepted initialism. However, a fifth letter is increasingly making its way into the line-up: Q.
USA TODAY Network talked with experts and individuals in the gay community about what the Q means, why it's used and who is saying it.
What does the 'Q' stand for? Q can mean either 'questioning' or 'queer,' Fred Sainz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that lobbies for LGBT rights, told USA TODAY Network. Either interpretation is accepted, he said.
Reclaiming 'queer' "For decades (queer) was used as a pejorative against LGBT people," Sainz said. It was demeaning and often accompanied by violence. But in recent years the LGBT community, particularly younger people, have reclaimed the word, Sainz said. "It's a badge of honor. It's taking back a word that was once used as a weapon against us," he said. "You find the term completely commonplace in junior and senior high school and in college where individuals identify as queer."
ただ一般的には侮辱的とされるので記事でも使うときは、自らが名乗っているとしている場合に限った方がいいとアドバイスしています。具体的には第三者のJaneを語る場合にJane is a queer.とするのではなく' Jane identifies as queer.とした方がいいそうです。
When to use 'queer'
Because queer is still considered offensive by some people in the LGBT community, it's generally recommended that people avoid using it other than in situations where a person self-identifies as queer.
"Use the same term to identify them that they would use to identify themselves," Murray said. "We want to focus on the person. If we're telling a story, it's not about just 'Jane is a queer.' It's 'Jane identifies as queer.'"
Creating a culture of inclusion. We see diversity as everything that makes an employee who they are. We foster a diverse culture that’s inclusive of disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, and service to country. We want all employees to be comfortable bringing their entire selves to work every day. Because we believe our individual backgrounds, perspectives, and passions help us create the ideas that move all of us forward. Creating an inclusive culture takes both commitment and action. We’re helping employees identify and address unconscious racial and gender bias. We’re cultivating diverse leadership and tech talent. We’re continuing our advocacy for LGBTQ equality, investing in resources for Veterans and service members and their families, and exploring new ways to support employees with disabilities. We’re also strengthening our common bonds through on-campus groups, events, and programs.
On August 27 and 28, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) – the key platform to drive Japan’s development initiatives in Africa – will be held in Nairobi, Kenya.
While Africa has made great gains since the turn of the century, the collapse in prices of natural resources, the Ebola crisis and the rise of violent extremism and terrorism have highlighted the fragility of African development. The upcoming conference offers a timely opportunity to address the important challenges Africa faces today.
（オックスフォード） kaizen the practice of continuously improving the way in which a company operates Kaizen is practiced in many industries. kaizen training Companies that adopt kaizen can boost their productivity by as much as 30%.
（ケンブリッジビジネス） Kaizen a management system developed in Japan, based on the idea that employees should be involved in continually improving products, services, etc. to make the company as successful as possible: Workers are expected to adopt a policy of `kaizen', which is the practice of continually seeking improvement.
(Wikipedia) Kaizen, Japanese for "improvement." When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain.[1] It has been applied in healthcare,[2] psychotherapy,[3] life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste (see lean manufacturing). Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country. It has since spread throughout the world[4] and is now being implemented in environments outside of business and productivity.
At the end of this month 70 years will have passed since the publication of a magazine story hailed as one of the greatest pieces of journalism ever written. Headlined simply Hiroshima, the 30,000-word article by John Hersey had a massive impact, revealing the full horror of nuclear weapons to the post-war generation, as Caroline Raphael describes.
Hiroshima was the first publication to make the man on the San Francisco trolleybus and the woman on the Clapham omnibus confront the miseries of radiation sickness, to understand that you could survive the bomb and still die from its after effects. John Hersey in his calm unflinching prose reported what those who had survived had witnessed. As the nuclear arms race began, just three months after the testing of further atom bombs at Bikini Atoll, the true power of the new weapons began to be understood.
Such were the reverberations of Hersey's article, and Albert Einstein's very public support for it, that Henry Stimson who had been US Secretary for War wrote a magazine article in reply, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb - a defiant justification for the use of the bomb, whatever the consequences.
News of the extraordinary article had been reported in Britain, but it was too long to publish - John Hersey would not allow it to be edited and newsprint was still rationed. So the BBC followed American radio's lead and about six weeks later it was read out over four consecutive nights on the new Third Programme, despite some concern among senior managers about the emotional impact on listeners.
The Radio Times commissioned Alistair Cooke to write a long background piece. Alluding to its publication in The New Yorker, renowned as the home of witty cartoons, he called it "the deadliest joke of our age".
