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英作文チャレンジコーナー（日本経済新聞）

本日の日経記事より抜粋しました。　今年の夏は本当に厳しい試練になりそうです。

経済産業省がまとめた夏場の電力需給対策の原案は、電気事業法27条に基づいて大規模工場など大口需要家の最大使用電力を25～30％削減する対策を盛り込むなど、踏み込んだ内容になった。自動車や電機、金属など主要製造業も政府方針を先取りして対策の検討に乗り出している。ただ、企業が実際に電力使用量の大幅削減をどう実現するかのハードルは高い。
  
An original plan was filed by the Ministry of economy, trade, and Industry on how to maintain a balance between electricity demand and supply for the coming summer months.
 
Based on the article 27 of the Electric Business Act, the bill takes a few steps forward – such as the 25 to 30% reduction on the maximum power consumption by large quantity users such as big factories.
Prior to this, the major manufactuing sectors, such as automotive, electrical equipment, metal production, have already started working on the countermeasures.  But the hurdle is high for drastically cutting down on power consumption. 
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アメリカのTV　CMでリスニングにチャレンジしよう！（便秘薬編）

ひさびさにTV CMを聞き取りしたのでUPLOADしました。
 
商品名はDULCOLEX　STOOL　SOFTENER.　お通じの薬です。

まずはCM動画をどうぞ。

 
 

 

 

Sometimes life can be, well, a little uncomfortable.

(ときどき、不快になることってありますよね）

But when it’s hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there’s Dulcolax Softener.

（トイレに行くのがつらかったり、痛くなったりした時は、ダルコラックスソフナー）

Dulcolax Stool Softener doesn’t make you go.

（ダルコラックスソフナーは、出す薬ではありません）

It jusrt makes it easier to go.

（出しやすくするためのお薬です）

Dulcolaxs Stool Softener. Make yourself comfortable.

 （ダルコラックスソフナーで、快適な暮らしを）

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

ほうー、なるほど。　make yourself go (あなたを行かせる）で「お通じがある」。

　makes it easier to go(行きやすくする）で「出しやすくする」。という意味に使えるのか。

何かの機会に使えるかも。

  

ところでこのCM、不快感をネット投稿するアメリカ人が多いようです。たとえば・・・

  

I hate the recent ad in which the guy sitting by the window on the plane squeezes over the center and aisle people to get to the aisle! Reminds me of how hard flying is nowdays! 　（窓側の座席の男が苦心して通路に出るCMがいやだ。飛行機に乗る時の苦労を思い出すから）

I am just tired of hearing about  people’s piss　and poop problems.  If you have trouble sh**ing, see your doctor.  Why do I need to hear about it? （オシッコとかOOOとかの話題をテレビで聴かされるのはもうウンザリ。そんなにつらいのなら医者に行けよ。何でこの俺が聴かされなきゃならないんだ。）
  
Now, these ads are upfront with the issue, and they have people exclaim (with enthusiasm) that  their poop is watery/etc. like it is an acceptable conversation among friends.こういうCMを流すから、堂々と大声で（中には熱意をもって）便が柔らかいだの何だのと話す奴らが出てくるんだ。友達どうしの会話なら、普通の話題になってる。）
 
まあまあ、そう怒りなさんな。　人間だれしも腹の調子が悪い時はあるんだし、こういう会話は時間つぶしにもってこいなんだよ。

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英作文チャレンジコーナー（日本経済新聞）

金融危機で落ち込んでいた札幌市内の住宅需要は時価下落を追い風に回復の兆しが見えてきた。マンションは地下鉄沿線など利便性の高い物件に人気が集まり、シニア層を中心に都心回帰の動きが広がっている。一方で若い世代では低価格の戸建て住宅が支持され、土地代がかさまない郊外に住む人が増えている。住宅市場は二極化が進んでいるようだ。
（日本経済新聞　２０１１年３月１９日）
 
 
Driven by  falling land prices, the housing demand in Sapporo is showing signs of recovery after the recessionary trend caused by the financial crisis.
There is a buying spree for accessible apartment houses  such as the ones along subway trails.
– which shows a greater tendency among seniors to live in city centers. 
On the other hand, more and more young families choose affordable individual houses built in suburbs where land prices are cheaper.
 
