Colman McCarthy teaches
conflict resolution to children, adults, and couples. He tells people to
approach conflict in a healthy way. First, he says, "define the situation
objectively. What is the situation, and what needs to happen to improve it?
This simple step is crucial. Sociologists report that in as many as 75 percent
of husband-wife fights, the couples are battling over different issues. The
husband may be angered over what his wife said or did that morning. The wife is
out of control over what her husband said or did ten weeks ago. They can't
settle their conflict because they don't know what it's about."
The next step, McCarthy says, is to
"realize the contest involved. It's not you against me, it's you and me
against the problem. Most people - and nations for that matter - go into battle
convinced, 'I'm right, you're wrong; I'm good, you're evil.' Even if one side
does win, the first reaction of the loser is, 'I want a rematch. I'll come back
with meaner words, harder fists, and bigger bombs. Then you'll learn, then
you'll be good, and then we'll have peace forever.' This is an illusion, but
few can give it up.' Focus not on the other person, he says, but on the problem
that stands between you. "By focusing on the problem, and not the person
with the problem, a climate of cooperation instead of competition can be
enhanced."
He continues, "Then start with what's
doable. Restoration of peace can't be done quickly. If it takes a long time for
a dispute to begin, it. will take time to end it. Almost always, it's a
laughably small wound that causes the first hurt in a relationship. But then,
ignoring the smallness takes on a size of its own. Ignoring the problem creates
a larger problem than the original one."
McCarthy admits that sometimes the partners
in conflict are so emotionally wounded that nothing can help. "But large
numbers of conflicts can be resolved, provided that the strategies for
peacemaking are known, Gandhi said, 'Don't bring your opponents to their knees,
bring them to their senses.' (354 words)
１５０字要約です。
手順のパラグラフでまとめやすくなっています。
【Ⅲ】
Joy:
I guess we had better start preparing for our topic, don't you think so?
Ray:
Yes, but it's so boring. Everybody likes TV. Who could possibly have any
complaints about TV?
Joy:
As a matter of fact, when I was growing up, my parents had strict rules about
TV. If I didn't finish my homework and do my chores, I couldn't watch TV. They preferred
that I go outside and play with my friends, so I usually did a lot more playing
than watching TV. I could never have gotten this scholarship to
Ray:
Maybe you have a point. However, don't you think TV is a good escape? There are
lots of pressures on children these days so the light entertainment allows them
to forget their problems for a while and have a laugh or two. It made my
childhood more interesting since there weren't many kids my age around.
Joy:
You consider TV a healthy escape, but what about all of the violence? I mean,
have you watched one of those movies lately with cars crashing, guns being
fired and bombs exploding?
Ray:
That's really not a problem because seeing all of the conflict helps satisfy a
desire to commit violent acts. It actually reduces real violence by providing a
safe release. Furthermore, TV can also be very informative. You can learn a lot
about nature, history and current events.
Joy:
I'm not sure about TV being so informative. Most news programs are so
superficial. Newspapers, magazines and Internet sources provide much more
information that you can read at your leisure. On TV you have to watch
everything before you can see what is of interest to you. In print media, you
can just skip to the parts you want to read. TV is just too constraining.
Ray:
You have some good points. I guess the topic is more interesting than I first
thought!
(332
words)
Rayが男性，Joyが女性。
会話文としては内容がある方で，最近はこうしたちょっとディベート的な会話文も散見されます。テレビの是非はその入門的な話題です。
【Ⅳ-A】
Sports cars were once the domain of men
seeking a rush of adrenalin, the ultimate boys' toys for wealthy professionals.
But an increasing number of women are now developing a passion for speed, with
man trading in their more practical vehicles for stylish, high-powered models,
according to a study recently published. Research suggests that, with more
women in the workforce, manufacturers are starting to recognize the spending
power of female drivers who hate the thought of owning a car dedicated to
driving children to arid from school.
Since 1998 Mercedes, a big car company, has
recorded a 63 percent increase in the number of women owning their cars, with a
total of 95, 375 vehicles registered to women by the end of March 2003.
Similarly, traditionally male-dominated models, including TVR, Porsche and
Lotus, have witnessed a rise in women demanding more powerful engines. While in
1998 there were no recorded women TVR owners, by March 2003 there were 533; In
the same period Porsche doubled the number of female owners from 1, 910 to 3,
877.
The growing popularity of fast cars among
women has led 21 percent of those who own them to put off having a lavish
wedding and 11 percent to postpone having children in order to pay for them.
Eighteen percent of the 1, 014 women questioned admitted to reading the
motoring sections in newspapers and 66 percent said they watched specialist
programs such as Top Gear. Catherine Alty, business manager at Privilege, the
car insurer that commissioned the survey, said more and more women were also
gaining racing licenses to satisfy their appetite for speed. “It is fascinating
to see that women are getting into motoring in a big way, whether it is just a
hobby or part of the bigger motor sports arena," she said.
(301
words)
かなり書き換えられていますが，原典がありました。→
【Ⅳ-B】
Every problem has within
it a certain lesson to be learned. Once the lessons are learned in a particular
area of our lives there are typically no major problems to surprise us. On the other hand, if we don't learn the specific lessons set up for us
in problems, they became a trial - a continuing problem in our lives from
which we will suffer. Wherever we have become rigid or unwilling to learn
or change, we will suffer. At one level, life is a school set up by our
souls to learn certain lessons and to give certain gifts. （ ② ） If
we act righteously, pretending as if we knew the answers, we are showing
our unwillingness to learn or change. Willingness to learn opens our minds
and leads us in the right direction.
There are whole areas of
the world where people are distrustful of learning and react against education
of any kind. Of course, some education is really just preparing people for the
job market, but even this will increase someone’s confidence and expand their
mind. The education that prepares people for life and helps them change for the
better is precious for what it gives. Education makes us more aware, more
flexible and less prejudiced. It helps us evolve in our thinking and our
maturity. Learning something new every day helps us stay responsive and young
in spirit. People become rigid with judgment. Judgment exhausts us and makes us
older, but not wiser, more flexible or more aware- As we learn our lessons, our
life develops in the easiest and best possible manner, which builds our life
for happiness. （ ③ ） When we have failed to learn a certain lesson,
the pain of it stays with us, affecting that area and pulling down our
life in general. But the lesson still awaits us and as we finally learn
it the pain disappears. (312 words)
この英文は結構難しくて，私の読んだ感じでは第１段落と第２段落はほぼ同じ内容しか書かれていない感じです。
設問の（１）は次の英文を適切な箇所に入れるもの。
These lessons are put before us in a timely manner and if we refuse to learn them our stress and pain grow accordingly.
