A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
この本は実に妙な出合い方をしました．なんと，高校３年生が受ける模試の英文だったのです．
２００２年度第１回全統記述問題（河合塾／全国進学情報センター）の長文問題として出題されていました．出典があったので，インターネットで検索したところ，ベストセラーで映画にもなるとか（もうなっています！）そんなわけで，読むことにしました．
賛否両論のようですが，Prologueには
First you will smile, and then you will cry-don't say you haven't been
warned.
（まずにこりとし，それから泣きます．---言われてなかった，なんて（あとで）言わないで下さい．
と自信たっぷりの前書き．素直に泣く人と，泣くもんか，と思う人がいるでしょう．ちなみに私は後者です．
話の筋も，泣かせ方もわかっているの泣いてしまいました．やはり英語は易しい方がいい，ということでしょう．
青春時代に読んだ「ラブ・ストーリー」を思い出しました．
本当に易しい英語でほとんど知らない単語もなさそう．高校生でも読めるでしょう．
So Hegbert decided to try his hand at writing his own play. He'd written his own sermons his whole life, and some of them, we had to admit, were actually interesting, especially when he talked about the "wrath of God coming down on the fornicators" and all that good stuff.
fornicate, fornication, そしてこの fornicatorとなんとなくいやらしい単語ですね．「私通者」？
If she ever came across a wounded animal, for instance, she'd try to help it, too.Opossums, squirrels, dogs, cats, frogs.., it didn't matter to her.
あとの動物はたいへん身近なのに，opossumだけは未聞！きっとたいへん身近な当たり前の動物なのでしょう．
キタオポッサム Didelphis virginiana:有袋類オポッサム科 Didelphidae の動物;長い尾を枝などに巻きつける;雌には育児嚢のうがあり,中には12-13個の乳頭がある;夜行性;危険にあうと死んだふりをする;米国東部に分布.（小学館ランダムハウス英和辞典）
If I liked her, I would have offered to walk her home. If I liked her, I would have wanted to bring her to Cecil's Diner for a basket of hushpuppies and some RC cola. But I didn't want to do any of those things. I really didn't. In my mind, I'd already served my penance.
Charm CityやPromised Landを読んだあとだと，固有名詞が極端に少なく感じます．これがほぼ唯一の商品名です．
A SOFT DRINK COMPANY IS BORN
Royal Crown Company Inc., originally called the Union Bottling Works, was born in Columbus, Ga. in 1905. A young graduate pharmacist, Claud A. Hatcher, began creating his own soft drinks in the basement of his family's wholesale grocery business. From these humble beginnings, Royal Crown Cola Co. grew to be the third largest soft drink company in America.
（Royal Crown CompanyもとはUnion Bottling Worksは１９０５年ジョージア州，コロンバスで誕生した．新卒の製薬者Colaud
A. Hatcherが実家の成果卸売業の地下で独自のソフトドリンクを作り始めた．こうしたつつましい始まりから，Royal
Crown Cola Coは全米３位の飲料メーカーへと成長した）
After high school I planned to go to the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. My father wanted me to go to Harvard or Princeton like
some of the sons of other congressmen did, but with my grades (1)it wasn't possible. Not that I was a bad student. I just didn't focus on
my studies, and my grades weren't exactly up to snuff for the Ivy Leagues.
By my senior year it was pretty much touch and go whether I'd even get
accepted at UNC, and this was my father's alma mater, a place where he
could pull some strings. During one of his few weekends home, my father
came up with the plan to put me over the top. I'd just finished my first
week of school and we were sitting down for dinner. He was home for three
days on account of Labor Day weekend.
"I think you should run for student body president," he said.
"You'll be graduating (2-A) June, and I think it would look good on your record. Your mother thinks so, too, by the way.
My mother nodded as she chewed a mouthful of peas. She didn't speak much when my father had the floor, though she winked at me. Sometimes I think my mother liked to see me squirm, even though she was sweet.
"I don't think I'd have a chance at winning," I said. Though
I was probably the richest kid in school, I was by no means the most popular.
