NUDGE by R. H.Thaler and C. R. SusteinのStudent Loanについての個所に出てきた単語を今日は覚えたいと思います。
As with mortgages, this example illustrates the problem with directing people to seek "expert" advice when they face difficult, high-stakes problem and are confused about what to do. If they don't just reply to the pizza ad because it is easy, but instead try to get helpful advice, they may end up with suggestions that are as self-serving as the pizza man's. The adviser they consult has a treasure--confused customers. The opportuinity to fleece confused customers is valuable.
最後の文に出てきた "fleece" の意味としては羊毛とか合成繊維のフリースしか知らなかったのですが、この "fleece" は繊維とは関係がなさそうです。 辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a: to strip of money or property by fraud or extortion b: to charge excessively for goods or services: Don't let that salesman fleece you.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to take someone's money dishonestly, by charging too much money or by cheating them: That restaurant really fleeced us!
・Vocabulary.com: rip off; ask an unreasonable price:
最後に引用した辞書には次ぎの分かり易い説明がありました。
You can also use fleece in an informal way to mean cheating someone. Remember how Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow? Well, it was such a nice, clean fleece that Mary tricked the lamb into trusting her, then robbed him of his fleece and turned it into a bomber jacket and a pair of boots. She totally fleeced him!
メアリーが羊を騙した事から "fleece" にこんな意味ができたなんて言葉は面白い。
After his post-mortem failed to find any direct cause of death, the pathologist decided to check back with the authorities. But successive calls to Dunedin police got him nowhere. Frustrated, he buttonholed a constable at the mortuary and learned that police knew nothing of the rumours of Annette's poisoning.
"post-mortem" とか "mortuary" はサスペンスや探偵物でお馴染みの単語ですが、私の関心は "buttonhole" です。 「ボタンの穴」が動詞として使われていて、やはり事件物に良く出てくる "constable" に/と（？）何をしたと言うのだろうか？ 辞書を見るしかありません。
・Collins English Dictionary: to detain (a person) in conversation: As Bob tried to sort out the situation revellers continued to buttonhole him, asking the way to Victoria station-and the loo!
・Vocabulary.com: detain in conversation by or as if by holding on to the outer garments of; as for political or economic favors: She would be on hand, speaking and buttonholing elected officials on many issues, including reckless driving and pedestrian dangers.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to stop someone and make them listen to you: Greg buttonholed me about sales figures when I came out of the meeting.
・Random House Unabridged Dictionary: to hold by the buttonhole or otherwise abruptly detain (someone) in conversation: The reporter tried to buttonhole the mayor for a statement on the bus strike.
ボタンの穴を掴んで相手を逃げない様にして話しを引き伸ばすなんて面白い言葉の誕生ですが、こんな事をされたらボタンが取れてしまいそうです。
Reader's Digest 3月号の特集 A COMIC'S WORLDからフィリッピンのコメディアン Vice Gandaの話の一部を引用します。
It was a place known for the comedians' tongue-in-cheek humour and sarcastic wit. After watching dozens of performances, I said to myself, "I can do that". Soon I was moonlighting and eventually became a regular. My style was rather edgy then too, and I took potshot at the audience and other comedians like everyone else did.
コメディアンが聴衆に対して "I took potshot at..." とありますが、何でしょうか？ 今日はこの "potshot" を覚えたいと思います。
・American Heritage Dictionary: a. A random or easy shot. b. A criticism made without careful thought and aimed at a handy target for attack: reporters taking potshots at the mayor.
・Vocabulary.com: a. a shot taken at an easy or casual target (as by a pothunter) b. criticism aimed at an easy target and made without careful consideration
・Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions: a sharp criticism; a wild shot of criticism. (Usually with take.) : Please stop taking potshots at me!
Online Etymologyを見ると語源は：
1858, "shot taken at animal simply to kill for food," in other words, to get it in the pot, not for sporting or marksmanship. Extended sense of "opportunistic criticism" first recorded 1926.
