The High Speech

2021-04-22 09:00:30 #synonymiser
Morning, everyone! Sorry to have kept you waiting. I hope the one who was anxiously inquiring about the next post will be pleased with this one. You see, I have rather busy days, and this post has taken me, I believe, no less than 4 hours of pure working time. And that does not include the time when I was thinking about the words and their lexical meanings while having time to myself. It takes a lot of time, in a nutshell, and I am clearly not ready to sacrifice quality.

Hope you will appreciate the quality of my selection of synonymous adjectives with a meaning of unusualness and strangeness.

unusual – not in line with conventional standards
A maxi dress is an unusual type of garment for a party.
Hanging upside-down is an unusual way of getting inspiration practised by Dan Brown.
The party leaders convened at a golf club – a slightly unusual place for political venues.

uncommon – not seen, happening or experienced often
Free elections are uncommon in authoritarian regimes.
Playing attacking football is uncommon for Jose Mourinho's teams.
Speculating about scientific things is uncommon for laymen.
Putting your head outside the side window of a driving car is an uncommon but efficient way of getting your hair dry.

weird – unreasonably strange and bizarre
It is weird trying to catch fish with your hands when you have proper fishing equipment.
Aero tube diving may seem a weird experience to some.
Ed Miliband has such a weird manner of speaking.

strange – unusual and unexpected
Culture-specific traditions may look strange outside their native culture.
Over time, even a name that may seem strange to consumers can be accepted and embraced. (CNN)
I had a strange feeling that we'd met before. (Cambridge Dictionary)

queer – differing in some way from what is usual or normal
'How queer it seems,' Alice said to herself, 'to be going messages for a rabbit! (Alice's Adventures in the Wonderland – Lewis Carroll)
Maybe the idea that Mali and Burkina Faso were once inhabited countries rather than empty deserts will seem queer, and the immiseration of huge numbers of stateless refugees thronging against the borders of the rich northern countries will be taken for granted. (The Economist)

odd – differing markedly from the usual, ordinary, or accepted 
It may feel odd talking to a compatriot in a foreign language at language club meetings, especially for beginner-level learners.
How odd to see the diplomats as hawks and the military as doves. (The New York Times)
It was odd to see the camp without anyone in it and no one watching over.

bizarre – strikingly out of the ordinary and hard to comprehend
There are lots of bizarre stories about paranormal things on TV, but there is still no confirmation or proof that any of them are real.
A silent party is probably the most bizarre sort of a party.
Some of the rituals were quite bizarre.

funny – differing from the ordinary in a suspicious, perplexing or alarming way
My car has been making a funny noise on the way to your place.
Going into this game, I've had a funny feeling that something might go wrong even though we do look a stronger team on paper.

fanciful – odd and deviating from what is normal
– But, um, you described how the light from the gas lamps caught the rain and made a kind of halo round her.
–That sounds rather fanciful for me. (Downton Abbey – season 3, episode 6)
It would not be too fanciful to say that Carlyle's unusual economically deprived but spiritually rich past could have played a major part in turning him into such a versatile, passionate actor. (The Guardian) Open / Comment

2021-04-05 10:00:59 #original_high_speech
Hello, dear all! Here I present you with another extract of elegant English from The Forsyte Saga. It comes from Volume 1 'The Man of Property', Part II, Chapter VIII 'Dance at Roger's'. And a supportive glossary comes with it to help you expand the reaches of your word stock.

May you enjoy it!

Supportive glossary:
chaperone – спутник или спутница
eddy – водоворот
scarce – редкий
to plead – упрашивать
callow – малоопытный
wallflower – девушка без кавалера
to murmur – бормотать
to pluck – обрывать, дёргать
dandified – франтовской, щёголеватый
slack – свободная, неприлегающая часть
breeches – брюки
jackanape – нахал
conceit – тщеславие
self-forgetfulness – самоотречение

After this the stream came fast; chaperones silting up along the wall facing the entrance, the volatile element swelling the eddy in the larger room.

Men were scarce, and wallflowers wore their peculiar, pathetic expression, a patient, sourish smile which seemed to say: "Oh, no! don't mistake me, I know you are not coming up to me. I can hardly expect that!" And Francie would plead with one of her lovers, or with some callow youth: "Now, to please me, do let me introduce you to Miss Pink; such a nice girl, really!" and she would bring him up, and say: "Miss Pink – Mr. Gathercole. Can you spare him a dance?" Then Miss Pink, smiling her forced smile, colouring a little, answered: "Oh! I think so!" and screening her empty card, wrote on it the name of Gathercole, spelling it passionately in the district that he proposed, about the second extra.