入れる場所は本文の②か③。私は最初③だろうと思いました。直後にpainについての言及があるので。ところがよく読み返すと②の前にもpainについての言及があります。these lessonsを頼りにしようと思いましたが，これも②の前，③の前両方にあります。そもそも第１段落と第２段落でさほどの違いがないことも問題。
広島大学・前期はインターネット上で，河合塾，代ゼミから解答が発表されています。
この部分の答が河合塾は②，代ゼミは③と分かれました。私も迷った結果②にしましたが，絶対的な自信があるわけではありません。ちなみに問２ judgementと対比して使われている単語も河合塾learning / 代ゼミ educationと違っています。
こんなに少ない問題で２カ所も予備校発表の解答が割れるのはおそらく問題そのものがよくない証拠だと思います。
さて，これが，「２００５年 全国大学入試問題正解」の最終校となりました。
今年は私立大学の問題が易しかったので，いま一つやりたりない感じですが，一応無事終わりました。
【３月２９日】
In the
Most married people will head home to be
with their families after work. Eating dinner and drinking with colleagues
isn't nearly as popular as it is in
Singles may head for happy hour at their favorite eating or drinking places.
Many restaurants and bars offer 50% off specials on drinks from
Finally, there are concerts, movies and other
shows. One difference between
ところで，この易しい英文で作問者はいくつか間違いを犯しています。
In households where both parents work, organizing dinner for the family isn't always easy.
この部分の内容として，選択肢は次のようになっています。
「両親が共働きをの家庭では，夕食の準備をすることが必ずしも容易ではない。」
これしか，正解がありませんので，これを正解としましたが，これは私には誤りに響きます。
organizing dinner for the familyは「家族の夕食を設営すること」 選択肢の訳「夕食の準備」は実際に作ることのように響きますが，これは，「家族全員の夕食の時間をもうけることは簡単というわけではない」としないと，英文の意味が損なわれると思います。
Singles may head for happy hour at their favorite eating or drinking places.
この訳の答は
「独身者は，お気に入りのレストランやバーへ楽しい時間を過ごしに行くかもしれない」
happy hourを「楽しい時間」としたのは，私が犯した間違いと一緒です。（→ガイド試験）
「独身者はお気に入りのレストランやバーでのハッピーアワーに直行するかもしれない」
happy hourの説明が直後にあるのですが…
この大学では，他の小問も過去の入試問題から引き写したような典型的な問題で，「入試なんてこんなんでいいだろう」といったなめた感じがあります。作問は難しいと思いますが，もう少し，哲学を持って作問して欲しいと思いました。 →大意
（３月２３日）
１
Leaves are the food factories of a plant. The
raw materials they use are of the simplest. Carbon dioxide, water, and a few
mineral ingredients. The first, a gas, is all around them in the air and they
absorb it through tiny pores in their surface. Water, and the minerals
dissolved in it, is collected by the roots from the ground in which the plant
grows The agents within the tissues of the leaves that process these raw
materials are small grains containing that remarkable substance, chlorophyll.
Powered by the energy of the sun this is able to combine these elements and
produce starches and sugars, the foods from which the plant builds its various
tissues. The process is called photosynthesis Its by-product is oxygen. That
gas drifts away through the leaf pores into the atmosphere to the benefit of
animals. For them it is the very breath of life.
Since daylight is essential for this process,
every plant must, as far as possible, position its leaves so that each collects
its share without interfering with any others the plant may have. This may
require changing the posture of the leaves throughout the day as the sun moves
across the sky. The accuracy with which a plant can osition them may be judged
simly by gazing up at the treetops in a wood. The leaves form an almost
continuous ceiling, fitting together like the pieces of a jigsaw.
In an environment where many species live
crowded together, as they do in an English hedgerow, plants may have to compete
with their neighbors and rivals for exposure to the sun. Watching them do so on time-lapse film,
having been shot over several days, is like watching the faces of a packed
crowd at the tennis match, where each person is anxious to get a good view of
the ball as it passes from one side of the court to thc other. In the morning,
they face eastwards. As the sun rises, so they crane upwards; and as it sets,
so they turn westwards. Overnight, some may fold up, but all arise to be ready
to face the sun when it appears once more at dawn in the east.
In the floor of a dense forest, the light may
be very dim indeed. Some plants deal with the problem by growing extremely
large leaves. Others maximize the meager light that falls on them in a
different way. They coat the underside of their leaves with a purple pigment.
This catches the light after it has passed through the thickness of the leaf
and reflects it back into the leaf tissues so that the chlorophyll has a second
chance to utilize what is left of it. Begonias have an additional trick. Some
cells in the upper surface of their leaves are transparent and act as tiny
lenses, gathering the feeble light and focusing it onto the grains of
chlorophyll within.
九州大学は私が初めて研究社の徹底的研究を担当した時に担当した大学です。この年は信州大学と九州大学を国立ではやりましたが，大変穏当な英文で，内容も「薬の服用と交通事故」といったわかりやすいこともあり，いくつかの長文問題集の題材として採用され，私も授業で扱ったことがありました。
それからは，九州大学の問題に接することはなく，最後の英作文が結構おもしろかったので，「九州は独立すべきだ。是か非か」見ていましたが，それ以外はご無沙汰でした。
今回は後期試験で対象学部理系（医，歯，工）で，結構難しく感じました。
これまで担当した大学が易しすぎたかもしれませんが。
２
Ancient
Another factor sometimes invoked to explain
An obvious consequence of the different
practices and beliefs swirling around the Greeks would have been the necessity
of dealing with contradiction. They would have been constantly confronting
situations where one person was
asserting
that A was the case and another was contending that not-A was the case.
Contradiction coming from the opinions of outsiders, as well as freely
expressed contradiction among insiders' views, mighthave led to the development of the art of rational argurnent.
世界史の知識があれば，それほどのことはないはずですが，受験生の知識は偏りがあって，受験科目でないとまるきしだめ，ということも結構あります。地理の知識も怪しい。実は世界史は全員必修のはずですが，理系の生徒は数学，英語，国語，理科２科目，と学習してきて，受験科目の地理，公民をやると世界史をやる余地がありません。また，社会科科目では，学習時間に比して，得点が伸びない教科が世界史，日本史，ということもあり，絶対的な時間が不足する理系生徒にあっては世界史を勉強している余裕がほとんどありません。
（３月２６日）
Ⅰ
Dr. Richard Kroll, an English professor at the
He claims that his students aren't thinking
about what they're going to say all the time, so instead of pausing or using
the old standby, "umm," they insert "like" instead.
