【設問】
次の文章(1)，(2)を英訳しなさい。
(1) 今日，睡眠不足は見過ごせない問題となっている。原因の一つは，社会全体が深夜も多くの人が起きていることを想定して動いていることである。照明器具の発達も，我々の体内時計を狂わせているのかもしれない。その一方で，多くの学校や会社の始まる時間は変わっていない。こうして睡眠不足が生まれやすくなり，日中の集中力の低下を引き起こすのだ。
(2) 南半球を旅行していた時に，見慣れない星々が奇妙な形を夜空に描いているのを目にした。こうした星座のなかには，航海に必要な器具や熱帯に住む動物の名前が付けられたものがある。星座の名前の由来について，私には正確な知識がないが，何百年か前の船乗りたちが何を大切にし，何に驚いていたのか，その一端がうかがわれる。
【解答例】
(1) These days, the lack of sleep is too big a problem for us to ignore. One of the causes of this problem is that the whole society is working based on the assumption that many people stay up late at night. The development of lighting equipment may also prevent our internal clock from working properly. On the other hand, many schools and companies begin at the same time of the day as in the past. In this way, we often fail to get enough sleep and we lose concentration in the day.
/ Today, lack of sleep has become a problem that cannot be overlooked. One of the causes is that whole society is working on the assumption that many people sit up late at night. The development of lamps might also have caused our body clocks to go wrong. On the other hand, the starting time of many schools and companies has remained the same. Thus people tend to have poor sleep, which leads to a decline in concentration during the day.
/ Nowadays lack of sleep has become a problem that we cannot overlook. This is partly because our society functions on the basis that many people are active even late at night. Developed lighting may also be a reason why our body clocks don’t work well. On the other hand, many schools and offices start at the same time as before. As a result, people tend to sleep less, which causes the concentration to fall in the daytime.
(2) When I was travelling in the southern hemisphere, I saw unfamiliar stars forming strange shapes in the night sky. Some of those constellations were named after the tools for navigation and the animals living in tropical regions. Although I don’t have accurate knowledge about where those names of constellations come from, I can partly learn what the sailors a few hundred years ago took care of and what they were surprised at.
/ While I was traveling in the Southern Hemisphere, I saw strange stars forming odd shapes in the night sky. Some of those constellations have been named after devices needed for a voyage, or animals living in the tropical zone. I have no correct knowledge of the origin of the names of constellations, but they tell us something about what the sailors some hundred years ago valued or what they were amazed at.
/ While traveling in a country that is south of the Equator, I saw unfamiliar stars representing strange shapes in the night sky. Among such groups of stars are those that were given names of instruments necessary for a journey across the seas, or animals which live in tropical regions. I don’t know well where those names came from, but they give us a hint of what sailors thought were important or what they marveled at some centuries ago.
【語句・表現】
・「照明器具」lighting equipment / light devices / lighting
・「体内時計」an internal clock / a body clock / a biological clock
・「日中」in the day(time) / during the day
・「南半球」the Southern Hemisphere / the southern hemisphere
・「形」a form / a shape / a figure
・「星座」a constellation
・「航海」a voyage / navigation / sailing
・「熱帯」the tropical zone / tropical regions
・「名前の由来」the origin of the name / where the name comes from
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