RDの記事でも動詞は "take" を使っていますね。
作者の安部結貴さんが「入院しちゃった うつウーマン」を紹介する動画と漫画の一部は下記のURLで見ることができます。
www.shogakukan.co.jp/books/detail/_isbn_9784093882361
AmyさんはNHKの会話テキストのイラストを描いたり、長尾和夫氏と共著で英会話の本をだすなど多才な方で、漢字の読み書きも完璧なうらやましい程のバイリンガルです。
Reader's Digest 3月号の食材に関する記事Everyday Kitchenから引用します。
Think about what you're eating earlier in the day. If you're having a light lunch then trying to last until dinner, you may be doing yourself a disservice. By leaving it too long between food stops, you're getting too hungry and are then over-eating to compensate. Instead, try having a slice of toast or a piece of fruit and a tub of yoghurt at about 3:30pm.
"disservice" の正確な意味は分かりませんが、軽い昼食と夕食の間でお腹が空いた時に何も食べないのは夕食で食べ過ぎるので良くないと言っている事は分かります。成長期はともかく、三時のおやつを食べる事は太るもとだと思っていたので意外です。もっとも食べる物が何であるかが重要なようですが。
"disservice" の意味を確認します。
・Vocabulary.com: an act intended to help that turns out badly: And as technology has improved - from elevators to email - we've only done ourselves a greater disservice by becoming more sedentary
・Collins English Dictionary: an ill turn; wrong; injury, esp when trying to help: `I never loved Arthur, so I suppose I did him a disservice marrying him, though I never lied and told him I did.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: ill service : harm; also: an unhelpful, unkind, or harmful act: misinformation that does a disservice to readers; Her comments were a disservice to those volunteers.
良かれと思ってした事が裏目に出る事はありますよね。そんな場合に使えそうです。
“I would like to eat a child.”
Shocked, the waiter asked “ What do you mean sir?”
And the cannibal replied, “Well, the sign at the door said, Children Half price”
最近小食になって来たのでお子様ランチでもいいなと思うのですがこの歳では注文できません。
でも先週末に六義園と神代植物園に行った時に65歳以上は入場料半額の特典を受ける事ができ、歳をとるのも悪くはないなと初めて思いました。（単純過ぎるかな）
3週間前の種植えをしたジャガイモの芽が出て来ました。今から収穫の時が楽しみです。
さて、NUDGE by R. H.Thaler and C. R. Susteinを読んでいます。蓄財の次ぎの話題はお金を借りる話です。
Many variable-rate morgates are further complicated by so-called <B>teaser rate</B> -- a low interest rate applied for a period of a year or two, after which the rate (and payments) go up, sometimes dramatically.
...
The interest rate disclosure would include the rate, of course, but also a schedule of payments over a period of years, assuming that the underlying interest rates do not change. This would ensure that borrowers at least know what their payments will be when the <B>teaser rate</B> ends.
"<B>teaser rate</B>" の説明は文中にもありますが、辞書で確認します。金融の専門用語の様なので普通の辞書には "<B>teaser rate</B>" の項目は見あたりませんでしたが、OneLookの辞書検索では次ぎの様な金融関係の辞書がリストされました。
・MoneyGlossary.com: A low initial interest rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage to entice borrowers, that is Definition: later eliminated and replaced by a market-level rate.
・INVESTORWORDS: A very low but very temporary introductory rate on an adjustable rate mortgage or credit card.
・Farlex Financial Dictionary: In an adjustable-rate mortgage, an initial interest rate that one pays for a certain period of time, at which point the interest rate rises. A <B>teaser rate</B> exists in order to encourage people who would otherwise be unable to qualify for a mortgage to be able to buy a house. While a lender is required to disclose the higher interest rate and payment, their existence has been accused of creating a perverse incentive for unqualified borrowers to buy houses. Many believe this contributed to the housing bubble and the subsequent credit crunch.
財形には疎いのにバブルの頃ある投資に手を出し大損をしました。しかしながら、懲りたはずなのに、最近株を買い始めました。以前の大失敗があるので慎重にしているつもりですが、どうなる事やら。
今日は麻布のIrish Ambassador's Residenceで開かれたASJ 4月例会のゲストスピーカーを紹介する文にあった単語を覚えたいと思います。 但し引用する個所は演題の詩人についての記述です。
The Irish poet James Cousins (1873-1956), an important contributor to the early Irish theatre in Dublin, spent the second half of his life in India, where he and his redoubtable wife Margaret, a suffragette, played a significant role in education and the arts. At the instigation of the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi and the Indian poet Srojini Naidu, James Cousins was invited to Japan in 1919-20 as a Professor of English Literatrue at Keio Gijuku University in Tokyo.
