解答例へ

問題１

１. 以下の英文を読み,各設問に答えなさい。

Imagine a living, breathing organism still alive after 600 years.  A miniature tree, preciously tended over the centuries by a succession of owners, for whom more beauty was to be found in the toad-like calluses of gnarled bark and shrivelled roots, the extended silhouette of twisted branches, the sudden efflorescence of spring buds and their dying autumnal blaze, (   A   ) in all the gold in China.  There was such a tree, or bonsai ---literally “tree in a pot”--- in an auction at Sothebys, last June.  Estimated by the auction house to be worth £40,000-60,000, it failed to reach its reserve price and was bought in by the house for £28,000.  Sothehys has since blamed the current restrictions on importing live flora into Japan and the US, the two largest markets for bonsai in the world, for _（イ）the sale result.  In those countries, the experts argue, the same tree would have easily fetched its asking price.  Away from Sotheby's, a small group of bonsai fans arrive for their monthly meeting in the Becorp Social Club, in south-east London.  They come bearing their precious cargo for inspection by the club's master of ceremonies, Mike Paice, a man whose brusqueness fails to mask a genuine passion for all things bonsai.  They are quiet people, individuals whose idea of a good evening's entertainment at the club consists of impressing each other with long _（ロ）Latin plant names in between staring long and hard at a l2in-high tree, their concentration broken by the occasional, daring snip at the odd twig here and there.  "Most people are frightened to prune," explains Paice.  _（ハ）"It takes confidence. "

(1) 空欄(A)には英語1語が入る。その語を書きなさい．

(2) 下線部(イ)の内容を,日本語で句読点も含め35字以内で具体的に説明しなさい。

(3) 下線部(口)が具体的に指すものになるように,次の□に漢字二文字を入れなさい．

(4) 下線部内をitが何を指すかはっきりさせて日本語に訳しなさい。

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