昔日文章

In the expression " by (also 'with ') the skin of one 's teeth ", which part of the teeth does the word " skin " refer to? The gum, the enamel or anything else? This phrase first appeared in the Book of Job (Chapter 19 Verse 20) in the Geneva Bible, an English translation of the Bible published by Protestants in 1560.  "I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe."  In the Bible, Job was a wealthy man, pious and upright. One day, he lost his property, his children and his health.  Since the expression was a literal translation of Hebrew, some biblical scholars suggested that it originally meant Job lost everything, which is different from its current meaning, " barely " or " narrowly " , as in:  I passed the Maths exam by the skin of my teeth.  A couple of weeks ago, there was a deadly fire in a Kowloon residential building. While some people escaped by the skin of their teeth, at least seven sadly died. Let us pray for them.   在by (also 'with') the skin of one's teeth 這語句中，skin一字指的是哪一部分的牙齒呢？齒齦、琺瑯質還是別的東西？這個用語最初出現在《日內瓦聖經》中的《約伯傳》（第19章第20節）。《日內瓦聖經》是《聖經》的英譯本，由基督新教徒於1560年出版。 “I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe.”  在《聖經》中，約伯是一個富翁，虔誠而正直。有一天，他失去了財產、兒女和健康。 由於這個語句是從希伯來文直譯而來的，有些聖經學者提出，它原意是約伯失去了一切。這原來的意思有別於現今的意思──「幾乎不」或「勉強地」， 例如：我數學考試勉強（by the skin of my teeth）及格。 兩個星期前，九龍一座住宅樓宇發生了致命的火災。雖然有些人僥倖（by the skin of my teeth）逃出生天，但是令人傷心的是， 至少七人喪生。讓我們為他們祈禱。      捐款支持公教報  http://kkp.org.hk/donation

About two weeks ago, the hottest topic in the media was the US presidential election. The two candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, were running neck and neck in at least four hotly contested states. The world, particularly the American people, was watching intensely while the votes were being counted.  The phrase "neck and neck" was originally used in horse racing in the 18th century. It describes two horses that are running side by side towards the finish line and neither is clearly winning. The race is so tight that the winning horse can only overtake by the minimal margin and is often said to have won by a neck.  This expression has been extended to talk about two or more contestants in various kinds of close competitions, such as car races, marathons, business deals, and scientific discovery. For example, two pharmaceutical companies are neck and neck in developing a vaccine for Covid-19.  大約兩個星期前，媒體最熾熱的話題是美國總統選舉。兩位候選人特朗普和拜登在至少四個競爭激烈的州份叮噹馬頭（neck and neck）。全世界特別是美國人，緊緊盯著點票過程。 Neck and neck這個短語最初是在18世紀賽馬中使用的。它形容兩隻馬並排地跑向終點線，兩者都不能穩操勝券。比賽如此緊張，以至於得勝的馬匹只能以極微的幅度超前，而這往往被形容是險勝。 這個說法被引申來談及在各種各樣勢均力敵的比賽中，例如賽車、馬拉松賽跑、商業交易以及科學發現，兩個或以上的競爭者的競爭狀況。例如，兩家製藥公司在研製新型冠狀病毒肺炎疫苗的進展方面不分上下（neck and neck）。       捐款支持公教報  http://kkp.org.hk/donation

Nora and Liam always spend their lunch hours in the library, they are library helpers. Due to their passion （熱愛）for reading, they have a strong sense of belonging（歸屬感）in the library. One of the roles （職責）of Nora and Liam is to alert （提醒）students when a book on the waiting list is returned by inputting（輸入）update information into the school computer. They help to sort the returned books by categories（種類）and the school librarian, Miss Sezto, is responsible to put them back on shelves.  Due to the Coronavirus Covid-19, the school was closed for months, like all other schools in Hong Kong. Now students can go back to school, but the library is still closed. Miss Sezto has been out of town（出埠）and was able to come back to Hong Kong only very recently（近期）. She has to go through a quarantine（檢疫隔離）period of fourteen days. This is a preventive measure（預防措施）from the Hong Kong Government. Without Ms. Sezto, the books students returned are piling（疊放）up in heaps（一堆堆）on the floor. No one can walk through. Seeing this, the principal suggested closing down the library after the first week of school. What a dismay（氣餒）to Nora and Liam. They always have a thirst（渴望）for reading.  Putting the books back on the shelves will simply provide a solution to the situation, but should Nora and Liam voice out（提出）to volunteer? They are students after all. Who should they speak with? What would you do if you were Nora and Liam?  I must know my place（懂分寸）in the first place. As a student, if I put back the books and made a mistake, I would be severely（嚴重地）blamed by whoever uses the library. Miss Sezto would not thank me for helping because it would be more work for her to rectify（矯正）my mistake(s). Also, it would be so very awkward（尷尬）to go directly to the principal as he did not even know me at all. I’d choose to keep my mouth shut and go to the nearest public library instead.  There might be other students who also wanted to use the library. Though the principal might not know me before, I had nothing to lose to speak my mind（說出我的想法）. Or I could ask my class teacher to ask the principal for me.   

If you have a look at this year's calendar, what date is the last day of February ? It is the 29th of February. While the month of February normally has 28 days, this year's February has 29 days. This extra day is called a leap day and this year, 2020, is called a leap year.  The insertion of this extra day is known as “intercalation”. To simplify the term, scholars use “leap year” because each date on the calendar jumps ahead two days of the week instead of one. For example, Christmas 2018 fell on Tuesday, and last Christmas（2019）fell on Wednesday. This year, Christmas will “leap” over Thursday and fall on Friday.  In astronomy, it takes the earth approximately 365 days and six hours to complete a full orbit around the sun. This is a solar year. That means we need a leap year every four years to synchronise the calendar year with the solar year.  In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII（教宗額我略十三世）set a new formula where a century year is a leap year only if it is divisible by 400. Thus, in the Gregorian calendar,1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.  A person born on the 29th February may be called a leap-year baby. It is up to them whether they want to celebrate their birthdays on either the 28th of February or the 1st of March. In legal terms, most countries define that a leap-year baby comes of age on the 1st of March.  Glossary  Leap year  閏年 Insertion  插入 Intercalation  置閏 Astronomy  天文學 Orbit  軌道 Solar year  太陽年 Synchronise  同步 Legal  法律