BASKETBALL

From http://www.my-youth-basketball-player.com/basketball-offense.html:

As a player, I felt exactly the same way. It's a lot of fun moving the ball around the court with your teammates to create good scoring opportuni­ties.

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Only one person on the court can handle the ball at a time, so when you get your hands on it, you need to to make something good happen. You need to learn all of the different basketball moves, so you can create open­ings for yourself and your teammates.

FIGURATIVE USES

TASK 2: Compare the following 6 definitions of the idiom “the ball is in your court”. The first three definitions come from traditionally published dictionaries. The last three definitions are provided by the Urban Dictionary and have been compiled by anonymous users. Which of the definitions seem to be more helpful than others? Do anonymous online authors provide any valuable information on how the expression is used in comparison with “mainstream” dictionaries?

• McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs:

the ball is in someone’s court

Fig. to be someone else’s move, play, or turn (From tennis)

The ball's in your court now. You do something. I can't do anything as long as the ball is in John's court.

• Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: the ball is in somebody’s court

if the ball is in someone’s court, they have to do something before any progress can be made in a situation

Usage notes: In a game of tennis, if the ball is in your court then it is your turn to hit the ball.

I’ve told him he can have his job back if he apologizes. The ball’s in his court now.

• Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: the ball is in your court

you need to react or answer

Etymology: based on the sports meaning of court (the playing area in games like tennis)

We made a reasonable offer for the house, and now the ball is in their court.

• The Urban Dictionary:

1. The ball is in your court(64 up, 24 down)

(variants: my, their, our, his, or her may replace your)

It is someone’s turn to make the decision

Which direction will you go from here? The ball is in your court.

2. The ball is in your court(27 up, 13 down)

1) It’s your responsibility now.

2) It’s your problem now.

3) I did my part, now it’s up to you...

President: You people voted for and legalized marijuana; the ball is in your court now.

3. The ball is in your court(26 up, 25 down)

The origins of this phrase are as yet, unconfirmed. But is believed to have been first said somewhere in the south of England; a non- confrontational way of saying “it’s your turn” and can be adapted as in his / her / their court.

Adrian: do you wanna spark it?

Gareth: the ball’s in your court, man.

(Adrian asking Gareth if he wants to light Adrian's joint)

TASK 3: Read the article given below. Find the idiom “the ball is in your court” and discuss how it affects the reader’s perception of the story. Where in the text do you find this idiom? Does it help to develop the story or does it capture what has already been said in a different way? What agents are characterized with the help of this idiom? Is the figurative func­tion of the phrase “the ball is in your court” similar or different from that of “carry the ball” that is used in the same article? How are these idioms re­lated to each other? Do they characterize the same group of agents or differ­ent groups? Do they project evaluations that are interdependent? Explain.

Vancouver Sun. 2011.December 26:

Consumers, business carry the ball on climate change

Melissa Powell And Michael Shank

As Canada withdraws from the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations cli­mate talks conclude - postponing carbon cuts until 2020- it is clear that something morethan mere nation-state commitments will be needed to counterclimate change and reduce global warming. With some nations reluctant to recommit to another climate treaty, replete with binding tar­gets and a global trading scheme for car-bon emissions, it will be up tothe private sector to pick up the slack. Thankfully, they seem up for the chal­lenge.

Take, for instance, WindMade. This new consumer label was recently launched by the private sector, in partnership with the UN Global Compact and World Wildlife Fund, to encourage and increase demand in wind ener­gy. WindMade is the first global label to certify use of wind power in manu­facturing and operations. Much like the USDA's organic label created a more robust organics industry and consumer base, WindMade's intent is to gen­erate an equally robust base for renewables.

Now, thanks to pioneering effortslike WindMade, a consumer who cares about climate action, energy security, or simply wants to reduce their environmental footprint, can prioritize purchases that are aligned with their principles. According to polling done in advance of WindMade's launch, a solid 67 per cent of consumers are already saying they would favour Wind- Made products.

Clearly, demand is there,which will help lower the price of wind ener­gy as the technological leaders behind the wind energy movement ramp up production and produce cheaper wind energy and wind turbines.

All of this will be good for the environment. Yet more wind energy will not only help reduce our carbon consumption and carbon emissions; it willhelp the world become a more peaceful place. How? First, as we wean our­selves off fossil fuels and onto renew-able energies like wind and solar, we dramatically reduce the propensity of nations to wage foreign wars over fossilized energy resources in the name of energy security.

