According to Wikipedia, "abjection" is the state of being cast off and marginalized. I'm not an expert on the subject but this seems a reasonable definition. In this case, the patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" seem to be excellent examples of abject types - they are not only people who are "mental patients" - and thus outside of typical "normal" society by many standards - but many of them are there in the hospital by their own choice. I'd recommend the "Cuckoo's Nest" book as a useful exercise in this kind of study, and the movie of the same name is entertaining as well (though somewhat less useful for study).

A "kick-off" is a meeting of people who are involved in a project (often a large project), bringing them together so they can meet each other, develop contacts and relationships, and hopefully produce excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming project. A kick-off "banquet" would be such a meeting combined with food - a celebration dinner. Meetings with banquets might attract more attendees because of the food.

From the US - I've been to many church services and birthday parties, and I've NEVER heard this expression at either one. To me, the only familiar context for this is the aforementioned PSP video game platform from Sony. Please share details if you know this one!

This situation matches your description #2, and Kevin answered very well. The bank "Barclays" agreed to purchase a portion of the company "Lehman" - and this was done within a process in bankruptcy court.

"AFFECT" is a verb meaning to change or modify. Example: The loss of the player will affect the team and they will play poorly. "EFFECT" can be a noun meaning meaning result - example, the loss of the player had a bad effect on the team or "EFFECT" can be a verb meaning perform or do - example, I shall effect repairs on the computer. The words are often confused with each other even by native English speakers, so don't feel bad if this is confusing... =cjs

In the United States, our National Day is July 4th, Independence Day. This observes the day in 1776 that the United States declared that they were breaking away from British colonial rule. Thus, in addition to the parties, fireworks, and parades, we also get to poke fun gently at the British, who of course are now our allies. (They of course can chide us for being uncouth and never developing our own language... :D)

"Before they do so" could also be translated as "Before they do this" - It's a short way of saying "Before they do the action which was just referenced" or "Before they do the activity which we are discussing", so the same words are not repeated. It would only be used immediately after the subject action being referenced - in this case, the action being "head home (for the holidays)". As an example, it would be strange if the sentence was written this way: "Members of Congress now have only a few weeks left before they head home for the Christmas holidays. Before they head home, I urge them to do their job..." Repeating the words "head home" does not sound correct - although there isn't a problem with it grammatically; it's a choice of style. When the repeated words are desired, the writer often will emphasize them with another action word such as "do", like this: "...head home for the Christmas holidays. Before they DO head home, I urge them..."

Only if you want to make LOTS and LOTS of money... :D Water desalination is a technology which needs much more research. Many areas of the world are desperate for water, but ground water does not always get replaced quickly enough - the need for efficient technologies for the desalination and delivery of fresh water is critical.