英語検定ライティング準１級（第177回）

受験「保険の約款を英語で読ませる話」

先日のこと職場で英語の問題を生徒と読んでいた。しかし内容が旅行保険だったので大人でないとイメージが湧かないと思った。それでも彼は何とか努力できるタイプの受験生だった。
The other day, with an examinee, I worked on several questions in English passages at my workplace.
However, the contents of the test were about Tourists’s insurance, which seemed to be too difficult a subject for a high school student, I assumed.
But this examinee managed to find answers with his efforts and enthusiasm, which made me a lucky man.

３タイプあった。値段が高い方がサービスが良い。値段が低くなると緊急事態でないと受け付けてもらえない。ただその場合はタクシー料金を負担してくれる。24時間受付は全てある。
This tourists’ insurance had three types of choices, whose expenses depended on the quality of the service.
When we choose the least expensive option, we could be accepted only at the emergency circumstances, but a taxi service could be available without any fare.
All three types admitted that a patient should utilize their services from early morning until midnight.

入院した場合の費用が全額負担してもらえるか半額になるのかは月額の支払い料金による。当たり前のことしか書いてない。だがこの内容が英単語で書かれているので難解なのである。
In the case of being taken to the hospital and staying there for several days, they would cover a patient’s medical expenses, but they cannot necessarily pay the whole cost, in short, whether the insurance company’s burden should be 100 percent or 50 percent would depend on a patient’s monthly payment.
Such a content is known to almost all ordinary citizens, and it might be a piece of cake even for a little child.
But this contents were written in English, so it was hard for the examinee to understand the passages about the insurance company’s terms and conditions.

受験問題は難度が低いと差がつかない。だから難度が高くなる。だが旅行保険の選択は高校生には無縁だ。難度は高くても良いのでイメージが持てやすい内容にしないと不公平になる。
When the entrance exams are easy, schools cannot distinguish the superiors from the inferiors, so that the tests must be difficult enough to do so.
But the tourists’ insurance should be inappropriate for the high school students’ examination because such a subject has nothing to do with their daily life.
We could allow the entrance tests to be challenging and difficult, but the contents should be easy for them to imagine because an examinee from a rich family could make a trip frequently, but most examinees cannot afford to travel so often, we can assume.
It is unfair to an examinee without enough living cost.