I can’t believe it!という表現はロングマンではspokenとあるように口語表現のようですね。
（ロングマン） spoken can't/don't believe something used when you are very surprised or shocked by something: I can't believe he's expecting us to work on Sunday! I couldn't believe it when he told me what had happened. can hardly/scarcely believe something I could scarcely believe my luck.
(Woman) It's your cousin's wedding! How could you forget? Why don't you drop off your suit along with my dress? (Man) This Saturday? I can't believe it! I have tickets to the first ballgame of the season, I've been looking forward to it for a long time.
(Wikipedia) "Shinjirarenai!"[edit] Following the example of Chiba Lotte Marines manager Bobby Valentine, he showed his appreciation towards fans by speaking in broken Japanese sentences. After the game in which Fighters won the pennant in 2006, he shouted "Shinjirarenai!", the Japanese phrase stands for "Unbelievable", to the fans gathered in Sapporo Dome.[1] He repeated the phrase after winning the Nippon Series, and repeated again after winning the Asia Championship. Thus, like Boston Red Sox's "The Impossible Dream", Hillman's "Shinjirarenai" became the most popular term describing Fighters' success in 2006.
TOEIC新形式の3名の会話で8. Why does the woman say, “I can’t believe it”?という設問がありましたが、新項目のアビメ「フレーズや文から話し手の目的や暗示されている意味が理解できる」に当たることは前回の記事で取り上げました。書いた後にふと思ったのですが、やはりこのような出題形式の方が内容の理解度を測ることができると思うのです。
Have you two taken a look at the progress they’ve made upstairs on the office expansion? It looks great! I know! I can’t believe it! And the offices up there have amazing views of the city. 2人は上の階でやっている会社の拡張工事の進捗を見てみたかい。すごいよ。 そうね。信じられないわ。それに上の階のオフィスだと街の眺めが素晴らしいの。
上記のやり取りをパート2形式で出題しようとすれば以下のようになるでしょうか。
The office expansion looks great! (A) It’s down the hall. (B) Let’s order the office supplies online. (C) I know! I can’t believe it!
8. Why does the woman say, “I can’t believe it”? (A) She strongly disagrees. (B) She would like an explanation. (C) She feels disappointed. (D) She is happily surprised.
（ウィズダム） ｟話｠ a. 〖don't/can't ～〗(驚き・衝撃・怒りを表して)〈事・幸運など〉を信じられない, «…ということ/…か» を信じられない «(that)節/wh節» (!notの代わりにhardly, scarcelyが用いられることがある) ▸ I can't believe you are alive [aren't dead]. 君が生きているなんて信じられない(≒｟よりかたく｠It is hard [difficult] to believe that …) ▸ I couldn't believe how much fun I had. 信じられないほど楽しかった ▸ John is so rich I can't believe it. ｟話｠ジョンは信じられないくらい金持ちだ.
（ロングマン） spoken can't/don't believe something used when you are very surprised or shocked by something: I can't believe he's expecting us to work on Sunday! I couldn't believe it when he told me what had happened. can hardly/scarcely believe something I could scarcely believe my luck.
（オックスフォード） be surprised/annoyed [transitive] don’t/can’t believe used to say that you are surprised or annoyed at something believe (that)… She couldn’t believe (that) it was all happening again. I don't believe I'm doing this! believe how, what, etc… I can't believe how much better I feel.
Can you imagine doing another Bond movie? ‘Now? I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That’s fine. I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.’
You want to move on from Bond for good? ‘I haven’t given it any thought. For at least a year or two, I just don’t want to think about it. I don’t know what the next step is. I’ve no idea. Not because I’m trying to be cagey. Who the fuck knows? At the moment, we’ve done it. I’m not in discussion with anybody about anything. If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money.’
