テレビのアニメ…

＞ 批判的思考 / 善意解釈の原理 / 合成の誤謬と分割の誤謬 /

相手の主張を正確に読み取ること、聞き取ることは、それに続く一連の言語活動―批評、会話など―の前提となる。

それを英語でとなると、英語の素養に加え、言語の明晰さ、背景知識についてそれぞれ理解を深めることになる。

ここでは、実際の言語活動に即し、素材の英文について、主張とそれを支える事例を区別しながら内容を正確に読み取り、その要旨を英語で簡潔にまとめてみる。

Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover, the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery.

Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigour, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.

Bertrand Russell : The Conquest of Happiness

注釈：

l        Whether work should be placed ...

この should を shall にすると文脈から不自然。

l        To begin with ... what one shall do.

この shall を should にすると文脈から不自然。

l        There are in work all grades, from ...

この配列を There are all grades in work, from ... にすると文脈から不自然。

l        Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told ...

この to を for にすると、be agreeable (except) for ... になり、語法から不自然。また、以下の普通の配列は文脈から不自然。

It is positively agreeable except to people with unusual initiative to be told ...

要約：

Though it is not in itself interesting, most of the work that people have to do has certain great advantages as long as it is not excessive in amount : it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do, and it makes holidays much more delicious when they come.

素材には労働、仕事についての記述がある。仕事といえば、私の場合、絵描き―油彩画家―だ。私は高校を卒業してから独学で画家を目指した。買い手が付き始めたころ、事情があって絵筆を置き、今は開店休業状態だ。

最近は、孫のためにテレビのアニメの絵を真似て描いたりするのだが、これが我ながら上手くない。孫は気にしていないようだが…ちょっと切ない。