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１２月４日の英文添削「日本語での解釈例」への挑戦として以下のものを書いてみました。講師のどなたかに添削して頂き結果を後日投稿します。これを機会によい英文が書けるようになりたいと思います。

A Londoner shared the train-carriage with an elderly Scot. At each stop the old man rushed out, ran down the platform, then rushed back, panting.

The Londoner, who had been observing what was repeated each time the train arrived at a station, couldn’t keep his curiosity any longer, and asked the Scot what he was doing. The Scot replied, “I saw a specialist in London about my heart.  He says I might drop dead anytime; so I’m just booking from station to station.”

That man was a typical Scot. He knew that he might drop dead at some point on his way back to Scotland.  What had popped up in his mind at the London station was that if it actually happened, the ticket beyond that point would be useless.  Paying for the unnecessary fare would be a waste of money, and it was the last thing he wanted to do.  The location of the point, if there was one, was not known of course, so he devised a method to pay for the fare up to that point, but not beyond it.  Any Scot in his shoes would surely have found the same method, but it was unimaginable for other nationals.

He bought a ticket from London to the next station.  When the train arrived at the next station, he was still alive.  So he ran down the platform to the ticket office, and bought a ticket to the next station.  He was repeating this process toward his destination in Scotland, or elsewhere if he was so destined.  His physical effort he was exerting at each station was something he couldn’t care less compared with paying for the possible unnecessary fare.

(Scots in jokes are usually described as the stingiest national in the world.)