今回の記事ではこの雑誌のタイトルで使われていたEats, Shoots, Leaves – Is this Daniel Craig’s last 007?を取り上げてみたいと思います。
In this week's Time Out magazine… Bond, James Bond With the latest Bond movie 'Spectre' about to hit cinemas, this week's Time Out is all about Britain's most famous fictional spy. We have an interview with Daniel Craig, a 007 stats file and a guide to dressing like Bond himself. We've also got a pull-out guide to entertaining your kids this half-term - from the best family friendly movies to fun days out.
Eats, Shoots, Leavesというタイトルで、英語学習者ならEats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuationという本があったことを思い出している人も多いのではないでしょうか。翻訳も出ていて『パンクなパンダのパンクチュエーション―無敵の英語句読法ガイド』という凝ったタイトルにしています。
このタイトルが意味するカンマの使い方に関するジョークはWikipediaに紹介されていました。
(WikipediaのEats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation項から) The title of the book is an amphibology—a verbal fallacy arising from an ambiguous grammatical construction—and derived from a joke about bad punctuation:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Eats shoots and leaves.（若葉や葉を食す）となるべきところを不要なコンマを入れてしまったためEats, shoots and leaves.（食べて、撃って、去る）と全然違った意味になるということです。これは句読点の使い方という問題よりも、基本語には多義語が多いからではないかと思いますが。。。まあ細かいツッコミはなしで、007に関してはDaniel Craigがボンドで活躍して、もう出演しないことにかけて使われたんでしょうね。
今年のラマダーンは6月だったようですが、イギリスのキャメロン首相もメッセージを寄せています。I’d like to send my very best wishes to everyone observing the holy month of Ramadan.と「…をお祝いする」にあたる動詞としてobserveが使われていますね。
（コリンズ） iftar, Iftar the meal eaten by Muslims to break their fast after sunset every day during Ramadan
（アメリカンヘリテージ） iftar, Iftar Islam The evening meal that breaks the daily fast during Ramadan, traditionally featuring the fruit of the date palm as a first course.
オバマ大統領はメッセージだけでなく自らイフタールの食事会を開催していました。キャメロン首相はRamadan Mubarak to you all.と締めていましたが、オバマ大統領は To all of you, and to Muslim Americans across the country -- Ramadan Kareem.とRamadan Kareemという表現を使っていました。どちらも「ラマダーンおめでとう」ぐらいの意味のようです。
Handmade Soaps Kanika Aggarwal shares the recipes for two of her favourite homemade soaps. Before I wandered into the world of homemade products, I always wondered, “Why would someone opt for homemade products, especially for something as basic as soap?” Was it really too much trouble to go out there and pick up a pack of soap at the supermarket or the chemists? And in the grand scheme of things, soap was not really expensive either, so saving money by making homemade would be out of the question.
But I eventually made my way to the other side when I realised that I didn’t know all of the ingredients that were being poured into my bath. Once I realised that most of the ingredients were synthetic and were harming my skin more than benefiting it, I knew I had to make a change.
Making my own soap seemed like the perfect solution. An added bonus was that making a homemade soap is neither difficult nor time consuming.
HAMLET What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
HAMLET What a perfect invention a human is, how noble in his capacity to reason, how unlimited in thinking, how admirable in his shape and movement, how angelic in action, how godlike in understanding! There’s nothing more beautiful. We surpass all other animals. And yet to me, what are we but dust?
While asking for donations from London’s Barbican Theatre stage, he also called it an "utter disgrace of the British government" for not doing more to pacify the crisis.
Benedict Cumberbatch spontaneously shared a message onstage: "F— the politicians."
The actor, currently starring in Hamlet on the West End, made the comment on Tuesday during his now-regular post-performance plea for support of the Syrian refugee crisis, according to the Telegraph.
While asking for donations from London’s Barbican Theatre stage, he also called it an "utter disgrace of the British government" for not doing more to pacify the crisis.