In this way, the housing market here is evolving towards bipolar extremes.

 

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女優エリザベステイラー、７９年の生涯に幕

映画好きだった父からよく聞いた名前でした。

今回、この特集追悼番組をディクテーションして、彼女の偉大さ、破天荒さにあらためて敬意を表したい気分です。

聞き取った文章は、いつものとおり下に載せますが、全訳はやめときます。（体力が続かないので。）　

その前に、気になった表現などを２，３紹介させてください。

１．the woman who broke the rules and the pay barriers for women in film.　ルールをぶち破り、映画女優の報酬の上限をもぶち破った女性。

２．I’ve had a lot of tragedy in my life. I’ve had the lowest valleys, the highest highs. 私の人生、多くの悲劇があった。どん底も最高も経験した。

３．She was the first actress to earn a million dollars for a movie　（一本の映画で百万ドルを稼ぎ出した最初の女優だった）

４．But Elizabeth,the actress was often eclipsed by Elizabeth, the woman.女優としてのエリザベスが、一人の女としてのエリザベスによって侵されることがしばしばあった。

５．She　married eight times to seven men, ７人の男性と８度の結婚。（つまり２度結婚した男がいた。）

  

いやはや読めば読むほどすごい人だ・・・・では本編をどうぞ。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3MLgGdVDCY

The last of the legendary superstars has died. A superstar from an era when American movies were so powerful, the whole globe feasted on our celluloid dreams and her face. Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure today at 79 and every generation of Americans knew her and followed her turbulent life. The girl with the violet eyes, the woman who broke the rules and the pay barriers for women in film. And in some ways, she created this frenzy of tabloid celebrity we all live amidst still today. But she was also a woman who was never tougher than when looking at her own choices.

 

I’ve had a lot of tragedy in my life. I’ve had the lowest valleys, the highest highs. I’ve had extreme happiness. I’ve had addictions. I’m like a living example of what people can go through and survive.

 

Have you ever thought of what you wanted on your tombstone?  Here lies Elizabeth.

She hated being called Liz. But she lived.

 

And boy. Did Elizabeth Taylor live. The last icon and first global superstar. She once told me that she couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t famous.

Famous for her acting, illnesses, jewelry, friends, marriages and divorces.

Above all, for her stunning beauty , whether glamorously thin, or later unhappily heavy, time never dimmed her legendary violet eyes. She was born with a double set of lashes.

And she was so rapturously beautiful little girl that you couldn’t believe it and full of composure.

 Every day, I pray to God to give me horses. Pushed by her mother, Elizabeth was a movie star at 12 years old.  How do you do?  Her career spanned 70 years of more than fifty films.  I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.

 

Opposite the screen’s greatest leading men.

 I love you.

She was the first actress to earn a million dollars for a movie.  Elizabeth Taylor.

And won two oscars, her last for this sheering 1966  performance.,  Maybe George  Bowie  didn’t have the stuff. That maybe he didn’t have it in him.

But Elizabeth,the actress was often eclipsed by Elizabeth, the woman.

Married eight times to seven men, she married Richard Burton twice, the public and paparazzi  consumed her every romance. She said there were two great loves in her life.

Director Mike Todd, who tragically died after one year of marriage, and Richard Burton, who in 1962, she met on the set a Cleopatra.   We both tried very hard to resist, it was just like, boom!

And the rest, as they say is –  is  in  history. Both were married at the time.

And their very public affair, condemned by the Vatican, became an international scandal. Unquestionably, their torrid relationship was one of the last century’s great romances. Richard Burton was a great actor.

 And also a hunk.

Throughout the ’60s, The Burtons were the most celebrated couple on the planet , superstars before there was such a word.

Lovers and friends all showered her with jewelry, a collection considered one of the finest in the world.

