中級 - It’s like ～

Simon Evans, Tokyo

ある事物について、初めて人に様子を説明する際、次のような表現をよく使います。
(a) It’s like a 〜.
(b) It’s a kind of 〜.
(a)の表現は、ある物が何か別の物に似ているとき、日本語では「～みたい」と言う意味で使います。一方、(b)の表現は、「～の類」という意味で使います。

演習問題

左と右の単語の関係を考え、どちらか正しいほうを選んでください。

* Igloo（イグルー）　・・・氷や雪で作られたドーム型のイヌイットの住居

単語・表現

以下はこの後の会話文に出てくる単語です。左側に並ぶ単語の意味に合致するものを右からドラッグし、正解の上でドロップしてください。答えが正しければそのまま配置されます。

会話

父親と息子の会話です。
「It’s like a～」や「It’s a kind of～」の表現に注意しながら、まずはトランスクリプトを見ないで音声だけを聞いてみましょう。
次にディクテーションの練習として、音声を聞きながら会話文を書き取っていきましょう。

Jeffrey:	Dad, if you have a few minutes I’d like to ask you the meanings of some words I heard at school today.
Father:	Ok. Just as long as it isn’t anything too technical.
Jeffrey:	Right. The first one is quill. My history teacher made reference to it on several occasions. Is it a kind of pen?
Father:	Yes, a primitive kind of ink pen commonly made from a birds feather. The sharpened end was dipped in ink kept in a little pot called an ink well.
Jeffrey:	And in my music class our music teacher said that from the next term it will be possible to learn how to play the sitar. But what is it?
Father:	The sitar is like a guitar. It is played in India, but it has less strings and is smaller than a regular guitar. But I’m intrigued as to why your teacher would want to introduce the sitar.
Jeffrey:	Who knows? And in my biology textbook I saw the word pandemic. Is that a kind of disease?
Father:	You’re on the right lines. A pandemic is a like an epidemic. You know what an epidemic is, right? A pandemic is the emergence of a new contagious disease whereas an epidemic is an existing disease. That is the difference.
Jeffrey:	Thanks. And just one more word, oligopoly. It cropped up in my geography class a couple of times.
Father:	It’s an economic term. An oligopoly is a kind of market. It is like a monopoly, but instead of there being one company that dominates the market, there are 3 or 4.
Jeffrey:	Thanks dad. No more questions for today.
Father:	I don’t mind answering your questions, but your teachers should be doing that. You should have the courage to ask them yourself. Don’t be bashful.
Jeffrey:	OK. I’ll try from now on.
	Listen to dialogue

和訳