ハリーポッターの英語

ハリーポッターの英語は平易、と言われますが、英語を学ぶ日本人にとってかなり手ごわいはずです。しかし、この英語に触れることで、口語の表現だけではなく、論説文を読むのにも役に立ちます。ですから、大学入試に準備にも最適といえるのです。

以下は、上がハリーポッターの文、下はThe New English Journal of Medicineという雑誌に掲載されたエッセイ（平成18年度旭川医科大学・学士編入試験で出題された。下線部（A)は和訳。）です。ハリーポッターに出てくる表現は、口語的な表現だけでなく、書き言葉も頻発します。二つを比較しつつ、そこに現れる表現や語法、文法を確認してみましょう。今年の受験生でこの二つの文が読め、文法・語法について指摘できる人は難関大学の入試を突破できるだけ英語力があるといえます。

He could not return to living full-time with the Dursleys, not now that he knew the other world, the one to which he really belonged. Might he be able to move into Sirius's house, as Sirius had suggested a year ago, before he had been forced to flee from the Ministry? Would Harry be allowed to live there alone, given that he was still underage? Or would the matter of where he went next be decided for him?
(from Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix)

   Thanks to European Union (EU) regulations, I, an Irishman, was recently permitted to pursue a radiology fellowship in France.(A)Though free movement of labor within the EU is legal, it is not necessarily easy - not least because of language barriers. I soon came to appreciate that language is the lifeblood of radiologists. I also discovered that much of what we think is determined by what we can say.
(form The New English Journal of Medicine)