Fend off

Fend off

Today’s expression is to “fend off.” To fend something off is to protect yourself from something that is attacking you—something or someone. It’s common to say “fend off” when talking about people.

And that’s what happened in “Home Alone ,” right? Do you remember? Two robbers know the family is going to be away for Christmas, so they plan to rob the house while it’s empty. But the family forgot to take eight-year-old Kevin with them on vacation. So Kevin has to fend off the robbers while he’s home alone. He needs to defend himself, and defend his house, from being attacked by the robbers.

Ukraine is fighting a war with Russia. The war is on the battlefield, in Ukrainian territory. But the war is also online. Russia has launched an unprecedented cyberattack against Ukraine. Russia has tried to use computer-based attacks to paralyze Ukrainian infrastructure, banks, government, and other critical services that use computer connectivity.

But Ukraine has been able to fend off the worst cyber-attacks so far. This is one major success of the war. Ukraine has been building up its cyber defenses for years, and it draws on a lot of expertise in the region, too. Ukraine has been able to fend off the worst cyber attacks from Russia. That means they have been able to defend themselves against the worst cyberattacks.

You can use this in sports. When you hear this, the World Cup will be over. But I wrote this early, so I don’t know how it ends. But here’s a story I saw in the round of sixteen: England was trying to fend off a talented team from Senegal. England was able to fend off Senegal and advance to the next round.

Can central banks fend off inflation without causing a recession? Inflation, in this case, is the thing on the attack. We all feel that , right? So to fend off inflation, to protect us from inflation, central banks have been raising interest rates. But that also sometimes causes a recession, which is not much better than inflation. So the question is, can central banks fend off inflation without causing a recession?

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is from John Milton, an English poet from the 1600s. These were tough poems to get through in school, let me tell you. Not easy to understand. But here’s a quote you might like: “The mind…can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

That is true, that is quite true. In your own mind, you can make a bad situation seem good, or a good situation seem bad. Up to you. Sometimes I have to stop myself and make sure my mind isn’t turning a good situation into a bad one.

Here’s that quote again from John Milton: “The mind…can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

See you next time!

That’s all for today. Have you seen the Charlie Brown Christmas special? It’s cute. And the creator of “Peanuts” characters, Charles Shultz, would have turned 100 this year. To celebrate that, we’ll talk about the Peanuts comic strip on Thursday’s lesson. See you then!