Laïcité Without Égalité Can France Be Multicultural? By Jonathan Laurence “Imagine” by John Lennon has become the impromptu French anthem after a pianist’s moving performance in front of the blood-soaked Bataclan concert hall the morning following last week’s attack in Paris. It is not hard to hear strains of “La Marseillaise” in this secular prayer for “a brotherhood of man.” But beyond such fraternité, Lennon also imagines a world without religion, and that is something few French agree on. French Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others are as angered as everyone else by the “holy war” being waged by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as ISIS). But they do not necessarily subscribe to the idea of a post-religious society, as France sometimes appears to be, any more than they embraced Charlie Hebdo’s brand of satire. They heard “Je suis Charlie” not as a defense of press freedom or a right to offend, but as a barb directed at them. On Sunday, a former senior government official gave a scathing interview demanding that Muslim representatives stop “shirking responsibility.”
Our new global advertising campaign offers you glimpses of our reimagined cabins, uniforms and aircraft and is inspired by some of the world’s most remarkable travel experiences. It is an opportunity for us to share what drives us to reach higher, go further and simply transform the expectations of air travel.
“Our goal is not to improve on what has been done before – but to totally reimagine it.” というスローガンにあたる部分を見るだけでもreimagineという言葉には「これまでのものを改善していく」というimproveよりも「新しく作り直す」といったより大きな変革の意味が込められていることが伺えます。とは言ってもニコールキッドマンという大御所の採用は守りに入った選択に思えてしまいますが（苦笑）
Occasionally, people come along who were not content at simply moving things along. They want to take things further. Tear up the plans and start again. Then, take another great step. They will see the future and knock down the walls to reach it. Insist a dream is possible. Overcome all indecision and take a running jump into the unchartered. Bored by the reinvention of the superficial kind they want more. Because their goal isn’t to improve on what has been done before but to totally reimagine it.
ナレーションの言葉はかっこいいですね。特にOvercome all indecision and take a running jump into the unchartered.（優柔不断な態度に見切りをつけて、未知の中に飛び込んでいきます）という部分は自分のブトグタイトルにも絡むので気になります。
Nicole Kidman: New Face of Etihad Airways Award-winning Australian actress, Nicole Kidman is the new face of Etihad Airways. Last March 14, 2015, the airline company held a press conference in the United Arab Emirates unveiling their latest global campaign “Flying Reimagined” with Nicole as their brand ambassador. Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways Chief Commercial Officer said “Etihad Airways is constantly pushing boundaries, taking inspiration from the world to provide a superlative in-flight experience for our guests.’’ “We are rewriting the rule book and reimagining flying by breaking away from convention and leading the way in innovation, design, style and hospitality.” “This new campaign has succeeded brilliantly in bringing our unique brand and service ethos to life on film, in print and on digital channels.”
今回の事件でCity of Lightが多く使われたのは「華やかな街」が悲惨な事件の舞台になったというコントラストを強める効果があるためかと思われますが、City of Lightに関しては疑問に思うネイティヴもいるようでこんな質問があがっていました。
City of Lights or City of Light? Jul 17, 2009, 5:49 AM Can anyone shed any light as to which one of these statements is officially the correct one?
You often hear both nicknames mentioned, but it's really driving me mad trying to find out the answer to actual translation (I'm rubbish at French, so guess it's something to do with the language interpritation)!
Actually, neither is correct as they are just English inventions.
The term "ville lumière" is actually meant to mean "city of enlightenment" in terms of culture and learning and has nothing to do with the street lighting.
******
The term is "city of light" (translated from a French expression) and its only meaning is city of enlightement, nothing to do lights.
