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自分が読んで興味深く感じた英文記事を中心に取り上げる予定です

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ビジネスマンはまずTOEICを!

 
時にTOEICの悪口を書いているYutaですがTOEICで使われている英語を使えれば会社の英語はほとんど事足りるのではないかと思っています。それによく使われる英語表現が満載ですから効率の意味でもTOEICはオススメです。

さらにTOEICがいいのは最近の傾向を反映していることも挙げられます。受験英語で扱う英語や辞書の記述は古くなりやすいんですよね。。。そんなことを実感した最近の例がこちら。

トランプ氏、共和党議員に野心的政策の支持訴え
By BYRON TAU, KRISTINA PETERSON AND SIOBHAN HUGHES

2017 年 1 月 27 日 09:16 JST
 【フィラデルフィア】ドナルド・トランプ米大統領は26日、ペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィアで開かれた共和党連邦議会議員の会合に出席し、医療保険制度改革法(オバマケア)の撤廃や、国境警備の強化、貿易政策の見直しなど1期目の野心的な政策への支持を求めた。

 トランプ氏は会合の機会を利用し、税制や医療保険、貿易、犯罪、製造業など幅広い問題について持論を展開。米国は「新たな独立の夜明け」を迎えているとし、「我々がここに集まったのは、何千万人もの米国民がワシントンから権力を取り戻そうと、我々に希望を託したからだ」と訴えた。

PHILADELPHIA—President Donald Trump sought to line up his party’s support Thursday behind an ambitious first-term agenda that includes a thorny health-care overhaul, tighter border security and a re-evaluation of U.S trade policy.
In wide-ranging remarks about taxes, health care, trade, crime and manufacturing, among other policy topics, Mr. Trump used a retreat here for congressional Republicans to lay out his vision, saying that the country was at the “dawn of a new era of American independence.”


日本のメディアでは「会合」と訳していた英語はretreatでした。なんでretreatが「会合」になるのか? 英和辞典にも載っていないので不安になりますが、以下のサイトで紹介している今回のretreatのagendaを見ると、確かに「会合」のようです。

Here Is the (Apparently Leaked) Agenda for the Republican Retreat in Philly
Protesters might want to take note of this four-page document.

BY VICTOR FIORILLO | JANUARY 25, 2017 AT 3:31 PM

熱心なTOEIC学習者はすでにお馴染みのものかもしれませんが、「TOEIC(R)テスト Part 3 & 4 鬼の変速リスニング: TTTスーパー講師シリーズ」に素晴らしい解説があったので引用させてもらいます。

retreatは「退却」や「静養」という意味だが、company retreatで「社員旅行」になる。また、企業の重役などが日常業務を離れて集う、避暑地で行われる会合やセミナーを意味することもある。

それにこのretreatは新形式のTOEICにも既出ですよね。パート5に出た方は一文なのでarrangements for the company retreatが「社員旅行」か「会合」が区別がつきませんが、パート4に出た方はa welcome dinner for the first night of the meetingとあったのでおそらく「会合」でしょう。

確かにTOEICだけだと背景知識も最新情報も得られないし、視野も広がらないのでTOEIC以外の学習も積極的にすべきなんですが、TOEICで使われている英語を自分でも自由自在に操れるようになるというのは簡単なようで遠い道のりです。
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ニュースは言い換えて説明してくれる

 
ラマダン終わりにかけて、日本人も他人事でない痛ましい事件が続きました。

WORLD MIDDLE EAST
Death Toll From Sunday Baghdad Bombing Nears 300
Attack by Islamic State, targeting Shiite Muslims, wounded more than 200 others

By ALI A. NABHAN in Baghdad and KAREN LEIGH in Dubai
Updated July 7, 2016 9:46 a.m. ET

The death toll from the deadliest single car bombing in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has reached at least 292 people, Iraq’s health ministry said Thursday.

The attack by Islamic State, which also wounded more than 200 others, struck the Iraqi capital’s busiest commercial areas early Sunday as shoppers and diners crowded the streets following the daily dawn-to-dusk fasting that marks the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. On Monday, authorities said 151 people had been killed in the blast.