By November, Hiroshima was published in book form. It was translated quickly into many languages and a braille edition was released. However, in Japan, Gen Douglas MacArthur - the supreme commander of occupying forces, who effectively governed Japan until 1948 - had strictly prohibited dissemination of any reports on the consequences of the bombings. Copies of the book, and the relevant edition of The New Yorker, were banned until 1949, when Hiroshima was finally translated into Japanese by the Rev Mr Tanimoto, one of Hersey's six survivors.
(Wikipedia) Thomas (and Tomas) is a common surname used by the British (primarily Welsh), French, German, Dutch, Danish, and South Indian (Nasrani).
*******
Thomas is a masculine given name. It is based on the Biblical Greek Θωμᾶς, which is itself a transcription of the Aramaic Taumā תאומא "twin", the Hebrew cognate being tə'ōm תאום.[citation needed] "Tom" "Thom" or "Tommy" are abbreviations of Thomas "Tam" is a common abbreviation used in Scotland. Abbreviated written forms are "Thos" and "Th".
（ロングマン） water fountain 1 drinking fountain 2 water cooler
次のやり取りも見てみます。
8. How well does Thomas play the violin? - (B) Oh, he’s a professional.
応答も難しいものではないので素通りしやすいですが、he's a professionalという応答はおかしな感じもします。プロミュージシャンのうまさを聞いていたとしたらこんな応答はしないからです。そもそもプロミュージシャンならTaylor Swiftのようにフルネームを出すでしょうから同僚同士の会話ではないかと想像します。きっとThomasが趣味でバイオリンをやっているようだという話になったのではないでしょうか。同僚同士の会話でThomasという名の同僚の話をしているとしたらhe's a professionalは「プロ並みにうまい」という意味と想像します。
教材の和訳をする時にwater fountainを「ウォータークーラー」、he's a professionalを「プロ並みです」とすると少し訳し過ぎになってしまうかもしれませんが、自分が納得いくようなシチュエーションをイメージして一つ一つのやり取りを理解していくと、パート3やパート4も含めた新形式対策になるのではと思います。
Houston, we have a problem. But we're on to it. Looks like we've got a problem, but our crack team of techies are on the case. Please try again later and hopefully we'll have it sorted.
ヒューストンというテキサス州の都市はNASAがあるところのようです。ロングマンはそれだけでなくHouston, we have a problem.というフレーズも載せてくれています。ありがたいですね。
（ロングマン） Houston 1 a city and port in the US state of Texas, where the US government space centre, NASA, is based
2 Houston, we have a problem the words that one of the astronauts on the unsuccessful Apollo 13 space mission, in order to say that he thought something was going wrong with the mission. People often use these words in a humorous way in other situations.
英語学習的にはこれだけでは終わりません。映画では確かにHouston, we have a problem.でしたが、実際の宇宙飛行士が発したのはHouston, we have had a problem.というのです。
ジーン・クランツを始めとする何人かの主要人物たちは、この映画は事実を忠実に再現しているが、映画的に演出された箇所もところどころ見られるとコメントしている。技術的な誤りも指摘されていて、たとえば事故の瞬間の「ヒューストン、何か問題が発生したようだ (Houston, we've had a problem.)」というラヴェルの報告が、「ヒューストン、問題が発生した (Houston, we have a problem.)」になっているところなどである。全米映画ランキングなどでは当初は批判的な意見が多かったが、後にはアカデミー賞の最優秀作品賞、助演男優賞（ハリス）、助演女優賞（クインラン）にノミネートされ、最優秀編集賞と最優秀録音賞を獲得した。この映画は、アポロ計画やアメリカの宇宙開発の歴史に関する一般の興味を喚起したと言ってよい。
Hi, people! Would you be so kind to explain what is the difference between these two sentences: "Huston, we have had a problem here", "Huston, we have a problem". I do understand they have basically the same meaning, but is there some nuance?
（コメント1） "Huston, we have had a problem here" means that the problem existed at some time in the past, but no longer exists.
"Huston, we have a problem" means that we are experiencing a problem here and now. Which of course they were.
（コメント2） I wonder where this sentence comes from? Was it what was actually said?
I agree with Haypresto, but I suspect that the astronauts might have said this, meaning "Houston, we have had something happen and it's a problem." The thing that happened was in the past, but the problem still exists. This is not quite flawless grammar, but I think the astronauts can be excused under the circumstances. If this was the original, it was surely changed for the movie to "Houston, we have a problem" which is more correct and also more dynamic.
