English Essay by Brian Southwick
18　Camping 　ネイティブスピーカー（ALT）によるＲeading　　　　　

　　Hello again, everyone. Have you noticed a change in the weather recently? Summer is over for another year. The days are getting shorter, and the nights are becoming cooler. The leaves are starting to change color, too. My favorite season, fall, has arrived. In Japan we say that fall is a good season for reading books. I think fall is a good season for camping, too.
　　Have you ever gone camping? When I was in junior high and high school, I was a member of the Boy Scouts. I often went camping with my scout troop. Once a month we went on an overnight trip to a campground in Louisiana. Every summer we went on a two-week camping trip, far from home. I still remember the trip we took one summer to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
　　It is very far from Louisiana to Colorado, more than 1000 miles. My scout troop had an old school bus that was painted blue and used for trips. Because the bus couldn't go very fast, it took us two days to reach Colorado that summer. We stopped only for meals and for gas, and the scout leaders took turns driving. There was no air conditioning, either, so the bus was very hot, even at night. But when we finally got to Colorado and saw the snow on the tops of the mountains, we all felt cooler. Hiking and camping in the mountains, some of them as high as 12,000 feet, was an experience I will never forget.
　　I haven't gone camping for a long time, but I want to go camping on Sado Island with my family this fall. It will be fun to spend the night in a tent and to cook food on a camping stove. I hope camping will give my children a good experience of nature. Why don't you experience nature this fall, too?

　　　　Photo:　the Rocky Mountains (by Wikimedia)
注 change（変化，変える），recently（最近），leaves＜leaf（葉っぱ），arrive（到着する），
camp（キャンプ，キャンプをする），the Boy Scout（ボーイスカウト），troop（隊，組，団），overnight（夜通しの），
campground（キャンプ地），go on a trip（旅行に出かける），the Rocky Mountains（ロッキー山脈），
Colorado（コロラド州），mile（マイル，1.4km），paint（色を塗る），reach（〜に到着する），meal（食事），
gas（ガソリン），took＜take turns ~ing（〜を交替でやる），air conditioning（エアコン），hiking（ハイキング），
experience（経験，体験，経験する），spend（〜を過ごす），camping stove（キャンプ用ストーブ），nature（自然）

Questions and Answers: Please answer the following questions in English in a complete sentence, with a subject and a verb.

Q1. How do we know that fall has arrived?

A1.

Q2. What group was Brian a member of in junior high
　　 and high school?

A2.

Q3. Where did Brian go camping with his scout troop
　　 one summer?

A3.

Q4. When Brian saw the snow on the mountains, how
　　did he feel?

A4.

Q5. Why does Brian want to take his children camping this fall?

A5.


＜解答例＞

A1. The days are getting shorter, and the nights are becoming cooler. 
　　 The leaves are starting to change color.

A2. He was a member of the Boy Scouts.  

A3. He went camping to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

A4. He felt cooler.

A5. Because it will be fun to spend the night in a tent and to cook food on a camping stove.
　　 Because he hopes camping will give his children a good experience of nature.
　　２つの英文をand等で1文にして解答しても可

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