2012年12月31日 星期一

slicing, safety net, take a loss, salami, Iron Curtain

Sliced Bread
Sliced Bread


As Job Loss Rises, Obama Aides Act to Fix Safety Net
By JACKIE CALMES
Administration officials said that a new effort to combat unemployment would not add up to a second stimulus package, only an extension of the first.


U.K. Loss on Northern Rock
The U.K. sold nationalized lender Northern Rock to Virgin Money, taking a loss in the government's first sale of a bailed-out British bank.

States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable

A large majority of states are slicing into their social safety nets, often crippling preventive efforts that officials say would save money over time.


Their meeting will not have anything to do with Iraq’s national sovereignty, but instead will involve slicing up billions of dollars in work for the defense contractors that support the American military’s presence in the country.

When those agents set out to produce not only a friendly sphere of Soviet influence but also a cordon of dictatorships reliably responsive to Russian orders, Winston Churchill was moved to warn, just days after the Nazis’ surrender in 1945, that an Iron Curtain was being drawn through the heart of Europe. (He coined the metaphor in a message to President Truman a full year before he used it in public in Fulton, Mo.) And Matyas Rakosi, the “little Stalin” of Hungary, was well known for another apt metaphor, describing how the region’s political, economic, cultural and social oppositions were to be destroyed by “cutting them off like slices of salami.”

 1945年,納粹剛剛投降不久,溫斯頓·丘 吉爾(Winston Churchill)就警告說,一道鐵幕已經在歐洲的心臟地帶降下(他首先在給杜魯門總統[President Truman]的一封信里使用這個比喻說法,整整一年之後,他才在密蘇里州富爾頓公開用這個詞)。匈牙利的“小斯大林”馬加什·拉科西(Matyas Rakosi)做過另外一個恰當的比喻,也非常出名,他說這個地區政治、經濟、文化和社會上的反對勢力會“像薩拉米香腸切成片”那樣被摧毀。

Salami - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Salami - CachedShare
Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern ...


slice

n. - 薄片, 一份, 切片
v. tr. - 切成薄片, 切下
v. intr. - 切, 劃破, 切開, 斜擊球

v., sliced, slic·ing, slic·es. v.tr.
  1. To cut or divide into slices: slice a loaf of bread.
  2. To cut from a larger piece: slice off a piece of salami.
  3. To cut through or across with or as if with a knife: The harvester sliced the field.
  4. To divide into portions or shares; parcel out.
  5. To spread, work at, or clear away with a bladed tool such as a slice bar.
  6. Sports. To hit (a ball) with a slice.
v.intr.
  1. To move like a knife: The destroyer sliced through the water.
  2. Sports. To hit a ball with a slice.
[Middle English, splinter, from Old French esclice, from esclicier, to splinter, of Germanic origin.]
sliceable slice'a·ble adj.
slicer slic'er n.

idioms:
a slice of the action 一部分活動, 一份好處

slice of life 如實反映現實生活的一個側面的
A film, piece of literature or a play might be described as a slice of life if it describes or shows the ordinary details of real life.

slice up 切片
the best thing since sliced bread 極好的東西



日本語 (Japanese)

n. - 一切れ, 一部分, スライス, フライ返し, 薄刃包丁
v. - 切る, 切り取る, スライスさせて打つ, スライスして飛ぶ, 刃物で切る, 薄く切る
idioms:
  • a slice of the action 分け前
  • slice of life 人生の一断面
  • slice up 薄く切る

slice (PIECE) Show phonetics
noun
1 [C] a flat, often thin, piece of food that has been cut from a larger piece:
a slice of bread/cake
cucumber/lemon slices
Would you like another slice of ham/beef?

2 [S] a part of something, such as an amount of money:
We agreed before we did the deal that we'd both take an equal slice of the profit.
The film presents us with a fascinating slice of history.

