ニュースで英語〜Asahi Weekly

When I first went to school in England from Japan I had a hard time adapting , because of the differences in the educational systems.

The biggest hurdle was essay writing . At school in Japan, we never wrote essays. Tests included multiple-choice and simple one-word answers.Homework never involved writing big chunks of text . An exception was sakubun, but that was more diary than essay format. So when I was dropped into classes requiring this entirely new method of writing an answer, I had no idea what to do. I just sat there staring at a blank piece of paper while my classmates were busily writing pages of work.

Moreover, in Japan, there was always a fixed idea of only one correct answer. This idea was blown away in England where it was OK to defend either side of an argument, or neither, or both sides. At first I had trouble getting around the idea of writing controversially .

Now I think that this skill is very important since it requires more thinking compared to writing down a single “correct” answer, which you have been told so many times that it becomes automatic to recite.

After all, exploring the “wrong” answer allows further understanding as to why it is faulty and why the generally accepted idea is right. Sometimes there could be more than one answer to a question, where you can compare for yourself which answer seems more reasonable.

■急ブレーキをかける

私は子どもをはねそうになって急ブレーキをかけた

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■バックミラーで確認する

車線変更をするときは常にバックミラーで確認しなくてはいけない

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■クラクションを鳴らす

彼女は見通しのきかない交差点でクラクションを鳴らした

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■スピード違反で捕まる

テッドは通学路の近くでスピード違反をして捕まった

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• Don’t expect Bill to come to the rescue.He’ s afraid of his shadow .
• I bought this German shepherd as a watchdog, but he’ s afraid of his own shadow .
• Being so afraid of her own shadow , she never had the courage to try new things.

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The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis destroyer Atago plowed steadily ahead and apparently did nothing to avoid a fleet of fishing boats until right before the collision and sinking of the Seitoku Maru on Feb. 19.

That is the picture painted on Feb. 21 by crews aboard other boats in the fishing fleet heading south off the Boso Peninsula when the Atago rammed into the Seitoku Maru and sliced it in two .

The two fishermen aboard the boat ― Haruo Kichisei and his son, Tetsuhiro ― remain missing.

Global Positioning System (GPS) devices on the fishing boats in the fleet recorded their evasive maneuvers taken to avoid the Atago.

The information was passed to the Japan Coast Guard , which suspects the Atago had an obligation to take evasive action to avoid the collision.

Coast Guard officials are questioning Atago crew members to determine possible negligence by watch duty members .

Kinpei Maru, a boat in the fishing fleet, was traveling behind the Seitoku Maru before the collision.

Kinpei Maru crew members saw the Atago move straight ahead and came within about 3 kilometers of the fishing boat. Sensing danger, they turned the rudder to shift course to the right.

The Atago continued to travel straight ahead and did not turn to the right, despite rules of the sea that state that passing ships should turn to the starboard to avoid headon collisions at sea.

The Kinpei Maru crew then quickly turned their boat to the left to avoid a collision. Crew members said it did not appear as if the Atago ever slowed down.

The Atago reportedly continued to use its automatic navigation system until just before it collided with the Seitoku Maru.

Sources said Coast Guard officials wanted to know why the Atago continued using its automatic navigation system when smaller fishing boats had to take drastic steps to avoid being rammed by the Atago.

Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with the family members of the two missing fishermen in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, on Feb. 21 and apologized for the accident.

(The Asahi Shimbun)