Vocabulary In the News : 21 September 2009 – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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- Hospital emergency rooms in Atlanta are bracing for an onslaught of patients with flu-like symptoms. If you brace for something, you are getting yourself ready physically or mentally for something unpleasant. It’s what you would do with your body while driving if your car was about to hit or be hit. Here, emergency rooms are preparing for an onslaught, or a large number of people that all come at the same time. Another way of saying this is they are preparing for a surge of people. Because of fears concerning the H1N1 flu, more people are flooding emergency rooms. Most of these cases are simply due to the seasonal flu.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-ers-brace-for-142731.html

- City employees for the city of Atlanta wanting to lose weight are part of an intensive fitness boot camp being led by an Atlanta city detective and former US Marine. The term boot camp is a military term for the initial intensive training all soldiers must do when they join the military. Here the term is used because it is an intensive program three times a week. During the workout (l’entraînement physique), the workers are feeling the burn! This is common expression used during a workout to describe that feeling in your muscles as they are being challenged and becoming fatigued! As we also say, “No pain, no gain!”

Unable to find article link

- Due to an overpopulation of dogs across the state of Georgia and the rest of the South, thousands of animal shelters are being forced to euthanize thousands of dogs not claimed by their owners. So many of these “Dixie” dogs are being adopted by yearning Northerners where strict and obligatory neutering laws have created a demand for pets. Dixie, as most you might know, is an old nickname for the Southern United States. Volunteer pilots, with the goal of saving 5,000 dogs by Sunday, are flying these dogs north where people yearn for them. The term is a bit strong here in this headline but if you yearn for something, you want it a lot but risk not getting it. Some couples yearn to have a baby but have difficulties conceiving one. Some people yearn for the love of another who doesn’t love them.

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-dogs-adopted-by-142702.html