But when the youth had murmured that it was hot, and passed, she relapsed into her attitude of hopeless expectation, into her patient, sourish smile.

Mothers, slowly fanning their faces, watched their daughters, and in their eyes could be read all the story of those daughters' fortunes. As for themselves, to sit hour after hour, dead tired, silent, or talking spasmodically – what did it matter, so long as the girls were having a good time! But to see them neglected and passed by! Ah! they smiled, but their eyes stabbed like the eyes of an offended swan; they longed to pluck young Gathercole by the slack of his dandified breeches, and drag him to their daughters – the jackanapes!

And all the cruelties and hardness of life, its pathos and unequal chances, its conceit, self-forgetfulness, and patience, were presented on the battle-field of this Kensington ball-room. Open / Comment

2021-04-02 21:00:11 #vocabulary_builder #travel
At a Hotel

Phew, I am back to posting on this channel. Hope, I will keep it up. To begin with, I have had a lot of work since September 2020, which I cannot complain about, because it has allowed me to achieve more financial stability and make a step up in my professional and financial growth as a freelancer. But due to how much effort and time the work was consuming, I could not keep up this channel going up to the set standards. And later on I somehow got out of the habbit of making posts, just did not feel enough motivation.

I now seem to have some workload off, so I want to use this free time to get back to making posts on this channel. And I also plan to invest some of the money I have recently made to get some more audience here to keep the motivation going.

And in this very post, I am getting back to Vocabulary Builder on travel. I hope I will finish this entire series before the end of the spring. I imagine there will be no more than two more posts in the topic of travel. So, let us now get to it. In this post, I am listing vocabulary associated with hotels.

adjoining rooms – смежные номера, разделённые дверью
amenities – внутренняя инфраструктура гостиницы
bellboy – носильщик багажа
brochure – буклет, рассказывающий о местных достопримечательностях
check-in – регистрация въезда постояльца
check-out – регистрация выезда постояльца
complimentary – бесплатный
cot – выдвижная кровать
damage charge – взнос за нанесённый ущерб
deposit – сумма для резервирования номера
front desk, reception – регистратура, стойка регистрации
guest – постоялец
hotel manager – управляющий гостиницы
housekeeper, maid – горничная
kitchenette – место для приготовления пищи с холодильником
linen – постельное бельё
lobby – вестибюль
maximum capacity – количество постояльцев, которое может вместить гостиница
pillow case – чехол для подушки
porter – привратник, швейцар
room service – обслуживание номеров
vacancy – свободный номер Open / Comment

2020-09-10 15:00:10 #synonymiser
Всех приветствую. В этом посте разберу англоязычные эквиваленты русского слова "вечный". Немало покорпел и придумал и нашёл для вас немало же интересных и элегантных примеров.

perennial – lasting throughout the year or continuing without cessation or intermission
Groundwater is nearly the sole source for freshwater supply on Jeju volcanic island because there are no perennial streams and rivers. (Journal of Hydrology)
For educators, the question of drug testing is part of a perennial balancing act between protecting students' rights and protecting their safety. (The New York Times)

eternal – endlessly or forever lasting
There is no eternal growth in markets: an uptrend must always be followed by a correction for the price to resume its growth.
Because technological advancements do not change human nature, there will always be the same eternal dilemmas in human society people will have to face.
Eternal peace among living beings is a dystopian thing because the very natural selection principle forbids it.

sempiternal – endlessly or forever lasting
So Zhou Enlai's famous reply was actually quite banal – yet is now universally reinterpreted as a gem of sempiternal Chinese wisdom. (The Guardian)
The sempiternal truths will always unite people of whatever origins and creeds.
How this secret was found will now remain a sempiternal mystery, with only speculations and versions of its finding being offered by different people.

everlasting – lasting forever
When they said your boat was coming, death rose and walked on the one hand of me, and on the other life everlasting. (Jack London – A Daughter of the Snows)
Their halls are above the everlasting snow, upon Oiolossë, the uttermost tower of Taniquetil, tallest of all the mountains upon Earth. (John R. R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion)

perpetual – lasting forever or indefinitely
The San Juan Islands have long been a popular destination for Seattleites looking to escape the perpetual rain and fog. (Forbes)
The faith, MacCulloch notes, is perpetual argument about meaning and ­reality". (The New York Times – Books)
The perpetual conflict between different political parties, which separation of powers creates, prevents the seizure of power by one political actor whatsoever.