この記事ではthe daily dawn-to-dusk fasting that marks the Muslim holy month of Ramadanとラマダンを説明してくれています。 daily dawn-to-dusk fasting(毎日明け方から夕暮れまでの断食)という説明は簡潔で分かりやすいですね。英語学習辞書ではfast(断食する)が基本語ではないためか、do not eat or drinkのようになっています。

(ロングマン)
Ram‧a‧dan [uncountable]
the ninth month of the Muslim year, during which Muslims do not eat or drink anything during the day while it is light


(オックスフォード)
Ramadan
the 9th month of the Muslim year, when Muslims do not eat or drink between dawn and sunset


(マクミラン)
Ramadan
the ninth month of the Muslim year, when Muslims do not eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset


ラマダン明けはご馳走が振舞われ家族や友人と過ごすということが一般的でクリスマスと比較されていたりしますが、日本人には正月のようなものなのでしょうか。

“In fact, Ramadan feels just like Christmas season to me. You get the perfect chance to attend family meals, and take pictures with your aunties and uncles,” 28-year-old Ramirez said.

もちろん今年のラマダン明けは心から喜べないためそのようなコントランスを強調したニュースが多かったです。



Eid is supposed to be a time of happiness. When Muslims get together with their families to celebrate the end of fasting month, Ramadan. For many Iraqis in Al Majaz Camp, there is little to be happy about.



The fast is over. Now is the time for Muslims to celebrate with families, friends and food.

dawn-to-dusk fastingもdで始まる語でリズミカルにしていましたが、ラマダン明けのEidの説明でEid: Where fasting ends, feasting beginsとfast(断食)とfeast(ごちそう)を対照的に使ったものがありました。

Eid: Where fasting ends, feasting begins
July 15, 2015 12:00 AM
By Arthi Subramaniam / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Fried chicken, stuffed grape leaves, spicy fruit salads, couscous studded with meat and vegetables, savory and sweet rice dishes, barbecue ribs, fried plantains, rotisserie chicken, steak off the grill with vegetables, potato or pasta salad, stews made with lamb or beef, puddings made from chickpea flour or vermicelli and cookies are all part of an Eid al-Fitr feast.
Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, ends with Eid that begins with the sighting of the new moon, and is celebrated for three days. It’s forbidden to fast on Eid, which is on Friday, and friends and families congregate and celebrate with food all through the day.
“After 30 days of fasting, it’s eat, eat, eat on Eid,” said Sadia Sabir, who was born in Pakistan and lives in Ross. “We celebrate the blessed month.”


ニュースは基本的に馴染みのないトピックは説明をしてくれるので読むだけでいろいろな知識がつきます。読み進められるようdawn / duskやfasting / feastingのような工夫もしていますので、英語のリズムもつきます。
 

ショーンはどこにでもいる

 


詐称問題でジェシカアルバのHonestという日用品会社も問題視されています。こちらは販売している商品が問題視されているのでショーンさんのケースよりも悪質です。

Elizabeth Holmesの会社に続いてWall Street Journalの調査報道がまた暴きました。

BUSINESS
Laundry Detergent From Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. Contains Ingredient It Pledged to Avoid
Tests of startup’s liquid detergent find SLS, a cleaning agent common in more mainstream brands

By SERENA NG
Updated March 10, 2016 7:08 p.m. ET

BUSINESS
Maker of Honest Detergent Changed Its Claims
Earth Friendly Products removed marketing claims about sodium lauryl sulfate from its website last year

By SERENA NG
March 14, 2016 8:15 p.m. ET

化学製品は使わないの使っていた時点でアウトだと思いますが、アルバの会社の言い訳はSLSの代わりにSCSを使っているというもの。でも、SCSの原料の大半がSLSというオチが待っているそうです。

後追い記事でもこりゃダメだという論調が多いですね。

Why Jessica Alba's Honest Company Is Struggling to Defend Itself
In the wake of reports suggesting the company's laundry detergent contains a chemical it promised not to use, the company has tried to forge a defense in the form of a chemistry lesson.

BY LINDSAY BLAKELY

誰もやったことのないことをやるのはいいですが、誰もやったことがないのはコストがかかるか、手間がかかるかというケースがあるので簡単には実現できないですよね。ジェシカアルバは広告塔として利用されただけなのか、今後の彼女の対応に注目です。
 

Living well is the best revenge.

