今日のメモ-The Remains of the Day-

☆　今日のメモ　☆

・Nomo Hideo's MLB comeback suffers setback.
suffer a setback : 挫折する（↑は記事見出し）

・He has demonstrated with one gesture that he has a strong tendency, given his fluency in Mandarin and his history as a diplomat, toward China and that this may be at a cost to Japan.
対～関係を損なう

・Has Australia set itself a choice between two of its most important neighbors?
自身で選択をする

・The consequences for Australia are unfortunate, to say the very least.
控えめに言っても

・When a woman says she has to "powder her nose," it's a polite way of saying she is going to the lavatory.

・To get a "second wind" is to find renewed energy after a period of feeling tired, often to accomplish something.

・If you "get wind of" something, it means that you hear about a rumor or secret.

・Ancient rainforests grow in sand along the banks of fast-flowing, crystal-clear creeks, with the highest dunes on the island reaching up to 240 meters above sea level.
fast-flowing : 流れの速い
crystal-clear : 透き通ってきれいな

・Fraser Island is so special it has joined the ranks of the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park as a World Heritage site.
～の仲間入りをする

　　　　　　　　　　- from the Mainichi Weekly -

　　　
・'I'll foot the bill for the gas.'
～の費用を負担する

　　　　　　　　　　- from The Remains of the Day (UK) -

I've started reading The Remains of the Day, a Booker prize-winning novel of Kazuo Ishiguro, an author of Never Let Me Go, while continuing the struggle with the English textbooks I bought long ago.
It's because staring at the textbooks day after day makes me feel bored and sleepy enough to deaden my enthusiasm for learning English.
I wonder, however, if I can balance enjoying the novel with learning English through the textbooks.
As for The Remains of the Day, I bought it along with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from Amazon at the beginning of March.
It was said on a site which introduces English novels for beginners to be written in a little easier English than Never Let Me Go I love.
Honestly, I still don't know whether it's interesting or not, because I've just finished reading not more than 10 pages of it, where nothing interesting or exciting happens, though, it reminded me of how intriguing his English was.
For instance:

Recalling a time when I had had a staff of seventeen under me, and knowing how not so long ago a staff of twenty-eight had been employed here at Darlington Hall, the idea of devising a staff plan by which the same house would be run on a staff of four seemed, to say the least, daunting.
Although I did my best not to, something of my scepticism must have betrayed itself, for Mr Farraday then added, as though for reassurance, that were it to prove necessary, then an additional member of staff could be hired.

※ "were it to prove necessary" = "if it were to prove necessary"

　　　　　　　　　　- from The Remains of the Day (UK) -

↑の２つ目の文章、"Although I did my best not to, something of my scepticism must have betrayed itself" 部分で一度『？』状態に陥りましたが、"Although I did my best not to betray my scepticism" ってことなんですね。
一瞬、"something～"の部分は "Although～"の文に挿入された付け足しのようなものかと思ってしまいました。
同作者の『Never Let Me Go』が本当に印象的だったのと、あるサイトで『「Never Let Me Go」よりは若干簡単』と紹介されていたので、レベルの高そうな本にチャレンジする前に読書量をこなすのにはもってこいの一冊だと思い買ったのですが、ちょっと英語の本を読まない間にいろんな物が抜け落ちてしまったみたいです。
いえ、抜け落ちるほどの物もなかったのですが、英語に少し慣れたような気がしていた幸せな『勘違い』すらなくしてしまった感じ。
テキストとにらめっこするの、もうやめちゃおうかな～。(/_<。)

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