練習用例文集（１）
Going on holiday always makes me feel uneasy. Once, when I checked into a hotel, I began to worry about what would happen if there were a fire. Although my wife laughed at me, every night before going to bed, I had everything ready to take home.
Our holiday progressed pleasantly enough until the night fire actually broke out. We were awakened by the alarm bell. I leapt out of bed and wasted valuable seconds helping my wife to find her clothes. I then dressed quickly, even managing to remember my sun hat. Together we made for the assembly point and, in good order, were led to safety. Once outside, we stood hand in hand watching the firemen as they worked to put out the fire.
"And now", I said, "and now you see the advantage of being prepared and keeping a cool head. I even remembered my sun hat." She answered immediately. "Oh, you're absolutely right, but don't you think you should have put on your trousers?"
練習用例文集（２）
One day I was looking for a place to park my car. I drove around for about twenty minutes and couldn't find anywhere vacant. I noticed a big empty lot behind a restaurant with a sign "Fine for Parking!" I could see that the restaurant wasn't open yet so that's why there were no customer's cars in the lot. I looked at the sign again and thought to myself "That's fine for me," and left my car there while I went to do my business.
When I came back an hour later there was a big policeman standing beside the car. He looked quite angry and shouted, "Hey! Can't you read English? Didn't you read this sign?" "Yes. Officer, I read the sign... it says it's fine to park here. That means it's good or a nice place for parking, so I left my car here."
He looked at me for a moment, figuring out if I was telling the truth or not, and then he began to smile. "'Fine' here means that it's illegal to park here, and if you do, you have to pay a fine... that's money! Just like if you don't stop at a red traffic light. Same thing. Do you understand?
I was very embarrassed and apologized. Luckily the policeman thought it amusing and he didn't fine me.
練習用例文集（3）
Why are some nations always rich while others are poor? This is one of the most basic questions for economists. But it has turned out to be one of the hardest for them to answer.
For a long time, economists believed that the determining factor which decided whether a region would be rich or poor depended on what the area was given by nature, such as large deposits of minerals, rich soil, and access to water.
But as agriculture gave way to more advanced industrialization, economists began to focus on human factors, for example, the quality of political, social, and business institutions around which economic activity was organized.
These days, economists are interested in geography again as a factor that determines wealth or poverty. According to them, two factors can in part explain the income gap between rich and poor nations. One of them is whether a region is outside the tropics. The other is whether it has easy access to a port.
There is a strong relationship between geography and wealth. Outside Europe, there is not a single landlocked country that has a high average income.
Countries grow wealthy by specializing in doing certain things while trading with other countries for things they do not make. That is why being near ports and rivers has been important and why people have tended to concentrate along the coasts. That greater concentration has given rise to further specialization, creating a cycle in which the rich countries keep getting richer.
On the other hand, in countries away from the coast or rivers, higher transportation costs make it difficult to trade and specialize. In countries near the equator that suffer tropical diseases, workers produce less and the best workers flee.
The above argument helps to lead to sound economic policies and the raising of living standards.
練習用例文集（４）→訳文
The world's 6,000 languages are dying off quickly, and experts predict that up to half of them will probably become extinct during the next century. This is a terrible disaster - the rate of loss of mankind's linguistic variety.
While languages were once suppressed by government policy, the forces acting together against native languages now seem to be largely electronic. Satellite television, cellular telephones, and the Internet all let people speak to each other instantly all over the world, and all drive the need for languages that many understand.
In most cases, that language is English. Even defenders of dying languages admit this is not necessarily a bad thing, since a common language clearly allows people to communicate easily. For instance, scientists often speak to each other in English, whether their laboratories are in France or Taiwan. Many linguists, however, urge the preservation of small languages as second, or even third, languages, rather than allowing them to be swallowed up by English, Arabic, Spanish and other major languages.
In prehistoric times, humans probably spoke between 10,000 and 15,000 languages. This is now down to about 6,000 and dropping fast. One of the scholars estimates that between 20 percent and 50 percent of the world's languages are no longer being learned by children.
