多読基本4Aセット 「Silas Marner」
Silas Marner (George Eliot)OBW4 YL3.8 語数16,000<Introduction>In the quite villages of England in the early nineteenth century, life follows an unchanging pattern. The seasons come and go, for both the rich Swuire and his family in the big house, and the villagers in their little cottages. Anything new or strange is met with suspicion in villages like Raveloe.And Silas Marner the linen-weaver is strange. He lives alone, and no one knows a anything about his family. How can you trust a man when you don't know his mother and father? And he is pale, with strange, staring eyes, for he works long hours at his loom every day - even on Sundays, when he should be in church. He must be a friend of the devil, the villagers say to each other.Poor Silas! He's a sad, lonely man, and his only friends are the bright gold coins that he earns for his weaving and keeps hidden under the floorboards. But change must come, even to a quiet place like Raveloe. The Squire's two sons share a secret, which leads to quarrelling, robbery, and a death, one cold snowy night not far from the door of Silas's cottage....久しぶりに読んだOBW(Oxford Bookworms)です。物語性が高くて、一口に書き表せません。表紙をめくった1頁目にあらすじが書かれてあるので、今回はそれを写しましたが、それでも物語の全容にはなりません。長い物語なのに、2日間で読めたのは(休日だったことをのぞいても)読む力がついたからかな、と嬉しくなります。わからない単語がいろいろ出てきました。想像して読んでいましたが、OBWには巻末にGlossaryとしてかなめになる単語が英語で説明されているので、いくつかは見てしまいました。主人公のSilasの仕事は布を作る仕事のようですが、Weaverと何度も出てきます。巻末にはweave....to make coloth using loom なるごど、じゃloomは?...What???loom.....a machine for weaving cloth ふんふん、そっか…linen....a special kind of cloth (more like cotton than wool) リネンて聞くよね~そして物語の後半になって、adopt....to take another person's child into your family to become your own child意味がわかるとやはり物語の理解が深まる気がします。英語を英語で理解するんだから許されるよね?と思いながら見たのでした。