3 [C] a kitchen utensil with a wide blade which is used for serving pieces of food:
a cake/fish slice

slice Show phonetics
verb
1 [T] to cut something into thin, flat pieces:
Slice the mushrooms thinly and fry in butter.
[+ two objects] Could you slice me a very thin piece of cake/slice a very thin piece of cake for me?
See picture .

2 [I + adverb or preposition] to easily cut into or through something with a sharp knife:
He screamed as the blade sliced into his leg.
FIGURATIVE She watched his slim strong body as it sliced effortlessly through the water.

sliced Show phonetics
adjective
cut into thin flat pieces:
sliced bread/ham/tomato

slicer Show phonetics
noun [C]
a machine or tool for slicing particular types of food:
an egg/bread/meat slicer

Transitional Justice, facilitate, facilitator



 “Facilitators help us put labels on the pictures so that the caregivers can help the children get familiar with the new faces,” she said. “I weep to think of them holding those albums and wondering why the people that promised they would be back in a few weeks have never come back.”
 她說,“領養機構的人幫我們給照片貼上標籤,好讓照看孩子的人幫孩子熟悉這些新面孔。他們會拿着這些相冊想,那些承諾過幾周就會再來的人,怎麼再也沒出現呢?一想到這樣的情景,我就忍不住流淚。”


如今為了推廣這份報告的 閱讀人口與深化教育,東帝汶政府在「國際轉型正義中心」(International Center for Transitional Justice)的協助之下,推出新版的總結報告。原始報告僅有英文、印尼文與葡萄牙文三種版本,新的插圖版簡化原先超過兩千頁的內容,輔以插圖與漫畫, 以東帝汶本地語言「德頓語」(Tetum)出版。希望能提供學校教育與一般公民團體,作為推動人權教育與歷史教育上的有力工具。此書已在八月底的紀念公投 11週年儀式上,由總統霍塔(Jose Ramos-Horta)親自公佈。

The International Journal of Transitional Justice

不知怎回事 台灣將翻譯成 Transitional Justice轉型正義
所以 轉型變成對應 transformation和 transition
這是很不好的翻譯

Transitional justice generally refers to a range of approaches that states may use to address past human rights violations and includes both judicial and non-judicial approaches. They include series of actions or policies and their resulting institutions, which may be enacted at a point of political transition from violence and repression to societal stability. Transitional justice is informed by a society’s desire to rebuild social trust, repair a fractured justice system, and build a democratic system of governance. The core value of transitional justice is the notion of justice: not necessarily criminal justice, but other forms of justice as well. This notion and the political transformation, such as regime change or transition from conflict, are thus linked toward a more peaceful, certain and democratic future.
The term ‘transitional justice’ has recently received greater attention by both academics and policymakers. It has also generated interest in the fields of political and legal discourse, especially in transitional societies. In period of political transitions, from authoritarian, dictatorial regimes or from civil conflicts to a democracy, transitional justice has often provided opportunities for such societies to address past human rights abuses, mass atrocities, or other forms of severe trauma in order to facilitate a smooth transition into a more democratic or peaceful future. This article discusses the concept of transitional justice: the definition, its historical roots and development, various models, modern-day trends of application in transitional states and its future in a transitional and democratization discourse.




facilitator 輔導員等

facilitate

音節fa・cil・i・tate 発音記号/fəsílətèɪt/
【動詞】 【他動詞】
を〉容易にする楽にする促進[助長]する 《★【用法】 この主語として用いない》.
用例
FACILITY+‐ATE; 【名詞】 facilitation
 
 
transitional

[形]移り変わる;過渡的[期]の
a transitional government
暫定政権
transitional relief
((英))(新税制導入時の)暫定的優遇措置.
tran・si・tion・al・ly
[副]

2012年12月29日 星期六

gang, gang rape, gangsta rapper, gangsterism, plead, raise payday

A court has ruled that Eminem's contract gives him 50 percent of the royalties for songs sold online.<br />
Chad Batka for The New York Times

Suit Could Raise Payday for Older Artists
By BEN SISARIO

The rapper Eminem stands at the center of a lawsuit that could mean larger profits for artists whose contracts predate digital music and have not been renegotiated.