9:00 PM History facts, Space facts, Universe facts, World Records
It was during this explosion that the contact was broken momentarily : when it returns, Jack Swigert told the ground crew: "Houston, we had a problem.". Actually, Jack Swigert's words were later distorted by cinema and popular culture in Houston, we have a problem - because true sentence suggested that the problem was already solved, which, indeed, totally ruins the dramatic tension.
現在完了形や過去形を使うと「すでに問題は解決した」という意味を伝えてしまいますが、実際には問題は起こっていた最中でしたので、We have a problem.の方が実状にあったものでしょう。あくまで推測ですが事故が起きてもたいしたことないように伝えようとしてしまうのは人情なのかもしれません。misquoteの代表としてこのセリフがあげられることがありますが、この変更は納得でした。
Less than 24 hours after the close of the Rio Olympics, Ryan Lochte took a major financial hit Monday for a drunken incident he initially tried to pass off as an armed robbery. In quick succession, four sponsors announced they were dumping the swimmer, who has since apologized and conceded that he embellished what happened during a now-infamous stop at a Rio gas station. Swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and skin-care firm Syneron-Candela issued statements less than three hours apart, all with the same message: Lochte is out. Before the day was done, Japanese mattress maker airweave followed suit, essentially wiping out Lochte's income away from the pool.
Speedo USA today announces the decision to end its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte. As part of this decision, Speedo USA will donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children, a global charity partner of Speedo USA’s parent company, for children in Brazil. While we have enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for. We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience.
While we have enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for.
Lochte released a statement, saying, “I respect Speedo’s decision and am grateful for the opportunities that our partnership has afforded me over the years. I am proud of the accomplishments that we have achieved together.”
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP)– The New York Post is not going easy on Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte following reports by police in Brazil that he and three other American swimmers were not the victims of an armed robbery as they claimed.
The daily newspaper released the cover Thursday, which pictures a shirtless Lochte and the text “liar, liar, Speedo on fire,” followed by “The Ugly American” beneath the image.
Later that year he went on to win the 200m/400m double at CARIFTA Trials before winning four gold medals at the meet held in Nassau, Bahamas.
He announced his arrival to the wider global audience in July 2002 when at the IAAF World Junior T&F Championships in Kingston in front of the biggest crowd ever to watch these meets, he won the host nation’s only individual gold medal, winning the 200m in 20.61 seconds. He left that meet with three medals including two silver medals in the relays, anchoring the 4x100m team and was part of the 4x400m team as well.
Lochte's success led to his own 2013 reality TV show called "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" It had a short run and left some viewers with the impression that its star was nothing more than a good-looking dim bulb. Still, lines for his autograph sessions at meets routinely stretch longer than anyone else's.
Two publications have broken with their respective histories to wade into the presidential election: WIRED, which released a ringing endorsement of Hillary Clinton Thursday, and Scientific American, which did not endorse a candidate, but came out strongly in an article for the September 1 issue condemning Donald Trump’s anti-science views.
Scientific American is not in the business of endorsing political candidates. But we do take a stand for science—the most reliable path to objective knowledge the world has seen—and the Enlightenment values that gave rise to it. For more than 170 years we have documented, for better and for worse, the rise of science and technology and their impact on the nation and the world. We have strived to assert in our reporting, writing and editing the principle that decision making in the sphere of public policy should accept the conclusions that evidence, gathered in the spirit and with the methods of science, tells us to be true.
For nearly a quarter of a century, this organization has championed a specific way of thinking about tomorrow. If it’s true, as the writer William Gibson once had it, that the future is already here, just unevenly distributed, then our task has been to locate the places where various futures break through to our present and identify which one we hope for.
Our founders—Louis Rossetto, Jane Metcalfe, and Kevin Kelly—all supported a strain of optimistic libertarianism native to Silicon Valley. The future they endorsed was the one they saw manifested in the early Internet: one where self-organizing networks would replace old hierarchies. To them, the US government was one of those kludgy, inefficient legacy systems that mainly just get in the way.
Over the past couple of decades, we’ve gotten to watch their future play out: We’ve seen the creative energies of countless previously invisible communities unleashed—and, well, we’ve watched networks become just as good at concentrating wealth and influence in the hands of a few people as the old hierarchies were. We’ve seen geeks become billionaires, autocrats become hackers, and our readers (people curious about how technology is shaping the world) become the American mainstream. Like any sane group of thinkers, we’ve calibrated our judgments along the way. But much of our worldview hasn’t changed. We value freedom: open systems, open markets, free people, free information, free inquiry. We’ve become even more dedicated to scientific rigor, good data, and evidence-driven thinking. And we’ve never lost our optimism.
