Ripped from the Headlines: August 2024: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for August 3–August 9, 2024

Experts say ordinary people can borrow a technique athletes use to avoid heatstroke, in which they acclimate themselves to hot conditions. By gradually exposing themselves to higher temperatures, allowing their bodies to slowly adapt to high heat and humidity, people can reduce the risk of heat stroke and other heat-related illness. The method, known as heat acclimatization or heat training, has been used by many Olympic athletes currently competing in Paris.

A 12-year-old girl became just the tenth person to win Maryland’s Master Angler Milestone Award. Lucy Moore was the first female — and the first child — to achieve the state's highest honor for the sport of fishing, which requires the angler to reel in 10 different fish species. Angler comes from the verb angle, "catch with a hook," and its Old English root, angel, "fish hook."

Astronomers say a massive asteroid will come very close to Earth in a few years. They calculate that the enormous space rock will hurtle past our planet on Friday, April 13, 2029. While the asteroid will be closer than a weather satellite when it passes by, there is no risk of it hitting the earth — but it will be visible (without a telescope) as a huge shooting star. Asteroid derives from the Greek asteroeides, "star-like," and aster, "star."

On August 6, Vice President Kamala Harris announced she had chosen Tim Walz to join her presidential campaign as her running mate. Walz spent 12 years in Congress and six as the governor of Minnesota before being selected to run for Vice President on the Democratic ticket alongside Harris. The pair launched their partnership with an energetic rally in Philadelphia. Political strategists say Walz is likely to broaden the campaign's appeal to Midwestern and rural voters.

Four Americans were freed from Russian prisons in a historic prisoner exchange. Russia released a total of 16 detainees, and in return eight Russian prisoners were returned home from various countries. The U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who had been sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of spying, was among those freed in the swap, which has been described as the largest since the end of the Cold War. The Latin root of exchange means "barter out."

In a rewilding experiment, dogs wearing saddlebags full of wildflower seeds are running through wooded areas of Lewes, England, allowing the seeds to fall and germinate. The project is modeled on the wolves that once played this role, carrying flower and grass seeds in their fur and dispersing them in the woods, where they would sprout. Organizers hope dogs can take over for the now-extinct wolves and increase the area's biodiversity. Germinate has a root meaning "sprout."

After weeks of violent protests, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. Hasina, who was elected to lead the country's parliament 15 years ago, has been accused of manipulating elections and imprisoning her political opponents. Hundreds of protesters have been killed by government security forces in recent weeks. Soon after Hasina left Bangladesh, hundreds of citizens stormed her residence.

Tulsa, Oklahoma has formed a reparations committee, more than 100 years after a massacre by white supremacists left dozens of the city's Black residents dead. One of the era's wealthiest Black communities was also destroyed in the attack, in which 35 square blocks were burned to the ground. The new committee aims to help right this past wrong by compensating survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, as well as their descendants. Reparation has a Latin root that means "repair."

A new study showed that urban areas surrounded by rural land are up to 32.9 degrees cooler than cities without nearby countryside. The results were striking, and researchers are suggesting that joining rural areas together, providing more woodland, fields, and bodies of water around urban heat islands, could lower summer temperatures in cities by 30 percent. The Latin root of rural is rus, "open land."

One of several new customs that have emerged during the Paris Olympics is a ritual locally known as les trois coups, or "three ground strikes." Borrowed from French theatrical tradition, it involves pounding three times with a staff. Organizers say the attention-getting ceremony — loudly banging the ground with a long, heavy stick before the start of each event — celebrates France's heritage and creates an instant excitement and connection with spectators.

The U.S. won silver in the Olympic triathlon mixed relay, after contesting a close result. The event features teams of four athletes, two men and two women, who each swim 300 yards, cycle 4.2 miles, and run 1.2 miles in succession. After a photo finish and a review of the race's final seconds, Great Britain was downgraded to bronze, the U.S. awarded silver, and Germany took gold. The event's three sports inspired its name, from tri-, "three," and athlon, "contest."

The stock market fell sharply on August 5, after a sell-off that economists described as a reaction to worrying economic news. By the next day, the markets were closing higher, and on August 8 the Dow gained over 500 points after encouraging labor market data was released. Investors continue to worry about the market's volatility. Volatility is from the Latin volatilis, "fleeting or flying," from volare, "to fly."