画像引用：Fighting Iraqi oil well fires – Stock Image – E835/0409 – Science Photo Library
https://media.sciencephoto.com/e8/35/04/09/e8350409-800px-wm.jpg

１０月８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 Texas oil well caught fire one day.  The oil company called in expert fire fighters, but the heat from the fierce fire was so intense that they could get only within 2000 feet of the rig, and they were unable to get to work.

Flustered, the management called in the local volunteer fire department, only expecting whatever assistant work they can do, if any, for the expert team.  Shortly, a little old fire truck rattled down the road and came to a stop 50 feet from the fire.  As the expert team and the administration were watching from afar, the men jumped off the truck, sprayed water each other cooling themselves and then proceeded to put out the flames.

The company president was elated and presented the fire chief with a $2000 check.  Asked what he planned to do with the money, the chief muttered, “Well, first we’re going to fix the brakes on that damn truck.”

The courage of the volunteer fire department members who accomplished the work no one had expected them to do by getting within 50 feet of the rig deserved praise indeed.  But their courage turned out not to be purely spontaneous.  They, too, had intended to stop at 2000 feet from the rig but, due to a defect in the braking system, they went as far as within 50 feet, where they had no choice but to proceed to distinguish the fire.