I bring all this up because, for all of its opinions and enthusiasms, WIRED has never made a practice of endorsing candidates for president of the United States. Through five election cycles we’ve written about politics and politicians and held them up against our ideals. But we’ve avoided telling you, our readers, who WIRED viewed as the best choice.
Today we will. WIRED sees only one person running for president who can do the job: Hillary Clinton.
グローバル企業というとThe social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.という経済学者フリードマンの言葉にあるような新自由主義的態度を想像しやすいですが、世の中をよくしようとする試みをしている企業を評価しようというのがこのランキングの目的です。
In an interview this summer, Microsoft MSFT 0.03% CEO Satya Nadella was asked whether he thought companies creating technology had a responsibility to consider the effects of that technology on social equity.
The late Milton Friedman had a ready answer. “The social responsibility of business,” the economist often said, “is to increase its profits.” Period.
But Nadella took a different approach: “I think we don’t have a long-term business if we don’t address the inequities.”
伊藤園はTea-Producing Region Development Projectの取り組みが評価されてのランクインとなりました。
Growing new jobs in Japan’s struggling farming sector. Green tea is the drink of choice for many Japanese, but going green has been the mantra of cool for Ito En, the largest green-tea beverage manufacturer in the country. Since 2001, the $3.9 billion soft drink maker has been driving the Tea-Producing Region Development Project, an enterprise that attempts to put Japan’s 400,000 hectares of abandoned farmland and its unemployed workers to use. Partnering with regional farmers and governments, Ito En has earmarked nearly 1,000 hectares for tea plantations, procuring raw tea leaves and bringing technological assistance to revitalize dormant farms. This has led to an annual production capacity of around 3,300 tons, roughly 40% of the raw tea leaves that the company uses annually in its beverage production. The company has also found a way to transform 49,000 tons of used tea leaves into 50 million cardboard boxes for its own products annually.
Tea-Producing Region Development Projectというのは「茶産地育成事業」のことで伊藤園のサイトで日本語、英語の説明を読み比べることができます。
"It's an honor to wrestle Yoshida," Maroulis said. "For someone to win three gold medals and come back and risk that and accept that challenge to win a fourth — that's another four years of work, dedication, of giving your life to the sport."
“We’ve been talking about beating Yoshida for the past two years,” said Valentin Kalika, Maroulis’s personal coach. “All of her training was to beat Yoshida.”
As a competitor, Maroulis straddles a crooked line between doubt and confidence. Two weeks ago, she daydreamed about booking a flight to Iceland, afraid she would be “the biggest failure at the Olympics,” worried she wouldn’t even make weight. Thursday morning, she confided in teammate Elena Pirozhkova, who would lose a bronze medal match, that she still couldn’t believe she had become a wrestler, surrounded by the toughest women in the world.
She navigated the divide with joy. Through studying Yoshida, Maroulis viewed her less as an enemy than an ideal. She admired her work ethic, fortitude and humility too much to hate her. Before she pinned Mattsson in the semifinals, Maroulis peered ahead to consider what an honor it would be to wrestle Yoshida.
Maroulisが主語なのでMaroulis viewed her less as an enemy than an ideal.とあればherのことは吉田を指すのでしょう。ですから次の文She admired her work ethic, fortitude and humility too much to hate her.も主語以外の代名詞herは吉田を指していますね。
“We’ve got to make sure we’re not giving her [too much] respect,” Kalika said. The Japanese section of the crowd waved flags and chanted, “Yo-shi-da! Yo-shi-da!” She had won three golds. Maroulis was at her first Olympics. “I didn’t want to look at Goliath and get scared,” Maroulis said.
（オックスフォード） Goliath a person or thing that is very large or powerful a Goliath of a man a Goliath of the computer industry From Goliath, a giant in the Bible who is killed by the boy David with a stone.
David and Goliath used to describe a situation in which a small or weak person or organization tries to defeat another much larger or stronger opponent The game looks like it will be a David and Goliath contest.
What started out as a rather diplomatic assessment of Hillary Clinton's controversial email case quickly turned into a "gloves off" bashing of the former secretary of state's decisions on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night. Following a brief and toothless introduction into the controversy over Clinton sending classified information via a private email server, Stephen Colbert launched into a two-minute tirade about just how untrustworthy Clinton is.
Colbert suggested that Clinton is so "untrustworthy that Beyonce is working on a concept album about her," and that her email setup has made her look "so shady right now that FIFA wants to hire" her. "Secretary Clinton," Colbert says, "you lied so much that kids are now chanting 'liar, liar, pantsuit on fire.'"