"It's simply a way of punctuating what you're saying." As a result,
he clams, they end up also viewing the world in a fractured way.
"The way they talk helps them construct
pictures of the world," Kroll says. "The more sophisticated they are
about their language, the more sophisticated their world is." He is
clearly frustrated with his students' apparent lack of respect for the English
language. "They see it as a purely communicative instrument that can be
used like a paper cup and thrown away when finished," he said.
One does have to wonder how this new slang
--- some call it mallspeak---will affect our teens' ability to function in the
world beyond the dormitory and the shopping mall. In fact, some colleges are
now putting an increased emphasis on verbal skills, hoping to answer the
complaint from alumni that graduates today don’t present a professional image.
Dr. Kroll doesn't believe that speaking up
more in class will result in more articulate students. "The only way to
become more articulate is to become more literate," Kroll claims. He
emphasizes that reading, not speaking, is the key to developing language
skills. (307 words)
Ⅱ
Chan believes language learners must
"have a passion for the language." She believes a lack of opportunity
to practice is not the reason behind poor- speaking ability. More than ten
years ago, when
To those who hope to go abroad, Chan's
message is clear: "Go, go for your life! Experience a different world.
Discover yourself." For Chan, studying for her doctorate at
注がたっぷりついて，下線部訳だけ，というシンプルな問題形式です。
通例，長文分析というのをほどこし，１００字要約，簡単なタイトルを付けますが，その必要もないということで，訳しませんでした。両方とも教育学部・英語系ということでは，よいと思います。
（３月２３日）
Reading and writing have long been thought of
as skills supporting each other; to read is to recognize and interpret language
that has been written; to write is to plan and produce language so that it can
be read. It is therefore widely assumed that being able to read implies being
able to write---or, at least, being able to spell. Often, children are taught
to read but given no formal lessons in spelling; it is felt that spelling will
be learned in the natural or spontaneous process. The attitude has its
counterpart in the methods of 200 years ago, when teachers carefully taught
spelling, and assumed that reading would follow automatically.
Recent research into spelling errors has begun
to show that things are not so easy as thought. There is no necessary link
between reading and writing: good readers do not always make good writers. Nor
is there any necessary link between reading and spelling. There are many people
who have no difficulty in reading, but who have a major handicap in spelling---some
researchers have estimated that this may be as many as 2 percent of the population.
With children, too, there is evidence that
knowledge of reading does not automatically transfer to spelling. If there were
a close relationship, children should be able to read and spell the same words;
but this is not so. It is common to find children who can read far better than
they can spell. More surprisingly, the reverse happens with some children in
the early stages of reading. One study gave children the same list of words to
read and to spell: several actually spelled more words correctly than they were
able to read correctly.
(284
words)
短く，易しく，コメントのしようがありません。
典型的な話題です。しかし，綴りと読みの関係は密接ではない，というのは経験的にはわかっていても，そういう研究報告がある，ということなら，多少目新しいかもしれません。
（３月２０日）
Dr. Tsutomu Fenster is a very busy man. His
alarm clock rings at
At
Dr. Fenster works until
He starts work again at
On Thursdays he rises at
His daughter once asked him how much money he
had. 'I never have time to count it,' was Dr. Fenster's reply.
受験生の学力低下を正確に把握して，これならできるだろうと判断して出題した感じです。そういう意味では敬意を表します。おそらく，この程度の英文が読めない生徒が数多くいることは容易に予測できます。そういう意味で，この英文をばかにすることはできません。工学院の英文よりはるかに適切だと思います。
（３月２０日）
One day, in the late afternoon, when street life had resumed after
siesta, I stopped off to talk to a neighbor named Ana, and as we sat chatting
we were joined by an elder woman I had not seen before, Aling Binang, who had
recently returned from the country. Ana
had heard of the death of Aling Binang's twenty-year-old son some six months
before and started to question her about it. After a while, Aling Binang began to weep,
tears running one after another down her face, but the painful give-and-take of
question and answer went on and on. I was careful not to interrupt the flow of
a conversation both women seemed ready to prolong, but inside I felt outraged,
very sorry for Aling Binang, and embarrassed by the tactlessness of Ana,
A few weeks later a death occurred farther down the single street,
where the houses were poorer and more rural in style and where my comings and
goings had so far taken me less often. The family I was living with would be
going to the paglalamay, “vigil” or
"wake," and they urged me to come. We went together to the house,
staying till late in the night.
I wrote two kinds of notes. One narrative
describes the body laid out in its coffin surrounded by funeraria lamps. The
relatives had gathered, and neighbors were coming and going, expressing
condolences and offering money and then standing and gossiping. Boys and girls
were playing word games and flirting at the door, and gambling tables and
barbecues were set up outside, with general merriment continuing through the warm
night, noisily audible in the room where the body was laid out. The other kind
of notes concerned my own feelings: my reluctance even to go to this house,
"intruding" on the grief of others,
For an American with a Protestant and Anglo-Saxon background like
mine, the handling of death implies silence and decorum, requires that the
privacy of the bereaved be respected. Later I understood that my presence
represented an extra honor for the woman who had died. The games and gambling
were explained as necessary to keep people awake, to ensure that there would be
no solitude. In Pihipino, there is a word for "happy" which also
means "crowded" or "populous."
Stereotypes often conceal their opposites. In other contexts
Filipinos describe Americans as "brutally frank," while Americans
find Filipinos frustratingly indirect and evasive. Yet in the handling of
death, Filipinos behave in a manner which Americans might characterize as
"brutally frank" and seem to go out of their way to evoke the
expression of emotion, while Americans can only be called euphemistic and
indirect, going to great lengths to avoid emotional outbreaks. (452 words)
I am a sports writer and I love my job because I love sports,
especially football and baseball. But I
have a secret.
Every Monday night I watch my favorite TV show. Sometimes the telephone rings, but I don't
answer it. I tell my friends that I
watch Monday Night Football, but that isn't true.
My favorite show is more exciting than Monday Night Football. It is also very educational. I learn a lot about art and
Here is my secret; on Monday nights I watch Antiques Roadshow. It is a
show about antiques and collections, it's great! Fourteen million people watch
it every week.
The show is simple. The
guests on the show are real people. The guests bring in old art, furniture,
books, toys, and much, much more. First
the guests tell the experts about their items. The stories are the best part of Roadshow. Then the experts talk about the items. Finally, the experts say how much the items
are worth.
