in the wake of

Talk about a colorful expression! 

JPMorgan Chase's chief investment officer, Ina Drew, retires in wake of $2 billion trading loss.

***

To understand the expression "in the wake of" or "in wake of", you need to understand the meaning of the noun, wake.  Here is a photo of a wake, viewed from in front of the wake:

and another image of a wake, viewed from above the wake:

So when there is a $2 billion trading loss, the loss causes many other events to occur. 

Here are a few more from the new: What is the cataclysmic event in each case, and what are the results of that event?

***

Best Buy founder Schulze to step down as chairman in wake of CEO scandal

***

August 8, 1974 In the wake of Watergate, Nixon resigns the presidency

***

There are always cataclysmic events occuring. Try to find a few more in the news; it shouldn't take you long!

***

(to) end up

Here's one of the more all-purpose verb:  (to) end up.

This is an intransitive verb, which probably is indicative of its nature.

Here's an example of the context in which I saw this word used today:

***

Peruvian authorities are still trying to unravel the mystery of why hundreds of dolphins ended up dead on beaches in the country over the past 2 1/2 months.

Here, the reference "end up" was very final.

***

Of course it does not necessarily have to point to the end of ends.

Quitters still end up as winners

And of course, as athletes are bought by one team, then later sold and bought by another, we ask questions such as this 2012 one:

Where Will Peyton Manning End Up?

***

Perhaps you can go online and determine where Payton Manning ended up for the 2012-2013 football season.

We're going to end by quoting Natalie Goldberg, author of "Writing Down the Bones," a text I used in my writing classes:

“Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released.”

Would you agree?

***

(to) step down

In today's news, we had two multi-word verbs that are different only in their choice of the preposition practically side by side. We had (to) step aside and (to) step down.  

We will begin with (to) step down. Notice sometimes the preposition "from" is used and at other times the preposition "as" is used. Can you see the differences between the sentences in each case?

Steve Jobs steps down from Apple

*

Summitt steps down as Tennessee's women's basketball coach

*

James Murdoch to step down as BSkyB chairman

In case case, (to) step down means to resign from a high position. This could be in government, in business, etc.

Now do a search for "Nixon steps down". Everything comes up "Nixon resigns". This is because Nixon stepping down was such a dramatic an historic piece of news that only the singular word "resigns" would have the type of impact that the event conveyed. 

So what is your theory about when to use "as" and when to use "from"?

Use "from" when you are going to immediately afterward name the company or event that the person resigned from.  

Florida judge steps down from George Zimmerman trial

Use "as" when you name their position: chairman, president, etc.

Mubarak steps down as President of Egypt, hands power to military

It's fun to find multi-word verbs in the news because these add so much color to what we read!

**

(to) come to expect

Here's an absolutely wild and extremely common transitive verb that I have seen very little attention paid to in vocabulary books or vocabulary lists, or grammar books.

Do a Google search on "come to expect". You'll be surprised what you find.

Our first instance of it in the headlines is here, in an important health article:

***

“Many of the things that are routinely done are things that patients have come to expect and doctors have routinely ordered,” said Dr. Christine Cassel, president and CEO of the ABIM Foundation.

***

SOUNDING BOARD: We've come to expect certain negative behavior

***

And here's an interesting twist on the expression "(to) come to expect" in a video from Vanderbilt Hospital:

We've Come To Expect the Unexpected: Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt

What do you think it means?

Definition #13 of the Oxford Learner's Dictionary defines it as: 

13 [transitive] come to do something to reach a point where you realize, understand or believe something

Follow the link (above) and look at some other really good examples of this word in context.

And then come up with a few sentences and uses of your own.

For example, what have you come to expect from politicians?

What have you come to expect from life?
***

Breaking Away (to) break away (from)

One of my favorite of all time movies was a 1979 film called "Breaking Away". It was about a group of teenage boys who discover a love for bicycle racing. The term "breaking away" has reference to sports and also to the boys' social lives, as each one has to break away from the expectations of the surrounding world to live a life right for him.

You can view the trailer of this movie by following this link.

This verb "(to) break away" can be used thus in a variety of contexts, from sports to politics to sociology. 

Let's look at how it's used in the news headlines.

As Romney breaks away from the pack, Rick Santorum hopes for an upset

Here's another one:

Presbyterian group breaks away over gay clergy

What is this group breaking away from, and why?

And here is a third headline:

Nigeria breaks away from African Union at its own risk

Why does Nigeria want to break away from the African Union? What could be the consequences of this?

See how many contexts you can find this word used.  In each case, what is the individual or group or object breaking away from, why, and what might be some consequences of this?

**

cut back, (to) cut back on, (to) cut down on

Today's CNN poll was this:

Quick vote

Are rising gas prices making you cut back on driving?

• Yes
• No

There is a noun that derives from this verb, "(a) cut back", and this word is very common in political and economic circles:

Government Cutbacks Spur More Layoffs

 
The verb is - (to) cut back on (something).  Very similar to this is the verb (to) cut down on (something).  Here are some other examples of these verbs from news headlines:

Americans Cut Down On Checking For Colon Cancer During Recession 

 Chelsea Handler: Why I've Cut Back on My Drinking

India says it won't cut back on Iran oil imports, in defiance of stiffer US and EU sanctions

These two verbs, (to) cut down on (something) and (to) cut back on (something) are fairly interchangeable.  They both imply to reduce the level of whatever it is that's being done!!

So can you think of a few things in your own life that you'd like to cut down on?

