Affluence - Affluenza (Catch this disease!!!!)

Affluence means wealth. If you are an affluent person, you are a rich or wealthy person.

Recently a rich young man killed two people with his car. His lawyer said that he should not be punished because he was not responsible for his actions. His wealthy parents, because they were so wealthy, never taught their son the difference between right and wrong. So they never taught him how to be an ethical or moral (good) person.

Should wealthy children be shown mercy when they commit crimes because their parents do not teach them to be ethical? 

I think that affluenza must be a difficult disease to catch, since you need to have about $25 million in your bank account first.

The article:

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/03/20/affluenza-texan-who-killed-four-while-driving-drunk-to-be-freed-from-jail/23391020/

Vocabulary from the article:

affluenza - the disease of not knowing what is right or wrong because your parents were very rich and never taught you to be good

probation supervision - he will have to report to an office every month to be checked on

juvenile court - court for children

testifying on his behalf - speaking for him in court

an affliction - a disease or painful condition

to be spoiled - when your parents let you do anything you want and do not show any kind of discipline toward you or they do not set good standards for your behavior

fled - flee, fled, fled...they ran away

fatalities - deaths

the sentence - this means the punishment in this instance

it spanned the systems - it carried over from the juvenile to the adult system

excessive - too much

to place him behind bars - to put him in jail

hindering the apprehension of someone - making it harder for the police to catch someone

a fugitive - someone running away from justice

money laundering - making money illegally and then hiding it in a real, legal business

A nun will be thrown in jail in the US for protesting against nuclear weapons

This story makes me very angry.

A nun is a woman who works in the Catholic Church.  Many nuns wear this type of garment, although many nuns often dress in ordinary clothing as well:

A Catholic nun and two other people were able to sneak into (secretly enter) a facility in the USA that contains the uranium that the USA uses to make nuclear weapons.

They sneaked in because they wanted to show that it would be easy for terrorists to get into such a facility and they wanted to protest against nuclear weapons and war (they wanted to show that they believe it is wrong to create nuclear weapons and to prepare for war).

What is shocking is that the nun is 84 years old and she got into the very center of this very important facility. She and her fellow protesters were there for 2 hours before they were arrested by the police.  Therefore, security was a joke at this facility (there was no security).

So, in reality, this nun and her fellow protesters did the US government a favor - they showed that terrorists can just, basically, walk into US nuclear facilities and steal uranium.  Yet, a US Judge has sentenced this nun to spend the next three years in jail. This is, in my opinion, a disgrace (something morally/ethically wrong that should be an embarrassment).   

The judge is named Amul Thapar.  I believe that he did something very wrong.  In my opinion a good judge tempers justice with mercy (to 'temper' something is to soften something...so I am saying a good judge needs to show mercy or kindness as well as punishing people).  Also, if the security guards or the government had been doing their jobs, an 84 year old woman would not have been able to get into the center of the facility.  Throw US government officials in jail instead!

This is Judge Amul Thapar. You might disagree and feel that he did the right thing.

The article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nun-84-gets-3-years-in-prison-for-breaking-in-nuclear-weapons-complex/#postComments

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a complex - a group of buildings

to be sentenced - a sentence is a punishment involving spending time in a jail

defacing - if you deface something, you don't destroy the thing, but you damage it and make it look ugly. For instance, if someone defaces your property, he might paint something on your property or if someone defaces your car, he might put a scratch into your car

a bunker - a giant room with thick walls

a demonstration - in this case an action

exposed serious security flaws - showed big problems with the security system

much longer criminal histories - the others had been arrested before for protesting other things, they were definitely not criminals

detonated - exploded

a dirty bomb - this is a bomb that also contains uranium; if such a bomb is exploded, radiation will spread and cause cancer in many people

bomb-grade uranium - uranium pure enough it can be used in a bomb immediately

contractors - the security guards who worked there, worked for an independent company (a contractor)

leniency - to be lenient is to be forgiving or to show mercy; the opposite of lenient is strict

a miracle - something that happens with God's help, something good that science can't explain

to sabotage - this is to deliberately destroy something so that it can't work any more

the plant - the facility

federal - US government

an activist - someone who takes action to correct something that is wrong

banners - long signs

hammered off a small chunk - they used a hammer to break off a piece of the bunker. They wanted to show that if they could do that, a terrorist could easily do something worse.

