Let’s read NHK Regular Articles

This topic serves as a follow-up to:

While the thread linked above was about the simplified version of NHK news articles, this thread is meant for the interpretation of authentic news articles from the NHK website.

:question:How does it work?

It’s simple really. Each sentence of a news article is numbered. You pick a number of your choice (claim a sentence) and then translate it, giving as much detail or as little as you desire.


https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200629/k10012488131000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_003

This is the first article. I had been putting this off but this is the real thing now. I was uncomfortable about jumping in but it’ll be a neat challenge.

This is the first article I’ve picked

⓪ 西~東日本で大雨のおそれ 土砂災害などに警戒を 気象庁

2020年6月29日 18時18分 気象

① 前線と低気圧の影響で、これから1日にかけて西日本と東日本の広い範囲で雷を伴った激しい雨が降り、局地的には非常に激しい雨が降って大雨となるおそれがあります。

② 気象庁は、土砂災害や低い土地の浸水、川の増水などに警戒するよう呼びかけています。

③ 気象庁によりますと、前線が九州を通って日本の南へ延び、前線上の低気圧が1日にかけて日本海へ進む見込みです。

④ 前線や低気圧に向かって暖かく湿った空気が流れ込み、西日本と東日本の広い範囲で大気の状態が不安定になり、九州ではこれから30日にかけて、このほかの西日本では30日、東日本では30日から1日にかけて雷を伴って激しい雨が降る見込みです。

⑤ 特に九州や四国では30日昼ごろにかけて、東海では30日夜から1日にかけて、局地的に1時間に50ミリ以上の非常に激しい雨が降って大雨になるおそれがあります。

⑥ 30日夕方までの24時間に降る雨の量は、いずれも多いところで、四国で300ミリ、九州で200ミリ、近畿で150ミリ、東海と中国地方で120ミリ、関東甲信で100ミリと予想され、その後、1日夕方までの24時間に東海で200ミリから300ミリ、近畿で100ミリから200ミリ、関東甲信で100ミリから150ミリの雨が降ると予想されています。

⑦ 気象庁は、土砂災害や低い土地の浸水、川の増水に警戒するとともに、落雷や竜巻などの激しい突風にも注意するよう呼びかけています。

⑧ 西日本では30日朝にかけての暗い時間帯に、雨が激しくなるおそれがあります。

⑨ 今後の気象情報や自治体が発表する避難の情報に注意してください。

Currently Available: Done;


⓪米大統領選 民主党 バイデン氏 8月上旬までに副大統領候補決定

2020年7月1日 12時24分

①ことし秋のアメリカ大統領選挙で、野党・民主党の候補者指名を確定させているバイデン前副大統領は、女性を選ぶとしている自身の副大統領候補について8月上旬までに決定したい考えを明らかにしました。

②バイデン氏は6月30日、地元の東部デラウェア州で記者会見を開き、女性を選ぶと明言している自身の副大統領候補について「候補者たちの名前は明かさないが、多くの白人以外の女性がいるし、ラテン系やアジア系もいる」と述べ、多様な候補者の中から選定を行っていることを明らかにしました。

③そのうえで「現在、詳細な経歴調査を行っていて、それに6週間から8週間程度かかる」と述べたうえで、8月17日から開催が予定されている民主党の全国党大会の前の8月上旬までに決定したい考えを明らかにしました。

④バイデン氏はこれまで8月1日までに決定したいとしていました。

⑤民主党の副大統領候補には、ハリス上院議員や、ウォーレン上院議員などの名前があがっていますが、白人警察官による黒人男性の死亡事件をきっかけに、黒人女性を選ぶべきだという声も高まっています。

⑥アメリカでは、これまで女性が副大統領を務めたことはなく、大統領が職務を遂行できなくなった場合に、大統領を継ぐ立場の副大統領の候補にバイデン氏が誰を選ぶのか、その判断に注目が集まっています。

Currently Available: 6

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I’ll limit myself to claiming at most 2 sentences a day in order to give the opportunity to others to participate.

I therefore claim 0 and 1.

⓪ 西~東日本で大雨のおそれ 土砂災害などに警戒を 気象庁

West and East of Japan, dread of heavy rain, landslide disaster and the like, Japanese Meteorological Agency, be careful.

