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２月１１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-19The soldiers who had accompanied us from Shangtse carried a letter for our safe conduct, and this entitled us to buy whatever provisions we needed. It also entitled us to change our yaks without payment at each halting place.
The weather by day was pleasant and comparatively warm, but the nights were very cold. We passed a number of villages and inhabited caves, but the people took little notice of us. Our donkey driver, who came from Lhasa, was nice and friendly to us and enjoyed going into the villages and swaggering about. We found the population less mistrustful; no doubt it was the influence of our safe conduct. While we were trekking through the district of Rongchung, we found ourselves following Sven Hedin's route for a few days, and as I was a great admirer of this explorer, lively memories of his descriptions were kindled in my mind. The terrain we traversed remained very much the same. We continued to cross plateaux, climb down into deep valleys, and climb painfully up the other side. Often these were so narrow that one could have called across them, but it took hours to walk across. These constant ups and downs, which doubled the length of our journey, got on one's nerves, and we thought our own thoughts in silence. Nevertheless we made progress and had not to bother about our food. At one point, when we had the idea of changing our menu, we tried our luck at fishing. Having had no luck with the hook, we stripped and waded into the clear mountain brooks and tried to catch the fish in our hands. But they seemed to have better things to do than to end up in our cooking pot.
Shangtse：地名
conduct：案内
this：a letterを指します
entitle：〜する権利を与える
provision：食料
It：a letterを指します
halting place：停止場所
by day：日中
pleasant：気持ち良い
comparatively：比較的
go into：中に入る、探る
swagger about：尊大に振舞う、いばる
population：住民
mistrustful：信用しない、疑い深い
trek：旅をする
Rongchung：地名
Sven Hedin：人名、スウェーデンの探検家、中央アジアの探検を行い「さまよえる湖」などの著作を残しております
admirer：崇拝者
explorer：探検家
lively：生き生きとした
description：記述、描写
kindle：燃え立たせる、輝く
terrain：地形
traverse：横切る
remain：〜のままである
plateaux：高原
painfully：苦しんで
these・them：deep valleysを指します
constant：不断の、絶えず続く
double：二倍にする
got on one's nerves：人をいらいらさせた
in silence：黙って
Nevertheless：それにもかかわらず、やはり
strip：衣服を脱ぐ
wade：歩いて渡る、浅瀬を歩き回る
brook：小川
they：fishを指します
end up：終わる、最後に〜になる