forgery; falsification; fabrication; counterfeiting
substitute; replacement; stand-in; proxy; compensation; exchange
greedy; grasping; tightfisted; predatory (e.g. business); calculating; avaricious
reason of being; raison d'être; meaning of one's existence
questionnaire; survey; poll
best; most (valuable player); top (quality); grade A; ace; finest
one's own judgement (judgment); decision made without consulting others; arbitrary decision; dogmatism
simultaneous; concurrent; same time; synchronous; together
chronological order; time series
strength of the brush stroke; power of the pen; ability to write
lucky tea (var. of tea made from sea tangle, black soybeans, pepper, pickled plums, etc. and drunk on festive occasions); New Year tea
The Runaway Riceball (book)
to talk or say too much; to go too far; to overstate; to exaggerate
to set up (in high position); to kick upstairs; to hold sacred; to worship
class teacher; homeroom teacher; form teacher
weakly; helplessly; weak; flimsy; easy to bend
The Little Match Girl (1845 short story by Hans Christian Andersen)
a person without a single relative
to marry into a family of rank; to marry money
to be all out; to exhaust
long-awaited; much-awaited
change for the better; improvement; looking better (than before)
smartly dressed; stylish; someone smartly dressed; to dress up; to be fashionable
innocent; naive; unsophisticated; birth-
fungus; germ; bacterium; bacillus
tsukemono; Japanese pickled vegetables
to soak (in); to steep; to dip; to pickle; to preserve (in salt, vinegar, etc.)
bed of salted rice bran used for pickling
decomposition; putrefaction; putrescence; corruption; degeneracy; decay
great erudition; extensive knowledge; vast stock of knowledge
to profit; to get; to have (bear, beget) a child; to have a stroke of luck
preferential treatment; special treatment; discrimination; express delivery; special delivery
the lower classes; the common people
and yet; though; when; in spite of
whole year; all year round; always; all the time; during an era; middle class (of a nursery school, etc.)