News Discussion
Ernest Hemingway and Running of the Bulls


Weekly News Digest
ニュースディスカッション教材

Ernest Hemingway and Running of the Bulls

今回は、スペインのパンプローナで行われる伝統行事、サン・フェルミン祭(牛追い祭り)の話題です。ノーベル賞作家のアーネスト・ヘミングウェイが100年前にこの地を訪れ、自身の作品で祭りの魅力を描いたことで、世界中から注目を集めるようになりました。牛が町中を突進して駆け抜ける様子は圧巻です。ちなみに「突進する」は英語で「charge」と言い、bulls charge through the street(牛たちが道を突進する)などのように使います。ちょっと怖そうだけど、人生で一度は参加してみたい!と思う人もいるかもしれませんね。あなたは、これまでに少し危険を感じるようなお祭りに参加したことがありますか?

1.Article

Directions: Read the following article aloud.

Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning American writer, first visited the Spanish city of Pamplona 100 years ago in July.

In July, people celebrate the feast of Saint Fermin in Pamplona where the traditional “running of the bulls” takes place. The event started more than seven hundred years ago. For nine days, people come to the northern Spanish city for bull running, bullfighting and partying.

The festival affected Hemingway so deeply that he returned eight times between 1924 and 1959.

Here is a description of what happens at the start of the bull running:

The bells would toll eight times. A rocket would be lit. And the bulls would charge out of the gate. At that moment, a crowd of runners wearing white clothes and red scarves would start to run. They would look back, move and dance to avoid being gored by the charging bull’s horns. Onlookers would cheer them on from balconies above.

In 1926, Hemingway wrote his first book, The Sun Also Rises. He wrote about his experiences in Pamplona and established himself as the voice of what became known as the "Lost Generation," a generation of people affected deeply by the events of World War I.

"I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it," says one character in the book.

"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters," is the answer.

Present-day Pamplona

Bill Hillmann is a 41-year-old English professor from Chicago. He first read The Sun Also Rises while he was in college at the age of 20. When he turned to the last page, he said he knew two things: He wanted to become a writer, and he would run in front of Pamplona's bulls someday.

Hillmann's first running of the bulls was in 2005. He has been running ever since. "I got here, and I was just blown away by it. It was everything in the book but times ten…It was bigger. It was wilder. It was crazier," he told Reuters.

He has been gored twice, in 2014 and 2017, but that has not lessened his interest. "I've basically been kind of following Hemingway's ghost around…I'm a little bit haunted by him," Hillmann added.

Sixty-nine-year-old Cheryl Mountcastle first read The Sun Also Rises at her New Orleans high school in Louisiana. For the past 24 years, she has rented the same apartment in Pamplona for the festival with her family. She said the book does not give details about another side of the festival - such as sharing food and dancing in the street.

Leontxi Arrieta is one of the few remaining Pamplona natives who met Hemingway. The 91-year-old tells Reuters that Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, stayed at her house. It was on their last visit to the festival in 1959, two years before Hemmingway’s death.

Arrieta remembered that Hemingway wrote, drank vodka, and shocked the family by removing the crucifixes from the wall and putting them away.

What has changed?

Last year, 1.7 million people came to the festival, also known as Sanfermines. They left 1,200 tons of broken glass and other waste behind. A place on a balcony with a good view of the bull-running event can cost $220 per person.

Pamplona native Miguel Izu has written about the festival's links to Hemingway. He believes the writer's influence on its popularity has not been as large as people say.

"Before Hemingway, tourists were already coming, especially from France," Izu explained.

However, Izu acknowledges that Pamplona is still using Hemingway to gain attention. "We made him into a sort of Sanfermines icon,” he said.

But not every foreigner at the festival has been coming because of Hemingway. Australian William Kappal and his friends learned about Sanfermines by watching YouTube.

Asked if they had ever heard of Hemingway, Kappal said "Nah. Should we look him up?"

I’m Jill Robbins.

Hai Do adapted this report for VOA Learning English from a Reuters story by Susana Vera and David Latona.



Source:Ernest Hemingway and Running of the Bulls VOA

本教材は、the U.S. Agency for Global Mediaより許諾を得て、産経ヒューマンラーニング株式会社が編集しています。

テキストの無断転載・無断使用を固く禁じます 。

Weekly News Digest
ニュースディスカッション教材

2.Key phrases and vocabulary

First repeat after your tutor and then read aloud by yourself.

  1. 1. charge (v.) to suddenly run fast and forcefully in a straight line The thief charged out of the supermarket with a bag of money.
  2. 2. onlooker (v.) people nearby that are watching an event or an incident Watching the firefighters from the side of the road were several onlookers.
  3. 3. establish (v.) to become well-known for a certain role or talent Jill established herself as an expert on mystery novels.
  4. 4. haunt (v.) to fill a person’s thoughts in a dark way (usually used in the passive) I have been haunted for years by an argument I once had with my parents about school.
  5. 5. look up (v.) to try to find information about (someone or something) in a standard resource, such as Wikipedia I couldn’t guess the meaning of the word, so I had to look it up in the dictionary.

3.Questions

Read the questions aloud and answer them.

  1. 1. What is the running of the bulls?
  2. 2. How is American writer Ernest Hemingway connected with this event?
  3. 3. How do people learn about this festival?
  4. 4. Do you know of any other festivals or celebrations like the feast of Saint Fermin in Pamplona, in which participants face danger or the risk of injury or death?
  5. 5. Would you like to take part in the running of the bulls?

本教材は、the U.S. Agency for Global Mediaより許諾を得て、産経ヒューマンラーニング株式会社が編集しています。

テキストの無断転載・無断使用を固く禁じます 。