 
シンガポールに来ているため、故リークアンユー首相に関するエッセイがWSJにあったのを思い出して読み直してみました。

Lee Kuan Yew’s Power of Forgiveness
When it came to the sins of the past, the prime minister put the future of Singapore first.
By JOHN CURTIS PERRY
March 24, 2015 2:08 p.m. ET

Unlike the other newly independent nations that proliferated with the quick collapse of the European oceanic empires following World War II, Singapore embraced its colonial past instead of excoriating it. Lee was ready to forgive the many sins of colonial rule. In a symbolic gesture, instead of removing a prominent statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, an arch-imperialist founding father of the British colony, Lee kept him standing in the heart of the city. He elevated Raffles to a pantheon of other Singaporean makers of the nation, using the Englishman to help fashion an identity for a newly independent state.

As a non-Asian, Raffles stood as a neutral figure conveniently apart from Singapore’s Chinese, Malay and Tamil ethnic groups. Lee used him to personify the positive and upscale aura of British imperial tradition—its stability and dignity, its language and global connections. All of these were attractive to the potential foreign investors whom Lee fervently wanted to court. Furthermore, colonial paternalism formed part of that legacy, an authoritarianism that Lee and his colleagues found most suitable for the needs of their struggling new state.


言われてみれば、独立国は植民地支配を否定的に捉えがちですが、シンガポールは違いますね。ラッフルズ卿上陸拠点が今でも観光地となっているように、むしろ植民地支配の遺産をいい意味で継承しています。これと同じようなことを第二次世界大戦で占領して華僑虐殺までした日本に対しても行ったと語っています。

Just as Lee forgave British colonial arrogance, so did he forgive Japanese World War II military brutality. Unlike China and Korea, Singapore nurtures no sense of grievance towards its former occupiers, despite the hardship and exceptional cruelty of the wartime Japanese presence. Arbitrary face-slapping and public urination were the least of it. The Japanese chose Chinese Singaporeans, three quarters of the population, for the worst treatment due their suspected loyalties to China. The occupiers singled out those who had soft hands and wore glasses—marks of the leadership class—for execution. Many thousands died.

Yet Singaporeans after the war, under Lee’s governance, set aside these bitter memories of the past for the better interests of the present. Recognizing and admiring the extraordinary rise of modern Japan and its rapid recovery from war and defeat, in his scramble to create jobs for Singaporeans, Lee turned to the Japanese for advice on shipbuilding and electronics, successfully luring Japanese investment to help Singapore create a job-rich manufacturing economy. Americans eventually joined in and now have invested twice as much in tiny Singapore as in all of China.


この論者はアメリカや中国、韓国に対しても同じように振る舞うことができるのではと締めていますが、同じことは日本にも言えますね。

The lesson is clear. The U.S. “forgot Pearl Harbor” and soon began to build a significant mutually beneficial relationship with Japan. After centuries of animosity and conflict, another war between France and Germany is now virtually unthinkable. Both Koreas and China also could profit now from putting reason over emotion, laying aside past political grievances, horrendous as they might be, in favor of present economic realities and advantages.

シンガポールの態度に関しては、うにうにさんという方がハフィントンポストでいろいろ勉強になる記事を書いてくださっていました。過去を許すということはそんなに一筋縄ではいかない難しいものだったことがわかります。

戦後70年 安倍首相談話を受け入れたシンガポール

リー・クアンユー シンガポール初代首相:華僑虐殺を超えた戦後処理が最大の対日功績

8月の安倍首相の談話に関してシンガポール政府が声明を出していることを教わりました。その全文になります。

August 16, 2015
MFA Press Statement: Abe Statement of 14 August 2015


Singapore notes Prime Minister Abe’s statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The statement expresses profound grief and sincere condolences for those who perished during the War. It noted that Japan had repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war. It stated that such position articulated by previous Japanese cabinets will remain unshakeable. Prime Minister Abe also said that Japan should squarely face the past, take the lessons of history deeply and make all efforts for peace and prosperity.

On 15 August 2015, His Majesty Emperor Akihito also expressed the need for Japan to reflect on “our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war”.