Woman Dies After a Gang Rape That Galvanized India

NEW DELHI — A 23-year-old student had been in critical condition since she was attacked on Dec. 16 by men who lured her onto a bus in New Delhi.


(犯罪)團夥/團伙

 gang
  1. [名]((単数・複数扱い))
  2. 1 群れ,連中,グループ,集団;いっしょに働く仲間,同僚
    • be of a gang
    • 同じ(関心を持った)仲間である
  3. 2 (若者の)遊び友だち,(たむろする)不良少年のグループ,チーム(チーマーのグループ);(しばしば排他的な)仲間
  4. 3 ギャング,暴力団. ▼一員はgangster
  5. 4 (道具の)一組,一そろい;(野犬・オオカミなどの)一群,(水牛などの)群れ
    • a gang of oars
    • 一組のオール.
  1. ━━[動](他)
  2. 1 …をグループにまとめる.
  3. 2 ((略式))…を集団で襲撃する
    • saw the man get ganged.
    • その男が大ぜいに襲われるのを見た.
  1. ━━(自)
  2. 1 ((略式))(…と)一団になる,集団で行動する((up/with ...));(人を)集団で攻撃する((up/on, against ...)).
  3. 2 ((スコット))行く,歩く
    • gang agley
    • 失敗する,へまをする.
  1. [古ノルド語gangr, ganga(行くこと,グループ)]

gang 1

  (găng)
n.
1. group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit.
2. group of adolescents who band together, especially a group of delinquents.
3. Informal A group of people who associate regularly on a social basis: The whole gang from the office went to a clambake.
4. group of laborers organized together on one job or under one foreperson: railroad gang.
5. matched or coordinated set, as of tools: gang of chisels.
6.
a. pack of wolves or wild dogs.
b. herd, especially of buffalo or elk.
v. gangedgang·inggangs
v.intr.
To band together as a group or gang.
v.tr.
1. To arrange or assemble into a group, as for simultaneous operation or production: gang several pages onto one printing plate.
2. To attack as an organized group.
Phrasal Verb:
gang up
1. To join together in opposition or attack: The older children were always ganging up on the little ones.
2. To act together as a group: various agencies ganging up to combat the use of illicit drugs.

[Middle English, band of menfrom Old English, journeyand Old Norse -gangrjourney, group (as in thjofagangrgang of thieves).]


payday('') pronunciation
n.
The day on which employees' salaries or wages are paid.


 《中英對照讀新聞》 First female rapper debuts in Afghanistan 阿富汗首位女性饒舌歌手出道

◎陳維真
"Listen to my story! Listen to my pain and suffering!’’ Afghanistan’s first female rapper Sosan Firooz pleads into her microphone.
「聽聽我的故事!聽我的苦難!」阿富汗首位女性饒舌歌手費魯茲透過麥克風請求。

With her first rap song, the outspoken 23-year-old singer is making history in her homeland where society frowns on women who take the stage. She is already shunned by some of her relatives.
用她的第一首饒舌歌曲,這位大膽說出心聲的23歲歌手在她的故鄉締造歷史,當地社會不喜歡女性登台演出,她已經讓一些親戚對她迴避。

But for Firooz, the best way to express herself is through rap, a musical genre that is just starting to generate a following in Afghanistan. She sings about repression of women, her hopes for a peaceful Afghanistan and the misery she says she experienced as a small child living in neighboring Iran.
不過,對費魯茲來說,表達自己最棒的方式還是透過饒舌歌曲,這種音樂形式正開始在阿富汗流行。她唱出女性受到的壓迫,對阿富汗和平的盼望,以及她小時候住在鄰國伊朗時的悲慘經歷。

