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- Our "Stand By Me",-- part5
Our "Stand By Me",-- part5
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We vowed to keep our adventure a secret. But how?
It would take a whole day for the great adventure. We had to think up an excuse for going out the whole day.
Conveniently enough, there was a students' study room in our cram school that was open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day during the summer holidays. So we decided to tell our parents that we would go there and study with friends the whole day on that day.
With regard to arranging our train itinerary, it was complete up to Kazuyoshi, the railroad genius Kazuyoshi's. He conjured up several schedules rapidly and easily by using the bulky railway timetable book (at that time, no elementary school kid, at least around us, had high-tech gadgets like notebook computers, cell phones, smartphones, etc.).
Shuzo and I could do nothing but marvel at Kazuyoshi's technique because both of us didn’t understand how to read the book well.
With careful consideration as to the departure time, lunchtime, time to go home, etc., we choose the best schedule, and put it in writing as our “plan of action.”
We made sure again that we would never tell our adventure to anyone and keep our "plan of action” top secret. This was a promise between men.
And we bore in mind that that day we would be no different from any other day regarding our bags, clothes, and shoes.
At last, one fine morning, the time had come.
It would take a whole day for the great adventure. We had to think up an excuse for going out the whole day.
Conveniently enough, there was a students' study room in our cram school that was open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day during the summer holidays. So we decided to tell our parents that we would go there and study with friends the whole day on that day.
With regard to arranging our train itinerary, it was complete up to Kazuyoshi, the railroad genius Kazuyoshi's. He conjured up several schedules rapidly and easily by using the bulky railway timetable book (at that time, no elementary school kid, at least around us, had high-tech gadgets like notebook computers, cell phones, smartphones, etc.).
Shuzo and I could do nothing but marvel at Kazuyoshi's technique because both of us didn’t understand how to read the book well.
With careful consideration as to the departure time, lunchtime, time to go home, etc., we choose the best schedule, and put it in writing as our “plan of action.”
We made sure again that we would never tell our adventure to anyone and keep our "plan of action” top secret. This was a promise between men.
And we bore in mind that that day we would be no different from any other day regarding our bags, clothes, and shoes.
At last, one fine morning, the time had come.
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It would take a whole day for the great adventure.
We had to think up an excuse for going out the whole day.
Definition of PRETEXT
: a purpose or motive alleged or an appearance assumed in order to cloak the real intention or state of affairs
See pretext defined for English-language learners »
See pretext defined for kids »
Examples of PRETEXT
She went back to her friend's house on the pretext that she had forgotten her purse.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pretext
Conveniently enough, there was a students' study room in our cram school that was open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day during the summer holidays.
So we decided to tell our parents that we would go there and study with friends the whole day on that day.
With regard to arranging our train itinerary, it was complete up to Kazuyoshi, the railroad genius Kazuyoshi‘s.
Definition of MONOPOLY
1
: exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action
2
: exclusive possession or control
3
: a commodity controlled by one party
4
: one that has a monopoly
See monopoly defined for English-language learners »
See monopoly defined for kids »
Examples of MONOPOLY
The government passed laws intended to break up monopolies.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly
He conjured up several schedules rapidly and easily by using the bulky railway timetable book (at that time, no elementary school kid, at least around us, had high-tech gadgets like notebook computers, cell phones, smartphones, etc.).
Shuzo and I could do nothing but marvel at Kazuyoshi‘s technique because both of us didn’t understand how to read the book well.
Because both of us didn’t understand how to read the book well.
With careful consideration as to the departure time, lunchtime, time to go home, etc., we choose the best schedule, and put it in writing as our “plan of action.”
We made sure again that we would never tell our adventure to anyone and keep our “plan of action” top secret.
And we bore in mind that that day we would be no different from any other day regarding our bags, clothes, and shoes.
At last, one fine morning, the time had come.
"Pretext" and "excuse" are still very confusing for me. Is there a simple rule for when to use them?
Most of the time I just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Thank you for your time.
In a list of 500,000 English word forms organized by frequency. Excuse is at 5477. Pretext is at 23,987. In your writing, excuse should also be more frequent...