Singapore has not forgotten the horrors and suffering of World War II. Singapore’s position is that Japan should accept clear responsibility for the war. At the same time, it is equally important for all countries to build upon the statements of His Majesty Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Abe and previous Japanese cabinets to seek further reconciliation and move forward. This will benefit our region and the world.


このようなシンガポールの態度をForgive but not forgetのようにまとめていることが多いですが、発展して活気のある暮らしを見ているとLiving well is the best revenge.という名句の方をYutaは思い起こしました。出典はよく覚えていませんが、NHKの「実践ビジネス英語」が「やさしいビジネス英語」だったころに紹介されていたものです。
 

一つのトピックに絞ること

 
単なる自己弁護に過ぎないかもしれませんが、メディアの読み始めは関心のあるトピックに絞ってみていくのがいいかもしれませんね。たくさん読むことで関連性も見いだすことができます。今回はその報告です。



Nagaskiを出したSusan SouthardさんがLA Timesに寄稿していました。原爆の投下の是非だけでなく、原爆の後遺症をもっと知るべきだという主張です。

What U.S. citizens weren't told about the atomic bombing of Japan
By SUSAN SOUTHARD AUGUST 6, 2015, 5:00 AM

Seventy years ago, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan: Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945; Nagasaki on Aug. 9. With searing heat and annihilating force, the nuclear blasts tore through factories, shops and homes in both cities. Huge portions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki vanished. Weighing many factors — including the Soviet Union's entry into the war against Japan 11 hours before the Nagasaki bombing — Japan surrendered. By Aug. 15, World War II was over.
In the United States, the necessity of the bombings to end the war has been studied and argued for decades, but the acute and long-term effects of whole-body radiation exposure on the men, women and children beneath the mushroom clouds are little known and seldom mentioned. Without also accounting for this critical aspect of the bombings, discussions of the military, moral and existential issues surrounding Hiroshima and Nagasaki are incomplete. If we choose to take and defend actions that cause great harm to civilians during war, we must also scrutinize and wholly understand the impact of those actions.


原爆投下の後に原爆使用の非難が米国国内でもあったことをこのブログでも取り上げましたが、Southardさんも触れています。Henry L. Stimson以外にもKarl T. Comptonという物理学者が原爆投下の正当性を訴えた記事を書いていたんですね。

In 1946 and 1947, opposition to the bombings began appearing in U.S. media — including John Hersey's "Hiroshima," first published in the New Yorker, and a scathing essay by journalist Norman Cousins in the Saturday Review. U.S. government and military officials hurriedly strategized how to prevent what they considered "a distortion of history" that could damage postwar international relations and threaten U.S. nuclear development. Two articles by prominent government officials — the first by Karl T. Compton, a respected physicist who had helped develop the atomic bombs, and the second by former Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson — offered intelligent and persuasive "behind the scenes" perspectives on the U.S. decision to use the bombs. These powerful justifications effectively quelled civic dissent and directed focus away from the ongoing suffering of the people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Southardさんの主張は日本の側が行ったひどいことを見逃す必要はないので、被爆の影響を正しく理解することが大事だという、日本人にはもっともな内容でした。

By the early 1950s, hibakusha cancer rates for adults and children soared, and many more hibakusha developed liver, endocrine, blood and skin diseases, and impairments of the central nervous system. Mortality rates remained high. Most commonly, survivors experienced violent dizzy spells and a profound depletion of energy. Fears about genetic effects of radiation exposure on their children haunted them for decades. Thirty years after the war, high rates of leukemia as well as stomach and colon cancer persisted. From the survivors' perspective, the atomic bomb had burned their bodies from the inside out.

As Japanese and U.S. scientists continue studying hibakusha, their children and grandchildren to try to comprehend the full impact of radiation exposure, can we come face to face with the terrorizing realities of nuclear weapons? We don't have to suppress our condemnation of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, mistreatment and killings of Allied POWs, and slaughter of civilians across Asia to do so. An expanded understanding of atomic bomb history that includes the human consequences of nuclear war will deepen our integrity as a nation and, one hopes, influence our nuclear weapons policies across the world.