So far, the song, titled "Our Neighbors," has only been released on YouTube, with a video that shows a series of pictures of Firooz posing in a hip-hop style gear. In some pictures, she wears a bandana with skulls, but her long hair flows freely, with no headscarf — a rarity among Afghan women.
目前,「我們的鄰居」這首歌只有在YouTube上發行,錄影帶內容是費魯茲以嘻哈造型擺姿勢的照片。在幾張照片中,她綁著有骷髏頭圖案的大手帕,沒有綁頭巾,一頭長髮自由擺動,這在阿富汗女性中很罕見。

Firooz is also an actress, appearing in secondary roles in a number of local TV soap operas. Earlier this month, she sang at a three-day music festival in Kabul.(AP)
費魯茲也是一位演員,在幾個當地肥皂劇中飾演配角。本月稍早時,她在喀布爾一場為期3天的音樂季中表演。(美聯社)

新聞辭典
plead:動詞,懇求。例句:The lady pleaded with her daughter to come back home. (那位女士懇求女兒回家。)

  • 発音記号[plíːd]

[動](〜・ed or plead 〔pléd〕 or((米・スコット))pled 〔pléd〕)(自)
1I([副]) ](…を)嘆願[懇願]する((for ...));[plead with A for B]〈A(人)にB(慈悲など)を〉嘆願する;[plead with A to do]〈A(人)に…してくれと〉弁じる, 説きつける, 熱心に頼む, 訴える. ⇒APPEAL[類語]
He pleaded with the judge for mercy.
判事に慈悲を訴えた
He pleaded with her not to leave him.
彼女に捨てないでくれと懇願した.
2 《法律》
(1)I([副])/II[形]](訴訟で)(…に対し)申し立て[主張]をする((against ...));(…を)弁護する((for ...)).
(2) 〈被告側が〉答弁[抗弁]する, 答弁書を提出する
plead guilty
有罪[責任]を認める答弁をする
plead not guilty
無罪の答弁をする(▼くだけた言い方ではplead innocentone's innocence]ともいう).
(3) (法廷で)弁論する.
━━(他)
1III[名]/that節]…を(弁護・言い訳として)主張する, 申し立てる;…と申し立てて弁護[抗弁]する
plead ignorance
知らなかったと弁明する
He pleaded that he did not break the window.
窓を割っていないと言い張った.
2 《法律》
(1) 〈訴訟原因などを〉申し立てる.
(2) …を訴答として提出する.
[古フランス語←ラテン語placitāre (placēre喜ばす+-tus過去分詞語尾+-āre=喜ぶようにする→意見を述べる→嘆願する). △PLEAoutspoken:形容詞,誠實表達自己的意見,尤其是令人訝異或具有爭議性的意見。例句:He has been outspoken in his criticism.(他在批評中直言不諱。)
rarity: 名詞,稀有、罕見之人。例句: In psychology, possessing an IQ at and above 180 may qualify you as an intellectual rarity.(在心理學中,IQ超過180就算是罕見的聰明人。)


By contrast, during a large-scale taxi strike in Chongqing in 2008, Mr Bo was more interventionist. He held an unusual televised meeting with drivers, but later launched a sweeping anti-mafia campaign that resulted in a wealthy businessman accused of organising the strike being sentenced to 20 years in prison for gangsterism and disrupting transport.




German rapper Bushido tones down vile rhetoric in image remake

Germany's most infamous gangsta rapper is making headlines again. But this
time, it's not because of an offensive comment or a banned record - its
because he seems to be growing up.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew3v45I44va89pI3

gangsta rap
also gangster rap
n.
A style of rap music associated with urban street gangs and characterized by violent, tough-talking, often misogynistic lyrics.

[From African American Vernacular English gangsta, gangster, alteration of GANGSTER.]

thing, 'Friend Thing', social identity services, hallucinations

Schmidt: Google Missed 'Friend Thing'
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said one of his biggest failures as CEO of the online search giant was grappling with the rise of social identity services such as Facebook.

