A catalogue of errors

インターネットでBBC News April 26を見ていたら、知床の観光船事故のニュースが目に入りました。
What caused Japan's tourist boat tragedy?
A catalogue of errors appers to have led to the sinking of a boat carrying sightseers off northern Japan.
It's an old cliché, but an accurate one: disasters are not caused by a single mistake. Several things need to go wrong at the same time to cause a tragedy.
That appears to be exactly what happened on Saturday afternoon off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan.

"catalogue of errors" の意味は後に続く記事の内容で分かりますが、"catalogue" の単語をこの様に使うのは初めて知りました。
英英辞書で　"catalogue" の説明を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: A series of unwelcome or unpleasant things.: ‘his life was a catalog of dismal failures’
・Collins Dictionary: A catalogue of similar things, especially bad things, is a number of them considered or discussed one after another.: His story is a catalogue of misfortune.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: A catalogue of unwanted events is a series of them: The whole holiday was a catalogue of disasters.

"catalogue of" と来たら、後に悪いことが続くのですね。

disease vector

Reader's Digest 2月号の記事 "Looking to the Future" から引用します。
The lifesavers included chlorination and other means of safguarding drinking water, the lowly toilet and sewer, the control of disease vectors such as mosquitoes and fleas, programs for large-scale vaccination, the promotion of handwriting, and developments in basic prenatal and perinatal case such as encouraging nursing and body contact.

引用文に出てきた "disease vectors" の "vector" は日本語でベクトルとして使われている単語と同じスペルですが、 どんな意味でしょうか？　辞書を見ます。"vector" に次の意味があることが分かりました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: An organism, typically a biting insect or tick, that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another.: ‘Now, in the 21st century, our researchers are still studying the relationships between animal hosts, insect and arthropod vectors, and disease agents.’
・Collins Dictionary: A vector is an insect or other organism that causes a disease by carrying a germ or parasite from one person or animal to another.: This could have caused increased numbers of mosquitoes that could serve as vectors for the disease.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an insect or animal that carries a disease from one animal or plant to another: Mosquitoes are the vectors of malaria.
なるほど、病原菌や寄生虫を媒介する生物ですね。

give a heads up

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
Her silhouette appeared in the doorway, making the kitchen even darker, and she said:
'Klara, I wanted to give you a heads up. After all, this involves you.'
'Yes?'
'Next Thursday, I've taken time off work. I'm going to drive Josie into town and we'll be staying overnight. We were just talking about it. Josie has an appointment.'

"give you a heads up" の意味を調べます。慣用句かなと思いましたが、辞書には "heads up" もしくは "heads-up" に次の説明がありました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: An advance warning of something.: That's been fixed - and thanks for the heads-up, Steven.
・Collins Dictionary: if you give someone a heads-up about something that is going to happen, you tell them about it before it happens.: When the airlines decided to enforce these rules without giving anyone a heads-up, it created a lot of problems for travelers.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a warning that something is going to happen, usually so that you can prepare for it: This note is just to give you a heads-up that Vicky will be arriving next week.

本は既に図書館に返したので確認できませんが、辞書は "a heads-up" となっており、 "a heads up" だと複数形の "heads" に "a" が付いているようで違和感があります。私の転記ミスの可能性が大です。

rule the roost

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
'Speaking of lessons. Klara. Your name is Klara, isn't it? Speaking of lessons, there's an idea that's been brewing here in this household.'
'Mum. Definitely no. Klara isn't interested in...'
'Let me speak, darling. Here she is in person, so let's seize out chance. I must say, darling, you've developed a tendency these days to rule the roost. It's most irritating. Klara, are you willing to listen to our idea?'

"rule the roost" は慣用句の様です。意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Be in complete control.: ‘in this particular society men rule the roost and women have a low status and few rights’
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone rules the roost in a particular place, you mean that they have control and authority over the people there.: [informal] Today the country's nationalists rule the roost and hand out the jobs.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be the person who makes all the decisions in a group: In that family it is the grandma who rules the roost.
ロシアでは現在プーチンが "rules the roost" しているのは間違いない。

fire away

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
'You're super-intelligent and I'm an idiot kid who hasn't even been lifted. But okay. If you want, I'll try and give you advice. Fire away.'
'I wish to go across the fields to Mr McBain's barn. I think Rick has been there at least once. Josie told me about it.'

"Fire away" はいかにも口語的な表現ですが意味は何でしょう？
・Oxford English Dictionary: Used to give someone permission to begin speaking, typically to ask questions.: ‘If any of you reading this article has a question, then fire away!’

・Collins Dictionary: If someone wants to say or ask something, you can say ' fire away' as a way of showing that you are ready for them to speak.: 'May I ask you something?'—'Sure. Fire away.'