restricted area - an area that nobody is supposed to go to unless they are authorized

offering to break bread with them - basically to share bread as a sign of caring about each other and showing a love of God and others

the inspector general - the top person who investigates things that might be wrong at a government organization

a scathing report - a super critical report

a felony - this is the most serious type of crime; to be charged with a crime is when the police and prosecutors formally state that you have done something wrong and bring you to trial before a judge in a courtroom.

to be stunned - shocked, very surprised

time they had served - so they had spent 9 months in jail, so their lawyers asked the judge to sentence all of them to 9 months and then let them go home.  So basically the lawyers were saying, "Look, we know you feel you have to punish these people to prevent (to deter) others from trying to break into nuclear facilities, but they have already been punished enough - please let them go home."

their record of goodwill - so at one point the writer of this story said they had criminal histories but now he is saying they had a record of goodwill.  If you have a sense of goodwill you want good things for other people.

no remorse - they were not sorry for what they had done; yet, why should they have been sorry?
------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think?  Should the judge have been more lenient?  Why do you think the judge was so severe in his sentencing?

Test your higher-level English (free English vocabulary exercise)

precipitous (precipitously - adverb) - this adjective comes from the noun 'precipice.' A precipice is a high point or cliff on a mountain - if you accidentally step off a precipice, you drop to your death.  So 'precipitous' means a quick decision that you make without thinking about it and often you can't change it after you make it.

prodigious - basically this means huge or much bigger than normal

ambit - a range or a boundary within which something or someone works

ad hoc - put together for just one reason or purpose; often you will read about ad hoc committees or ad hoc action - this means a committee is put together or action is taken to address this one situation

enmity - very strong hatred toward someone; often enmity means that two groups or two people really hate each other

ruthless -  showing no mercy or pity or compassion for others when taking an action

to curdle - when milk is treated with chemicals to become harder, so that it can be made into cheese; this term usually has another common meaning though: if a person is really shocked or scared, he might say that his/her blood curdled.


Answers are beneath the exercise: 

 
It was very dark in the room, and the light switch would not work.  Suddenly I heard a scream that made my blood ______________________.

The pirates of the Caribbean were renowned for being totally __________________ toward any ship that provided resistance.  If a ship's captain surrendered, the crew was spared but the cargo was stolen. If the captain chose to fight, no mercy would be shown and the entire crew would be slaughtered. 

Bob was a little too ___________________ in his choice to marry Becky.  They had only gone out with each other for 2 months before he proposed marriage to her, and their marriage only lasted 6 months.

Cyrano, with his __________________ nose, is a story of unrequited love (un-returned) love. His huge nose made him ugly to women but he was able to coach his handsome friend to be beautifully eloquent and to win the heart of the woman that Cyrano, himself, loved. 

Bill was an amazing US History professor, but he had spent so much time doing research within his academic________________ that he knew very little else about other fields of study.

There seems to be so much long-standing ______________ between countries in the Mideast that some US presidents do not even try to initiate peaceful negotiations.

Bob was not the most organized person in the world, nor was he good at predicting problems.  Instead, he chose to deal with things in an _______________ manner.

Answers are below:



Answers:

curdle
ruthless
precipitious
prodigious
ambit
enmity
ad hoc

Test your higher-level English (2 vocabulary exercises)

mercurial - if a person changes his mood or temper very quickly, he/she is mercurial (The god Mercury traveled quickly between the other gods and people.)

louche - decadent, lacking in morals, corrupt, not an ethical person (pronounced loosh)

glutinous - glue-like or sticky

to ingratiate yourself with someone - to try hard to make someone like you

to be hobbled - to be slowed down (in the old west cowboys would deliberately tie the front legs of their horses together at night to make sure they would not run away - this was 'hobbling' their horses)

Answers are below the exercise:


I had heard that my current boss was a no-nonsense type of person who could be difficult to work with.  So I went out of my way to _____________________ myself with him.  I often asked his advice, complimented him and even bought him lunch sometimes.

I asked Bob how his research was going, and he told me it wasn't going well.  His team has been __________________ by the fact that the government has cut their funding in half.

