Egypt is a fertile valley of rich river soil, low-lying, warm, monotonous, a slow-flowing river, and beyond, the limitless desert. Greece is a country of sparse fertility and keen, cold winters, all hills and mountains sharp cut in stone, where strong men must work hard to get their bread. And while Egypt submitted and suffered and turned her face toward death, Greece resisted and rejoiced and turned full-face to life. For somewhere among those steep stone mountains, in little sheltered valleys where the great hills were like castle walls and men could have security for peace and happy living, something quite new came into the world; the joy of life found expression. Perhaps (1)it was born there, among the shepherds pasturing their flocks where the wild flowers made a glory on the hillside; among the sailors on a sapphire sea washing enchanted islands purple in a luminous air. At any rate, it has left no trace anywhere else in the ancient world. In Greece nothing is more in evidence.

The Greeks were the first people in the world to play, and they played on a great scale. All over Greece there were games, all sort of games; athletic contests of every description: races ― horse-, boat-, foot-, torch-races; contests in music, contests in dancing; (3)games so many one grows weary with the list of them. They are embodied in the statues familiar to all, the disc thrower, the wrestling boys, the dancing flute players. The great games ― there were four that came at stated seasons ― were so important that , when one was held, a truce of God was proclaimed so that all Greece might come in safety without fear. (4)There glorious-limbed youth strove for an honour so desired as hardly anything else in Greece. An Olympic victor ― triumphing generals would give place to him. His crown of wild olives was (5)set beside the prize of the tragic poets. Splendour attended him, processions, sacrifices, banquets, songs the greatest poets were glad to write.

If we had no other knowledge of what the Greeks were like, if nothing were left of Greek art and literature, the fact that they were in love with play and played magnificently would be proof enough of how they lived and how they looked at life. Wretched people, toiling people, do not play. Nothing like the Greek games (6)is conceivable in Egypt or Mesopotamia. The life of the Egyptian lies spread out in the wall paintings ( 7 ) to the minutest detail. If fun and sport had played any real part they would be there in some form for us to see. But the Egyptian did not play. “Greeks are all children,” said an Egyptian priest. At any rate, children or not, they enjoyed themselves. They had physical vigour and high spirits and time, too, for fun. (8)The evidence of the games is conclusive. And when Greece died and her reading of the great mystery was buried her statues, play, too, died out of the world. The brutal, bloody Roman games had nothing to do with the spirit of play. They were fathered by the Orient, not by Greece. Play died when Greece died and many and many a century passed before it was resurrected.

(a) 新しい遊び

(b) 生の喜び

(c) 平和と安全の享受

(d) 羊飼いや水夫などの楽しい仕事

(e) 苦しい生を乗り越えようとする歌声

(a) ギリシャにはこれ以上の証拠は何もない。

(b) ギリシャでこれを明確にすることはもはやできない。

(c) ギリシャではこれ以上明らかなことはない。

(d) ギリシャにはこれを立証すべきものがこれ以上ない。

(e) ギリシャでは明確に立証できるものなど何もない。

(a) いちいち挙げていたらいやになるほどたくさんの競技がある。

(b) 多くの人間がいやになるほどたくさんの競技を育んだ。

(c) 余りに多くの競技があるので、参加者はみな疲れ果てたものだ。

(d) 多くの競技が記された一覧表は、それだけで観客のの疲労を誘うものだ。

(e) 多くの競技が多くの有能な人間を育てた。

(a) Every youth tended to wish to participate in the great games in Greece.

(b) No honourable games were so thirsted for by youth as those in Greece.

(c) Nothing other than the honourable game itself was enjoyed by Greek youth.

(d) No one other than the youth enjoyed his honour in games in Greece.

(e) There was scarcely any other honour Greek youth yearned for so much in Greece.

(a) seen next to

(b) known next to

(c) likely to sit beside

(d) ranked beyond

(e) comparable to

(a) can be imagined

(b) is conceded

(c) can be desirous

(d) is possible

(e) is given birth to

(a) beyond

(b) in

(c) on

(d) with

(e) down

(a) ギリシャでは競技に熱中する観客が大勢いたが、それは壁画にも残されている。

(b) ギリシャ人はいくつになっても子供心を忘れなかったので、みなよく遊んだ。

(c) ギリシャ人には娯楽に興じるだけの気力や心持、また時間もあった。

(d) ギリシャでは競技の観客に勝敗の最終的な決定権が委ねられていた。

(e) ギリシャ人の観客の競技にかかわる証言は決定的だった。

(a) 神々が戦いを休止すると、その時だけはギリシャ人の人々は安心して各地の競技を楽しむことができた。

(b) ギリシャは気候、風土が厳しいにもかかわらず、そこに生きる者は生を存分に謳歌していた。

(c) エジプトは豊かな国土に恵まれていたが、一般の人々の生活は過酷なもので、死と隣り合わせの生を強いられていた。

(d) オリンピック競技の勝者に与えられる栄誉は特別なものであり、凱旋する大将の栄誉もそれにはかなわなかった。

(e) エジプトの人々も娯楽に興じたことがあったことは、壁画に残された記録を見ればわかる。