画像引用：Item Detail – “DRAFT BEER NOT STUDENTS” ANTI VIET
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１月１１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。

An office manager was asking a girl applicant if she had any unusual talents.  She replied that she had won several prizes in crossword-puzzle and slogan-writing contests.

Her answer didn’t impress the manager.  The talents she mentioned were, from his point of view, for after hours and they were useless for work.  So he told her, “Sounds good, but we want somebody who will be smart during office hours.”  It was his polite way of declining her application.

It didn’t work out as he had intended, however.  She retorted that she had done those things during the office hours.  The phrase “during the office hours” meant differently between the manager and the girl applicant.  For the manager, it meant work during those hours.  For her, it literally meant the period of time.

Her contention revealed that it was not only in her after hours that she had worked on crossword-puzzles and slogans.  She was preoccupied with those things during the office hours as well.  She did not seem to have realized yet, but it was probably the reason why she was fired from her former office.