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１０月２６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-12We spent the next day resting and looking more closely at the houses. These were stone built with flat roofs on which the fuel was laid out to dry. The Tibetans who live here cannot be compared with those who inhabit the interior, whom we got to know later. The brisk summer caravan traffic with India has spoiled them. We found them dirty, dark-skinned, and shifty-eyed, with no trace of that gaiety for which their race is famous. They went sulkily to their daily work, and one felt that they had settled in this sterile country only in order to earn good money from the caravans for the produce of their land. These six houses on the frontier formed, as I later was able to confirm, almost the only village without monastery.
The next morning we left this inhospitable place without hindrance. We were by now fairly well rested, and Kopp's Berlin native wit, which during the last few days had suffered an eclipse, had us laughing again. We crossed over fields to go downhill into a little valley. On the way up the opposite slope to the next plateau, we felt the weight of our packs more than ever. This physical fatigue was caused mainly by a reaction to the disappointment that this long-dreamed-of country had up to now caused us. We had to spend the night in an inhospitable sort of depression in the ground, which barely shielded us from the wind.
At the very beginning of our journey, we had detailed each member of the party for special duties. Fetching water, lighting fires, and making tea meant hard work. Every evening we emptied our rucksacks in order to use them as foot bags against the cold. When that evening I shook mine out, there was small explosion. My matches had caught fire from friction - a proof of the dryness of the air in the high Tibetan plateau.
These：the housesを指します
fuel：薪あるいは牛糞でしょうか？
was laid out：広げられた、並べられた
those：The Tibetansを指します
got to 〜：〜となった
brisk：活発な
them, them：どちらもThe Tibetans who live hereを指します
gaiety：陽気さ、快活さ
their：The Tibetansを指します
sulkily：不機嫌な、むすっとした
one felt：おそらく
settled in：引っ越して落ち着いた
sterile：不毛の
monastery：修道院、寺院
inhospitable：無愛想な
hindrance：障害、妨害
suffered an eclipse：おそらく、姿を潜めていた、という意味だと思います
plateau：台地、高原
up to now：今までのところ
inhospitable：荒れ果てた
depression：窪地、くぼみ
barely：ほとんど〜無い
detail：列挙する、（任務に）就かせる
shook 〜 out：〜の中身をぶちまけた
mine：リュックサックを指します
friction：摩擦