Second, the more we transition off centralized, fossil-fuel-based power grids and cumbersome production facilities that pose a security risk if at­tacked (e. g. nuclear and coal plants, gas pipe-lines or oil refineries), and transition to micro-managed wind and solar infra-structure, the less risk we face from terror attacks. Imagine smaller grids that serve smaller communi­ties and are thus less susceptible to sabotage.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the more we enable and em­power communities and citizens around the world to harness wind and solar energy at the micro and local level, the more we ultimately democrat­ize energy and equip developing countries with the tools and techniques needed to develop more efficiently and effectively.

Just think about how mobile phones have become ubiquitous in the developing world (thanks to a rapidly falling costs and increasing availabili­ty), serving as a critical lifeline to banking, agriculture, trade and commerce. Now let's do the same with renewable technologies by making them af­fordable and accessible. Imagine what portable and affordable devices ca­pable of capturing renewable energy could offer poor and underdeveloped villages.

Incidentally, this also helps ensure that resources are distributed equit­ably, at least on the energy front. In many countries, energy and energy utilities are in the hands of the powerful few, often to the detriment of the powerless majority. The democratization of energy changes that dynamic. It also decreases the likelihood of violence. One of the eight fundamental factors found in more peaceful environments, as reported by the Institute for Economics and Peace, was the equitable distribution of resources. Ener­gy equitability, then, should be a longer-term goal.

In the meantime, helping consumers know if their computer, car, or clothing, was made with wind energy is a great step in the right direction. Companies and consumers: The ball is in your court.

TASK 4: Read three more texts, which contain the idiom “the ball is in your court” or its variations. Particularly, pay attention to the third text, which is a forum post on religious experience. In that text, how do the phrases “Jesus has the ball” and “We have already won the game” affect the implications of the statement “the ball is in His court”? When the game isover and your team has won, are you supposed to continue hitting the ball m order to challenge your opponents or are you just playing with the ball, be­cause you have received it as a prize? Pay attention to tire fact that the au­thor of the post does not reference tennis as the source domain for the anal­ogy she is using. What sports does she mention?

http://steadystate.org/presenting-the-economic-policy-of-the-occupy-movement:

Presenting the Economic Policy of the Occupy Movement

Brian Czech

If there is one thing the Occupy Wall Street movement has generated, it's the opinion that there is no unifying agenda or policy being advanced by the Occupiers. Perhaps that explains why we (CASSE) have been asked re­peatedly to contribute to that agenda and identify that policy. And perhaps the time has come to oblige.

No one can claim to represent the entire Occupy movement or all its concerns. The wide-ranging movement has taken on local, grassroots issues as much as national, systemic concerns. I got a taste of that recently during a visit to Bloomington, Indiana, where the local Occupiers were camped out on the perimeter of Indiana University. I was in Bloomington to give a talk about steady state economics at the university, and happened upon the Occupiers' camp my first night in. They had little to say about Wall Street, GDP, or national unemployment. Maybe it was just my timing - which hap­pened to correspond with Halloween - but the Bloomington Occupiers seemed pre-occupied with surviving the annual student "Zombies" march that apparently threatens the security of Indiana University every Hallo­ween. The Occupiers were equally concerned with aggressive Zombies and the police assembled to confront said Zombies. (They feared the police would use the Zombies as an excuse to clean house all around the campus.)

It's hard to blame the Occupiers for focusing on local issues and forces. Police suppression alone saps the energy from many movements, as I recall from the days of World Bank demonstrations. Yet despite the inevitable localization of Occupier concerns, the Occupy movement needs a national identity to survive, and it needs a macroeconomic policy goal to unite around. That policy goal should be a sustainable and fair steady state econ­omy. Let's see why.

The Occupy movement is, first and foremost, an objection to the rule of Big Money; big corporations, big banks, and big-time rip-offs of the tax- paying public. It's all about economic justice. But at this point in history,economic justice is complicated by limits to economic growth. The old no­tion that a "rising tide lifts all boats" has become morally inadequate and physically irrelevant. In a world of over 7 billion people and an economy over $73 trillion in gross world product, the Wall Street Bull is tromping through an ecological china shop with increasingly endangered glassware. It's not only that the Wall Street Bull is kicking Occupiers and the rest of the 99% out of the way; the Bull is destroying the planet. It spans the globe but the globe is full.

