VIP Class Notes (Raph)[W]

Vocabulary

Petty crime (n): 1- a type of crime that is not considered serious when compared with some other crimes:
E.g.: There’s been an increase in minor offenses, such as traffic violations and petty theft.

Petty (adj): 1- [ before noun ] not important and not worth giving attention to. 2- [ after noun ] complaining too much about things that are not important:
E.g.: Prisoners complain that they are subjected to too many petty rules and restrictions.
E.g.: Don’t be so petty!

Theft (n): 1-  (the act of) dishonestly taking something that belongs to someone else and keeping it:
E.g.: Unfortunately, we have had several thefts in the building recently.

Shoplifting (n/v): 1- to take goods illegally from a store without paying for them.
E.g.: Shoplifting is theft.
E.g.: She was accused of shoplifting by the store manager.

Discrimination (n): 1-  treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, because of their skin color, sex, sexuality, etc.:
E.g.: racial/sex/age discrimination
E.g.: He suffered a lot of discrimination for being black.
E.g.: Until 1986 most companies would not even allow women to take the exams, but such blatant discrimination is now disappearing.

Homophobia (n): 1- discrimination against gay / LGBTQ people.
E.g.: Homophobia is still a major problem in most parts of the world.
E.g.: His family was very homophobic and kicked him out of the house when they found out he was gay.

Up in arms: 1- angry or upset.
E.g.: The workers are up in arms over the reduction in health benefits.

Protest (n/v): 1- a strong complaint expressing disagreement, disapproval, or opposition. 2- an occasion when people show that they disagree with something by standing somewhere, shouting, carrying signs, etc.
E.g.: Protests have been made/registered by many people who would be affected by the proposed changes.
E.g.: There was a major protest against the war on 1st street yesterday.

Exorbitant (adj): 1- Exorbitant prices, demands, etc. are much too large:
E.g.: The bill for dinner was exorbitant.

Fuss (n): 1- a show of anger, worry, or excitement that is unnecessary or greater than the situation deserves:
E.g.: She made such a fuss when Richard spilled a drop of wine on her blouse!
E.g.: It’s all a fuss about nothing.
E.g.: I don’t see what the fuss is about – he seems like a fairly ordinary-looking guy to me.
E.g.: We tried to arrange a ceremony with as little fuss as possible.

LGBTQ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer

Original:

Parents anger at $730 Armani school uniforms

From the article of “Parents anger at $730 Armani school uniforms”, we can learn that the luxury uniforms are unaccepted by Tokyo elementary school parents due to the high price. It is a public elementary school where is located in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district and all the uniforms are designed by famous Italian designer, Armani. The whole uniform collection consists of a hat and bag with the price at over 80,000ren ($730) each. The parents don’t understand this public school made this decision because of their location belongs rich area of Ginza.
After that the school principal received a lots of criticisms from Government officials that includes Japan’s pariliament, Finance Minster, education minister as well as lawmaker and Twitter users. Nobody agrees with the school’s decision. Finally the school principal took the criticism with humility but he will keep explaining carefully to those concerned.

Edited:

Parents anger at $730 Armani school uniforms

The article “Parents anger at $730 Armani school uniforms”, tells us about parents who considered their kids’ luxury uniforms from a Tokyo elementary school unacceptable due to the high price. The public elementary school is located in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district and all the uniforms were designed by famous Italian designer, Armani. The whole uniform collection includes a hat and bag with the price of over 80,000yen ($730) each. The parents don’t understand why this public school made this decision, which has been explained as being because of their location, in the rich area of Ginza.
After that, the school principal received a lot of criticism from government officials including lawmakers from Japan’s Parliament, the finance and education ministers as well as Twitter users. Nobody agrees with the school’s decision. Finally the school principal said he took the criticism with humility and that he would keep explaining carefully to those concerned who still don’t understand his decision.

Pronunciation

Politically: /pəˈlɪt̬.ə.kəl/

Minority: /maɪˈnɔːr.ə.t̬i/

Major: /ˈmeɪ.dʒɚ/

Tokyo: ˈtoʊ.ki.oʊ/

Humility: /hjuːˈmɪl.ə.t̬i/

Privilege: /ˈprɪv.əl.ɪdʒ/

Considered: /kənˈsɪd.ɚd/

Clothes: /kloʊðz/

Criticism: /ˈkrɪt̬.ɪ.sɪ.zəm/

Exorbitant: /ɪɡˈzːɔr.bə.t̬ənt/