ring false, ring true, bodice ripper, speculation, speculative,

19 December 2012 Last updated at 05:39 GMTHelp

Property prices in Taiwan have risen by nearly 60% in major cities over the past three years.

The rise has been fuelled in part by speculators who are keen to cash in on low interest rates in the country.

However, as Cindy Sui reports from Taipei, purchasing property is becoming increasingly tough for many due to speculative buying.

One of the things Robin Wells and I did when writing our principles of economics textbook was to acquire and study a copy of the original, 1948 edition of Samuelson’s textbook. It’s an extraordinary work: lucid, accessible without being condescending, and deeply insightful. His discussions of speculation and monetary policy are particularly striking: they run quite contrary to much of what was being taught just a few years ago, but they ring completely true in the current crisis. And he was, of course, the man who truly brought Keynesian economics to America — a contribution that now seems more relevant than ever.


ring false

Also, have a false or hollow ring; strike a false note. Seem wrong or deceitful, as in Her denial rings false--I'm sure she was there when it happened, or His good wishes always seem to have a hollow ring, or Carol's congratulatory phone call really struck a false note. Ring false and the antonym, ring true, which means "seem genuine," allude to the old practice of judging a coin genuine or fake by the sound it gives out when tapped. This practice became obsolete when coins ceased to be made of precious metals, but by then the idioms were being used to refer to other matters. [Mid-1800s]

Diana Affair Speculation Sets French Tabloids Ablaze

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS

Former President Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing sparks a frenzy of speculation by penning a bodice ripper about an affair between a French head of state and an unhappy British princess

bodice

━━ n. 婦人用胴着.
 bodice ripper　〔話〕 ボディス・リッパー ((paperbackの1ジャンルで，エロティックな描写が溢れる大衆ロマンス小説)).
bodice‐ripper, a popular modern variety of romance that emphasizes the sexual excitement of seduction and ‘ravishment’, usually in colourful settings based on the conventions of the historical novel and peopled by pirates, highwaymen, wenches etc. A classic example is Kathleen Winsor's best‐selling romance, Forever Amber (1944). See also S & F.

speculative

  

音節

spec • u • la • tive

発音

spékjulèitiv | -lət-

レベル

社会人必須

[形]

1 〈人が〉思索的な, 思索にふける；推論にすぎない；推測［憶測］の, 憶測するような

speculative thought
推論.

2 投機［思わく］的な；投機好きな

a speculative investor
投機好きな投資家.

3 危険な(risky).

spec・u・la・tive・ly

[副]

spec・u・la・tive・ness

[名]