Daily Archives: 12月 18, 2012

catch-22

There’s a catch-22 for wine lovers who have really caught the bug: The more desirable a wine is, the harder it is to get. And the harder it is to get, the more desirable it is.

Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Wine for Dummies, 4th Edition, Wiley, 2006.

catch-22 n
1) a situation in which a person is frustrated by a paradoxical rule or set of circumstances that preclude any attempt to escape from them
2) a situation in which any move that a person can make will lead to trouble [CED]

Catch-22 n [U]
an impossible situation that you cannot solve because you need to do one thing in order to do a second thing, but you cannot do the second thing until you have done the first:
It’s a Catch-22 situation ー without experience you can’t get a job and without a job you can’t get experience. [LDCE]

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on the contrary

‘You left Paris yesterday, sir?’ he said to Monseigneur, as he took his seat at table.

‘Yesterday. And you?’

‘I come direct.’

‘From London?’

‘Yes.’

‘You have been a long time coming,’ said the Marquis, with a smile.

‘On the contrary; I come direct.’

‘Pardon me! I mean, not a long time on the journey; a long time intending the journey.’

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859.

on the contrary
used to show that you think or feel the opposite of what has just been stated:
“Didn’t you find the film exciting?” “On the contrary, I nearly fell asleep half way through it!” [CALD]

on the contrary Idiom
used to introduce a statement that says the opposite of the last one:
‘It must have been terrible.’ ‘On the contrary, I enjoyed every minute.’ [OALD]

on the contrary Idiom
In opposition to what has been stated or what is expected:
I’m not sick; on the contrary, I’m in the peak of health. [AHD4]

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hyphenate

In discussing science we also need to define its scope, as well as the methods and views (concepts) involved in its pursuit. It is also useful to think about what science is not, although this can sometimes become controversial. Significant and important studies such as those concerned with the field of sociology, politics, or economics increasingly use methods that previously were associated only with the physical and biological sciences or mathematics. However, I believe these are not in a strict sense “hard sciences.” The name “science” these days is also frequently hyphenated to varied other fields (from animal- science to culinary science to exercise science, etc.). Such studies indeed may use some of the methods of science, but they hardly fall under the scope of science. There is a Dutch proverb that says “Everything has its science, with the exception of catching fleas: This is an art.” It may overstate the point, but sometimes to make a point it is necessary to overstate it.

George A. Olah, A Life of Magic Chemistry : Autobiographical Reflections of a Nobel Prize Winner, Wiley-Interscience, 2001, pp.4-5.

hyphenate tr.v.
To divide or connect (syllables, word elements, or names) with a hyphen. [AHD4]

hyphenate transitive verb
to connect (as two words) or divide (as a word at the end of a line of print) with a hyphen [MWCD]

hyphenate verb
to join two words together using a hyphen; to divide a word between two lines of text using a hyphen:
Is your name hyphenated? [OALD]

down-to-earth

A down-to-earth, painless example of the Doppler shift principle is when you stand on a sidewalk and a police car speeds by in hot pursuit of a stolen motorcycle. The pitch of the police siren increases as the car approaches you and then drops sharply as it moves away.

Joel McNamara, GPS For Dummies, Wiley, 2004, p.50.

down-to-earth adjective
(approving) sensible and practical, in a way that is helpful and friendly:
She was friendly and down-to-earth and quickly put me at my ease. [OALD]

down-to-earth adj
practical and direct in a sensible honest way:
Fran’s a very friendly, down-to-earth person. [LDCE]

DoD

In our American system, government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and various Department of Defense (DoD)-related research offices [i.e., Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency)] are some of the major sources of support. These research agencies are basically independent of each other and are even in some friendly competition. In my view, this helps to keep American science vibrant, highly competitive, and active. In most other countries there is generally a single central research support agency.

George A. Olah, A Life of Magic Chemistry : Autobiographical Reflections of a Nobel Prize Winner, Wiley-Interscience, 2001, p.228.

DOD abbreviation
Department of Defense (the government department in the US that is responsible for defence) [OALD]

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