One woman, Veronica, had a painting with trees and animals in it. Veronica's grandmother got the picture for
free in 1925. The expert looked at
Veronica's picture carefully and said, 'This is very rare. Thomas Cole is the artist. Cole painted this around 1835. Your painting is worth. $ 125, 000." Veronica was very surprised.
She told the expert, "Wow! That's a
lot of money! But I don't really care about the money. I'm going to keep it because it has a lot of
sentimental value."
I want Antiques Roadshow to come to my city. I am ready. I have a baseball signed by Babe Ruth and
Jackie Robinson in the 1940s. It's in
perfect condition. I also have a
baseball card collection. I started the
collection when I was a young boy. The
autographed baseball and my baseball cards have a lot of sentimental value to
me. Maybe they arc worth a lot of money,
too!
And you? Are you ready? Look carefully around your home! You might
have something very valuable.
So, remember, don't call me on Monday nights. I'm watching “football.” (353 words)
こちらは穏当な問題。アメリカにも「お宝探偵団」があるんだ，というのが第一印象。私はこの番組が大好きで，長野県では再放送で，日曜日のお昼に放映されますが，録画して見ています。たまにマラソンか何かで中止になると本当に損した気になります。もっともそこに登場する画家の名前はいっこうに覚えませんが。
ところで，この短い英文一題の次に語法問題が延々と続いています。いくつか疑問がありました。
Take your umbrella. It (might not/ must / is supposed to / going to).
mustかis supposed toだと思いましたが，どちらもしっくりこず，is going toのミスではないかと思いました。ためしにインターネットで"It must rain"と "It is supposed to rain"と検索したところ，it must rain(392), it is supposed to rain(805)とほぼ同じで，頻度も大変低く，一般的ではないと思いました。私のコーパスでは全然ひっかかりませんでした。念のためALTに聞いたところ，It is supposed to rainは「普通だ」との意見。珍しく彼が自信を持って言うので，一応納得。しかし，問題としてはどうかと…
I would like to study computers, but I don't have (much/many/no/an) experience with computers.
muchを正解にするの異論はありませんが，an experienceにひっかかりました。同じくインターネットを検索すると
if you've never traveled anywhere and don't have an experience with other cultures and ways of life that are different from the one you're used to.
といった例が６０件ほどヒットしたので，これも間違いではないかと思いました。やはりALTに聞いたら，anyならともかくanではおかしい，との意見。複数の解答を提示するのも面倒なので，muchだけにしました。
この２問とも，きわめて出題ミスに近い，あるいはtesting pointにずれがあるように感じました。
（３月１８日）
Ⅰ
"
As I step onto the
platform and walk toward the commuter line, I can already feel the humidity---
In the four weeks I have been gone, the rainy season must have arrived in Kobe.
The sky is heavy with clouds, and people are carrying umbrellas. The umbrellas
remind me of
The old women with their
umbrellas reminded me of my grandmother. Like her, they had borne and raised
children before and during the Second World War, before the Western diet of
high calcium and protein. Their backs
were bent, their necks shortened. Watching them, I remembered my mother's
insistence that my brother and I drink milk every morning. "You have to
have protein to grow tall and strong," she had said. She had discouraged
us from sitting Japanese-style on the floor with our legs folded under, because
she had feared that our young bones might be bent. Every generation has its
fears. My mother's generation worried about not being tall and strong, while my
grandmother's distrusted anything that rained down, like bombs, from the sky.
It's raining a little
when I get off the commuter train. I stand in line for a taxi, and when my turn
comes, I shove my suitcase in and sit down. The driver nods when I give him
"That house belongs
to a gaijin family, doesn't it?" he asks, using the word that literally
means an out side-person and, therefore, a foreigner.
"Yes. My friend is
an American."
"Are you a
nikkei?" A nikkei is a foreigner of Japanese descent.
"I'm an American
citizen," I reply, "but I was born here."
The driver puts his car
in gear and pulls away from the curb in silence. I don't ask why he thought I
was a foreigner. All over
Lost in the old castle
town of
A few feet away from us,
five young women, all in fashionable dresses, were waiting for the light to
change. Each of them had a white leather purse with shoulder straps,
medium-heeled shoes that matched her dress. Their hair was softly permed to
frame their faces. In my T-shirt, denim shorts, and jogging shoes, my long
straight hair in a ponytail, I looked nothing like them. Instead of a purse, I
carried a backpack especially designed for runners and walkers. "I guess I
know what you meant" I admitted, and the two of us started laughing. Though
I had just met this man and would most likely never see him again, he seemed
like someone I had known for a long time. He opened his mouth and threw his
head back when he laughed. He looked me in the face and smiled as he made
half-ironic comments about the way people looked. He was like my friends. He
was American. (835 words)
Ⅱ
Our Sun is a fairly
ordinary star, a bit brighter than most but not exceptionally so. There are
many stars much bigger and brighter, while most stars are smaller and fainter.
The Sun is not an especially variable or active star, and it has no enormous
chemical or magnetic peculiarities. It is not a very young star, nor is it old
and nearing the end of its life. It is, in short, truly exceptional in only one
way: it is very close to the Earth --- in fact, at just the right distance to
make life as we know it possible.
Most of us do not worship the Sun as did many in ancient civilizations,
but we certainly should not take for granted the light and heat that it
provides. Left to itself, the Earth would be a fantastically cold rock
at near absolute-zero temperature. If the Sun had been slightly more massive,
its high temperature would have made the Earth's surface hot enough to
melt lead. A smaller Sun would have left the Earth unbearably cold. Distance
also matters. Had the Earth been closer, we might be as extremely hot as
Venus; farther away and we might have been as cold and dry as Mars. We
live at just the right distance from a just-right star.
Does this mean that the
planet Earth is unique and that we live in a miraculous “best of all possible
worlds"? There are dangers with this way of thinking. Since indeed other
planets in our solar system do not so far appear to support life, the
implication is that life requires some fairly unlikely conditions in order to
flourish. Yet granted that the probability of finding Earth-like conditions is
small, the number of planets in the Universe is very large (probably billions
in our galaxy alone). This obviously increases the statistical likelihood of
habitable planets. On this view, the Earth is not so much miraculously unique
as merely rare.
This in turn implies
certain responsibilities for its inhabitants. Since life as we know it appears
to be possible within only a narrow range of conditions, it would be prudent to
know as much as we can about the star that provides the basic conditions on
which our existence is founded. Moreover, our newfound ability to alter the
Earth's state on a global scale brings this need into sharp focus. For example,
it is not enough for the Earth to be at the right distance from the Sun, and
reflect back the right percentage of the solar light it receives. The Earth's
atmosphere is also of major importance in determining the global temperature.
