教材の英文を使って、いかにクリティカル・シンキングへ繋げるかをあれこれ考えている。今はまだ頭の中でシミュレーションのみの段階。最近使った教材では以下のようなことを考えた。筑波大学の入試問題である。
A comparison between reading and viewing television may be made in respect to the pace of each experience, and the relative control a person has over that pace, for the pace may influence the ways one uses the material received in each experience. In addition, the pace of each experience may determine how much it intrudes upon other aspects of one’s life.
The pace of reading, clearly, depends entirely upon the reader. She may read as slowly or as rapidly as she can or wishes to read. If she does not understand something, she may stop and reread it, or go in search of elucidation before continuing. The reader can accelerate her pace when the material is easy or less than interesting, and slow down when it is difficult or enthralling. If what she reads is moving, she can put down the book for a few moments and cope with her emotions without fear of losing anything.
The pace of the television experience cannot be controlled by the viewer; only its beginning and end are within her control as she turns the television on and off. She cannot slow down a delightful program or speed up a dreary one. She cannot turn back if a word or phrase is not understood. The program moves inexorably forward, and what is lost or misunderstood remains so.
Nor can the television viewer readily transform the material she receives into a form that might suit her particular emotional needs, as she invariably does with material she reads. The images move too quickly. ※She cannot use her own imagination to invest the people and events portrayed on television with the personal meanings that would help her understand and resolve relationships and conflicts in her own life※ ; she is under the power of the imagination of the show’s creators. In the television experience the eyes and ears are overwhelmed with the immediacy of sights and sounds. They flash from the television set just fast enough for the eyes and ears to take them in before moving on quickly to the new pictures and sounds … so as not to lose the thread.
Not to lose the thread … it is this need, occasioned by the irreversible direction and relentless velocity of the television experience, that not only limits the workings of the viewer’s imagination, but also causes television to intrude into human affairs far more than reading experiences can ever do. If someone enters the room while one is watching television ― a friend, a relative, a child, someone, perhaps, one has not seen for some time ― one must continue to watch or one will lose the thread. The greetings must wait, for the television program will not. A book, of course, can be set aside, perhaps with a bit of regret but with no sense of permanent loss.
読書とテレビの「スピード」の違いを論じたエッセイだ。英文中の※で挟んだ部分が注目したい箇所である。語彙的にも構造的にもなかなか歯応えがあり、意味も抽象性が高いので理解しにくい。試験では１つの「ヤマ」になりそうである。これを訳してみる。
「（テレビの速さゆえに）視聴者は想像力を用いて、テレビの中で描かれる人物や出来事に対し、自身の生活における人間関係や葛藤を理解したり解決したりするのに役立つような個人的な解釈を与えることができない。」
実は、この文は２つ前の文を受けている。
「transform the material she receives into a form that might suit her particular emotional needs」の言い換えが
「use her own imagination to invest the people and events portrayed on television with the personal meanings that would help her understand and resolve relationships and conflicts in her own life」であると言ってよいだろう。
案の定、質問に来た生徒がいて、以下のようなやりとりをした。
私：「例えばテレビのドラマと小説を比べてみてごらん。小説なら自分のペースで読めるけど、テレビは話が勝手にどんどん進むでしょう。小説はその間にいろいろ想像もできるけど、テレビだったら自分の経験に照らし合わせて考えてみる余裕もないよね」
生徒：「でも、テレビも自分の経験を思い出しながら見れるよ。じゃないと主人公に共感とかできんじゃん」
私：「たしかにそうだけど、小説とテレビでどっちがよけいに色んなことを考えられるかっていったら小説だよね」
説明しながら自分でも腑に落ちていなかったのだが、やりとりの最後の行でその理由が分かった。
「読書よりもテレビの方が、より想像力に制限がかかり個人的な解釈を加えづらいのは、テレビのスピードのせいである。」
この主張に論理的な「ずれ」を感じていたのである。
ネットではこのような文章も見つけた。
（都合により削除）
どういった理由で２つのバージョンがあるのか、正確な理由は定かではないが、２つの文章にはなかなか興味深い味の違いがあるではないか。
A comparison between reading and viewing television may be made in respect to the pace of each experience, and the relative control a person has over that pace, for the pace may influence the ways one uses the material received in each experience. In addition, the pace of each experience may determine how much it intrudes upon other aspects of one’s life.