① 前線と低気圧の影響で、これから1日にかけて西日本と東日本の広い範囲で雷を伴った激しい雨が降り、局地的には非常に激しい雨が降って大雨となるおそれがあります。

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:person_raising_hand:t4: In the title, 大雨のおそれ: does it mean “threat of heavy rain” or “dread of heavy rain”?

洪水のおそれがあって町の全員の避難が必要になった。
Sample sentence from my dictionary.

“Dread of heavy rain” just seems wrong in this context.

:person_raising_hand:t4: 西~東日本
What does that mean exactly? “West and East of Japan” (as in located in the west and east of Japan) or “From West to East of Japan”? I’m thinking the former but I’d like to make sure.

It means threat of heavy rain. 〜おそれ(があります) implies a probability of something with a negative outcome (悪い結果の可能性があります)

This means from East to West Japan. 〜 is used as a substitute for から〜まで.

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More like “risk of heavy rain”.

Can be either, but in this context it’s from west to east (according to the original article the next sentence contains “西日本から東日本の広い範囲”, your copy has a slightly different version though)

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I’m not sure I understand. Isn’t my the article I linked the original article?

Regarding おそれ, my dictionary had only the following definitions:

ⓐ fear, horror, anxiety, concern, uneasiness, reverence

So I guess I should check more than one reference when it comes to the meaning of words.

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Pretty sure it’s this grammar point:
https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/恐れがある-osore-ga-aru-meaning/

But since it’s a title がある got dropped.

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I guess the text was updated? I just went there to check the video that comes with the article, and randomly noticed the difference.

Well, this is from the set expression おそれがある. Obviously there is a link to the word おそれ, but yeah, you have to know it. Newspapers love to drop things to save space.

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① 前線と低気圧の影響で、これから1日にかけて西日本と東日本の広い範囲で雷を伴った激しい雨が降り、局地的には非常に激しい雨が降って大雨となるおそれがあります。

:speech_balloon: “The weather front and the influence of the low atmospheric pressure…”

前線: n. weather front;
低気圧: n. low atmospheric pressure;
影響: influence, effect, to influence;
これから: after this;
かけて:

ⓗ to cause (somebody inconvenience, trouble, etc.), to burden (someone), to impose (see also: 迷惑を掛ける)

:person_raising_hand:t4: Why use これから here? Shouldn’t it be something like ために? As in “because of the weather front” and the “low atmospheric pressure”?

I have the feeling that the rain is a result from a combination of these two things. これから gives the impression that “after the weather front and the low atmospheric pressure” which doesn’t seem to fit as well.

The"because" part is already contained with the te-form of です。 前線と低気圧の影響 = Because of the weather front and low pressure.

これから = from now on
By the way にかけて is also a grammar point that appear often in news.

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にかけて is this grammar point: https://japanesetest4you.com/flashcard/learn-jlpt-n3-grammar-にかけて-ni-kakete/
meaning “over (a period of time)”
1日にかけて: over the period of one day

I think the これから refers to the point in time where the article was published.

“Because of the influence of low atmospheric pressure, from here on (from this point in time) over the period of one day…”

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I think I understand the general idea that violent storms with lightning are happening in Japan because of atmospheric pressure and the like.

:person_raising_hand:t4: Re: 局地的には, I’m not too sure about the purpose of that second sentence. If the storm is affecting all of Japan, why specify that locally there is violent rain falling down considering that the same is happening all over the country?

I would interpret the 局地的に as limiting the areas in which 大雨 is happening. So you have 激しい雨 with 雷 everywhere, and 局地的に you have 非常に激しい雨 and also 大雨のおそれ.
There is definitions for 激しい雨 and 非常に激しい雨:
激しい雨: 30-50mm/h
非常に激しい雨: 50-80mm/h

大雨 is defined as “災害が発生するおそれのある雨“

To summarize, there is 激しい雨 all over the country, and 非常に激しい雨 locally with the risk of 大雨 (which means there might be damages from the rain)

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② 気象庁は、土砂災害や低い土地の浸水、川の増水などに警戒するよう呼びかけています。