 Don’t get your fingerprints on it. Look at that.

In later years, Taylor successfully transformed herself into a businesswoman, selling perfume.

But her humanitarian work may be her greatest legacy.

Using her fame, she raised millions for aids research, bravely standing by actor Rock Hudson, one of its first victims, when others shunned him.

To the public, she may have been the last great movie star.

But for those who knew her, she was also a loving mother and loyal friend.

 There have been so many lessons, life and death lessons, emotional lessons.  I don’t believe in regrets.

And I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow, no one does.

 And Barbara Walters is here now.

We were saying earlier, we don’t think of her as a pioneer, but her sheer fearlessness about her own choices in life changed things in this country.

Absolutely.

By the way, she never wrote her autobiography.

This, all the different clips that people will see, that’s her autobiography.

She was gutsy and salty and funny.

And look at the things we’ve talked about , married eight times. She wanted to get married, she married them. She wanted to divorce them, she divorced them.

She championed aids when nobody did.

She stood by people who were rejected.

Michael Jackson adored her. Rock Hudson.

And everything she did was bigger, maybe not better, but pronounced and different.

 

 

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被災地の農家のみなさん。負けないで。

今日スーパーで悲しい思いをしました。例の放射能の影響を受けている茨城県や近隣でとれた野菜のことなのです。キャベツとかサツマイモ、他の野菜もみんな見切り品価格で売られていました。変な話です。だって禁止されたのはホウレンソウと牛乳だけなのに。みんな過剰反応しているのでしょう。農家の人、可哀想です。なんの罪もないのに。

  I felt sad at the grocery store today. It’s about vegetables produced in Ibaraki and neighboring prefectures　that are currently affected by the radiation. Cabbages, sweet potatoes, and all other greens were sold at clearance prices. This is strange. It’s only spinach and milk that have been banned. People are overreacting too much. …That’s why.　
I feel sorry for the farmers. They are innocent victims.

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謹んでお見舞い申し上げます。

このたびの東北地方太平洋沖地震により、被災を受けられた皆様に謹んでお見舞い申し上げます。一日も早く復旧されますことを心よりお祈り申し上げます。
  
 
To all the victims and the families who lost loved one and who are injured
 
I’d like to express my sympathy for the enormous loss of life and devastation caused by the  latest earthquake　that jolted northeast Japan.
May my prayer come true that all of the disaster areas will be rebuilt soon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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おかしくね？　このニュース。

 
 
 
 
 
ディクテーションをしていて、これほど不可解かつ不愉快な気持ちになったことはありません。
①なぜこのお父さんたちは、日本にいる子供たちに会えなくなったのか？
⇒どうせ家庭内暴力とか、アルコールとか、ギャンブルとか、浮気が原因なんでしょ？
 
②なぜTV局は、拉致（abducted）という言葉を用いるのか？⇒　根拠も無しにこんな極端な言葉を使うのは、視聴率を稼ぎたいからなんでしょ、ABCさん？
 
 
子供と会えなくなった原因については何も触れず、ただ一方的に日本を悪者に仕立て上げているこの番組、納得できないよ、どう考えても。
 
動画は下記クリック↓。 
 
 
 
If I get to see my kids again, then I’ll definitely want to give my heart, kiss and say I love you very much. And I’ll also say that this is not your fault. What’s happened to my kids is just wrong.
And it was unforunate that they’ve been separated from me, from her loving father in their lives. I really can’t wait to be a part of their life again and
I can’t wait to be reunited with my children so I can hold them and love them and hug them again
jus like I used to right before the abduction.
 
I’d say Keisuke,  I love you and miss you so very much. Everyday is so hard just to get through. Your granma Joan misses you. Cousins,McKenzie and Reily, your uncle Rod and Daina. I haven’t forgotten you. We are gonna stop fighting for you.
I can’t wait to  see you again. I just… I miss you so much. I pray everyday tha  today is the day that I’ll see your ?????? again. I love you.
 