Without it, the Earth would be colder by about 33℃, and therefore a frozen lump
of ice. Right now, we are making small but significant changes to the
composition of our atmosphere that may, within a short time, be large enough to
produce major unpleasant effects. (487 words)
典型的な入試英文。センター試験より難しいということで，「やや難」にしましたが，２次試験の英文としては大変穏当。むしろやさしいくらいです。ただし，下線部訳は実はやっかいでした。神戸大学レベルの入試問題の答は代ゼミ，河合塾ともに模範解答を発表しています。
Most of us do not worship the Sun as did many in ancient civilizations,
この下線部訳ですが，河合塾訳は「私たちのほとんどは古代文明の多くの人とは違って，太陽を崇拝することはない」
となっていました。一見簡単な英文で，河合塾の訳が間違っているとは思いたくないのですが，代ゼミ，及び私の解釈は「私たちのほとんどは古代文明の多くの人々が崇拝したようには太陽を崇拝しない」です。
→ 大意
Ⅲ
After dark we all sat together by the fire
roasting dried yak's meat.
"Have you ever heard
of the Yeti?" Our guide said unexpectedly.
“Yes, I have" I
said.
"Then I must warn
you that tomorrow we shall be entering yeti country. There are many of them in
this area," he explained. “Terrible creatures. Half-human and half-beast ---
very tall and strong. It is said that their feet point backwards, so that you
cannot tell where they have come from or where they are going to, and they can
smell a human from fifteen kilometers away."
"What happens if you
meet one?" I asked.
“It depends. If a male yeti meets a man, he will kill him;
but if he meets a woman he will turn and put her into the pouch on his back and
carry her away into the mountains. The female yeti will do the same thing with
a man."
“Have you ever seen
one?"
“Not myself. But I know
many people who have. Would you like to hear a story my grandfather told
me?"
“Yes, please.”
He cleared his throat.
"Near my
grandfather's village, where I lived as a boy, there was a female yeti living
in the hills. One day a friend of my grandfather's went into the forest to
collect firewood, and there he met this yeti, and was captured. For a whole
year he was kept prisoner in her cave, and fed only on raw meat. But he was a
cunning fellow, and one day he had an idea. He started to make himself a pair
of shoes out of the skins of the animals the yeti had killed. When the yeti saw
them she was very envious of these beautiful shoes, and so the man made some
for her also. The next day he waited until the yeti was asleep, and then he
took his chance . . . and ran away down the mountainside as fast as he could.
The yeti woke up and chased after him, but the man had sewn the shoes on to her
feet so she could not take them off, and they were so slippery and soft that
she kept on sliding and falling in the snow- --And so this way the man
escaped."
"When he returned to
the village everyone was amazed, they had all thought he was dead. It was very
expensive for his family," he added. "they had just finished paying
for the last of the funeral ceremonies. And there he was---still alive.
We gazed into the night,
at the dark shadows of the hills which looked like giant animals waiting to
jump at us. (448 words)
易しい英文でびっくりしました。しかし，後半のガイドの話を６０字でまとめるのは結構大変でした。yetiですが，スクラブルでは重要単語。yet → yetiとつながるので，単語を作る場合には結構重宝します。昔RPGゲームをやっていた時にもよく登場しました。
（３月２０日）
You may have heard that
chimpanzees and dolphins are among the world's most intelligent creatures. But recent discoveries have convinced scientists
that many of the world's farm animals are smarter than we had thought. Take sheep, for example. Scientists at the Babraham Institute in
Other research has
suggested that some animals even practice various forms of group decision
making, as the following example illustrates:
The
African Buffaloes had agreed: It was time to head east. The decision was made quietly. Several members of the herd simply stared into
the distance, and the whole group took off in that direction.
The buffaloes' behavior
has got the science-world talking. Last month,
researchers announced in Nature magazine that they have learned how some
animals make decisions - --they vote! The study, by Larissa Conradt and Tim
Roper of the
So, how do animals vote? It depends on the animal. Roper and Conradt observed
(367
words)
西南学院の問題には昔から好意を持っていましたが，今回やってみると多少易しい気がしました。以前はもっとがっちりした，かなり難しめの英文のような気がしていたのですが。
今年の入試の問題は担当した大学が多少易しめということもあり，英文の出典が確定できませんでした。今回は久しぶりにぴったしの出典が見つかりました。
子ども向けタイムがあるようで，その記事のようです。2003年，１月２４日，Birds do it! Bees do it!という英文。順序は変えていますが，ほぼ，そのままです。また，元になった研究報告はこれも大変話題になったようで，確認できます。
Ⅱ
What's the best substance
to clean your clothes with? Fat or oil, of course! That doesn't sound right?
Well, how about adding some ashes to the oil? Sounds worse, doesn't it? But
that's the basis of soap, and people have been using it to clean themselves and
their clothes and dishes for thousands of years. No one knows who first started using soap. There are recipes for soap on clay tablets
dating from 2500 BC, but the recipes don't say what the soap was used for. Later cultures used a similar mixture --- as
hair treatment.
One story has it that
Roman women were washing clothes in the
It is likely, however,
that soap's discovery was accidental. Who would think of using ashes and oil to get
things clean? People knew it worked long before they could explain why. One way that soap cleans is by reducing
water's surface tension. What's that?
Water molecules are attracted to one another. On the surface of the water, the molecules are
attracted to the water, not to the air. They are pulled toward the rest of the water. This pull is called surface tension. It's why water forms drops on surfaces. Surface tension makes it hard for water to
wash away dirt. The water tends to stick
to itself, not to the dirt. It is the
composition of soap that helps to overcome the problem of surface tension.
Soaps are made from fats
and oils. More specifically, they are
made from the fatty acids in fats and oils. Fatty acids are turned into soap by treating
them with a strong alkali, which causes a chemical reaction. That's where the ashes come in. Plant ashes first provided the alkali needed
to make soap. The combination of basic
elements makes soap useful for cleaning things. Now of course, soaps are produced in factories.
If you look at the list of contents in a
bar of soap, you might see names of a number of chemicals. These are the alkalis that react with fatty
acid molecules. The new molecules that
are formed by this reaction are called "surface active agents. "
These agents break down water's surface tension to make the water
"wetter," so it can react with dirt more easily. One side of each soap molecule is attracted to
water. It is called the hydrophilic
(water-loving) end. The other side of
the molecule is attracted to dirt and naturally moves away from water. It is the hydrophobic (water-hating) end. The water-hating end "grabs" the
dirt, and the water-loving end pulls the dirt away from whatever you're trying
to clean and toward the water. The soap
holds the dirt in the water so that it can be washed away.