'Hallucinations'

By OLIVER SACKS
Reviewed by SIRI HUSTVEDT
Oliver Sacks explores the power of hallucinations through first-person accounts.


thing
(thĭng) pronunciation
n.
  1. An entity, an idea, or a quality perceived, known, or thought to have its own existence.
    1. The real or concrete substance of an entity.
    2. An entity existing in space and time.
    3. An inanimate object.
  2. Something referred to by a word, a symbol, a sign, or an idea; a referent.
  3. A creature: the poor little thing.
  4. An individual object: There wasn't a thing in sight.
    1. Law. That which can be possessed or owned. Often used in the plural: things personal; things real.
    2. things Possessions; belongings: packed her things and left.
    3. An article of clothing: Put on your things and let's go.
  5. things The equipment needed for an activity or a special purpose: Where are my cleaning things?
  6. An object or entity that is not or cannot be named specifically: What is this thing for?
    1. An act, deed, or work: promised to do great things.
    2. The result of work or activity: is always building things.
  7. A thought, a notion, or an utterance: What a rotten thing to say!
  8. A piece of information: wouldn't tell me a thing about the project.
  9. A means to an end: just the thing to increase sales.
  10. An end or objective: In blackjack, the thing is to get nearest to 21 without going over.
  11. A matter of concern: many things on my mind.
  12. A turn of events; a circumstance: The accident was a terrible thing.
    1. things The general state of affairs; conditions: "Beneath the smooth surface of things, something was wrong" (Tom Wicker).
    2. A particular state of affairs; a situation: Let's deal with this thing promptly.
  13. Informal. A persistent illogical feeling, as a desire or an aversion; an obsession: has a thing about seafood.
  14. Informal. The latest fad or fashion; the rage: Drag racing was the thing then.
  15. Slang. An activity uniquely suitable and satisfying to one: Let him do his own thing. See synonyms at forte1.
idioms:
first thing Informal.
  1. Right away; before anything else: Do your assignments first thing in the morning.
see (or hear) things
  1. To have hallucinations.
[Middle English, from Old English.]

hallucination

音節hal・lu・ci・na・tion 発音記号/həlùːsənéɪʃən/
【名詞】
1
【不可算名詞】 [具体的には 【可算名詞】] 幻覚.
用例
2
【可算名詞】 (幻覚によって生じる)妄想.

maddeningly, goodness, batty, insane,



'Another Insane Devotion'

By PETER TRACHTENBERG
Reviewed by JENNIFER B. McDONALD
Desperately searching for a missing cat, Peter Trachtenberg ponders the mysteries of relationships - both human and animal.
If you have goodness to wait.

Through the day and into the evening, officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies hunted for clues amid a tangle of electronic trading records from the nation’s increasingly high-tech exchanges.
But, maddeningly, the cause or causes of the market’s wild swing remained elusive, leaving what amounts to a $1 trillion question mark hanging over the world’s largest, and most celebrated, stock market

Obama invited Bob Gates to the Saturday summit. Gates, after all, had originally been brought in as defense secretary by W. to be a common-sense counterbalance to the batty Cheney.



 Inside a dictator's insanely huge palace
Inside a dictator's insanely huge palace: http://cnn.it/1FTh2lB

25 years after the death of Romania's communist dictator, tourism is...
CNN.COM|由 JOHN MALATHRONAS FOR CNN 上傳
 ·  ·  · 98458215


batty
adj. Slang, -ti·er, -ti·est.
Crazy; insane.

[From bats in the belfry.]
battiness bat'ti·ness n.

mad·den·ing (măd'n-ĭng) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Tending to anger or irritate: a maddening delay at the airport.
  2. Tending to drive insane.
maddeningly mad'den·ing·ly adv.

goodness
n.
  1. The state or quality of being good.
  2. The beneficial or nutritious part.
interj.
Used to express mild surprise.



insane

音節in・sane 発音記号/ìnséɪn/音声を聞く
【形容詞】
(insan・er,‐est; more insane,most insane)
用例
用例
insanely 【副詞】
IN+SANE; 【名詞】 insanity

2012年12月28日 星期五

rights offering, at steep discount




Nokia's Lumia Offered at Discounts

 

 

Board of Wynn Resorts Forcibly Buys Out Founder
The board of Wynn Resorts has accused Steve Wynn's former ally, Kazuo Okada, of making improper payments and forcibly bought out his 20% stake in the company at a steep discount.