I'm a rotten cook (a bad cook).  I can't even cook rice.  When I cook rice it looks, feels and tastes like some _________________ mess.

Chicago is known as one of the most politically corrupt (dishonest) cities in America. Political corruption has existed for so long that most of the politicians become ___________________ after just a short time. If you don't go along with the system there, you don't get anywhere in your political career.

Jack is an amazing guy with a good heart, but he has a significant shortcoming in his personality.  He is quite _________________ and it's hard to predict what his mood will be from one moment to the next.


Answers are below:





Answers:

ingratiate
hobbled
glutinous
louche
mercurial
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to indemnify, to be indemnified - two meanings: 1) to insure someone for some type of possible loss (if you buy insurance on your car, you are indemnified against damages - if your car gets damaged, you'll receive a payment from the insurance company); 2) to pay someone for some type of damage or harm which has occurred

indolent - being lazy, not feeling like working

sedentary - being seated; a sedentary lifestyle is an inactive lifestyle - a sedentary job is a job in which you sit a lot

endemic to - common to

conspicuously - obviously, noticeably

graft - illegally obtaining money

keening - this is an obscure word which means vocally expressing grief or mourning after a person's death, especially at a funeral (I found the word in the book: Empire of the Summer Moon)

resilient - able to bounce back (usually after something negative happens)

Answers are underneath the exercise:


Designer bags have become a huge industry, as women pay high prices for these luxury items and ___________________ carry them around to show others that they have money and can live the high life.

It was the summer of Bob's junior year and his parents had not pressured him into finding a job.  He felt he had the right, this one summer, to be _______________ and relax and casually do some reading and lounging around.

According to the contract, we are __________________ against any losses we may suffer due to the negligence of our partner.

Lately a report noted that those who work at ________________ jobs seem to live shorter lives than those who work at jobs that do not require them to sit for long hours at a time.  If a person has to sit for long periods, he/she should find ways to get up and move around often.

One form of political corruption involves _______________. This is when the politician is able to illegally make money through actions he/she preforms as a public servant.

The disease of malaria is _______________ to about 100 countries around the world which have not been able to control the spread of a certain type of mosquito.

The loss of her husband at an early age was devastating for Mary.  At the funeral she was literally ________________ over the coffin of her husband with tears running down her face.

Bob proved himself to be extraordinarily ___________________. Even though he was unfairly fired from a job, he soon had another job at a better company in a better position.

Answers are below:




Answers:

conspicuously
indolent
indemnified
sedentary
graft
endemic
keening
resilient

Do you have a high "EQ"? (Emotional 'Intelligence') {{{EXCELLENT idioms/expressions in this article}}}

(I took this wonderful graphic above from inovizion.com)

It's one of the flaws (shortcomings/failures) of our educational system that IQ is valued highly, but EQ is not taken into consideration, to the extent it should be, in admissions decisions.

Here's an article that let's you determine whether you have a strong "emotional intelligence."

The article:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/15-signs-that-you-are-emotionally-intelligent.html

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

to be ruled by your thoughts - controlled or guided by your thoughts

to be the master of your thoughts - to understand what you are thinking and why you are thinking it

what makes people tick - what motivates people or what makes them do the things they do; a clock 'ticks' so to find out what makes a clock tick, you would look inside of it

a personal tic - a strange type of behavior nobody else has; tic does not equal tick

a clue - a hint, a sign, an indication; detectives look for 'clues' after a serious crime - the clues help them determine who committed the crime

to walk the walk - to walk the walk means to do what you say you are going to do; some people 'talk the talk' --> they just talk without doing anything, but some people 'walk the walk'

leading behind or leading from behind - this is like a military general who hides behind his soldiers and gives orders; to lead from the front means to act like Alexander the Great - you are in front of your soldiers, leading by example

to be as weak as your weakest link - a link is something that holds different parts together - if one link is weak while the other parts are strong, you are very weak there and that can destroy your entire system of defense; so there is an expression - you are as weak as your weakest link ---> meaning you should judge your strength by how weak your weakest link is.