Soapmaking was an
established business in
こちらも，他の大学と同じ，簡単な説明文でしたが，出典が確認できました。長文が二つとも文学部ぽくない，内容で少し驚き。２番目の中盤の石けんの働きは常識といえば，常識ですが，英語で読むとまた趣が違うし，第１，石けんそのものの働きはどこかでまとめて学習するのでしょうか。もう，昔のことですっかり忘れてしまいました。
こちらは，The Christian Science Monitor ２００３年６月３日付けの記事，The mystery and history of soad by Sharon J. Huntington。このタイトルがそのまま問題になっています。常々，入試の題材は前年度の６月ぐらいの記事が多い，と話していますが，これは典型的な例です。
（３月１３日）
１
A common misconception,
held even by otherwise sophisticated movie-goers, is that language in film
cannot be as complex as it is in literature. The fact that Shakespeare has been
successfully brought to the screen with no significant
impoverishment
in either language or visual beauty - should stand as an obvious contradiction
to this notion. In fact, a number of great films are not particularly literary.
This is not to say that movies are incapable of literary distinction, but only
that some filmmakers wish to emphasize other aspects of their art.
In some respects,
language in film can be more complex than in literature. In the first place,
the words of a movie, like those of the live theater, are spoken, not written,
and the human voice is capable of far more nuances than the cold printed page.
The written word is a crude approximation of the connotative richness of spoken
language. Thus, to take a simple example of no literary merit, the meaning of
the words "I will see him tomorrow" seem obvious enough in written
form. But an actor can emphasize one word over the others and thus change the
meanings of the sentence completely. Here are a few possibilities:
I will see him tomorrow. (implying,
not you or anyone else)
I
will see him tomorrow. ( a )
I
will see him tomorrow. ( b )
I
will see him tomorrow- ( c )
1
will see him tomorrow. ( d )
Of course, a novelist or
poet could emphasize specific words by italicizing them. But unlike actors,
writers don't generally underline words in every sentence. On the other hand,
actors routinely go through their speeches to see which words to stress, which
to "throw away," and the ways to best achieve these effects - in each
and every sentence. To a gifted actor, the written speech is a mere blueprint,
an outline, compared to the complexities of spoken speech. A performer with an
excellent voice - a Meryl Streep or a James Earl Jones - could wrench ten or
twelve meanings from this simple sentence, let alone a Shakespearean soliloquy.
This is merely one of the
advantages of language that film enjoys over literature - advantages shared, in
large part, by the live theater. As an art of juxtapositions, movies can also
extend the meanings of language by contrasting spoken words with images. The
sentence "I will see him tomorrow" acquires still other meanings when
the image shows the speaker smiling, for example, or frowning, or looking
determined. All sorts of juxtapositions are possible. The sentence could be
delivered with a determined emphasis, but an image of a frightened face can
modify the verbal determination or even cancel it out. The juxtaposed image
could be a reaction shot - thus emphasizing the effect of the statement on the
listener. Or the camera could photograph an important object, implying a
connection among the speaker, the words, and the object. If the speaker is
photographed in long shot, his or her juxtaposition with the environment could
also change the meanings of the words. The same line spoken in close-up would
emphasize yet different meanings. (525 words)
2
Now, here's a twist on test preparation: Two
economists have concluded that administrators in Virginia may be serving
students higher-energy lunches on test days to boost the scores of poorly
performing schools on state standardized exams.
David Figlio and Joshua Winicki made that
startling claim after analyzing the nutrition and caloric content of school
lunches in 23 randomly selected school districts on the days in 2000 when
They found that test-day lunches in some
school districts contained, on average, about 860 calories or roughly 110
calories more than lunches in the weeks before or after the testing period.
After further analyzing the data, they determined that these energy-boosting
meals were on the menu in districts that contained at least one school in which
fewer than 70 percent of the students met minimum proficiency levels. The state
designated these schools as "failing" ? a big incentive for
administrators to boost SOL scores, Figlio said.
The
extra calories seemed to help. Districts that offered the higher-energy lunches
reported an 11-percentage point increase in the number of children who passed
the mathematics exam, while pass rates in English and history/social studies
both increased by 6 percentage points, apparently "as a result of the calorie
manipulation." asserted Figlio, a University of Florida professor, and Winicki,
who works for the Washington-based American Institutes for Research.
The improved scores aren't surprising, Figlio
said. Numerous laboratory studies confirm that high-energy, "empty
calorie" foods enhance short-term cognitive ability, including verbal
skills, but the effect quickly disappears. (Their review of cafeteria menus
found that schools tended "to increase the level of simple carbohydrates
on test days," Figlio said. "In a sense, it's like athletes carbo-loading
before a race.")
Well, so what - if it works, is there
something wrong with giving kids this kind of a leg up?
"I
don't think there's anything wrong with this practice," Figlio said.
"My only point is that if test scores are manipulable by activities like
this, then perhaps they should not be treated as the 'end all and be all' of
evaluating schools. States and the federal government should work to design
accountability systems where behaviors like this are minimized.
Figlio said he has a 9-year-old daughter in
the third grade. Has he ever been tempted to "juice" her lunches on
test days to improve her scores?
Of
course, he said.
"I sent enough chocolate cookies to
sustain my daughter's third-grade class during test week this past March,"
he said. "They seem to be ideal because they are high in calories but with
very little fat, which apparently slows the absorption of calories."
(440
words)
こちらの問題はもっと楽。おそらくどこかの新聞の記事だと思われますが，これも出典は確認できませんでした。この記事に登場する二人の研究レポートはインターネットで手に入るようです。
（３月２日）
Katsuyoshi Ukon still remember the day five years ago when he received a call from a an elderly Tokyo woman. Then as now, Ukon was a benriya, or hadyman, who make his living doing odd jobs for clients. He ran errands, watched pets and made minor household repairs. But this call was different: the elegant, 70-year-old woman who greeted him at the door simply wanted him to dine with her. For the next hour or so, she did most of the talking, mostly about her regrets in life and why she’d decided to move out of her son’s house. (She didn’t get along with his wife.) When it was time for Ukon to leave, the woman insisted on giving him \1 million for listening. He was shocked, and to this day calls the payment “\1 million of solitude.”
