Vocabulary In the News : Yahoo! News (Online Article From 31 December 2010)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/new_year_s_eve;_ylt=Au.EDaRl._gD.QwBr2YE2kKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNlY2NscGgwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMjMxL25ld195ZWFyX3NfZXZlBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDbWlsbGlvbnNnYXRo

If you are awake at midnight and are celebrating the arrival of the New Year, we say in English that you are ringing in the New Year. At midnight the world ushers in 2011, in other words, the world will inaugurate 2011. Some dream that in 2011, successful talks between Israel and Palestine will usher in a new era of peace.

Worldwide (around the world), people are celebrating  and enjoying themselves by being lively and noisy. Many of these revelers are singing, dancing and drinking. These revelers are gathering in large crowds such as in Times Square, New York. Others are simply at home gathered with their family. When people gather, they come together in one place to see or do something. This Christmas, I returned to the States to gather with my family.

Happy New Year 2011!!

To read the full article, click on the link or image above!

Vocabulary In the News : Yahoo! News (Online Article From 31 December 2010)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101231/wl_nm/us_france_newyear

Well, it’s that time of year in France when friends get together with a glass of champagne around a blazing fire. However, that blazing fire could be your car! Once again, French authorities brace for these annual New Year torchings. In other words, they are preparing for an unpleasant night. Have you ever watched a movie where a boat, ship or space ship are about to be hit by a large object? Usually in this situation, the captain will cry out, “Brace for impact!” This tells the crew to prepare themselves for the impact or blow that will hit the vessel. In France, the authorities are bracing for the impact of the car torchings.

Disaffected youths in France’s suburbs compete with other suburbs to see who can cause the most damage. To be disaffected means to longer feel any loyalty. Many of France’s youth in the suburbs feel that they are discriminated against and thus have become hostile and rebellious toward authority.

Bracing for this night and in an attempt to fight against this competition between suburbs, the police will keep the vandalism statistics under wraps. If you are good at not telling anyone a secret, you can keep it under wraps. You could also say that the French police will keep a lid on the vandalism statistics.

To read the full article, click on the link or image above.

Interesting Article: The Boston Globe – The Belsnickler cometh

Here’s an interesting article about various holiday traditions and regionalisms around the United States rooted in different European customs.

To read the article go to: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/12/26/the_belsnickler_cometh/?page=1

Vocabulary In the News : CBS News (Online Article from 22 December 2010)

In this sad story, a student of Rutgers University, Tyler Clementi, was outed by his roommate who spied on him with a webcam during a tryst. The roommate then put the video online publically humiliating him. As a result, a humiliated Tyler committed suicide.

If someone is outed, this means it is made publically known that he or she is gay. Tyler Clementi, who was publically still in the closet, was caught in a tryst (pronounced ‘trist’) with another man.  A tryst means any secret meaning between two people who are having a romantic relationship.

The act caused national outcry in the United States. This is an angry expression of protest or shock!

Tyler’s parents believe that Rutgers University failed to enforce policies that would have prevented the act. His parents are now considering whether or not to sue the university. If you sue someone, you are making a legal claim against them, usually for money, because they have done something bad against you. To formally ask a court to look at your case against someone, you file a lawsuit.

To read more about this story, click on the image above.

I had just finished writing the blog post above when I noticed that Newsy had just posted video on this story:

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For the transcript, go to : http://www.newsy.com/videos/rutgers-facing-lawsuit-over-clementi-suicide

Vocabulary In the News : Yahoo News (Online Article from 26 November 2010)

If you stab someone or something, you push a sharp object such as a knife into that person or thing. Thankfully, in the case of this Marine who was stabbed in the back, his wound wasn’t severe. The Marine was trying to stop a shoplifter, who had tried to shoplift a laptop computer. Shoplifting is the act of stealing from a shop. This comes from the verb ‘to lift,’ which also means to steal.