permanent – lasting forever or never changing
The total lack of duty of care by MI5 has caused me very serious and permanent psychological damage," said McGartland. (The Guardian)
Multi-hour daily exposure to video games in the early years of life may lead to a permanent decrease in cognitive capabilities.
Extreme sports are associated with high risks of permanent physical discomforts. Open / Comment

2020-08-24 20:01:00 #original_high_speech
Hello, everyone! I am finishing my vacation in Abkhazia, that is why I have not been posting anything for quite a long time. Another reason is that I have been pretty busy with work here. But in autamn I want to start making posts more often and regularly.

In this post, I present you with an extract from The Forsyte Saga book 2 'In Chancery' written by John Galsworthy. The whole saga is richly filled with poetic language, which I did not quite realise before. But now that I have I will probably become more keen on this category (Hooray! I have finally found an equivalent for Russian 'рубрика'.) of my channel.

The extract reveals the impression of Soames Forsyte of the funeral of Queen Victoria.

Supportive glossary
stripling – молодой человек
stock – шейный платок
oyster barrel – тара для продажи устриц, в которой помещалось два галлона устриц без раковин
tiger – слуга, сопровождающий хозяина в поездках в экипажах
pigsty – хлев, свинарник
­Mammon – Мамона, слово в Новом Завете, олицетворяющее земные блага и богатство
to buttress – укреплять
to chisel – высекать
to gild – покрывать позолотой
hypocrisy – лицемерие
to gild – покрывать позолотой
transmuting – преобразовывающий

The Queen was dead, and the air of the greatest city upon earth grey with unshed tears. Fur-coated and top-hatted, with Annette beside him in dark furs, Soames crossed Park Lane on the morning of the funeral procession, to the rails in Hyde Park. Little moved though he ever was by public matters, this event, supremely symbolical, this summing-up of a long rich period, impressed his fancy. In ’37, when she came to the throne, ‘Superior Dosset’ was still building houses to make London hideous; and James, a stripling of twenty-six, just laying the foundations of his practice in the Law. Coaches still ran; men wore stocks, shaved their upper lips, ate oysters out of barrels; ‘tigers’ swung behind cabriolets; women said, ‘La!’ and owned no property; there were manners in the land, and pigsties for the poor; unhappy devils were hanged for little crimes, and Dickens had but just begun to write. Well-nigh two generations had slipped by—­of steamboats, railways, telegraphs, bicycles, electric light, telephones, and now these motorcars—­of such accumulated wealth, that eight per cent. had become three, and Forsytes were numbered by the thousand! Morals had changed, manners had changed, men had become monkeys twice-removed, God had become Mammon—­Mammon so respectable as to deceive himself: Sixty-four years that favoured property, and had made the upper middle class; buttressed, chiselled, polished it, till it was almost indistinguishable in manners, morals, speech, appearance, habit, and soul from the nobility. An epoch which had gilded individual liberty so that if a man had money, he was free in law and fact, and if he had not money he was free in law and not in fact. An era which had canonised hypocrisy, so that to seem to be respectable was to be. A great Age, whose transmuting influence nothing had escaped save the nature of man and the nature of the Universe. Open / Comment

2020-07-27 17:00:14 #synonymiser
Good day to all! In this post, I will ponder words with the meaning of premonition. There will be several words with contextual examples from different literary sources, as they are good for such quite poetic lexis. I have preserved the original punctuation, so do not be confused by some unconventional omissions and usages of punctiation markers.