The Occupiers need to get this, discuss it, and emphasize it. Other­wise, they could be unfairly portrayedas just the latest brand of populists seeking to expropriate the expropriators. Wall Street could point out that everybody has always wanted "theirs", including Nazis, Bolsheviks, and French revolutionaries known today as "The Terror".

The Occupiers can do better.They are better.

The Occupy movement can do better especially by adopting the steady state economy as its macroeconomic policy goal. That means an economy with stabilized levels of production and consumption, which means stabiliz­ing population and per-person consumption. It means an economy that fits on Earth without threatening present and future generations with its over­bearing, bloating size. It means an economy of stable size that, when ac­cepted by national governments and sought in international diplomacy, re­places war as a mode of getting "theirs".

Only sound economic diplomacy - steady statesmanship - can ensure that everyone gets enough without killing thy neighbor. Wall Street doesn't get that. To the corporations and banks, the world is a china shop to buck around in, and good luck to the kicked.

The ball is in the Occupiers court. They've got to concern themselves with more thanthe local food, zombies, and police. Occupiers must decide if they really wantto distinguish themselves from the growth-at-all-costs corporations, banks, Democrats and Republicans that really and perma­nently occupy Wall Street. Can they distinguish themselves with steady sta­tesmanship?

I think they can, and I'm one of them!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/25/statement-press- secretary:

Statement by the The White House Press Secretary, July 25, 2011

The President has been advocating a balanced plan that would reduce our deficit by $4 trillion by making large cuts in domestic and Pentagon spending, reforming entitlement programs, and closing tax loopholes for corporations, millionaires and billionaires. This sort of approach won sup­port from Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, but the House Repub­licans walked away after insisting that the budget be balanced on the backs of seniors and the middle class.

Now, faced with the "my way or the highway", short-term approach of the House Republicans, Senator Reid has put forward a responsible com­promise that cuts spending in a way that protects critical investments and does not harm the economic recovery. All the cuts put forward in this ap­proach were previously agreed to by both parties through the process led by the Vice President. Senator Reid's plan also reduces the deficit more than enough to meet the contrived dollar-for-dollar criteria called for by House Republicans, and, most importantly, it removes the cloud of a possi­ble default from our economy through 2012. The plan would make a mea­ningful down payment in addressing our fiscal challenge, and we could con­tinue to work together to build on it with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes additional spending reforms and closing tax loo­pholes for corporations, millionaires and billionaires.

Senator Reid's plan is a reasonable approach that should receive the support of both parties, and we hope the House Republicans will agree to this plan so that America can avoid defaultingon our obligations for the first time in our history. The ball is in their court.

http://macefainilyvalues.blogspot.com/2011/IO/ball-is-in-his-court.html:

The Ball is In His Court

So I am in church today praying and God put something in my heart so powerful that I couldn't keep the tears away. I am not a sports fan and I do not watch sports and I praise God my husband does not watch sports, so I know this is from God ...

Today our pastor was talking about one of the essential things that every part of the body should take part in Prayer. How many times do we pray for everyone else and leave ourselves out of that prayer. I am sure it is a bunch. I know God wants us to ask because He says so in His word many times. I had also went to a ladies retreat a couple of weeks ago and the message was about asking God. I know God is doing a mighty work in each and every one of us and too many times we give up too soon. OK so here is the thought Sports lets say football or even basketball. Well Jesus has the ball 11!!! He has defeated satan, death, hell, and the grave right..He said it is FINISHED, so everything we have need of is right here right now.Jesus has
the ball, He is saying let me know when your open I Am looking around

and waiting for you to tell me you are ready to receive. We are battling all these things and those mountains are the opposite teams, but we have already WON the game!!!!! We need to quit looking at the opponent and tell Jesus we are ready to receive. Can we get a victory DANCE AMEN....

TASK 5: Compare the results of your observation with the dictionary definitions of “the ball is in your court”. Which of the definitions do you find more informative or accurate? Why? Is it accurate to point out tennis as the only, even if very prominent, source domain for the idiom? What about “carry the ball”? Is the game of American football the only source domain for this figurative expression or are there other ball games that rely on simi­lar scenarios? Do research on the Internet and discuss your findings in class.

TASK 6: Consult two or three dictionaries on the polysemy of the word “ball”. Discuss whether the two idioms that you have analyzed so far (“carry the ball” and “the ball is in your court”) feature a particular sense of that word.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 779