All I can say is I’m not gonna give up.
I want my daughter home. I’ll continue to fight. And my daughter knows this. Hopefully the Japanese knows this. The state department knows this. My daughter is coming home, she’s an American.
 
Erika was abducted when she was night months old. So she’s been a part of my life for a nine,tenth of her life. I was only a life of her for the first one tenth of this. So she won’t remember me. So what I really want to say to her is “Erika. I do want to get to know you. I do want you to be my daughter, I want to be your father. I want you to meet… You have  many relatives who love you here in the states. Much a great deal of family , aunts, uncles and cousins and your grandparents who are hanging on to life, waiting for the chance to meet you, and to get to know you. So we are all waiting for you here with our arms wide open for a big hug when you come. I just can’t  wait to get to know you someday. I love you. 
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時事英語研究会例会

宮口リーダー出張のため、不肖私が代役を務めさせていただきました。

 

ソースはUSA　TODAYで内容は「measle（はしか）の感染が米国内に与える影響」。

国際空港経由で入国した外国人が、突然高熱を出し、病院へ運ばれた。検査の結果「はしか」と判明。　当局はこの患者の入国経路を詳しく公表し、同時期に同じ場所にいた人間に対し注意を呼び掛ける。だが、当局の懸念はもっと別のところにあった。1998年頃に生まれた子供に対し、はしかワクチン予防注射を見送った父兄が約10万組いたのだ。その当時流布していた学説（はしかワクチンは自閉症を誘発する）を信じ込んだためだった。　その後の研究で学説は否定されたが、ワクチンを打っていないままの子供の数は相当数に上るとみられる。もし彼らにウイルスが伝染したら、高熱だけでなく死にいたる大病に発展しかねない。今後とも予防には十分注意すべし。

  

Air travelers may have been exposed to measles

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

Updated 13m ago |

 21 |  5

Health officials in five states are warning travelers, airport employees and others that they may have been exposed to measles.

In Boston, health departments have been offering vaccinations to people who may have had contact with a 24-year-old French consulate employee there who became sick earlier this month.Health officials are also contacting airport employees who may have come into contact with an unvaccinated 27-year-old New Mexico woman with measles. She flew from the United Kingdom to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia Feb. 20, then flew from Baltimore to Denver and Albuquerque on Feb. 22.Passengers who were also traveling on those days should call their doctors if they develop symptoms of measles, officials say. Symptoms begin with a runny nose, red, watery eyes and a fever of 101 degrees or higher, then progress to a red rash that begins on the face and spreads to the rest of the body, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.Anyone infected on those flights could start showing symptoms now, says David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department in Virginia, where Dulles International Airport is located. People typically begin showing symptoms within one to three weeks after being infected. So far, Goodfriend says he hasn’t found anyone with symptoms.Doctors investigate even one case of measles because it’s extremely contagious, Goodfriend says.Thanks to vaccinations, doctors have eliminated measles in the Western Hemisphere, says William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. New cases here — about 150 a year or fewer — are typically brought in by people from overseas.”We don’t want measles to be re-introduced here,” Schaffner says.The virus infects more than 80% of unvaccinated people exposed to it, Schaffner says. Measles can linger in the air for two hours and spreads through coughing, sneezing or secretions from the mouth, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.”Air currents can take the virus to the far corners of the room and into another room,” Schaffner says. “The current generation of doctors won’t recognize it because they’ve never seen it.”Measles can cause rare but life-threatening side effects, such as pneumonia and brain inflammation, and is especially risky for pregnant women, babies under 1 year old and people with compromised immune systems, Schaffner says.People with symptoms shouldn’t go to work or school, and should call their doctors before showing up in the office, to avoid infecting other patients, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.Maintaining a high rate of “herd immunity” protects those babies, who don’t get their first measles shots until they’re 12 months old, Schaffner says.People are considered immune if they were born in the USA before 1957, have had measles or have had two doses of measles vaccine, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. A medication called Immune Globulin can prevent measles if given within six days of exposure.The United Kingdom and Ireland have weathered a number of measles outbreaks since 1998, when the author of a now-discredited article in The Lancet alleged a link between the vaccine and autism. Hundreds of people there were hospitalized and four died, says Paul Offit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, author of Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All.Myths about an autism-vaccine link — which have been refuted by 14 studies — have led parents of 100,000 children not to vaccinate them, Offit says.Contributing: Associated Press.