Other interesting expressions with ‘stab’:

• Unpleasant feelings or emotions can stab you if you feel them very strongly. When my grandmother passed away, sadness stabbed my heart. If someone’s words stab you, you feel a strong sense of sadness or fear.
• a stabbing – In the article, the Marine was a victim of a stabbing. This is the name for this type of attack.
• a stabbing pain – This is very intense and sharp pain such as would be felt in a heart attack or severe injury.
• to stab someone in the back – If someone trusts you and that person thinks you are loyal to them, but you do something bad that is disloyal and hurtful, you stab them in the back.
• a stab in the dark – If you make a guess at a question or problem that is not based on any knowledge and which will probably be a wrong answer, we call this a stab in the dark. Sometimes while playing trivia games and I don’t know the answer, I’ll make a stab in the dark.

Click on the above image to access the article’s main page.

Vocabulary In the News : New York Post (Online Article from 20 November 2010) – “What a catch!”

The headline of this article has some great idiomatic expressions that come from fishing terminology. Let’s first look at “What a catch!” Of course the meaning is clear because when you go fishing, you want to catch fish. If you catch or someone else catches a nice, big fish you would say, “What a catch!” You can also use this expression to describe someone’s partner. If a friend of yours found a really nice boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife you would tell them the say thing! Of course if they unfortunately lose them, you could say “There are other fish in the ocean.”

When you fish, you hope to catch a fish on your hook. However, the headline states that some young New Yorkers are also hooked. If you are hooked on something, you are really interested  or attracted to it and you want to do it as much as possible. These guys are hooked on fishing. This expression can also be used to describe an addiction that you can’t stop such as being hooked on drugs.

Angling is the sport of catching fish. When you fish, you hope to catch a fish on the line when it bites your hook. Of course, while reeling in your fish, you could lose it! For these New York fisherman, they are putting their angling skills on the line.  If you put or lay something on the line, you put something at risk. The young New Yorkers are risking their reputations as good fisherman. When our soldiers go on mission into a combat area, they put their lives on the line for us.

To read the article, click on the above image.

Vocabulary In the News : Politico (Online Article from 15 November 2010)

In January when the new Republican-controlled Congress convenes, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi will no longer be Speaker of the House, the second most powerful position in the US government and second-in-line to the presidency. She appears to have enough votes though from her Democrat colleagues to maintain her leadership position, but as Minority Leader. However some of the more moderate Democrats are unhappy with her maintaining leadership of the Democrats in the House. Since they don’t have enough votes to remove her from leadership, they are attacking Pelosi’s power to appoint lieutenants.

If you appoint someone to do a job, you choose that person. Pelosi, as leader of the Democrats in the House, has the power to appoint the lieutenants. These are Democrat members holding other lower ranking leadership positions in the party and are considered the leader’s ‘enforcers.’

Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to stop opposition from the more moderate Democrat members. This means that she is hurrying and working very hard in competition against these member to maintain her authority. She wants to thwart a Democrat rebellion in her party. In other words, she is trying to prevent or stop this rebellion.

This is seen as the first test of her might (or power) in the new Congress. The article states that she is trying to extinguish the rebellion. If you extinguish a fire or a cigarette, you stop the burning. The rebellion is viewed like a fire that has to be stopped.

To read the article, click on the above image.

Vocabulary In the News : Daily Mail (Online Article from 7 November 2010)

Evan Davis, from the British reality show Dragons’ Den, defied BBC strikers. If you defy someone, you refuse to obey or to follow the wishes of someone. In this case, he defied his coworkers at the BBC who were on strike.

How did he defy the will of these strikers? He crossed the picket line. A picket line is literally a line or procession of people who are publicly protesting. The expression, to cross the picket line, means a worker continues to work while his coworkers are on strike.

When Davis crossed the picket line, he provoked a furious row. A row is a very noisy argument or serious disagreement between people. This noun is pronounced like “wow!”