[242] Superstitious woman causes safety scare by throwing coins into jet engine

TRAVEL NEWS WIRE…

Superstitious woman causes safety scare by throwing coins into jet engine An 80-year-old woman travelling on China Southern Airlines threw a handful of coins into the airplane engine as passengers were boarding a flight from Pudong to Guangzhou. Mechanics had to perform a thorough inspection of the engine before declaring it flightworthy. The woman said that she threw the coins into the engine as a wish for a safe flight. The departure was delayed for more than 5 hours. One commenter on social media wrote “Grandma, this is not a wishing fountain with turtles.”

MEMO
superstitious: 迷信深い
commenter: コメンタリー
wishing well/wishing fountain: 願かけ井戸

HEALTH AND TECH NEWS

Volvo cars to go electric by 2019 The Swedish-founded car maker, which is now owned by Geely of China, will stop production of its all-gasoline cars and make a line of all-electric cars and hybrids, under the Polestar brand. Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson stated “This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion-engine-powered car.” Volvo also announced that future models will have built-in technology from Android and chipmaker Nvidia. Self-driving Volvo cars are also planned within the next four years.

MEMO
solely: もっぱら
combustion: 燃焼

THIS WEEK’S NATURAL PHRASE

binge-watch

Kim: This weekend I was really lazy. I binge-watched 12 episodes of my favorite TV show.

Sarah: Did you mean that you spent 12 hours sitting in front of a TV set? I can’t believe you wasted such a big part of your weekend! You could have gone hiking, or visited your friends and relatives!
Explanation: The term “binge-watch” means to do something over and over until it becomes unhealthy. People can binge with food or alcohol, or they can binge with activities such as watching TV or gambling.

MEMO
Binge-watch (verb) 大量のテレビ番組を一気に続けて視聴する

THIS WEEK’S MEDICAL PHRASE

mammography

Nurse Morinaka: We conducted a mammography screening on Mrs. Garcia. The mammogram revealed an abnormal lump of tissue in her left breast. What do your recommend as the next step?

Doctor Wong: We should take a biopsy to check if the lump is benign or malignant.

Explanation: The term “mammography” means to study the breast using low-level X-rays, or other scanning techniques. The word comes from ancient Greek. “Mammo-” means milk-producing, and “–graphy” means to write, or writing. So mammography means to write or describe the milk-bearing organ. The result of the mammography exam is the “mammogram,” which means the result of the test. A mammograph is used to produce a mammogram, just as the old ‘telegraph’ machines produced ‘telegrams.’

MEMO
mammography: 乳房撮影
mammogram: 乳房画像
biopsy: 生検
benign: 良性
malignant: 悪性

THIS WEEK’S BUSINESS/EMAIL PHRASE

endorse / endorsement

Sarah: I have great news! We got the agreement of a famous soccer player to endorse our sports equipment!

Wang: I’m happy to hear that. I hope that all of his fans and social media followers will see his endorsement and come to buy our products.

Explanation: The phrase “endorse” means to support a product, a service, or a person’s ideas. Many politicians endorse each other. Many athletes endorse companies that make sports equipment. We can also say “Mr. Mori gave an endorsement of (Z) product.”

MEMO
endorse (verb): 賛する
endorsement (noun): 推薦・エンドースメント