InBev
's $52 billion deal to buy St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch hit a snag this week, when the Belgian brewer announced that it was forced to postpone a $9.8 billion rights offering intended to help fund the purchase.



The gleanings turn out to be a mixture of the obvious, the paradoxical and the ambiguous. Take emotion. Brain-imaging experiments suggest that older people are better at regulating it. Young people get more neurologically fired up at the prospect of loss. And they are less willing to pass up a small reward today for a greater one tomorrow; in other words, they “discount” the future more steeply than the older people, even though it is the oldies who, with their limited time horizon, ought to be the big temporal discounters.


[形]
1 〈坂などが〉険しい, 急な;〈増加などが〉急激な
a steep slope
険しい坂
The roof is steep.
その屋根は勾配(こうばい)が急だ.
2 〈値段・金額が〉不当に高い, 法外な;〈仕事などが〉ひどく骨のおれる;〈要求などが〉不当な, 酷な, 〈話などが〉おおげさな, 信じられない
a steep tax
不当に高い税金
a steep task
難儀な仕事
a pretty steep tale
信じがたい話
That's [It's] a bit steep.
((英話))それはあんまりだ.
━━[名]急勾配の場所, 急な坂, 断崖(だんがい);(丘などの)傾斜面
climb a steep
急な坂を上る.
[古英語stēap(高い). stūpian(前にかたむく)と同系. △STOOP1



[動](他)
1 〈物を〉(液体に)浸す, つける((in ...));…を浸してふやかす;…をぬらす;…をせんじる, 振り出す;((通例過去分詞形))…をずぶぬれにする, …に水分をしみ込ませる
a courser steeped in sweat
汗でびっしょりの競走馬.
2 ((受身または〜 -self))(学問などに)没頭する, 夢中になる;(悪事に)すっかり染まる((in ...))
He steeped himself [=was steeped] in English literature.
英文学に打ちこんでいた
He is steeped in crime.
すっかり悪に染まっている.
━━(自)(←(他)
1 (水などに)つかって[浸って]いる((in ...)).
2 〈お茶などの成分が〉浸み出る.
━━[名][U][C]浸す[浸される]こと;浸されて[つかって]いる状態;浸す液
be in steep


rights offering

Issuing rights to a company's existing shareholders to buy a proportional number of additional securities at a given price (usually at a discount) within a fixed period.
Investopedia Says:
Rights are often transferable, allowing the holder to sell them on the open market.
Related Links:
Not sure what to do if a company invites you to buy more shares at discount? Here are some of your options. Understanding Rights Issues



discount
v., -count·ed, -count·ing, -counts. v.tr.
  1. To deduct or subtract from a cost or price.
    1. To purchase or sell (a bill, note, or other commercial paper) at a reduction equal to the amount of interest that will accumulate before it matures.
    2. To lend money on (a commercial paper not immediately payable) after deducting the interest.
    1. To sell or offer for sale at a reduced price.
    2. To reduce in quantity or value.
    1. To leave out of account as being untrustworthy or exaggerated; disregard: discount a rumor.
    2. To underestimate the significance or effectiveness of; minimize: took care not to discount his wife's accomplishments.
    3. To regard with doubt or disbelief.
  2. To anticipate and make allowance for; reckon with in advance.
v.intr.
To lend money after deduction of interest.

n. (dĭs'kount')
  1. A reduction from the full or standard amount of a price or debt.
  2. The interest deducted prior to purchasing, selling, or lending a commercial paper; the discount rate.
  3. The act or an instance of discounting a bill of exchange, note, or other commercial paper.
[Alteration (influenced by DIS-COUNT1) of French décompter, from Old French desconter : des-, away; see dis- + conter, to count; see count1.]
discountable dis'count'a·ble adj.