これに対してWSJの書評は、本の内容を紹介するよりも原爆正当性の主張を繰り返すことに大きくスペースが割かれていました。それだけ特に保守派は拒否反応を示すデリケートなトピックであることでしょうか。

The Logical Outcome of Total War
Japan’s air defenses were weak and its provisions for civilian shelters grossly inadequate. Few houses even had basements to which their inhabitants could retreat.

By ALONZO L. HAMBY
July 31, 2015 5:18 p.m. ET

ちなみに同時に取り上げているTo Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshimaという本は、数年前に出た本の改訂版といえるものです。広島と長崎で二重被爆にあった山口さんを取り上げ、タイタニックのキャメロン監督が映画化するとも言われていたものですが、ある人物の証言の信憑性が問題になったためリコールされていました。その問題を解決して再刊の運びとなったようです。

“To Hell and Back,” one may remember, appeared in an earlier form, in 2010, as “The Last Train From Hiroshima.” The publication of that book was suspended when the authenticity of one of Mr. Pellegrino’s sources—a man who claimed to have been on a plane accompanying the Enola Gay bomber on its Hiroshima mission—was called into question. That source and his assertions are gone from the new book. A foreword notes that he had indeed “tricked” the author, who later admitted his mistake.

この評者はどちらの本も原爆使用がやむを得なかった状況を考慮しないで描かれていると批判しています。

What is missing from both books is context. Neither author properly discusses the factors that went into the American decision to use the bomb. Nor do they venture an opinion on whether the bomb shortened the war. They focus on the ways the bomb affected civilians who had to cope with a catastrophe.

その後に続くのが、WSJが繰り返し論者を替えながら発表しているおなじみの内容です。

Were the bombs necessary to compel surrender? U.S. policy—laid down by Franklin Roosevelt, followed by Harry Truman and supported by most Americans—was uncompromising. The U.S. would accept only unconditional surrender, to be followed by military occupation.

In Japan, advocates of a last-ditch resistance could not promise victory but could guarantee heavy casualties for the invaders. The last battle of the war—Okinawa—made the point. Okinawa was a small island, and the U.S. possessed overwhelming ground, naval and air superiority. Even so, the battle raged from April 1 to June 21, 1945, with 92,000 Japanese troops fighting to the death and kamikaze planes inflicting significant damage on the offshore American fleet. U.S. casualties (killed and wounded) were approximately 45,000.

The experience made an impression in Washington. The Japanese home islands were next. Japan’s leaders made no secret of their plans to wage a dogged resistance that would mobilize the civilian population, right down to teenagers armed only with clubs and sticks; and the leaders clung to the fantasy of a negotiated peace brokered by the still-neutral Soviet Union. They rebuked their ambassador in Moscow for telling them that the Russians, who were moving troops to attack Japan in East Asia, would be of no help.
American military planners focused on the southernmost Japanese home island of Kyushu as a first target, to be followed by an invasion of the island of Honshu and a final campaign across the Tokyo plain in 1946. Meeting with his military chiefs in Washington on June 18, 1945, President Truman expressed his hope of “preventing an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other.” A month later, the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert. Hiroshima and Nagasaki quickly followed.

Critics of the atomic bombings often assert that Japan was “ready to surrender.” Clearly this was not the case. Japan could still muster formidable military resources. It is unlikely that resistance would have ever gotten down to teenagers armed with clubs and sticks but probable that an amphibious invasion of Kyushu would have exacted a price reminiscent of Okinawa. That possibility was unthinkable to most Americans.


最後の最後で、現代の核兵器は当時と比べて一層強力になっているので、核兵器の恐ろしさを知るにはいい本だろうと締めていますが、半分以上は原爆投下の必要性を述べていました(汗)

The nuclear weapons of today make the ones detonated in 1945 look like firecrackers, and more and more countries possess them or threaten to do so. The editors of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists picture a doomsday clock at three minutes to midnight. The virtue of these books is their reminder of just how horrible nuclear weapons are.


Nuke Mapで現在の核兵器が首都圏を丸ごと破壊できる威力があることを知って、The nuclear weapons of today make the ones detonated in 1945 look like firecrackers(今日の核兵器は1945年に投下されたものを線香花火のようにしてしまっている)という表現に妙に納得してしまいました。日本でも戦争の立場は二極化しやすですが、米国でも同じような状況なんですね。
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Yuta

Author:Yuta
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