執筆者 Modern English | 2015年05月07日 | Trivia
The adjective “urban” describes city areas and “rural” describes the country. But in between those, there are places near the city with many houses. They are “suburban” (“sub” means “below”—they are not quite...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年04月23日 | Trivia
A litter is a group of brother and sister kittens that were born at the same time. The word “litter” also means throwing garbage on the street. Animal rescue groups use a play on words to encourage cat owners to get their animals spayed and neutered:...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年04月16日 | Trivia
The funny bone isn’t so much an actual bone as a way of hitting your elbow that feels strange. If you hit your elbow against a hard surface at the correct angle, it doesn’t exactly hurt, but it also isn’t pleasant. In English we say you “hit...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年04月09日 | Trivia
In Japanese, a person with “high tension” is excited or easily excitable. “Tension” is actually a measure of how strongly something (such as a rope) is being pulled from opposite sides. If you hold a rope in one hand, it dangles loosely, but if...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年04月02日 | Trivia
Color blindness is an inability to see colors. One common type is red-green color blindness. People with this condition can see other colors normally, but red and green look the same. It can be caused when the signals sent by the “cone” cells in the eyes...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年03月26日 | Trivia
Classically, trolls are a kind of humanoid monster that lives under bridges. In one famous story, three goats must cross a bridge without being eaten by the troll that lives underneath. Nowadays, “troll” usually refers to troublemakers on the internet....