とは言っても「華やかな街」というイメージでCity of Lightを使っている場合も多いのではと思います。Google画像検索をすると光に包まれたエッフェル塔の画像が多く見られますから。
以下の動画はパリについての名言を紹介しているもの。
“When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.”（パリがくしゃみをするとヨーロッパは風邪を引く）が気になりました。自分の子供のころは「アメリカがくしゃみをすると日本は風邪を引く」という表現を耳にしていたと思います。今の時代はChina Sneezes, Europe Catches a Coldとなるようですね。。。
Lambert here: I’m reluctant to comment on China, since I have no informational advantage, let alone an analytical one. And given China’s opacity, who does? (Except maybe friend-of-the-blog Michael Pettis). So, let’s concede that China is a black box. However, black boxes still have inputs and outputs! And since such output is trade, we can at least look for consequences for those who take those outputs as inputs.
Asia Series casts F/T’s net wide BY MIKA EGLINTON SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES Dating from 1959, “Rhinoceros” is set in an insular provincial French town whose inhabitants all turn into the eponymous animals — all except for the antihero Berenger, that is. Oddly, then, this Everyman oft-derided for his drinking and laziness is left standing alone against mass hysteria and metamorphosis, shouting, “I’m not capitulating!”
Hence in this staging by the renowned director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, “Rhinoceros” — often read as a criticism of the oppressive ideologies of communism, fascism and Nazism — will revive Ionesco’s allegory of totalitarianism for today’s audiences living in an ever more globalized and standardized world.
How long can the individual resist such collective pressure yet remain a functioning self?
最後の部分How long can the individual resist such collective pressure yet remain a functioning self?（どれだけ長く個人はこのような集団圧力に対して反抗しつつ、正気でいられるのだろうか？）という問い掛けは今の自分の心情にぴったりきます。確かにテロには反対ですが、だからといって集団で反テロを声高に叫ぶことも気が進まないので。。。
形式変更された試験内容をさっと確認しただけですが、What’s the big deal?と感じました。単にブランクがあるだけかもしれませんが大きな変更とは思えません。印象分析でしかありませんが、新しく追加された部分は中級者と上級者のレンジをもう少し丁寧に振り分けようとしている感じがしました。パート3の話が長くなるだけでガクンと正解率が落ちてしまうようだと英語運用力が高いとは言えないでしょうからね。
Princeton, N.J. (November 5, 2015) – Educational Testing Service (ETS), the creator of the TOEIC® Program, announced updates to the format of questions used in the TOEIC® Listening and Reading (L&R) test. The changes will take effect in Japan and Korea beginning with the Public Test in May 2016. The updates will not impact the rest of the world at this time.
The TOEIC test was first launched in 1979 to measure English communication ability in global business. The test was last revised in 2006. The updated question format will reflect the changing use of English and the ways in which individuals commonly communicate in everyday social and workplace situations around the world.
“As the use of English evolves and changes, so must tests and test questions,” said Feng Yu, Ph.D., Executive Director of the TOEIC Program at ETS. “To ensure that the TOEIC test reflects current language use and measures the language skills that individuals need, ETS will be updating sections of the TOEIC Listening and Reading test.”
Although some of the question formats within the test will change, ETS has conducted several studies to verify that there will be no change in meaning for the TOEIC Listening and Reading test scores before and after the updates. There also will be no change to the level of test difficulty or total testing time. Scores will continue to be comparable across test-form administrations.
For more information on the TOEIC L&R test, including updated sample questions, visit www.toeic.co.kr (Korea) or www.toeic.or.jp (Japan).
プレスリリースでもありますので「変更が実施される」のをThe changes will take effectとフォーマルな感じで書いています。
The changes will take effect in Japan and Korea beginning with the Public Test in May 2016.
オフィシャルな変更理由は以下の通り。時代の動きを反映させていくということなんですね。
The updated question format will reflect the changing use of English and the ways in which individuals commonly communicate in everyday social and workplace situations around the world.
Although some of the question formats within the test will change, ETS has conducted several studies to verify that there will be no change in meaning for the TOEIC Listening and Reading test scores before and after the updates. There also will be no change to the level of test difficulty or total testing time. Scores will continue to be comparable across test-form administrations.
