flub 復習

大阪府にある高校の入試で、筆記試験前に中学校側との受験相談によってあらかじめ合格者を内定させ、試験でどんなに高い点数をとっても不合格にされた生徒が多数いたことが明らかになりました。

High school under fire over entrance exam as majority of students chosen in advance

Most of the students admitted to a high school here for this academic year were decided based on their junior high school grades and other factors before taking the school's entrance examinations, it has been learned.
As a result, students with scores up to 79 points higher on the entrance exams than those chosen in advance were failed by the school, Kansai University Dai-ichi Senior High School. The pre-choosing of students occurred about one month before the exams, at a meeting of school officials. The existence of this meeting and the conclusions reached there were not revealed to the students.

中略

A Kansai University Dai-ichi Senior High School document instructs that if visiting junior high school officials ask whether the students announced at the meeting are assured to pass the exams, to tell them that unless they completely flub the tests, they will pass. All 119 students chosen at the meeting did, in fact, pass the exams. Out of 580 total points, the lowest scores among these 119 students were 312 for male students and 284 for female students.

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150820p2a00m0na014000c.html

今回取り上げるのは、“flub”という表現です。LDOCEで調べてもみると、“to make a mistake or do something badly”という定義が見つかりました。さらに『ジーニアス英和辞典G4 大修館書店』には、動詞で「へまをする、（〜を）しくじる、とちる」、また名詞で「へま、しくじり、失敗」といった意味がありました。

今回のことを受けて、いったい何のために行っている入試なのかということをもう一度考え直すべきだと思いました。(ninetails)