質問: From #8 of 日本語能力試験3級の模擬試験 -語彙2- () > > **8)しばらく おまちください。** > > > Choose the one with the closest meaning. > > A) ぜんぜん またなくても いいです。 > > B) すこし まってください。 > > **C) すこしでは ありませんが まってください。** > > D) とても ながい じかん まってください。 > > > I can see none of the others mean "Please wait for a while", but why is it C? I mainly don't understand the すこしでは ありませんが part.
回答: The phrase すこしでは ありませんが まってください is highly contrastive to すこし まってください. As you may know, すこし まってください means something like "wait a minute." Here, the word すこし indicates how long you have to wait. In C, すこし is replaced with すこしでは ありませんが, that means "though it is not *a minute*". It is describing the speaker's feeling that "I can't say すこし as it is too long..." Now, the word しばらく is "for a while", which is (at least I think) longer than すこし, so the answer is C. Though D is also longer than すこし, there's no nuance of とても ながい in the word しばらく.