家族との暮らしを優先させるため難民として認められたアメリカからヨルダンに戻る彼女の決断には正直驚いてしまったほどですが、ヨルダンで彼女は日本のNGO「国境なき子どもたち」に勤めていたことが触れられていました。 Since her return from San Francisco in 2009, Khulood had been marooned in Jordan. By 2014, she was living in a small apartment in a working-class neighborhood of eastern Amman with her father and two sisters, Teamim and Sahar. It was a dreary place, a three-story walk-up overlooking a dusty commercial road, but it was softened by the presence of Mystery, the sisters’ pet cat, and Shiny, a small box turtle they rescued from the street.
Before leaving for the United States in 2008 Khulood had briefly worked for a Japanese humanitarian organization called Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi (Children Without Borders), or KnK, and she rejoined the agency upon her return to Amman the following year. Her principal task was to help acclimate some of the countless thousands of Iraqi children whose families had fled to Jordan to escape the war, and so impressed were the KnK supervisors with Khulood’s connection to the children that they soon hired her two sisters as well. Around the same time, Ali al-Zaidi, the retired radiologist and patriarch of the family, found work on the loading docks of a yogurt factory on the industrial outskirts of Amman. In 2014, the family was at least scraping by.
ニューヨークタイムズの日曜版にはNew York Times Magazineという大型の冊子がついてきます。先週の日曜版はこの冊子すべてを使って中東のルポータージュを紹介したことが話題になっています。中東に暮らす6人の目からイラク戦争やアラブの春を捉え直し現状のあり方を浮かび上がらせている労作です。
This is a story unlike any we have previously published. It is much longer than the typical New York Times Magazine feature story; in print, it occupies an entire issue. The product of some 18 months of reporting, it tells the story of the catastrophe that has fractured the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago, leading to the rise of ISIS and the global refugee crisis. The geography of this catastrophe is broad and its causes are many, but its consequences — war and uncertainty throughout the world — are familiar to us all. Scott Anderson’s story gives the reader a visceral sense of how it all unfolded, through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Accompanying Anderson’s text are 10 portfolios by the photographer Paolo Pellegrin, drawn from his extensive travels across the region over the last 14 years, as well as a landmark virtual-reality experience that embeds the viewer with the Iraqi fighting forces during the battle to retake Falluja.
It is unprecedented for us to focus so much energy and attention on a single story, and to ask our readers to do the same. We would not do so were we not convinced that what follows is one of the most clear-eyed, powerful and human explanations of what has gone wrong in this region that you will ever read.
HARI SREENIVASAN: One of the things that I noticed in this article is that you don’t just say this is a Shia-Sunni problem, which is very easy kind of Western way to look at the Middle East and say, well, oh, clearly, these Shia must love those Shia, they’re in cahoots, and they are going to overthrow this. And you don’t — get into that. SCOTT ANDERSON: No, and it’s so much more complicated, and enjoined to the idea of how you subdivide it. In Iraq, there is lots of very large tribes that have a Sunni component and a Shia component. So, what happens? If you tried to do a Sunni-Shia division, what happens to that tribe? You know, there are issues with clans going back… HARI SREENIVASAN: A couple of thousand years. SCOTT ANDERSON: A couple of thousand years. You know, and so, when people start looking at like a kind of a quick solution to any of this, I think it’s just in for a really long, very rocky road throughout the region.
I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.
My conclusion about Mr. Trump’s unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.
The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities, a shocking display that did not receive the scrutiny it deserved. （後略）
The second was Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. （後略）
Third was Donald Trump’s criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. （後略）
オーソドックスなフォーマットは大事ではありますが、もちろんそうでないケースもあります。今回のような難しい決断では最初に理由を述べて最後の最後にメッセージを主張することだってあります。Richard Hanna下院議員はI will vote for Mrs. Clintonという大事な部分を最後の最後のパラグラフに持ってきています。
Our country is desperate for a functioning two-party system. A system that understands that compromise is the sweet spot of peace in a pluralistic society that values tolerance and inclusiveness. Not these endless attempts to run the table in two- and four-year cycles that produce few results and parties that seem to regard gridlock as an accomplishment.
While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton. I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead. All Republicans may not like the direction, but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate. Our response to the public's anger and the need to rebuild requires complex solutions, experience, knowledge and balance. Not bumper sticker slogans that pander to our disappointment, fear and hate.
Diversity Although Trump voters tend to be the most skeptical about immigration, they are also the least likely to actually encounter an immigrant in their neighborhood.
Rothwell finds that people who live in places with many Hispanic residents or places close to the Mexican border, tend not to favor Trump — relative to otherwise similar Americans and to otherwise similar white Republicans.