We use pretext when it is completely untrue. An excuse can be partially truthful...Maybe your use of pretext is okay here, but I think it sounds a little unnatural though. Usually when I think of pretext, I think of something like, "He went to Thailand under the pretext of a business conference to meet with a woman he was seeing over the Internet." Have you been using the corpus? A book on collocations might help your writing in general, too.
Here is a case involving the word pretext.
Another extreme has been taken by those courts that have adopted such holdings as the following: "It is not sufficient to prove that the (employer's) reason was doubtful or mistaken." See Russell v. Acme-Evans Co., 51 F.3d 64, 68 (7th Cir. 1995)(Russell, 51 F.3d at 68, interpreting pretext as being "a lie, specifically a phony reason for some action")
Today, I learned that "pretext" and 「口実」are not identical.
「口実」 may includes wider meaning than "pretext."
I translate it into English plainly. That's why "pretext"
doesn't work well.
Now I feel relieved. Again, thank you very much.
My message: No problem. Some things are very subjective. Learning proper usage is very difficult, even for native speakers...
And thank you for the correction.
And we bore in mind that that day we would be no different from any other day regarding our bags, clothes, and shoes.
これどうやって訳すのでしょうか。
さあいよいよきましたね！
それにしても引き延ばされて引き延ばされて
さあ遠くに飛ぶ準備はこちらも万端です。
しかし読んでて全然あきない。
〔that以下のことを〕心に留める［覚えておく・忘れない・念頭に置く］、〔that以下〕であると考えておく
no different from any other day
《be ～》普段［いつも］と変わらない
「それから、僕らは冒険決行の日には、鞄や服、靴にいたるまで、いつもと同じようにすることも忘れなかったんだ。」
今回、竜頭蛇尾というか、物語としてはどうもバランスを欠くような予感が…、まあ英作文のトレーニングが主眼ですから、大目に見てください。(^.^;
ところで、"pretext"の件、どう思いますか? どうも日本語と英語にニュアンスの強烈な溝があるようなんです。
pretext
【名】
口実、名目、言い訳、もっともらしい理屈、弁解、かこつけ
http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=pretext
とあるので、
「(実際には旅行に行くのだけれど、)丸一日家を留守にするからその
口実"pretext"を考えなければならなかった」という英文にしたつもりなのですが、通用しないとして"excuse"に修正されました。
excuse
【名】
弁解、言い訳、口実、弁明、釈明、理由
http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=excuse
日本文で考えるとどちらも成立するようですが、英語ではダメ…
これは英語の口実"pretext"は相当に適用範囲が狭いかららしいというのが私の現段階での理解なのですが。
ニュアンスの問題は本当に難しいです。
助かりました！
さて
pretextはここで読んでても、この文章の中ではむしろ使ってもいいんじゃなかろうかと
実は首をひねって考えてました。
http://www17.plala.or.jp/anago-heya/non-categorized_room/kininaru_eigo/e02.html#e_excuse
（以下抜粋掲載）
LONGMANのUSAGEには、「reason」、「excuse」、「pretext」の違いについて書いてあります。その部分を抜粋すると
His reason for leaving early was that his wife was ill.(=she really was ill)
His excuse for leaving early was that his wife was ill.(=he said she was ill, and this may or may not have been true)
His left early on the pretext that his wife was ill.(=she was not ill at all and he had another reason for leaving early)
これ読むと
余計pretextではないかと思ってしまう。
やはりそうですか。う～ん。
添削者の方は今度、言語学の博士課程に進学されるほどの人ですから、折り紙つきですし…
ちょっと保留にして考えてみます(^_^)
生まれたての頭になりたい...
だから英文:「(実際には旅行に行くのだけれど、)丸一日家を留守にするから、自習室での勉強をその"pretext＝名目"にした」は不適切になるのでしょう。
<→日本文:「(実際には旅行に行くのだけれど、)丸一日家を留守にするから、自習室での勉強をその口実にした」は成立する、と我々日本人は感じます。>
そして英文:「(実際には女性に会いに行くのだけれど、)ビジネス会議に出席するという"pretext＝名目"でタイへ旅行した」は成立することになります。
一言でいうとニュアンスの問題ということになるのかもしれません。難しいですね。
いろいろ考えて下さってありがとうございました。(*^_^*）
一度の説明でわかることができてしかもこれから活用できそうです。
この説明を聞けた私はラッキーです。
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