実践ビジネス英語 Friday, December 7
1) Umemura describes his conversation with the hospital's head chef about how most facilities have been introducing healthier food lately, and some are even hiring chefs to revise their menus and keeping their kitchens open longer to meet patients' particular eating needs. He says making food for cancer patients is especially difficult as chemotherapy makes it hard for them to swallow and they often feel nauseous.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Hospital Food, Airline Food (3)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2) revolutionize: A very common verb used to mean change something
fundamentally, completely. The invention of the telephone "revolutionized" communication, you could say, or penicillin "revolutionized" medical treatment. We also talk about a "revolution in" something. Umemura could have said, "There's a new philosophy causing a 'revolution in' hospital cuisine."
3) shake one's reputation: Get rid of a reputation as if you are physically shaking it off your body. It's also common to say "shed one's reputation, like a snake shedding its skin. You could say, "She's been doing a lot of overtime trying to 'shed her reputation' as a slacker."
4) unpalatable: Breakstone uses this word to mean food or drink that tastes bad, that is displeasing to the palate. But it can also refer to many other things that are unpleasant or unacceptable, you know, that people metaphorically don't want to swallow. So you might read in a business article that raising taxes is "unpalatable" to many voters.
5) dietary needs: In Japanese, "diet" refers to an eating program meant to help someone lose weight, but in English, it can also refer to a person's eating habits. So a doctor might tell me I need more protein in my diet, or my diet contains too much fat. He'd be commenting on my eating habits then -- not an attempt to lose weight.
6) dread: Collins uses this as a verb meaning to fear something greatly or anticipate it with distaste or reluctance. A company president might "dread" the release of bad sales figures because the company's stock will go down. A shy person would "dread" giving a speech. And it can also be a noun, you know, for example, "He has a real 'dread' of spiders."
7) swallow: Umemura is using the literal meaning of "swallow," and that it's hard for chemotherapy patients to get the food down their throat. We also use "hard to swallow," "tough to swallow" to mean that it's difficult to accept or put up with something unpleasant. You could say, "He changed jobs because his pay cut was too hard to 'swallow.'" And this expression can also mean hard to believe as in, "Her explanation was a little tough to 'swallow.'"
8) nauseous: Umemura is talking about the physical feeling of nausea like we are going to throw up. There's also the expression "ad nauseam," which means something is done to an excessive degree to the point where people become metaphorically sick of it. For example, "That song has been played on the radio 'ad nauseam.'" Or "She's been complaining 'ad nauseam' about not getting a raise."
9) taste: There are a number of expressions that use "taste." One medically related one is "a taste of one's own medicine." We use this when someone who's done something unpleasant to other people gets it done to them. Imagine a coworker who's always telling the boss bad things about other employees. Other employees start doing that to him pointing out his mistakes and criticizing him. You might say, "Oh, too bad. He's getting "a taste of his own medicine" now."
Get a taste of one's own medicine = 相手にしたことと同じ報復を受ける