Many of the small languages on the verge of dying out are in tropical parts of the world, especially Africa and Indonesia. But the Unites States is also losing languages fast, especially in California. North America has between 200 and 250 native languages, and about 50 of them are in California.
All these California Indian languages are in trouble. Indian children sent to boarding schools were punished for speaking their parents' language until the 1960s. Now none of these languages is being learned widely by children or used in daily commerce. Twenty have died this century.
＜訳文＞The world's 6,000 languages are dying off quickly, and experts predict that up to half of them will probably become extinct during the next century. This is a terrible disaster - the rate of loss of mankind's linguistic variety.
世界の６千の言語は急速に死に絶えようとしている。そして専門家が予言するには、来世紀のあいだに、その半分までがおそらく消滅するであろうということだ。これは恐るべき災厄である。人類の言語の多様性が失われるスピードが。
While languages were once suppressed by government policy, the forces acting together against native languages now seem to be largely electronic. Satellite television, cellular telephones, and the Internet all let people speak to each other instantly all over the world, and all drive the need for languages that many understand.
かつて言語は政府の政策によって抑圧されていたが、現在、土着の言語に対して悪い方向に作用しているのは、主に電子的（な機器）によるものだ。衛星テレビ、携帯電話、インターネットは、世界中で瞬時のうちにお互いに人々が話しかけることを可能にし、そのようなすべてが、多くの人々の理解する言語の必要を駆り立てている。
In most cases, that language is English. Even defenders of dying languages admit this is not necessarily a bad thing, since a common language clearly allows people to communicate easily. For instance, scientists often speak to each other in English, whether their laboratories are in France or Taiwan. Many linguists, however, urge the preservation of small languages as second, or even third, languages, rather than allowing them to be swallowed up by English, Arabic, Spanish and other major languages.
多くの場合、その言語とは英語であり、死滅しつつある言語の擁護者でさえも、これは必ずしも悪いことではないと認めているのは、共通の言語が人々が容易にコミュニケーションをとることを可能にするのは明らかだからである。たとえば、科学者は自分の研究所がフランスにあっても台湾にあっても、お互いに英語で話し合う。しかしながら、多くの言語学者は弱小言語を第２、あるいは第３言語として保存することを勧め、英語、アラビア語、スペイン語、その他の強大言語に飲み込まれるのにまかせることは望んでいない。
In prehistoric times, humans probably spoke between 10,000 and 15,000 languages. This is now down to about 6,000 and dropping fast. One of the scholars estimates that between 20 percent and 50 percent of the world's languages are no longer being learned by children.
先史時代には、人類はおそらく１万から１万５千のあいだの言語を話していた。これは現在約６千に落ち、さらに急激に減少している。学者の一人の推定によれば、世界の言語の２０％から５０％は、もはや子供たちによって学習されることはない。
Many of the small languages on the verge of dying out are in tropical parts of the world, especially Africa and Indonesia. But the Unites States is also losing languages fast, especially in California. North America has between 200 and 250 native languages, and about 50 of them are in California.
消滅の淵にある弱小言語の多くは、世界の熱帯地域にあり、特にアフリカとインドネシアである。しかしアメリカ合衆国もまた急速に言語を失いつつあり、特にカリフォルニアにおいて顕著である。北アメリカは２００から２５０の原住民の言語があり、その約５０はカリフォルニアにあるのだ。
All these California Indian languages are in trouble. Indian children sent to boarding schools were punished for speaking their parents' language until the 1960s. Now none of these languages is being learned widely by children or used in daily commerce. Twenty have died this century.
このようなカルフォルニアのインディアン言語はすべて、困難な状態にある。寄宿学校に送られているインディアンの子供たちは、１９６０年代まで、自分の両親の言語を話すと罰せられていた。これらの言語のどれ一つとして子供たちによって広く学習されていないし、日々の交際にも使われていない。今世紀に入って２０の言語が消滅した。