要約問題/1976年

　次の文章はある煉瓦(れんが)職人の手記である。筆者の仕事に対する態度の推移を100字から120字の日本文で書け。ただし句読点も字数にかぞえる。

　When I was younger, I considered myself fortunate to be a bricklayer. It was a skilled occupation from which I derived much artistic pleasure. There were two reasons for this. I found the job itself pleasurable and I felt I was performing a social service. The latter aspect was more evident when I was engaged on housing, especially working-class housing. Slum dwellers, I thought, ought to be served first and these were mainly working-class people. At the time I felt this the government had a housing plan that was supposed to help the worst off first.
　As I've grown older, the job has become more monotonous, owing partly to new building techniques and partly to years of repetition. Perhaps age has something to do with it. I am becoming increasingly aware of aches and pains that were not present when I was younger. Perhaps disillusionment comes because of the way my employers and society treat me as a bricklayer. The employers treat me as a means to an end, seldom as a person. Something to be thrown away like an old boot when no longer required.
　I am now a better bricklayer than I was. I now feel no sense of artistic pleasure in my job. I keep laying bricks because this is the way to make the maximum of money. I feel no sense of being socially useful. Society does not seem to appreciate my efforts nor can I get any pleasure from working on these monstrous structures we call office buildings and homes. My job could quite easily be done by machines and often is by concreting techniques. For a good many years now I have sold my skill, if it can still be called that, to whoever pays highest.
　(注) disillusionment: loss of idealistic hopes; disappointment