Kyiv Not Kiev

キエフはロシア語由来なので今後日本ではキーウを使うと政府が決定し、NHKなども追従していますが、米国のUSA Todayのサイトに次の記事が掲載されていました。

In March, Ukraine asked the world to practice its spelling.
"High time to finally discard the outdated Soviet spelling of our cities and adopt the correct Ukrainian form," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet, adding the hashtag #KyivNotKiev.

スペルを問題にしていますね。英英辞書を見ると、従来から "Kyiv" "Kiev" も掲載している辞書が多く、例えば "Kyiv" では次の様な説明があります。
Oxford Dictinary: Ukrainian name for Kiev
Wiktionary Usage notes: This is the official Latin-alphabet place name according to Ukrainian regulations and toponymic databases, and has been adopted in international use since the late 2010s.

では、英米での発音はどうなのかと、言うと、どちらのスペルでも "v" の個所を "f" とする場合と "V" と発音するのと両方記載されているので、外国では発音よりどちらのスペルを使うかを問題にしている事が分かります。

lifted

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
So basically, after Sal died from being lifted, Mother and Mr. Capaldi had tried to make a version of Sal but with different/less advanced technology, but it wasn’t a real duplicate of her, instead it was just a “doll”, and it didn’t want to be there. They seem to agree that experiment was a failure.

"lifted" の意味を調べます。
・Merriam-Webster: plastic surgery on a part of the body typically to improve a drooping or sagging appearance especially by reducing excess skin and fat

上記の辞書に整形手術の意味が載っていましたが、小説ではちょっと違う意味で使われている様なので他の辞書も見ましたが、適当な説明は見当たりませんでした。しかし、Wikipediaに "Klara and the Sun" の項目があり次の説明を見つけました。
The novel is set in a dystopian future in which some children are genetically engineered ("lifted") for enhanced academic ability.
...
Klara is chosen by 14-year-old Josie, who lives with her mother in a remote region of a prairie. Soon after joining them, Klara learns that the lifting process carries some risk: Josie's older sister Sal had earlier died, and Josie herself is gravely ill.
遺伝子操作ですか、でも本当に将来ありそうな話ですね。

boxes

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
As Klara describes what she sees at this party, her visions becomes a series of boxes. It shows how occasionally her programming deconstructs her view in various ways to analyze them and figure out how to piece it all together, often focusing on the movements and expressions of people. Described in this manner, it helps us to understand the world as Klara sees it.

先日 "oblong" が未来のスマホを示しているようと推測しましたが、"the boxes" は何でしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary:(the box) mainly British informal Television or a television set.: ‘light entertainment shows on the box’
・Collins Dictionary: television: Are there any good shows on the box tonight?
・Cambridge English Dictionary: television: There's nothing worth watching on the box tonight.

イギリスではテレビを "the box" と言うのですね。
"pixels" だと最小単位はドット、点ですが、"boxes" は一つの単位がTVの様な画面で、多画面を見ている状態を想像するのですが、どうでしょう？

not the done thing

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
'I hope Rick does come to this awful party.'
Despite the lateness, I was pleased she'd brought up the interaction meeting, because I was uncertain about many aspect of it.
'Yes, I hope so too,' I said. 'Will the other young people bring their AFs?'
'Uh uh. Not the done thing, But the AF who lived in the house usually attends. Especially if they're new like you. They 'll all want to inspect you.'

"Not the done thing" は前の質問に応えて、「そんな事はしない」と解して意味は通じますが、辞書で確認します。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: mainly UK (US usually not the thing to do): not socially acceptable: Smoking during a meal is not the done thing.
"not the done thing" では上記の辞書しか見当たりませんでしたが、"the done thing" では次の辞書にも説明がありました。

・Collins Dictionary: If you say that something is the done thing, you mean it is the most socially acceptable way to behave.:[British] It was not the done thing. In those days the man was supposed to be the provider.

・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: A given behavior that is acceptable, appropriate, or correct in a particular social situation. Often used in the negative to convey the opposite.: Calling on a friend when they are sick is simply the done thing.

en suite

Kazuo Ishiguroの "Klara and the Sun" を読んでいます。
Often, despite of repeated efforts. Josie wouldn't rise until the very last moment, and would then start shouting from inside her en suite bathroom, 'Hurry up, Klara! We will be late!' even though I was already outside on the landing, waiting anxiously.
...
But as she was emerging from her en suite, we heard the Mother's car down on the loose stones below, and we hurried to the front window in time to see her car moving away towards the hill.


"en suite bathroom" の "en suite" を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a bathroom) immediately adjoining a bedroom and forming part of the same set of rooms.: ‘all rooms have en-suite facilities’

・Collins Dictionary: An en suite bathroom is next to a bedroom and can only be reached by a door in the bedroom. An en suite bedroom has an en suite bathroom.[British] The master bedroom has its own en suite bathroom.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: used to describe a bathroom that is directly connected to a bedroom, or a bedroom that is connected to a bathroom: All four bedrooms in their new house are en suite.

日本の家屋では余りこのような造りの部屋・浴室はないですね。