But Ukon, 61, remembers
that particular job for more than just the money: it was the first time he realized that the
nature of his work --- and Japanese society ---was changing. A country that had been absorbed in gaining
prosperity and maintaining social unity in the latter half of the 20th century
was starting to become less successful ---to get needy. Nowadays, more and more Japanese are turning
to benriya to fill that need. Like most
of
Lonely old people depend
on such handymen for basic human contact.
Parents are searching out benriya to spend time with children who seem
isolated or depressed. Some grown-ups
who simply can’t clean their rooms ask benriya to do the job. Shame still surrounds psychological problems
in
The neediest Japanese may
be the elderly. Studies show that more
than 3 million Japanese over the age of 65 live alone. At the same time, say sociologists, the
graying of the Japanese population has coincided with a weakening of
traditional “Confucian values, which emphasize family obligations. Although 30 years ago an eldest son could be
expected to take care of his aging parents and tend to the family grave, in
recent years fewer sons seem interested in the obon(ancestors’ homecoming day)
and the graveyard duties that it involves.
So benriya accompany elder family members to the graveyards and while
there clean the tombstones and lay flowers.
One
It’s not just the
elderly, though, what need a helping hand.
Sociologists say a rising number of Japanese youngsters suffer from a
mental problem called hikikomori, or social-withdrawal syndrome. The disorder may afflict more than a million
people, with symptoms that can include paranoia and severe anxiety. Ukon allows some of his clients to stay with
him for companionship, charging a monthly rent of \99,600 for accommodations,
and even throws a party every Friday to give some of the recluses an
opportunity to interact with others. “Some
Japanese people, especially youngsters, are sensitive to any social frictions,”
says Ohsawa. “They are like crabs
without a shell, afraid of being hurt.”
These kinds of social
ailments have caused a dramatic increase in the demand for the benriya
business. Yatauka Aoki, 64, who has
managed a housecleaning and handyman service in Tokyo for more than a decade, remembers
the wave of people flocking to his trade three or four years ago. “It was the time when the economy was really
going down and salary men were losing jobs,” says Aoki. “They jointed our business because it neither
requires much start-up money nor does it need a license or certificate.” Aoki says most tend to come and go, as the
handyman’s job demands patience and understanding in order to get to know the
people in the community and find clients.
It also takes a great deal of empathy.
Aoki recalls assisting a disabled man in a wheelchair on a weeklong trip
to
Many other benriya have
similar on-the-job tales. And that’s
exactly the kind of job Masahiro Adachi, a 60-year-old retired executive, wants
now that he’s just finished a three-month apprenticeship under Ukon. “I want to make my second career a kind of
job that could help other people,” says Adachi. These handymen know better than
most that
(850 words)
便利屋は結構有名なようで、特に右近氏は本も出したようで、いろいろなところで取り上げられているようです。長文は１題ですが、８５０語と入試の標準語数を大幅に上回っています。まぁ、易しい英文ではありますが。
（２月１４日）
The
fight for the right for women to vote in
Emmiline Pankhurst had always been polite to
Members of Parliament when asking them to give women the vote, but in Manchster
on
On
Later that year Parliament refused to give
women the vote. In a meeting held after
this setback, a call for more violent action was proposed, even if this meant
breaking the law. The Suffragettes
decided that the all-male Parliament needed to be shocked into taking
action. It wasn’t long before their
motto. “Deeds, not words” came into
effect.
In 1906, two of the Suffragettes attended a
meeting held by Sir Edward Grey, a leading politician. There they attacked a policeman, and were
arrested and sentenced to pay a fine or spend seven days in prison. They could have paid the fine and gone
home. However, one of them refused to
pay and was sent to prison. As time went
by there were more arrests and imprisonments for members of the suffragettes. They shouted down cabinet ministers,
protested in Parliament and on the streets, but still there was no move towards
a vote for women.
In 1912, the Suffragettes used new violent
tactics as hundreds of women took to the streets of
When the First World War started in 1914, Emmiline Pankhurst suspended all violent action and called on her followers to help defend the country. Before long women were streaming into the factories. In 1916, Herbert Asquith, the Prime Minister, began to face up to the fact that, because of their service during the war, women could not be prevented from getting the vote after the war ended. In the House of Commons in June 1917, the women’s suffrage bill was debated. The idea that women were inferior to men was rejected and it was admitted that they really were equal to men in the social, intellectual and economic fields. Finally, in January 1918, women were given the right to vote for the first time. It had taken them nearly forty years. (512 words)
書き下ろしの英文か，なにかの教材のようで，インターネットでは，そのものずばりの英文は見つかりませんでした。題材は女性参政権獲得に尽力したパンクハーストの簡単な説明です。実は２００３年度に教員専修免許状を取得するために，２年目の放送大学の講義を受講しました。初年度も３科目６単位を無事取得したのですが，どの科目も免許状更新には有効ではないとあとで判明しました。そんなわけで，受講料１５万円が全く無駄になりましたが，こうなれば意地でも取得しようと思い２年目の受講をしました。その一つが地域文化研究。東大のイギリス学人脈の方々がテーマごとに登場して，１５回，いろいろな面から講義が行われました。
その第５章が「政治と女性」静岡大学助教授鈴木実佳先生。４５分の授業で大変駆け足でしたが，女性参政権の部分はレポートでも出題され，筆記試験の時にも出題されました。
私は２つの代表的な女性団体を混乱していて，おそらく，全く別の団体について説明してしまったと思いますが，女性参政権運動は本英文に登場するエメリン・パンクハーストと娘のクリスタベル，シルヴィアの母娘が中心のWSPU(Women's Social and Political Union)「女性社会政治同盟」とフォーセット婦人(Millicent Garrett Fawcett)が指導する穏健派 NUWSS(National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies)「女性参政権協会全国同盟」があり，鈴木先生は後者を評価している感じでした。
したがって，この英文は誤りとはいえないまでも，パンクハーストに絞って，あたかも彼女の功績で女性参政権を獲得したかのような説明文にはちょっと疑問符がついてしまいます。まぁ，女子大の文学部での出題として妥当だとは思いますが。
（２月２１日）
明治・法
Food has always been our
best medicine. Everything we need to
stay healthy can be found in nature’s abundant storehouse, including medicines
that can heal us should we fall sick.
Today, at the end of the twentieth century, those of us who are privileged
enough to live in the Western world enjoy higher standards of hygiene than ever
before and have unparalleled choice and access to food and excellent health
care. Yet, surprisingly, we are among
the worst-nourished nations in the world.