文学特に詩と古文が大の苦手な私には余り興味のない話題で、James Cousinsの名前はもちろん全く知りませんでしたが、会場を提供して下さったアイルランド大使ですらこの詩人を知らなかったとの話だったので安心しました。
私の関心はもっぱら "redoubtable wife" の "redoubtable" の意味です。 "suffragette" ("suffrage" をサポートする婦人である事は推測できる）とあるので、優しいとか上品とは関係がない事の想像は付きます。意味を辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: 1.to be feared; formidable 2.worthy of respect： Not only do the economies of scale erect redoubtable entry-barriers, it also gives cost leadership to key Tata companies.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: very strong, especially in character; producing respect and a little fear in others: Tonight Villiers faces the most redoubtable opponent of his boxing career.
・Vocabulary.com: Redoubtable means honorable, maybe even intimidatingly so. If your grandmother worked tirelessly to raise four kids on her own and start her own taxi cab business and to this day, keeps all of her cabbies in line, she is without a doubt redoubtable
"redoubtable wife" は "to be feared; formidable" とも "worthy of respect" とも取れるところがミソかな？
蛇足ですが、レクチャー後のアイルランド大使の話に、明治の初めに英国を訪れた使節団がギネスの醸造所を視察したと言っていたのが印象に残っています。ドイツに行った使節団もビールやワインの醸造所に行ったのだろうなと想像しました。
NUDGE by R. H.Thaler and C. R. Susteinを読んでいます。資産形成、株の売買の話が出て来ました。
How risky is it to hold the shares of a single stock rather than a diversified portfolio? According to estimates by the economist Lisa Meulbroek (2002), a dollar in company stock is worth less than half the value of a dollar in a mutual fund! In other words, when firms foist company stock onto their employees, it is like paying them fifty cents on the dollar. The upshot is that, in general, workers would be much better off with a diversified mutual fund than with company stock.
英語の諺に "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." があるのを思い出させる話ですが、上の文に出てきた動詞の "foist" の意味を確認しましょう。
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: 1. to give somebody something inferior and pass it off as genuine, valuable, or worthy; 2. to impose something on someone surruptitiously; 3. to deceitfully insert and add something undesirable
Tips: Unwanted political agendas are foisted upon people everyday, in subtle ways. Newspapers, television news, and even radio disc jockeys foist biased views by twisting wording, making assumptions of common consensus, etc. Workloads can be foisted upon unassuming employees, and merchandise can be made to appear appealing and quality, (especially in a catalogue or online) so as to foist the un-savvy buyer. Watch out for contracts where a clause has been foisted, and you end up with the short end of the deal.
・Vocabulary.com: to force onto another: “He foisted his work on me”
Foist used to imply a degree of deception rather than just brute force, but that's a meaning that's pretty much lost now: if something's foisted upon you, you know about it. The earlier meaning comes from an old Dutch term for palming a loaded die into a game. Today we call that cheating.
日本でもこの十年程で個人情報の取り扱いに関しては厳しくなってきましたが、NUDGE by R. H.Thaler and C. R. Susteinに学生の名簿を兵隊の募集の為に軍に渡す云々の事が書いてありました。
However, the law stipulates that "a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request." Some school districts, such as Fairport, New York, interpreted this law as allowing them to implement an "opt-in" policy. That is, parents were notified that they could elect to make their children's contact information available, but if they did not do anything, this information would be withheld.
上に出てきた "opt-in" の対語 "opt-out" もこの後に出て来ます。
Both the Defense Department and the school districts realized that opt-in and opt-out policies would lead to very different outcomes.
Wiktionaryに "opt-in" と "opt-out" の説明が次ぎの様にありました。
"opt-in": Of a selection, the property of having to choose explicitly to join or permit something; a decision having the default option being exclusion or avoidance; used particularly with regard to mailing lists and advertisement.: They set up an opt-in mailing list, so that those who wanted the notices could subscribe.
"opt-out": Of a selection, the property of having to choose explicitly to avoid or forbid something; a decision having the default option being inclusion or permission; used particularly with regard to mailing lists and advertisement.: With opt-out forms, take care to uncheck all unwanted selections.
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