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９月９日出題分
あまりなじみの無い単語・熟語をちょっと解説。
Seven Years in Tibet :
Escape-9It took us seven long days of marching, however, before we finally reached the pass that forms the frontier between India and Tibet. Our delay was due to a bad miscalculation. After leaving Tirpani, a well-known caravan center, we followed the most easterly of three valleys but eventually had to admit that we had lost our way. In order to find our bearings, Aufschnaiter and I climbed to the top of a mountain from which we expect a good view of the country on the other side. From here we saw Tibet for the first time, but were far too tired to enjoy the prospect, and at an altitude of nearly 18,000 feet, we suffered from lack of oxygen. To our great disappointment, we decided that we must return to Tirpani. There we found that the pass we were bound for lay almost within a stone’s throw. Our error had cost us three days and caused us the greatest discouragement. We had to cut our rations and felt the utmost anxiety about our capacity to hold out until we reached the next inhabited place.
From Tirpani our way sloped gently upward by green pastures, through which one of the baby Ganges streams flowed. This brook, which we had known a week back as a raging, deafening torrent racing down the valley, now wound gently through the grasslands. In a few weeks the whole country would be green, and the numerous camping places, recognizable from their fire-blackened stones, made us picture to ourselves the caravans that cross the passes from India into Tibet in the summer season. A troop of the mountain sheep passed in front of us. Light-footed as chamois, they soon vanished from our sight without having noticed us. Alas! Our stomachs regretted them. It would have been granted to see one of them stewing in our cooking pot, thereby giving us a chance, for once, to eat our fill.
At the foot of the pass, we camped in India for the last time. Instead of the hearty meat dinner we had been dreaming of, we baked skimpy cakes with the last of our flour mixed with water and laid on hot stones. It was bitterly cold, and our only protection against the icy mountain wind that stormed through the valley was a stone wall.
It：before we finally reached the pass that forms the frontier between India and Tibetを指すと思われます
pass：峠
frontier：国境
miscalculation：誤算
Tirpani：地名
eventually：結局
admit：認める
find our bearings：現在地を知る
Aufschnaiter：人名
country：地域、地方
here：the top of a mountainを指します
prospect：眺望
altitude：標高、海抜
There：the top of a mountainを指します
were bound for：目指していた
within a stone’s throw：すぐそばに
ration：食料
utmost：極度の
hold out：持ちこたえる
inhabited：人の住んでいる
by：通って、過ぎて
pasture：牧草地
the baby Ganges streams：ガンジス川の源流
brook：小川
a week back：一週間前
raging：激しい、荒れ狂う
deafen：耳を聾する
torrent：奔流
racing：水が流れる
wound：曲がりくねる
grasslands：大草原
their：the numerous camping placesのことを指します
fire-blackened stones：火で黒く焦げた石（炉に使った石でしょうか？）
troop：群れ
mountain sheep：山地の野生羊
Light-footed：軽快な足取りで
chamois：カモシカ
Alas：ああ（憂慮、悲嘆を表わします）！
regret：名残を惜しむ
them：A troop of the mountain sheepを指します
would have been：実現出来ない希望を表わす仮定（〜したなら）
granted to 〜：〜が出来る、許可する
stew：シチューにする
pot：深鍋
thereby：それによって
hearty：腹いっぱいになる、栄養のある
skimpy：乏しい
It：気候を表わしております
bitterly：肌を刺す様な
storm：襲いかかる・吹きまくる