Among those who are similar in terms of income, education and other factors, those who view Trump favorably are more likely to be found in white enclaves — racially isolated Zip codes where the amount of diversity is lower than in surrounding areas.
These places have not been effected much by immigration, and Rothwell believes that is no coincidence. He argues that when people have more personal experience of people from other countries, they develop friendlier attitudes toward immigrants.
Research from Pew suggests that there is a relationship between the character of people’s neighborhoods and their views on immigrants. A study from 2006 found that native-born Americans living in Zip codes with lots of immigrants tended to hold immigrants in higher esteem. For instance, they were about twice as likely to say that immigrants “strengthen the US with their hard work and talents.”
In his dynamic new novel, Colson Whitehead takes the Underground Railroad — the loosely interlocking network of black and white activists who helped slaves escape to freedom in the decades before the Civil War — and turns it from a metaphor into an actual train that ferries fugitives northward.
The result is a potent, almost hallucinatory novel that leaves the reader with a devastating understanding of the terrible human costs of slavery. It possesses the chilling, matter-of-fact power of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, with echoes of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” and with brush strokes borrowed from Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka and Jonathan Swift.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress and includes more than 200 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division that are now made available to the public for the first time. Born in Slavery was made possible by a major gift from the Citigroup Foundation.
How did this story come to you? I was thinking how, when you’re a kid, you think the Underground Railroad is a literal railroad. It was the year 2000. I was finishing up John Henry Days. I didn’t feel like doing another research-heavy book. Slavery is such a huge topic–I didn’t feel up for it emotionally. Every couple of years I would go back to the idea and look at my page of notes and maybe add a line.
若いときにマッカーサー「天才」奨励金をもらったことに触れている部分です。
You were the winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant at a young age. Did it feel like a gift or a burden? It was great. Obviously genius is in quotes and ironic. But I didn’t have a lot of money. It allowed me to put a down payment on a house. It enabled me to be confident enough to think, Oh, maybe I can start having a family because we’re not going to be starving for five years. And also, it gave me license–you’re on the right path, keep doing it.
最後のit gave me license–you’re on the right path, keep doing itについては資格取得についても言えるのではと思いました。資格で結果が出ている勉強方法には自信を持っていいのではと思います。
（ロングマン） Mailer, Norman (1923- ) a US writer and journalist, who writes about social and political subjects and criticizes US society. His novels often contain a lot of sex and violence, and many of them are based on real events. They include The Naked and the Dead, The American Dream, The Armies of the Night, and The Executioner's Song.
ロングマンの場合は、Longman Dictionary of English Language and Cultureを元データにしているかもしれません。そうなると2005年の3rd Revised edition Editionから新しいのは出ていないのでLongmanの百科事典情報はアップデートされていない可能性がありますね。。。。
ジーニアスの方は最新版が2014年ですから単なるチェックミスでしょう。。。
百科事典的情報はネットで裏取りした方がいいんでしょうね。
(Wikipedia) Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. His best-known work was widely considered to be The Executioner's Song, which was published in 1979, and for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his book Armies of the Night was awarded the National Book Award.
Along with Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.
Mailer was also known for his essays, the most renowned of which was "The White Negro." He was a cultural commentator and critic, expressing his views through his novels, journalism, essays and frequent media appearances.
I don’t normally post about politics (I’m not particularly savvy about polling, which is where data science has had the largest impact on politics). But this weekend I saw a hypothesis about Donald Trump’s twitter account that simply begged to be investigated with data:
iPhoneからはイベントの告知などがメインで、ハッシュタグなども多用されているようです。
A few observations:
Most hashtags come from the iPhone. Indeed, almost no tweets from Trump’s Android contained hashtags, with some rare exceptions like this one. (This is true only because we filtered out the quoted “retweets”, as Trump does sometimes quote tweets like this that contain hashtags).
Words like “join” and “tomorrow”, and times like “7pm”, also came only from the iPhone. The iPhone is clearly responsible for event announcements like this one (“Join me in Houston, Texas tomorrow night at 7pm!”)
A lot of “emotionally charged” words, like “badly”, “crazy”, “weak”, and “dumb”, were overwhelmingly more common on Android. This supports the original hypothesis that this is the “angrier” or more hyperbolic account.
Conclusion: the ghost in the political machine （中略） Like any journalism, data journalism is ultimately about human interest, and there’s one human I’m interested in: who is writing these iPhone tweets? The majority of the tweets from the iPhone are fairly benign declarations. But consider cases like these, both posted from an iPhone:
A lot has been written about Trump’s mental state. But I’d really rather get inside the head of this anonymous staffer, whose job is to imitate Trump’s unique cadence (“Very sad!”), or to put a positive spin on it, to millions of followers. Are they a true believer, or just a cog in a political machine, mixing whatever mainstream appeal they can into the @realDonaldTrump concoction? Like Tony Schwartz, will they one day regret their involvement?
