Most Hustle & Desire

If I were you, I wouldn’t say that! If  主語 過去形 ..., 主語 would/could/might 動詞の原形 .... 2019 marked the fourth printing of Perfect Course, an English-language-study text for junior-high-school students, written/edited by Nobu Yamada and myself, respectively, and printed by Gakken.

Such beauty here as I contemplate the day at Suma Bay, blossoms aglow with the setting sun. 所がらながめにあかぬすまの浦の けふ一しほの花の夕ばへ Between technical documents and legal contracts, I checked the English on this along with hundreds of other medieval aristocratic tanzaku while working for a translation company. The above was written during the Siege of Osaka (1614-15) by Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of Japan’s ruthless samurai. One has to ask what he, despite old age, was doing that day in his efforts to wipe out the opposition. And what is good poetry?

Who were the first people to settle the Americas? How did they get there? ANS: The first people to settle the Americas were hunters from Asia. They arrived there by following herds of animals across a land bridge between eastern Siberia and Alaska. A question written for “Section Quiz 5-1 History and Governments: Short Answer” in the junior high school text “Exploring Our World, Standardized Test Practice Workbook,” Glencoe Exploring Our World: People, Places and Cultures (McGraw Hill/Glencoe 2008), though a better question might have been “What dreams were they pursuing to make such a journey? And did they ever look back? What jokes did they tell on the way?