The pace of reading, clearly, depends entirely upon the reader. She may read as slowly or as rapidly as she can or wishes to read. If she does not understand something, she may stop and reread it, or go in search of elucidation before continuing. The reader can accelerate her pace when the material is easy or less than interesting, and slow down when it is difficult or enthralling. If what she reads is moving, she can put down the book for a few moments and cope with her emotions without fear of losing anything.
The pace of the television experience cannot be controlled by the viewer; only its beginning and end are within her control as she turns the television on and off. She cannot slow down a delightful program or speed up a dreary one. She cannot turn back if a word or phrase is not understood. The program moves inexorably forward, and what is lost or misunderstood remains so.
Nor can the television viewer readily transform the material she receives into a form that might suit her particular emotional needs, as she invariably does with material she reads. The images move too quickly. ※She cannot use her own imagination to invest the people and events portrayed on television with the personal meanings that would help her understand and resolve relationships and conflicts in her own life※ ; she is under the power of the imagination of the show’s creators. In the television experience the eyes and ears are overwhelmed with the immediacy of sights and sounds. They flash from the television set just fast enough for the eyes and ears to take them in before moving on quickly to the new pictures and sounds … so as not to lose the thread.
Not to lose the thread … it is this need, occasioned by the irreversible direction and relentless velocity of the television experience, that not only limits the workings of the viewer’s imagination, but also causes television to intrude into human affairs far more than reading experiences can ever do. If someone enters the room while one is watching television ― a friend, a relative, a child, someone, perhaps, one has not seen for some time ― one must continue to watch or one will lose the thread. The greetings must wait, for the television program will not. A book, of course, can be set aside, perhaps with a bit of regret but with no sense of permanent loss.
読書とテレビの「スピード」の違いを論じたエッセイだ。英文中の※で挟んだ部分が注目したい箇所である。語彙的にも構造的にもなかなか歯応えがあり、意味も抽象性が高いので理解しにくい。試験では１つの「ヤマ」になりそうである。これを訳してみる。
「（テレビの速さゆえに）視聴者は想像力を用いて、テレビの中で描かれる人物や出来事に対し、自身の生活における人間関係や葛藤を理解したり解決したりするのに役立つような個人的な解釈を与えることができない。」
実は、この文は２つ前の文を受けている。
「transform the material she receives into a form that might suit her particular emotional needs」の言い換えが
「use her own imagination to invest the people and events portrayed on television with the personal meanings that would help her understand and resolve relationships and conflicts in her own life」であると言ってよいだろう。
案の定、質問に来た生徒がいて、以下のようなやりとりをした。
私：「例えばテレビのドラマと小説を比べてみてごらん。小説なら自分のペースで読めるけど、テレビは話が勝手にどんどん進むでしょう。小説はその間にいろいろ想像もできるけど、テレビだったら自分の経験に照らし合わせて考えてみる余裕もないよね」
生徒：「でも、テレビも自分の経験を思い出しながら見れるよ。じゃないと主人公に共感とかできんじゃん」
私：「たしかにそうだけど、小説とテレビでどっちがよけいに色んなことを考えられるかっていったら小説だよね」
説明しながら自分でも腑に落ちていなかったのだが、やりとりの最後の行でその理由が分かった。
「読書よりもテレビの方が、より想像力に制限がかかり個人的な解釈を加えづらいのは、テレビのスピードのせいである。」
この主張に論理的な「ずれ」を感じていたのである。
ネットではこのような文章も見つけた。
（都合により削除）
どういった理由で２つのバージョンがあるのか、正確な理由は定かではないが、２つの文章にはなかなか興味深い味の違いがあるではないか。