Send us your thoughts in the comment box below.

*****

Baby Boomer(s): The Word

In Japanese, it's " ベビーブーマー" - pronounced "baby boomer".  In Italian, it's "babyboomer". In Hebrew, it's "בייבי בומר" (pronounced baby boomer".  In Spanish it's "baby boomer". In Russian it's "бэби-бумеров".  But all of these are merely transliterations of the English word, "baby boomer". And none of these languages can get a sense of what the word really is saying!

The key here is the word "BOOM". 

What does "boom" mean?  A "boom" is a loud and deep and sudden noise. When something large and heavy falls, the sound it makes when hitting the ground is "boom". 

In economics, there is a term "boom" when the economy is healthy and strong - an economic boom. Then there's a "boom and bust", which refers to when everything is going well, then it suddenly goes "bust" - and crashes.

So that's the background. The "baby boomer" generation refers to those born after WWII, when servicemen returned home, started families and had children. Suddenly there were many babies, and these babies are referred to as 'baby boomers". Their effect on American life and the economy was like a big "boom".

Babies born between 1946 and 1954 are referred to as baby boomers. There was a sudden need for housing, for schools, for automobiles, for jobs, everything to serve these new young families.

We are hearing the term baby boomers now because people born in 1946 are now 65 years old and are entering retirement, and are placing a new type of demand on the economy.

How do you say "baby boomer" in your language? How did these "boomers" affect life in the 1940's and early 1950's? How are they affecting and influencing life now?

Occupy

There are Occupy Wall Street movements in cities all over the United States. What does this movement represent? And what about the word, "occupy"?

At its simplist, it means to take up space.  You see signs on bathrooms in airplanes, "Occupied". That means, basically, that somebody is in the bathroom and you have to wait your turn.

Also we see it used to refer to filling up time, such as "This job is occupying all of my time." This sentence from Craig's List refers to some speakers that are for sale: "These ...speakers ... don't occupy much floor space, and are quite slim and elegant looking."

It is also used in the geo-political sense, referring to a hostile takeover of land: Germany occupied France, etc.  We see it as a noun: German's occupation of France began in May 1940 and ended in December 1944.

In the "Occupy" movement, it has much of this sense, though presumably without the hostility and with a sense of it being a popular movement ("the 99%"), and not an external and hostile takeover from a foreign group, but also an occupation of ideas and social change.

alcholics, workaholics and other "-holics" in our lives

It appeared in the word "alcoholic" - the suffix "-ic", which meant "of or pertaining to" tagged onto the noun "alcohol" to mean somebody who drinks alcoholic in excess, somebody who has an addiction to alcohol.

Then from the word "alcoholic", the last letters "-oholic" or "-aholic" started tagging along with other nouns when the reference was to an addiction to that thing or activity, an excessive need or urge for that thing: We saw it with the noun "work" - "workoholic", referring to a person who works all the time, who has an addiction to work, or to working. 

A really popular term is "chocoholic". Can you figure out what this person loves to eat?  In this case, of course, the suffix ending is placed not on the whole noun "chocolate" but on the first syllable, "choc".  Choc + oholic.

Next we have the term "~oholic" after the verb "(to) shop" and this person is a "shopoholic".   A shopoholic could end up ruining his/her or the family's budget due to the uncontrollable urge to shop and this could create marital woes as a consequence.

Also in this group, we begin with the noun "food" so that somebody who has an obsessive urge to eat now can call himself a "foodaholic". 

There are a few new ones that derive from some addictions in the world of electronics and cyberspace:  Somebody who can't stop being on the computer is a "computeraholic". 

People who can't stop blogging now have a word to describe themselves: blogaholics.

A new word "loveaholic" has appeared in the Urban Dictionary - and so the suffix "~aholic" now can latch onto the noun "love" - and we have a word for a person who loves to love, whose urge to love or be loved is at the level of an addiction.

Can you think of any new words in the English language that fit this pattern? Have you seen any in the news? If you haven't, just wait. There are plenty of addictive behaviors these days.

**

How to Talk about Money

You have a one dollar bill and you have a car and you need to put money into the parking meter. The meter takes quarters, dimes, and nickles.

You see somebody nearby and show this person your one-dollar bill and, pointing to the parking meter, you say, "Do you have.....    " and the words to complete your request aren't there.  You feel embarrassed!  You can ask this in your native language so easily, just not in English!  You hope this person will get the message. What is the question you need, what are the words you are trying to get out?

Today....

Let's talk about talking about money. Let's talk about the money that you have, the money that you have in your pocket, or in your hand,or the money you'd like to have in your hand!

*
This is one dollar.

And this is one dollar:

What's the difference? 

This is "one dollar in change"...

 

...while this...



...is "a one-dollar bill".

So then, what is this, below?

If you answered, "This is something I'd like to have", that's correct, but you can't have it.  If you answered, This is a twenty-dollar bill, you're also correct! This is a picture of my twenty-dollar bill.

So let's get back to our problem:  When you have this...

...and you want this, such as our friend who is at the parking meter,...

...then what do you ask? You ask "Do you have change for a dollar?"

Let's repeat:  "Do you have change for a dollar?"

Let's review today's vocabulary:

a bill (a one-dollar bill, a five-dollar bill, a ten-dollar bill, etc.)

change (Please notice that this is a non-count noun.)

money (Please notice that this too is a non-count noun.)

Tomorrow we will continue our discussion about MONEY and HOW TO TALK ABOUT IT.