:speech_balloon: “The Meteorological Agency, with landslides and the like for inundated low lands, are calling out to vigilance regarding the rising water of the rivers (and the like)”

気象庁: Meteorological agency of Japan: →『は』 topic;
土砂災害: landslide disaster: → 『や』non-exhaustive list;
低い・土地: low (い~adj.) + place → 『の』connective particle;
浸水: inundation;
川の増水: rising water of the rivers;
警戒: vigilance;
よう: look as if;
呼びかける: to call out;

:person_raising_hand:t4: Regarding など: etc… and 『や』, could we say that they serve a similar function? For instance, 土砂災害や could be interpreted as “landslide etc…”? Does the 『や』in a non-exhaustive list serve more or less the same purpose as など?

Why use など here? Why not simply say “the rising water”? Why “the rising water of rivers” etc… If the “etc” refers to the rising water of all bodies of water, then why pinpoint rivers in particular?

③ 気象庁によりますと、前線が九州を通って日本の南へ延び、前線上の低気圧が1日にかけて日本海へ進む見込みです。


九州: Kyushu (southernmost island);
前線: weather front;

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I would say it is pretty common to end a non-exhaustive list with など, so yes, they serve a similar function.

The など applies to the whole list.
The agency is cautioning against landslides, rising water levels and possibly other things.
If you wanted to pinpoint the rivers, you would say 川などの増水

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気象庁によりますと…

So the 『と』is likely to introduce a quote from the meteorological agency.

I’m used to 「より」being used in comparisons but here considering that it’s よります『と』I would imagine it’s the ~ます form of verb.

According to my dictionary, よります could be all sorts of verbs:

Of those 6 verbs, three are common. Out of those common three, only one is identified as written in kana alone:

よる 【因る, 拠る, 依る, 由る】
Godan verb with `ru’ ending, intransitive verb, word usually written using kana alone
ⓐ to be due to, to be caused by (esp. 依る;拠る)

So I would guess that’s the right interpretation. Am I right?

It is the right verb but the wrong meaning; it’s definition 3: “to be based on; to come from​”
Are you aware of the structure 〜によると (according to 〜)? It is the same thing, just in the more polite ます-form.

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I haven’t participated in this before, but here we go. It looked like ④ hadn’t been claimed yet. I attempted a translation that would sound as natural as possible in the context of a weather forecast in English, which is why I replaced the dates with days of the week.

④ 前線や低気圧に向かって暖かく湿った空気が流れ込み、西日本と東日本の広い範囲で大気の状態が不安定になり、九州ではこれから30日にかけて、このほかの西日本では30日、東日本では30日から1日にかけて雷を伴って激しい雨が降る見込みです。

As warm, moist air flows towards the weather front and low pressure zone, the atmospheric condition will become unstable over large parts of western and eastern Japan. Kyushu may see heavy rain accompanied by lightning from now into Tuesday, followed by the rest of western Japan on Tuesday itself and eastern Japan from Tuesday into Wednesday.

These are the words I looked up apart from what had already been provided in the thread:

湿る to become damp, moist
流れ込む to flow into
範囲 range, extent
不安定 unstable
雷 lightning
伴う to be accompanied by
見込み possibility

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At ok, so according to the Meteorological Agency then:

通って: to go by, to go along;
延び: growth;
日本の南へ延び: growth in the south of Japan;

I think it means…
:speech_balloon: “The weather front travels south and grows, as in it is gaining strength as it is travelling south”…

前線上: above the weather front… probably an inaccurate translation.
低気圧: low-atmospheric pressure;

海へ進む見込みです…

“There’s a possibility it might head towards the ocean“

前線上:
In what sense here? I’m not familiar with meteorology so I’m wondering.

In this case, I think it’a different grammar, probably some kind of shortcut for ようにしてください/ようにしなさい Please make sure to/Please make an effort to
忘れ物をしないようにしてください:Please make sure to not leave things behind

The してください part is actually often dropped, for example:
風邪をひかないように : Don’t catch a cold / make sure to not catch a cold

So in the original sentence it’s like they are quoting what’s the JMA is requesting:
気象庁は「川の増水などに警戒するよう(にしてください)」呼びかけています。
Literally: The JMA is requesting: “Please make sure to be cautious about rising rivers”

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