Hope you will embelish your speech with this one.

foreboding – предзнаменование, плохое предчувствие
Then Turambar said farewell to Níniel, and she was filled with fear and foreboding, and their parting was sorrowful; but Turambar set out with his two companions and went to Nen Girith. (J. R. R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion)
Therefore he feared the tidings that Dorlas brought, and when he beheld the face of Túrin as he lay on the bier a cloud of foreboding lay on his heart. (J. R. R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion)

portent – плохое предзнаменование
"There!" he said, "there! I knew there was something wro...." He checked himself, and was silent, staring before him, as though he had seen a portent. ( John Galsworthy – The Forsyte Saga)
Fitz Patton's smart sound design and Josh Schmidt's moody music work together to heighten the sense of portent. (The New York Times)

premonition – плохое предчувствие
After the alarm sounded in the underground, people began to have a premonition of a coming hurricane.
He had prepared well for the exam but the premonition that he could fail it did not leave him.
The complainant party had solid arguments in their favour, but the premonition of losing the case haunted them until the end of the trial.

presentiment – предчувствие чего-то плохого
He had a presentiment on the subject of Soames' communication as they left the Board Room together, and went out into the noise and hurry of Cheapside. (John Galsworthy – The Forsyte Saga)
He had been ill for a while, and the "aerial flowers" were a presentiment of death, though the sun paintings refer to eternal cycles of nature and rebirth. (The Guardian – Arts)
As one contemporary newspaper noted, in many citizens this shading of the sun awakened "a kind of vague fear, of impending danger – a prophetic presentiment of some approaching catastrophe". (The New York Times – Books)
omen – a perceived sign of something a good or bad to happen in the future
Miners belive in omens, and any guidance they can find will do. (The New York Times – Books)
The name gives a sense of longevity, he said, that he hoped would be a good omen for the future. (The New York Times)
The omens are good: at the beginning of this month there was half a metre of snow at the top of many northern Alpine ski areas, and the high-altitude Colorado resort of Loveland had already wheeled out its portable snow cannons in anticipation of temperatures low enough to permit snowmaking. (Independent) Open / Comment

2020-07-13 17:00:11 #heed_and_hear
Hello, excellent followers of this channel! Here I am with another listening piece from BBC Radio 4 for you. It is another episode of 'One to One' and the first one from the two about idling (I previously did the second one with Tim Parks).

In this episode, Verity Sharp talks to Josh Cohen – a psychoanalyst and professional of modern literature theory. He recollects episodes from his life that demonstrate his views about time and idleness. He also tells about the benefits of idleness for oneself and how to learn to start to enjoy your own idleness and having time for yourself in which you do nothing that has a goal. He says that one of the benefits of it is becoming more open your your inner impulses of creativity.

Josh has an intricate trait in his pronunciation: he rather often replaces the /l/ sound with the /d/ one as in the words appealing and wilier. He also inserts the /g/ sound in the third syllable of the word variation, which I find to be the intended word because the word variegation makes no sense there. With this said and my glossary, I believe it will pose little trouble for you to understand to the talk well.

Please have an enjoyable listening!

You can find and download the episode here.

A glossary for the episode:
gut feeling – интуитивное чувство
contemplation – созерцание
wily – хитрый, проворный
exasperation – отчаяние
to recall – вспоминать
heath – пустошь, степь
clearing – луг, поляна
tinge – оттенок,
ashen – мертвенно-бледный
headmaster – классный руководитель
frenetic – иступлённый, неистовый, маниакальный
tenaciousness – крепость, вязкость (прпавильнее tenacity)
to railroad – направлять
to regiment – систематизировать
shirker – тот, кто избегает действий
slob – разгильдяй
obliquely – наискосок
frantic – неистовый, иступлённый
impotence – бессилие
conducive – стимулирующий
to press in – втискивать, вталкивать
intrinsic – свойственный
to truncate – усекать, сокращать, обрезать
benchmark – планка, ориентир Open / Comment

2020-06-26 20:00:52 #synonymiser
Всем привет! На очереди у нас слова со значением "набег" и "вторжение". Нашёл всего пару таких, чтоб не было ухода от целевой семантики. Из них, прежде всего, слово "invasion" может использоваться в переносном значении.

invasion – a planned military intrusion in foreign soils
The inland invasion was thoroughly planned.
The invasion of the Army was preceded by an air assault on the enemy's strategic objects.
For the bereaved, this part of the procedure is yet another invasion into their privacy. (The Guardian)

raid – a short and sudden attack often implemented by a small group of people
But in those days they sometimes used to go on raids, especially to get food or slaves to work for them. (John R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit)
The Hungarians, who by 892 had made raids in Great Moravia, left their lands in the Pontic steppe and invaded the Carpathian Basin around 895. (Wikipedia)
Israeli also carried out raids in Tulkrem, where no arrests or injuries were reported. (The New York Times) Open / Comment

2020-06-16 21:08:07 #original_high_speech

I have started reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. And in it I suprisingly came across an extract written in extremely poetic language, describing the beauties of camping out and sailing down a river in a boat. And I want to quote it here.

