英語検定ライティング準１級（第151回）

予備校「あの先生は救世主だと思っていた話」

高校３年生になる直前の３月のこと。私たち４人は受験生用の塾に入るために入塾試験なるものを受けた。結果は残酷だった。自分１人だけが不合格だった。２回目も不合格だった。
A catastrophe hit on me, when I was about to be a senior student in high school in March.
Four members including me went to the building to take an entrance exam for the prep school instead of the university, in a week, a cruel result brought me to the critical moment that three members except me passed the test, meaning that I couldn’t be an examinee.
At the second test, the result was the same.

塾には合格しなくてはならなかった。４人で国立大学に行くことを約束していたからだ。３度目に合格して何とか塾生になった。しかしこのままなら大学も自分だけ不合格になるだろう。
Absolutely, I had to pass the exam and become an examinee because we promised to go to the same national university nearby.
At the third test, the result wasn’t different for the first time, and I became an examinee at last, but a grave prediction hit on me that the same three examinees except me would pass the desired university at this pace again, however, finally four examinees could enroll the same school at the same time, to my relief.

最終的に合格するまで１年で済んだ。それは１年ほど勉強以外のことを考えなかったからである。英単語と年号と古文単語は必死だった。年間を通して気の休まることは１日もなかった。
It took me a whole year to take a reception letter from my desired university, no instead only one year covered it.
The reason is that something except studying had gone away from my head, and I could concentrate on only studying, which left troublesome distractions behind me.
Desperately, I could continue to memorizing English vocabulary, numerous era names, ancient Japanese words and so on.
Not a day spent without studying something educational in those days, we should remember.

合格電話を受け取った時に思ったことを１つ覚えている。この１年間はたくさんの問題を間違えたなあという感覚である。つまり人間は失敗をしなければ学習できないということである。
When a reception telephone reached me, a certain thought hit on me : there were numerous mistakes I made throughout a whole year.
In conclusion, humans could learn a lesson through an indispensable trials and errors.

あの頃はいろんな知識や情報を吸収することができた。若かったからではない。気合いが入っていたからだ。それと同時に暗記すべきことは何度も繰り返して紙に書いていたと記憶する。
In those days, various kinds of knowledge and information came into my brain like water in the desert.
But this phenomenon happened not because my juvenile head was capable but because I desperately pursued my rivals around me.
At the same time, repetition behaviors rescued me from the critical situation like the hell, we assume.