epitomize, epitomise
NYTがマー君の少年時代も含めた成長過程に関する読み応えのある記事を掲載しています。
Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka Epitomizes the Japanese Approach to Baseball
ITAMI, Japan — Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees’ $155 million import, grew up in a nation where joining a baseball team was like entering a religious order. The field was hallowed ground, the equipment sacred gear. Coaches were obeyed with bowed heads.
A baseball-centered life required absolute devotion to the team. Practice made perfect, so the young athletes trained year round with seldom a day off, their after-school drills commonly lasting seven hours. Pitchers sometimes threw 300 times in a single day; hitters took 1,000 swings. And then the team finished its work by picking up stray baseballs and raking the dirt to cleanse it of cleat marks.
epitomizeは「〜の典型となる、〜の良い例となる」、「〔書かれたものを〕要約する、概括する」という意味です。マー君はたしかに「根性野球」に打ち勝って来た人なのかもしれません。授業で先生がこの名詞 epitomeの発音（とくに"t"の促音化）に注意するように言われていたことを思い出します。（GP）