a moot point - something that doesn't matter or is not important

at peace with the past - you don't let things you did in the past bother you any more

to drop your baggage - baggage, literally, means the stuff you pack and carry with you on a trip. If someone says you are carrying emotional baggage, this means you have not resolved or solved very serious problems you have had - you are carrying those problems with you

to be freaked out by something - to be shocked and bothered by something that happens

a world that doesn't come with a crystal ball - some people pretend to be able to predict the future by using a crystal ball; if you live without a crystal ball, you don't need guarantees about the future, you can act without knowing exactly what will happen

a scripted routine - a script is what actors read from or memorize, a routine is what you do every day the same way

you're tuned in - you tune a radio to a particular station; to be tuned in means to receive a certain type of signal - if you are tuned in to the present, you are aware what's going on right now.

a chorus of negative self-thought - they don't tell themselves many stories to make themselves feel even worse about what happened, they move on without becoming more upset or angry

political affiliation - the political party or group they belong to

ethical - you want to do the right things, not corrupt or dishonest things

a moral compass - literally a compass can be used to determine which direction is north; so a moral compass is an inner voice that tells a person what is right or wrong (like a conscience)

govern their behavior - control their behavior

to read people like a book - to really understand what people are feeling at any given time by looking at them

a gesture is usually a hand movement

at odds with - different from

a shortcoming - a flaw in your behavior or character; if a person is too shy, that might be a shortcoming, or if a person has a bad temper, that might be a shortcoming

detach themselves from end results - they do not allow themselves to be motivated by outside rewards or things outside of themselves; they are self-motivated

Test your knowledge of higher-order English vocabulary - 10 words + exercise

malfeasance - this means an illegal or wrong action, especially by a government official

ornery - an ornery person is kind of a nasty, bad-tempered person who likes to argue and fight

untrammeled - unrestricted, not fenced in, free to move about

arbitrage - when you buy something cheaper in one place and sell it for a higher price in another place

ubiquitous - all over the place; if something looks as if it is all over the place, it is ubiquitous (the word is pronounced with an initial 'you' sound --> you BIK wih tus

unalloyed - pure, not mixed with anything else

an obloquy - a very nasty or mean statement about another person; harsh, severe criticism (this noun can be countable or non-countable...i.e. non-countable: How can you resort to such obloquy!  countable: I am tired of all these obloquies being directed at the president!)

a blandishment - this is a deliberately kind of flattering or nice statement meant to get a person to do what you want him/her to do

to bowdlerize - to remove material from a literary work because the material is thought to be too 'dirty', vulgar or offensive; basically this means to censor a work but there is an extra meaning - if a work is bowdlerized, it no longer has the same meaning as it had before the censoring

athwart -  in opposition to, against something


Answers are below the exercise:


Sometimes young adult versions of classic famous novels are ____________________ so much that they no longer even resemble the original works.

The current data were completely ________________ what everyone had believed.  The theory obviously had to be changed.

One of the worst cases of _________________ in recent American history involved Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois.  He was thrown in jail for trying to sell a high-ranking political position to anyone who wanted to buy it.

These days there are people who engage in what is called the "forex" trade, which is a type of ___________________.  They buy a certain amount of foreign currency at one price and then sell it at a higher price in a different market.  Basically, 'forex' is a type of individual gambling that produces no real good for any economy.

Sometimes it's better to use _________________ to encourage a person to do something that is right than using threats of punishment.

I don't understand why it is so hard to catch a cab in Manhattan.  The cabs seem to be _________________, yet they all also seem to be carrying people. 

If a country in Europe joins the European Union, their citizens will have ____________________ access to other EU countries.

Bob recently proposed marriage to Becky and when she accepted, he was filled with the deepest and most _______________ joy he had ever felt.

Frankly, I was disgusted by the recent presidential campaign.  I do not understand why candidates cannot focus on the issues and why they have to resort to ____________________ that attack the reputations of other candidates.

Many people say that New York City cabbies (cab drivers) are rude.  That is an understatement.  They are worse than rude, they are __________________ and it is best to just take the subway in order to avoid arguments and nasty exchanges with them.

Answers are below:




Answers:

bowdlerized
athwart
malfeasance
arbitrage
blandishments
ubiquitous 
untrammeled
unalloyed
obloquies
ornery