We invite you to visit our store and take a look at hundreds of sample cards, mailers, and brochures, all of which can be customized for your specific products or services.
mailerってなんだろうと思ったら辞書では以下のような語義を説明しています。
（ロングマン） mailer especially American English a container or envelope used for sending something small by post
Mailers They say not to sweat the small stuff, but that may be the main focus of your business. Not every company ships oversize appliances and electronics, and mailing envelopes and mailing boxes make it easy to send out the little things that mean a lot. Customers will notice the care you take with every step of their purchases, from service with a smile to carefully wrapped jewelry, art prints or CDs that arrive in perfect condition thanks to sturdy mailers, envelopes and packing materials.
文房具屋の広告だったらこの意味でいいのでしょうが、販促商品を扱う業社でtake a look at hundreds of sample cards, mailers, and brochuresとあるので、単なる「封筒」の意味ではない気がしました。
(Wikipedia) Near East (French: Proche-Orient) is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia. Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire. The term has fallen into disuse in English and has been replaced by the term Middle East.
According to the National Geographic Society, the terms Near East and Middle East denote the same territories and are "generally accepted as comprising the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey".[1] The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines the region similarly, but also includes Afghanistan while excluding the countries of North Africa and the Palestinian territories.[2]
The term has fallen into disuse in English and has been replaced by the term Middle East.とあるように英英辞書ではNear Eastという見出しはすべてMiddle Eastを参照先にされていました。どの辞書も地理的位置を説明しているだけですが、説明の仕方がいろいろあって面白いですね。
（オックスフォード） the Middle East an area that covers SW Asia and NE Africa
（ロングマン） the Middle East the area that includes Iran and Egypt and the countries which are between them
（マクミラン） the Middle East the region of the world that consists of the countries east of the Mediterranean Sea and west of India. It includes Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.
(Wikipedia) EMEAは、英語の"Europe, the Middle East and Africa"の略で、ヨーロッパ、中東及びアフリカを指す。 ビジネス上の用語で、特に米国に基盤を置く多国籍企業や調査会社などによって、世界の地域を区分する場合の一区分として用いられることが多い。
EMEA (or EMEIA if India is included) is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business. It is particularly common among North American companies. The region is generally accepted to include all European nations, all African nations, and extends east to Iran, including Russia. Typically this does not include independent overseas territories of mainland countries in the region, such as French Guyana.
Liar Liar Pants On Fire Liar Liar Pants On Fire is a phrase that children like to scream at each other whenever they think the other is lying. They also like to scream it at adults who tell them stories about fairies. It is an overall stupid thing to say, since if your pants actually caught on fire when you lied, more politicians would be dead. Kid: Liar Liar Pants On Fire! Adult: Shut the fuck up. Kid: *cries*
Liar Liar Pants On Fire "Liar Liar Pants On Fire" is a playground taunt that is used to indicate each other whenever they think the other is lying.
It refers to the fact "fibbing" is consider naughty, and pants/bottom 'on fire' is an euphemism for spanking. Child1: Well my dad can pick up a truck! Child1: Liar Liar Pants On Fire!
こういう表現は試験には出ませんが、日本人でも「うそついたら針千本」とか「うそつきは泥棒の始まり」という表現に自然と馴染んでいますから、ネイティブにとってはPants on Fireとあっただけでうそつきを連想するものなんでしょう。
The other side of Warren Buffett Don’t Buff it up An investing hero is not a model for how to reform America’s economy Aug 13th 2016 | From the print edition If the intensity of Mr Buffett’s interventions has risen over time, so has the seriousness with which they are taken. This partly reflects his financial clout. Berkshire Hathaway, his investment vehicle, is worth $363 billion and is the world’s sixth-most-valuable firm. He is at least 20 times richer than Mr Trump. It also reflects Mr Buffett’s popularity: 40,000 people attended Berkshire’s annual meeting in April, compared to 5,000 two decades ago. Since the death of Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, Mr Buffett has become the lone hero of big business in America. He stands for the promise of a nostalgic, fairer kind of capitalism.
But Mr Buffett is not as saintly as he makes out. He has to act in his own interests, and he does so legally, but if all companies followed his example America would be worse off. An example is his oft-expressed sympathy for workers. In 2013 Berkshire partnered with 3G, a Brazilian buy-out firm renowned for swinging the axe at acquired firms. Since 3G engineered the merger of Kraft and Heinz (Berkshire owns 27% of the combined firm) last year, staff numbers have dropped by a tenth.