(3)That honor belonged to Eric Hunter, my best friend. He could throw a baseball at
almost ninety miles an hour, and he'd led the football team to back-to-back
state titles as the star quarterback. He was a stud. Even his name sounded
cool.
"Of course you can win," my father said quickly. "We Carters
always win."
(4)That's another one of the reasons I didn't like spending time with my father. During those few times he was home, I think he wanted to (5)mold me into a miniature version of himself. Since I'd grown up pretty much without him, I'd come to resent having him around. This was the first conversation we'd had (2-B) weeks. He rarely talked to me on the phone.
"But what if I don't want to?"
My father put down his fork, a bite of his pork chop still on the tines.
He looked at me crossly, giving me the once-over. He was wearing a suit
even though it was over eighty degrees in the house, and it made him even
more intimidating. My father always wore a suit, by the way.
"I think," he said slowly, "that it would be a good idea."
I knew that when he talked that way the issue was setded. That's the way it was in my family. My father's word was ( 6 ). But the fact was, even after I (7)agreed, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to waste my afternoons meeting
with teachers after school-after school!-every week for the rest of the
year, dreaming up themes for school dances or trying to decide what colors
the streamers should be. That's really all the class presidents did, at
least back when I was in high school. It wasn't like students had the power
to actually decide anything meaningful.
But then again, I knew my father had a point. If I wanted to go to UNC,
I had to do something. I didn't play football or basketball, I didn't play
an instrument, I wasn't in the chess club or the bowling club or anything
else. I didn't excel in the classroom---hell, I didn't excel at much of
anything. (8)Growing despondent, I started listing the things I actually could do, but to be honest, there really wasn't that much. I could tie eight different types of sailing knots, I could walk barefoot across hot asphalt farther than anyone I knew, I could ( 9 )... but I didn't think that any of those things would really stand out on a college application. So there I was, lying in bed all night long, slowly coming to the sinking realization that I was ( 10 ). Thanks, Dad.
問1下線部(1)のitが指示するものとして最も適当なものを,次の(ア)〜(エ)から1つ選び,記号で答えよ。
ｱ.
to get
into the
ｲ.
to go
to Harvard or
ｳ.
to
become a congressman I
ｴ.
to
focus on my studies
問2空欄(2-A)(2-B)に共通して入れるのに,最も適当な前置詞を書け。
問3下線部(3)のThat honorとはどういうことか。本文の内容に即して,15字以内の日本語で説明せよ．ただし，句読点文字数に含む．
問4 下線部(4)を和訳せよ．
問5下線部(5)の意味を表す内容として最も適当なものを,次の(ア)〜（エ）から1つ選び,記号で答えよ。
ｱ.
make
me feel small in his presence
ｲ.
take
me away from home on Labor Day
ｳ.
force
me to imitate his way of doing things
ｴ.
talk
me into playing football
問6空欄(6)に入れるのに最も適当なものを,次の(ア)〜（エ）から1つ選び,記号で答えよ．
ｱ.
precise
ｲ.
meaningless
ｳ.
fun
ｴ.
law
問7下線部(7)agreedの直後に語句を補うとするならば,どのような内容になると考えられるか。最も適当なものを,次の(ア)〜(エ)から1つ選び,記号で答えよ。
ｱ.
to
talk that way
ｲ.
to run
for student body president
ｳ.
to go
to the Ivy Leagues
ｴ.
to
meet with teachers after school
問8 下線部(8)を和訳せよ。
問9 空欄(9)に入れるのに最も適当なものを,次の(ア)〜(エ)から1つ選び,記号で答えよ。
ｱ.
be a
star quarterback on any football team
ｲ.
get
perfect scores in algebra and geometry every term
ｳ.
balance
a pencil vertically on my finger for thirty seconds
ｴ.
write
a bestseller which would amaze everyone at school
問10 空欄(10)に入れるのに最も適当なものを，次の(ア)〜(エ)から，１つ選び，記号で答えよ．
ｱ.
a
winner
ｲ.
a
dreamer
ｳ.
a
runner
ｴ.
a
loser
