英文速読　初級-23

　At present, in the most civilized countries, we take freedom of speech for granted. We are so accustomed to it that we look on it as a natural right. But this right had been acquired only in recent times by struggling for it at the risk of life.
　Human societies have been generally opposed to freedom of thought, much more freedom of speech.
　The average brain is lazy by nature and it is apt to take the way of least resistance. Ordinary men persist in beliefs which they have accepted without questioning and they are attached to them; instinctively they don’t approve of anything which is not familiar to them at all, because it threatens their very being.

　スラッシュは前置詞・接続詞・関係詞の前に入れて文章を区切りながら文頭から読み下します。

　　At present, in the most civilized countries, we take freedom of speech for granted. We are so accustomed to it /that we look on it /as a natural right. But this right had been acquired only /in recent times /by struggling for it /at the risk of life.

　現在、最も文明が進んだ国々では、私たちは言論の自由を当然のことと思っている。私たちはそれにあまりにも慣れているので、それをみなしている、当然の権利と。しかしこの権利はようやく獲得された、最近、そのために奮闘したことによって、命の危険を冒して。

　Human societies have been generally opposed /to freedom of thought, much more freedom of speech.

　人間社会は概して反対してきている、思想の自由に、まして言論の自由に。

　The average brain is lazy by nature /and it is apt to take the way of least resistance. Ordinary men persist in beliefs /which they have accepted /without questioning and they are attached to them; instinctively they don’t approve of anything /which is not familiar to them at all, /because it threatens their very being.

　平均的な脳は本来怠惰であり、そしてそれは最も少ない抵抗の道を取る傾向がある。普通の人は信念に固執している、それを彼らは受け入れてきた、疑うことなく、そして彼らはその信念に愛着を持っている、つまり本能的に彼らは何も良いと認めない、それは彼らに全く馴染みがないことを、なぜならそれは彼らの存在そのものを脅かすからだ。