The shocking fact is that, even though we do
not suffer the famines of the developing world, many of us are no better nourished
than the severely malnourished peoples of the developing world. As we have become more affluent, we have
acquired poor eating habits: we regularly miss meals or eat too fast, which can
put a great strain on our gastro-intestinal tract; we eat diets rich in refined
sugar, cholesterol and salt (which appeal to our sense of taste) and low in
fibre, which puts a strain on the eliminative processes as these types of food
remain in the colon for a long time, increasing the risk of a build-up of
toxins.
The biggest killers of the Western world ---
heart disease, digestive disorders, cancer, and other degenerative diseases ---
are virtually unheard of in rural communities in
We eat nutrient-starved foods, take vitamin
and mineral supplements our bodies cannot fully utilize and, not surprisingly,
fall prey to a wide range of illnesses.
Instead of teaching us how to get back to basics and really look after
ourselves, doctors treat diseases caused by unnatural foods as if they were an
inevitable part of life. Millions of
pounds are spent---each year on drugs to control heart disease, digestive
disorders and cancer. If we stood back
for a moment and observed the reasons why chronic illness develops, we could
avoid much of this misery.
Diet affects not only our physical, but our
mental health. Studies in the
(521
words)
あきらかなイギリス英語だと思われます。fibreなど。ただ，原典の記事は見つかりませんでした。
どうも最近では，新聞記事のインターネットへの公開が期間限定で，その後は有料になりつつあります。そんなことがあって，全く引っかかり真選でした。英文としては「やや難」としましたが，入試英文としては標準的なものです。
２
One of the most arresting statistics that I
have seen in a good while is that 5 percent of all the energy used in the
I can’t confirm this personally, but I can
certainly tell you that on numerous occasions I have glanced out hotel room
windows late at night, in a variety of cities, and been struck by the fact that
lots of lights in lots of office buildings are still burning, and that computer
screens are indeed flickering.
Why don’t we turn these things off? For the same reason, I suppose, that so many
people leave their car engines running when they pop into a friend’s house, or
keep lights blazing in unoccupied rooms, or have the central heating turned up
to an incredibly high temperature ? because, in short, electricity, gasoline,
and other energy sources are so relatively cheap, and have been for so long,
that it doesn’t occur to behave otherwise.
We are terribly wasteful of resources in
this country. The average American uses
twice as much energy to get through life as the average European. With just 5 percent of the world’s
population, we consume 20 percent of its resources. These are not statistics to be proud of.
In 1992 at the Earth Summit in
In the event, greenhouse emissions in the
What the administration has done in terms
of greenhouse emissions is to introduce a set of standards that industries are
entirely free to ignore if they wish, and mostly of course they so with. Now President Clinton wants another fifteen
or sixteen years before rolling back emissions to 1990 levels.
Perhaps I am misreading the national mood, but it is hard to find anyone
who seems much concerned about this.
Increasingly there is even a kind of antagonism to the idea of conservation,
particularly if there is a cost attached.
A recent survey of twenty-seven thousand people around the globe by a
Canadian group called Environics International found that in virtually every
advanced nation people were willing to sacrifice at least a small measure of
economic growth for cleaner air and a healthier environment. The one
exceptions: the
Even President Clinton’s proposals to
transfer the problem to a successor four terms down the road have met with
fervent opposition. A coalition of industrialists
and other interested parties has raised $13 million to fight any initiative that
gets in the way of their interests. It
has been running national radio ads grimly warning that if the president’s new
energy plans are implemented, gasoline prices could go up by fifty cents a
gallon. Mention an increase in gas
prices for any purpose at all and --- however small the amount, however sound
the reason --- most people will instinctively resist.
What is saddest about all this is that a
good part of these goals to cut greenhouse emissions could be met without any
cost at all if we merely modified our extravagance. It has been estimated that the nation as a
whole wastes about $300 billion of energy a year. We are not talking here about energy that
could be saved by investing in new technologies. We are talking about energy that could be
saved just by switching things off or turning things down. (695 words)
こちらは出典がわかりました。英文としては，クリントン大統領がまだ在籍し，リオデジャネイロの環境サミットが大きく取り上げられているところをみると，１９９０年代後半ということで，京都議定書を一方的に破棄したブッシュが１期目を終えようとしている現在では，英文の古さは隠しようがありません。出典はI'm a Stranger Her Myself, bill Brysonで，なんと，昨年担当した学習院・経済学部と同じ出典でした。
（２月２９日）
Fuel
Cells ---A Power Source for the 21st Century
In recent years, more and
more people have become worried about the growing lack of natural
resources. There has also been an
increasing awareness of the environmental damage caused by the burning of fossil
fuels. This, for example, is now
believed to result in a rise in the temperature of the Earth, as the level of
carbon dioxide in the air increases. These
problems have forced society to look for different forms of energy. One of the most promising of these is the
fuel cell. Fuel cells are an efficient,
non-polluting power source. They
produce no noise and have no moving parts.
In the last few years, fuel cells have been put in hospitals and
schools, and many auto companies are now designing prototype fuel cell powered cars.
Despite their modern, high-tech
appearance, fuel cells have actually been known to science for more than 150
years. The history of the fuel cell can
be traced back to the 19th century and the work of the British scientist, Sir
William Robert Grove. His experiments in
1839 on electrolysis --- the use of electricity to split water into hydrogen
and oxygen --- led to the first mention of a device that would later be called
the fuel cell. Grove discovered that by
putting the ends of two platinum electrodes into a container of sulfuric acid and
the other ends into sealed containers of oxygen and hydrogen, electricity could
be produced. In addition, he found that
the only waste product from this was normal water. This meant that the production of electricity
would not be harmful to the environment,
While the concept of fuel
cells has been known for over 150 years, the first practical fuel cells were
developed for the NASA space program in the 1960s. The space program required an efficient,
reliable and compact energy source for the Gemini and Apollo spacecrafts, and
the fuel cell was a good fit. Today,
NASA continues to use fuel cells to power the Space Shuttle. Unfortunately the main problem with developing
fuel cells for cars and the home is the high cost of manufacturing the
devices. On the other hand, recent
technological improvements and a large investment in them by auto companies,
NASA, and other organizations, have led to rapid falls in the manufacturing
cost. It is now expected that fuel cells
will have practical applications for producing power in our daily lives within
the next few years. (427 words)
（３月１３日）
またしても出典は確認できませんでした。
岡山理科大は昨年も科学技術的な英文素材でした。読みやすい内容です。
問題はかなり易です。後半の文法問題は大変基礎的。時間もかなりあまりそう。
