コメントの投稿対象: NHKラジオ　実践ビジネス英語で英語をマスターしよう！

いよいよ10月となりました。2007年度も下期の開始です。


ビジ英も今日から10月号になりますが、9月号の最後に
ドミニクチータムさんのエッセイを読んでおきましょう。

イギリスで sleeper というと眠る人ではなくて、
枕木の事だそうですね。

日本では電車で眠る人が多いのは外国人には七不思議だそうですが
sleepersと呼ばれているようです。

先日も大口を開けて寝ている人を電車で見かけました。

気をつけたいものです。


■意味を考えてみよう。今日取り上げる単語が含まれています。

It's so hackneyed and dotty.

It's supposed to be honed down to a bare minimum
at least once or twice a year.

Some people abhor e-mail messages between people
who are near and dear.

That's cutting to the quick.

But isn't it ironic that we all love the convenience of
e-mail for ourselves, but hate it in the hands of most others,
including the cc addicts, stale joke forwarders and
porn pushers?

■意味を考えてみよう。答えは以下で

dotty
hone down
abhor
cut to the quick
stale joke



──────────────────────────────
dotty, 常軌を逸した = eccentric
──────────────────────────────
E-mail Overload (1)より

If you say that someone is dotty, you mean that they are
slightly mad or likely to do strange things.
[mainly BRIT][INFORMAL]

ex) She was obviously going a bit dotty.

──────────────────────────────
hone down, …をそぎ落とす
──────────────────────────────
E-mail Overload (2)より

If you hone something, for example a skill, technique, idea,
or product, you carefully develop it over a long period of
time so that it is exactly right for your purpose.

ex) His body is honed and kept in trim with constant exercise.

honeは砥石（といし）、砥石でとぐ、という意味が原義。

──────────────────────────────
abhor, 忌み嫌う（hateの強意語）= detest
──────────────────────────────
E-mail Overload (2)より

If you abhor something, you hate it very much, especially
for moral reasons. [FORMAL]

ex) He was a man who abhorred violence and was deeply
committed to reconciliation.

──────────────────────────────
cut to the quick, 痛いところを突く、手厳しいことを言う
──────────────────────────────
E-mail Overload (2)より

If someone cuts you to the quick, it makes you very upset.

ex) The naked ugliness of prejudice cut me to the quick
when I heard it.

NOTE: The quick is the very sensitive flesh under the
fingernails or toenails.

──────────────────────────────
stale joke, 陳腐なジョーク
──────────────────────────────
E-mail Overload (4)より

Stale food is no longer fresh or good to eat.
食べ物が新鮮でない

Stale air or smells are unpleasant because they are
no longer fresh.
空気がよどんだ

If you say that a place, an activity, or an idea is stale,
you mean that it has become boring because it is always the same.
考え、表現が陳腐な

ex) The Government, he said, were sticking to stale ideas.