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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Better way to speak english - junk food

Vocabulary notes - Junk food conversation

the under-16s - The group of people who are under 16 years old. You can also talk about the over-16s. Any age group can be referred to this way, e.g., the over-65s, the under-30s.

taking such a strong action - To do something severe. Notice that take and strong collocate (go together) with action in this case.

across the board - Complete, affecting every level of something. The ban is on all foods considered junk food, not just ice cream and candy.

watershed - The time (usually 9 pm in the UK, 10 pm in the USA) after which programs not generally suitable for children can be shown on TV.

take such a strong stance - To take a stance means to have a certain opinion or way of thinking about something, usually that you express publicly. Notice that take and strong collocate with stance.

n=1 - In scientific studies, n is used to denote the number of people who participated in the study. An n=1 study would be a study of only one person, a sample size of 1.

bias - Bias is the tendency to let your personal beliefs and preferences influence you when you are supposed to be neutral. If scientific studies are biased, it means that the scientists let their personal beliefs and agendas influence the results.

read too much into - To read something into something means to believe that an action, event or remark is more important or significant, even if it is not necessarily true.

sound - In this case, sound (adj) means valid and in agreement with accepted views

mom / mum - Mother. In American English, mothers are moms. In British English, they’re mums.

yummy - Delicious, tasty. Often used by children, but even by adults in informal situations.

Are you kidding? - Are you kidding means are you joking? But in this case, it is used to ad emphasis to the truth of Lori’s utterance, i.e., “I’m not joking, I’m being very serious!”

honking - Am.E slang for large.

stinking great - Br.E slang for extremely large. Stinking can also be used alone as an adverb, for example in the phrase “stinking rich” (extremely rich).

bringing out the heavy artillery - Literally, heavy artillery is a class of very large and powerful military guns, usually moved on wheels or metal tracks. In this case, “bringing out the heavy artillery” means doing or saying something as a means of impressing, arguing, or persuading.

killjoy - A killjoy is someone who spoils the pleasure of other people.

sinister - The main sense of sinister is evil. In this case, Lori talking about a general feeling of apprehension or worry.

popping - Informal for to put. To pop something in(to) something = to quickly put something in(to) something.

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