Last year a hedge-funder, Daniel Loeb, attacked what he called a disconnect between Mr Buffett’s words and his actions. “He thinks we should all pay more taxes but he loves avoiding them,” he said. Mr Loeb was right: Berkshire’s tax payments have shrunk relative to its profits. Last year the actual cash it paid to the taxman was equivalent to 13% of its pre-tax profits—this is probably the fairest measure of its burden—making it one of the lightest taxpayers among big firms (see chart).
Such inconsistencies are inevitable in a long and vigorous business life. But there is another problem with Mr Buffett: his fondness for oligopolies. After being disappointed by returns from textiles in the 1960s and 1970s, and then by shoe manufacturing and airlines, he concluded his firm should invest in “franchises” that are protected from competition, not in mere “businesses”. In the 1980s and 1990s he bet on dominant global brands such as Gillette and Coca-Cola (as well as Omaha’s biggest furniture store, with two-thirds of the market). Today Berkshire spans micro-monopolies such as a caravan firm and a prison-guard uniform maker, and large businesses with oligopolistic positions such as utilities, railways and consumer goods.
（中略）
But he is far from a model for how capitalism should be transformed. He is a careful, largely ethical accumulator of capital invested in traditional businesses, preferably with oligopolistic qualities, whereas what America needs right now is more risk-taking, lower prices, higher investment and much more competition. You won’t find much at all about these ideas in Mr Buffett’s shareholder letters.
この批判はEconomistの信条である自由経済に反するものだからでしょう。what America needs right now is more risk-taking, lower prices, higher investment and much more competitionと締めのところで書いています。
The Internet is making us stupid. Tech-enabled multitasking has destroyed our attention span. Social media is a waste of time.
These are the admonishments that lead me to periodically question my symbiotic relationship with technology, and to detach from Facebook for up to 24 hours at a time. When I do, the only way I can reliably quell my urge to connect is by losing myself in a book. That’s how I came to spend my summer vacation the way I usually do: by reading novel after novel.
[N]ovels removed one from the truth through their tendency to “give false notions of things, to pervert the consequences of human actions, and to misrepresent the ways of divine providence.”
小説が堕落の形態だなんて今からは想像できませんが、当時はそのように見られていたんですね。
Each of these concerns echoes the complaints we hear about the Internet today. We can also hear the echoes of 18th and 19th century moralists in contemporary hand-wringing over how the Internet is turning us into click-baited, porn-devouring imbeciles. Early American moralists held that novels “were subversive of the highest moral principles or, in short, were the primer of the Devil.” James Beattie condemned novel reading in 1783 because the “habit of reading them breeds a dislike to history, and all the substantial parts of knowledge; withdraws the attention from nature, and truth; and fills the mind with extravagant thoughts and too often with criminal propensities.”
An analogous effort at rehabilitating the Internet is already underway. From evangelical Christians asking “What would Jesus tweet?” to the Buddhist embrace of “contemplative technologies,” established religious traditions are beginning to explore the ways in which spiritual practices can be translated or extended with digital tools. Blogging has worked its way from the margins to the center of contemporary journalism, followed by podcasting and now, virtual reality. Just as 19th century novelists consciously strived to elevate both their craft and their moral standing, the emergence of dedicated online authors and journalists has helped to elevate the caliber of online content.
But the rehabilitation of the Internet doesn’t rest entirely in the hands of online contributors—just as the rehabilitation of the novel did not occur solely due to the efforts of novelists. George Boulukos argues that the emergence of university English studies helped to elevate the status of the novel as a subject of study, and implicitly, of consumption:
During my time there, what intrigued me most about Norilsk was not its terrible pollution. Yes, the city is plagued by sulfur dioxide emissions that endanger plant life, discolor snow and reduce life expectancy. But what really makes Norilsk extraordinary is its citizens’ obvious pride in surviving against the odds. Residents consistently say they deeply love their city: Wedding photos are taken at gas-shrouded factories and groups climb mountains to admire the view of refineries.
Eventually I realized I loved the city too, with its surreal, decayed charm. But this raised disquieting questions: Are we as ready as the people of Norilsk to ignore our impact on our environment? Knowing that our voracious consumption fuels industry, and pollution, in Norilsk, are we prepared to alter our habits? I never uncovered why Norilsk is closed to foreigners, but I did find an unsettling future that reflects our own attitudes toward our changing world and a fascinating, deadly, beautiful city.