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たった２セント不足しただけなのに・・・

 

その事件は、コロラド州デンバーの夫婦に突然起こった。 

夫がガンで入院。 

莫大な治療費が重くのしかかる。 

こんな時のためにと入っていたガン保険。　奥さんは請求手続きを取った。 

しかしなんと保険金支払いは途中で中断。　原因は奥さんが当月の保険金を誤って少なく振り込んだこと。その差額たったの２セント。（日本円で１円６６銭）　 

「ひどい、あんまりだ。」絶望感に打ちひしがれる夫婦。 

やってられないなあ、こんな目にあったら。　せめて定期引き落としだったらこんなことにはならなかっただろうに。 

だが、救いの神はちゃんといた。　TV局側が徹底追求した結果、保険会社側が折れたのである。

おかげで保険金支払いは再開され、夫は移植手術を受けられることに。

めでたしめでたし。

それにしてもこの保険会社のしらばっくれた応対には腹が立つ。このようなケースは今回が初めてではなく、過去にもあったものと感じさせる。泣き寝入りした顧客もいたのではないか？　そう思うとやるせなさに襲われる。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiaoRGDHHZY

本文

Imagine this. A vietnam veteran has cancer and is awaiting  a stemcell transplant, when suddenly the insurance company revoked his coverage, revoked because his premium payment was two cents, two cents short. We learned of  this story from our Denver station KMGH.
David Muir picked up a phone to get answers and got results.
It’s doctor’s appointment they’ll never forget. Ronald Flanagan,fighting cancer, multiple myeloma,  was just moments away from getting a bone biopsy when his wife, in the lobby, heard this.
They told me, well, you know, you don’t have no insurance.
The couple was stunned. Especially because Ron was soon to get a stem cell transplant. Doctors had found a match. But their Cobra insurance coverage they were paying for after his wife was laid off, had suddenly been cut off. All because of a two-cent discrepancy. The last bill, $328.69, Francis paid $328.67.- two cents less by accident. Everybody is very surprised that two cents is enough to do this. And now we’re just pulling teeth and trying to figure out what’s the next step.  Today,we called up that Cobra provider, Ceridian.
It’s David Muir at ABC world news in New York. First put on hold,then told by another worker we’d get a call back. And this afternoon, we heard from Ceridian. Could this possibly be true that they wdre dropped over two cents? WE’ve reviewed the situation throughly and to establish facts and we’re pleased to say that we’ve been able to work with the employer and Mr. Flanagan’s Cobra coverage was reinstated. I just got off the phone with his wife and they have not been told that yet.  We are n the process of communicating with them. The Flanagan’s confirmed after so much worry over that two-cent error. It’s finally over. What would you say to mr. Flanagan tonight? Would you offer an apology?  For what, specifically?
Knowing that ,they were dropped because of a two-cent discrepancy as he waits for a stem cell transplant? We followed the normal processes, which are in complete compliance with the law and the regulations. Mr.Flanagan tells us he’s already been back on the phone with the transplant coordinator telling him he has his insurance back now, trying to get back on that schedule. Diane?
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大舞台で国歌をまちがえるハプニング　－　2011年スーパーボウル。

動画を再生しながら歌詞を見比べてください。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj5NPNe3jNU

赤の部分が歌い間違えた個所です。

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

きっとこの歌手、一生言われ続けるでしょうね。　かわいそう。

さて「歌い間違えた」を英語でどう表現するのでしょう？

Huffington Postというニュースサイトでは、Christina Aguilera　totally messed up the national anthem. またAP通信では、Christina Aguilera majorly botched the national anthem.というようにbotchという語を使っていました。

覚えておくと便利かもしれませんね。