A supportive glossary is provided for you to read it faster with better understanding.

Supportive glossary:
moorhen – куропатка
corncrake – коростель
sombre – тёмный, мрачный
nook – уголок
frugal – скудный
to prattle – лепетать
to nestle – гнездиться
bosom – лоно, грудь
to lull – убаюкивать
ere – до того как
fret – волнение
to furrow – взбороздить
folly – глупость
to nurse – ухаживать
wile – уловка
to lure – привлечь, завлечь
sneer – ухмылка, насмешка
artificiality – искуственность
stately – статный

Slowly the golden memory of the dead sun fades from the hearts of the cold, sad clouds. Silent, like sorrowing children, the birds have ceased their song, and only the moorhens' plaintive cry and the harsh croak of the corncrake stirs the awed hush around the couch of waters, where the dying day breathes out her last.

From the dim woods on either bank, Night's ghostly army, the grey shadows, creep out with noiseless tread to chase away the lingering rear-guard of the light, and pass, with noiseless, unseen feet, above the waving river-grass, and through the sighing rushes; and Night, upon her sombre throne, folds her black wings above the darkening world, and, from her phantom palace, lit by the pale stars, reigns in stillness.

Then we run our little boat into some quiet nook, and the tent is pitched, and the frugal supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round in musical undertone; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child’s song that it has sung so many thousand years – will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows harsh and old a song that we, who have learnt to love its changing face, who have so often nestled on its yielding bosom, think, somehow, we understand, though we could not tell you in mere words the story that we listen to.

And we sit there, by its margin, while the moon, who loves it too, stoops down to kiss it with a sister's kiss, and throws her silver arms around it clingingly; and we watch it as it flows, ever singing, ever whispering, out to meet its king, the sea – till our voices die away in silence, and the pipes go out till we, common-place, everyday young men enough, feel strangely full of thoughts, half sad, half sweet, and do not care or want to speak till we laugh, and, rising, knock the ashes from our burnt-out pipes, and say "Good-night," and, lulled by the lapping water and the rustling trees, we fall asleep beneath the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again – young and sweet as she used to be ere the centuries of fret and care had furrowed her fair face, ere her children sins and follies had made old her loving heart sweet as she was in those bygone days when, a new-made mother, she nursed us, her children, upon her own deep breast ere the wiles of painted civilization had lured us away from her fond arms, and the poisoned sneers of artificiality had made us ashamed of the simple life we led with her, and the simple, stately home where mankind was born so many thousands [thousand – my note] years ago. Open / Comment

2020-06-14 20:00:10 #vocabulary_builder #travel
At the Airport

Продолжаю расширять ваш и собственный словарный запас лексикой о путешествиях. В этом посте лексика, связанная с аэропортами. Ушло порядка 8 часов на сбор слов для этого поста, поэтому так долго его готовил.

Infrastructure:
terminal – здание аэропорта, терминал
check-in kiosk – регистрационный киоск
check-in desk/counter – стойка регистрации пассажиров
baggage drop-off – отделение приёма багажа
cargo terminal – грузовой терминал
departure gate – выход на посадку
pre-boarding zone – зона посадки на самолёт для людей с ограничениями
security barrier – барьер безопасности
security lane – дорожка проверки безопасности
express security lane – дорожка быстрой проверки безопасности
backscatter X-ray machine – рентгеновский аппарат обратного сканирования
departure board – доска информации о вылете
landside – общая зона
airside – чистая зона
jet bridge – телетрап
runway/tarmac – взлётно-посадочная полоса

Belonings:
luggage – багаж
hold luggage – сдаваемый багаж
excess luggage – излишек массы багажа
carry-on – ручная кладь

Personnel:
luggage (baggage) handler – оператор по обработке багажа
screener – оператор досмотра

Procedures and legalities:
check-in – регистрация
curbside check-in – регистрация перед входом в здание аэропорта
check-through – сквозная регистрация
security check – досмотр
body screening – сканирование тела
boarding – посадка на самолёт
boarding time – время посадки
final/last call – предупреждение об окончании посадки
self-service bag drop – оставление багажа
baggage/luggage allowance – норма провоза багажа
flight ticket – билет на самолёт
boarding pass – пропуск на посадку Open / Comment