医学部を目指し、Natureなど科学・医学記事を英語で読む

医学部受験もハリー・ポッターから

ハリーポッターを核に、様々な雑誌記事など広範囲に英文に触れることで、語彙力が身に付いてゆきます。

それぞれどういう意味でしょう。
plaque
... a door on the left stood ajar, revealing a broom cupboard, and a door on the right bore a tarnished brass plaque reading: Misuse of Muggle Artefacts.[p.132, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]

  One to three months after doing so, Dr Balin killed his mice and examined their brains. All the animals had developed plaques. Moreover, the longer an animal lived after the initial infection, the more plaques it had, and the larger they were.
("Alzheimer's disease", Economist Vol. 370 No. 8367, 2004)

bracket
They reached the bottom of the steps and ran along yet another corridor, which bore a great resemblance to the one that led to Snape's dungeon at Hogwarts, with rough stone walls and torches in brackets.
[from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]

The benefit to those in the higher tax bracket would persist, however, because the value of the new deduction would increase with the taxpayer's marginal tax rate. The income-tax break would be worth $5,250 for a family in the 35% tax bracket but only $1,500 for a family in the 10% bracket.
[from the New Englsih Journal of Medicine, 2007]

医学部学士編入用関連英単語

学士対策指導課題からぷっくアップした医学関連英単語を下記の携帯サイトにアップしてゆきます。受講者の方は確認用に利用してください。

引用範囲は、各大学過去出題問題、Nature, Nature Medicine, N Engl J of M, Science, Scientific American, Lancetなどです。

http://robagoya-juku.com/i/index.html

文章構造を見抜けますか？

文法・語法的な事柄としては基礎ですが、文章の中にでてくると見抜けないことがあります。以下の文章は、学士編入試験の過去の問題、最新の医学雑誌記事からのものですが、ともに頻出です。

The military researchers contributed greatly to anthrax research, but the mechanism of the toxin wouldn't have been so quickly solved had university labs not gotten involved as well.

[The Best American Science Writing, 2003]

Some did have feelings of hopelessness characterized by an inability to envision a meaningful future given the limits imposed by their disease, but such feelings are often distinct from clinical depression.

(N EnglJ Med May 10, 2007)

学部指導例

学士編入の人もやってみてください。2007年東大（前期４）の試験に出されました。なお、東大の後期試験では2006年、2007年ともNatureから出題されていました。

次の英文の下線部１）、２）、３）を和訳せよ。２）については、ｉｔが何を指すか明らかになるように訳すこと。

   The nature and function of medicine has gradually changed over the past century. 1）What was once a largely communicative activity aimed at looking after the sick has become a technical enterprise able to treat them with increasing success. While few would want to give up these technical advances and go back to the past, medicine's traditional caring functions have been left behind as the practices of curing have become more established, and 2)it is criticized now for losing the human touch that made it so helpful to patients even before it knew how to cure them.

   The issue looks simple: human communication versus technique. However, we all know that in medicine it is never easy to separate the two. Research on medical practice shows that a patient's physical condition is often affected by the quality of communication between the doctor and the patient, 3)Even such an elementary form of consideration for the patient as explaining the likely effects of a treatment can have an impact on the outcome. We are also aware that in the cases where medicine still does not offer effective cures the need for old-style care is particularly strong. Hence it is important to remember the communicative dimension of modern  medicine.

Nature Digestから無料公開記事

Blood made suitable for all
http://www.nature.com/ndigest/journal/v4/n5/pdf/ndigest.2007.070526.pdf

単語の解説：
antigens : 抗原
glycosidase enzymes : グリコシダーゼ酵素
clinical trials : 臨床試験、治験
immune reactions : 免疫反応
SARS : 重症急性呼吸器症候群（SARS）
mad-cow disease : 狂牛病
West Nile disease : 西ナイル熱

などが要領よく説明されています。