スポーツ欄を最初に読むのは・・・

I always turn to the sports page first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures.

私はいつでもスポーツ欄を最初に開く。スポーツ欄には人々の偉業が記録されているが、第一面には人々の失敗しか記載されていないからだ。
（アール・ウォーレン）


Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap.

幸福は猫に似ている。こっちへおいでと呼んでも、おだててもそっぽを向くばかりで、決してやって来ないが、そいつに頓着せず自分のすべきことをしていれば、いつのまにかこちらの足に擦り寄ってきて、膝の上に飛び乗ろうとするものだ。
（ウィリアム・ベネット ）

日本の赤字鉄道を猫が救う

Cat helps debt - strapped Japanese train
（ New York Times ）

A money-losing Japanese train company has found the purr-fect mascot to draw crowds and bring back business -- tabby Tama.

All the 9-year-old female cat has to do is sit by the entrance of
western Japan's Kishi Station, wearing a black uniform cap and posing for photos for the tourists who are now flocking in from across the nation.

Her job makes cultural sense in Japan, where cats are considered good luck and are believed to bring in business.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・debt　負債、借り
・strapped　革ひもでくくりつけた、金がない, 困窮している
・bring back　連れ戻す、呼び戻す
・flock　群がる、群をなして来る（行く）
・bring in　もたらす、生じる


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

琴欧洲、有終の美

Kotooshu claims Emperor's Cup; yokozuna clash highlights finale
（ Japan Times ）

The metamorphosis is nearly complete.

A day after becoming the first European to capture an Emperor's Cup in the ancient Japanese sport, Kotooshu dispatched of ozeki Chiyotaikai Sunday to finish his campaign with an outstanding 14-1 record on the final day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.

The Bulgarian ozeki, who entered the Tokyo meet facing demotion, did a complete about-face en route to winning his first title to join the three other ozeki in claiming the tournament hardware.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・complete　完全な、完成した
・ancient　古代の、古来の
・outstanding　目立つ、突出した


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

自然の母なる大地は・・・

The earth that's nature's mother is her tombs;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb.

自然の母なる大地は、またその墓（はか）。
自然を埋める墓は、またその胎（はら）。
（シェークスピア『ロミオとジュリエット』）

四川大地震 救助は続くが、焦点は被災者に

Rescues Continue in China, but Focus Is Shifting to the 5 Million Left Homeless
（ New York Times ）

Eight days after a massive earthquake struck southwest China, the
government began to grapple Tuesday with what may be its biggest
quandary: what to do with what it says are the five million people left homeless by the disaster.

As the confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000 on Tuesday,
Chinese authorities issued an urgent appeal for tents. “The quake zones need more than three million tents,” said Li Chengyun, the vice governor of hard-hit Sichuan Province, according to the state-run news media. “If the public wants to donate, please donate tents.”

When China began a three-day national mourning period on Monday,
people across this country quietly understood it as signaling an
unofficial end to the search and rescue phase after the disastrous earthquake, which the government said had probably killed more than 50,000 people.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・confirm　堅固にする、確認する
・urgent　緊急の
・donate　寄付する
・mourn　悲しみ嘆く、哀悼する
・phase　段階、局面


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

物価とエレベーター・・・

Nature provides exceptions to every rule.

自然はあらゆる規則に対して例外をもうける。
（マーガレット・フラー）


Prices are going up by the elevator and wages are going up by the
stairs.

物価はエレベーターで上がり、給料は階段で上がる。
（ロバート・Ａ・ビア）

ガソリン値上げでバス・電車通勤が増える

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit
( New York Times )

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are
abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・surge　大波、激動、高まり
・commuter　通勤者
・standing-room-only　満員の
・lot　一区画の土地、用地
・overflowing　氾濫する、あふれる
・vacant　空の、あいている


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

ミャンマーのサイクロン、死と困窮と

In Flooded Delta, a Want as Pervasive as Death
( New York Times )

The water has not receded fully, and few aid trucks have made it here. Only one helicopter, from the Myanmar military, was spotted all Friday, dropping off packages of instant noodles around a devastated delta that needs much more. Win Kyi, a mother looking for a lost son, was crying, her body shaking and her arms outstretched for food, money, water ― anything.

Six days after a cyclone churned through the coastal plain of Myanmar, it was clear that the damage was great and that little aid had made it to the thousands of Burmese villagers along the sea south of the largest city, Yangon. The smell of rot and death was in the air here, part of a single district where the military government says 10,000 people died.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・pervasive　行き渡る、広がる
・recede　退く, 遠のく
・devastate　荒す、（国土を）荒廃させる
・outstretched　広げた、伸ばした
・rot　腐敗、腐朽


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

記憶のおかげで・・・

The devil tempts all, but the idle man tempts the devil.

悪魔はすべての者を誘惑するが、怠け者は悪魔を誘惑する。
（西洋のことわざ）


Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday.

記憶のおかげで私たちは、妻の誕生日は昨日だったと気づくことができる。
（マリオ・ロッコ）

脳を働かせよ。さもないと、え〜と・・・

Exercise Your Brain, or Else You’ll ... Uh ...
( New York Times )

When David Bunnell, a magazine publisher who lives in Berkeley, Calif., went to a FedEx store to send a package a few years ago, he suddenly drew a blank as he was filling out the forms.

Mr. Bunnell is among tens of millions of baby boomers who are
encountering the signs, by turns amusing and disconcerting, that
accompany the decline of the brain’s acuity: a good friend’s name suddenly vanishing from memory; a frantic search for eyeglasses only to find them atop the head; milk taken from the refrigerator then put away in a cupboard.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・fill out　記入する、書き込む
・encounter　遭遇する
・disconcert　まごつかせる, 当惑させる
・acuity　（知覚力の）鋭敏さ
・atop　頂上に


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

父が娘を24年間監禁、オーストリアで衝撃

Austria Stunned by Case of Imprisoned Woman
( New York Times )

With his Mercedes-Benz and his fine clothes, Josef Fritzl looked
every inch a property owner, neighbors in this tidy Austrian town said Monday. Even when running errands, they said, he wore a natty jacket, crisp shirt and tie.

Mr. Fritzl’s apartment house, its back garden obscured by a tall
hedge, was his kingdom, one neighbor said, and interlopers were not welcome. On Monday, investigators in white jumpsuits combed the house and garden for clues. The authorities said Sunday that Mr. Fritzl, 73, had kept one of his daughters imprisoned for 24 years in a basement dungeon, where she bore him seven children.


【 まずは準備運動 】

・imprison　刑務所に入れる、監禁する
・every inch　端から端まで、完全に
・property　財産、不動産
・errand　走り使い、用向き
・obscure　暗くする、おおい隠す
・interloper　じゃま者、でしゃばり屋
・comb　くし、くまなく探す
・clue　糸口、手掛り
・dungeon　地下牢


● 解説ザブ〜ン！

人間が生まれたときに泣くのは・・・

Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.

民主主義とは、非の責めを負うべき人物を私たちが自由に選ぶためのシステムである。
（ローレンス・J・ピーター）


When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

人間が生まれたときに泣くのは、この大いなる阿呆の舞台に上がってしまったからなのだ。
（ウィリアム・シェークスピア「リア王」）