Tarpaulin

Tarpaulin is the proper name for the ubiquitous 'blue sheet' in Japan. They are often used to cover things and protect them from rain.

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Word of the Day: Tarpaulin

In Japan, everybody has seen the ubiquitous’ ‘blue sheet.’

Not many Japanese, though, know its English name.

Well, I’m here today to tell you that a ‘blue sheet’ is called a tarpaulin (tarp for short).

I’m also going to tell you that they are not all blue.

Farmers and construction workers use them.

People sit on them to have picnics, and after a disaster such as a typhoon or an earthquake, everyone uses them to cover the damaged roofs of their houses.

They come in other colours, such as yellow, green, silver, and brown.

Blue tarps are the thinnest, weakest, and cheapest to buy.

The thickest tarpaulins are green, silver, and brown, and they are usually seen covering expensive equipment or on the backs of trucks.

There you go, everybody, tarpaulin, your word for the day.


This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 71.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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