わからない個所を教えてください。
‘But it looks like a river. And there’s a bridge.’
‘Sometimes there’s water in it,’ she says. ‘When the storms come. But most of the time it’s dry. It’s not really a river, you see, it’s just a place where the water runs when it rains in the hills.’ （前回の終わりの部分です）
‘Oh,’ I say. I am slightly disappointed that there’s no water, but the not-a-river is peculiar and a little magical. I let my gaze travel up along its length, tracing the course back up through the valley. It twists and meanders from side to side a bit, but I can make out its paler route among the dark earth and grey-green grasses and scrub right up towards the foothills of the valley’s end. Just at the point where it fades from sight, I can see a little building: white walls and rust-coloured roof, standing alone in the middle of nowhere.
‘What’s that?’
‘Where?’ she asks. I point, and she bends her head down to follow the line of my arm. ‘That. The little house.’
‘Oh,’ she says. ‘That’s not a house. That’s a church.’ She pauses for a moment. ‘Well, rightly it’s more like a chapel. That’s a small church. It’s not used now. You know the church in the town?’
‘Yes.’
‘People go there. The chapel – well, it’s a ruin now. Not many people live up that end of the valley any more.’
‘Mm,’ I say.
‘There’s a story about that place,’ she says after a second.
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主人公のAlexはartistで、展示会に備えるために、幼い頃過ごしたイタリアに戻ってきています。この英文は回想シーンだと思われます。
It twists and meanders from side to side a bit, but I can make out its paler route among the dark earth and grey-green grasses and scrub right up towards the foothills of the valley’s end.の中に出てくるscrubの意味がわかりません。make outは見分けるでしょうか？
‘Well, rightly it’s more like a chapel. That’s a small church. It’s not used now. You know the church in the town?’ というセリフがありますが、You know the church in the town?のthe churchは二人が見つけた教会のことを指しているのでしょうか？それとも一般的にある町の教会を指しているのでしょうか？
theがついているのでよくわからなくなってしまったのですが、二人が見つけた教会はIt’s not used nowと言っていて、You know the church in the town?のセリフの後にPeople go there.と言っているので一般的にある町の教会の方でしょうか？
Not many people live up that end of the valley any more.のupはどのように意味をとるのでしょうか？その谷の終わりの上の方にはもはやたくさんの人は住んでいません？
教えてください。お願いします。
