高校生英語学習情報

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典型的な「仮定法過去完了」
The aunt added that if school officials had contacted the family as soon as the boy left school, his mother might have been able to come home earlier and could have prevented the tragedy

elementary_school_suicide_wanted_teacher_to_die.pdfをダウンロード

有名になったNYtimesの指摘[動名詞]
   Despite having only two major leaguers, Japan won the tournament. Despite having no major leaguers, Cuba finished second. The United States feels it has the best players in the world. In this tournament, that was untrue.

newYorkTimes.pdfをダウンロード

The Classic World Baseball

場面が生き生き描かれているので、場面を想像しならが読んでみよう。
==========================================
To Japanese, California Scheming; to U.S., a Good Call

The Classic (World Baseball) kicked off last week as a novelty act —-- full of songs and dances and low pitch counts —-- but it really started getting serious with one out in the eighth inning Sunday, when Japan's Akinori Iwamura lofted a bases-loaded fly ball to left field.

The play began innocuously enough. United States left fielder Randy Winn made the catch, and Tsuyoshi Nishioka tagged up from third base. Winn's throw drifted up the third-base line and Nishioka scored to give Japan a 4-3 lead. Nishioka did not even have to slide.

The United States appealed, claiming Nishioka left early, but such appeals are generally considered formalities after Little League. They are rarely granted and are often considered acts of desperation. Brian Knight, the second-base umpire, who had rushed over to third, rejected the appeal and signaled that Nishioka was safe.

Only then, when the play was over, did it get interesting. Buck Martinez, the United States manager, ran out of the dugout — not to Knight, but to the home-plate umpire, Bob Davidson. Martinez insisted that Nishioka left third base early. Davidson talked it over with the rest of the crew.

Perhaps the loudest cheer of the day went up when Davidson called Nishioka out, erasing Japan's run and keeping the score tied. Sadaharu Oh, the Japanese manager, who is also the leading home run hitter in professional baseball history, bolted from his dugout, wagging his index finger at Davidson. Oh was trailed by an interpreter, presumably to help him argue more convincingly with an American umpire.

Although the inning was over, Japanese players refused to leave the dugout, their own quiet show of protest. It took three umpires, waving their arms angrily, to finally get them out onto the field.

Japan, already defeated in spirit, lost the game in the bottom of the ninth when Alex Rodriguez singled with the bases loaded and two out.

[from New York Times,2006.3.13]

[なお、New York Timesを購読するには登録が必要。無料なのでまだ登録していない人は、英語の指示に従ってフォームに記入して、登録作業を体験してみよう]

なお、low pitch countsといういい方がでいるけれども、ここでなにを言わんとしているかちょっと分かりません。

東京大学後期試験

もう特別な人々が行く大学でなくなったことが、その入試問題にも読み取れます。やはり「学力低下」は東大受験にも反映しているようですね。その意味で「入った」だけではほとんど意味なく、入学後いかにしっかり勉強するかがますます大切になってきています。

この程度の問題を突破するために、小学校から準備するなどという昨今の風潮はなんともわけが分かりません。

さて、具体的に扱う前に、問題の全体をアップしますので、一読してみましょう。高校1年生でも十分読める英語です。

２００６度、東京大学後期試験（論文I　英語）06tokyo_kohkimon.pdfをダウンロード

以下、少しずつ読んでいきましょう。

    We humans use animals. We eat them, play with them, and wear their skins. Most important, we use them as the subjects of experiments in advancing medical science. Animals of many species---rabbits, clogs, pigs, monkeys, but mice and rats above all ---have long been used in scientific research. Such research has led to discoveries that have saved millions of human lives and have contributed to the safety and well-being of hundreds of millions of other lives, animal and human. In experiments aimed at the discovery of new drugs or other medicines to promote human health, animal subjects are essential. They are also indispensable in testing the safety of drugs and other products to be used by humans. Anesthetized*, the animals serving in this way are seldom caused pain. Some do experience distress, however, and many are killed.

まず、この英文のテーマを読み取ってみましょう。

Birth of Coca Cola

  Over a hundred years ago, John Pemberton ran a small drugstore in Atlanta, Georgia. He made and sold drinks and medicines there. He was very proud of his Pemberton's Blood Medicine and another medicine called Pemberton's Herbal Cough Syrup for coughs that would not go away.
  John made his medicines in a small laboratory in his house. One day, he was working on an important new medicine---the perfect cure for headaches. He chose his ingredients carefully. To make the medicine taste good, he used oils from fruits and spices. He added caffeine to give people energy. But he also needed something to reduce the pain of a headache So he added some coca leaves from Peru Finally, he had a new medicine that tasted good, gave energy and reduced pain.
  John's headache medicine was a reddish-brown syrup which was mixed with water. John started to sell his new medidne in the summer of 1886. The new medicine soon became popular. Many people would come to his store for a glass of Pembertcn's Special Headache Medicine before they went to work.
  One day, a customer arrived at the store and he looked terrible "I feel just awful," the customer told the young clerk. "I drank too much last night, I have a hangover and a bad headache. Give me a Pemberton's. Quickly!" The clerk was confused and
mixed the syrup with "carbonated water instead of ordinary water. And that is how a new drink was born: Coca Cola.

Coca Colaは、どのようにして誕生したと上記の文章では言っているか。まとめてみよう。

Learn more about Coca Cola on the following site:
http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/coca_cola.htm

Marmite

    It is strange the things which people miss. I, and many other English people living abroad, miss a strange kind of food called 'Marmite'. You can buy Marmite in Japan, but it is expensive, so whenever I go back to England, I buy some to bring back with me. My brother did the same when he used to live in the United States, and many English people living abroad are careful to make sure that they buy a stock of Marmite when they visit England. I can't really explain Marmite, except to say that it is made from the yeasty muck that is left at the bottom of the vat when beer is brewed, that it has been going now for over a hundred years, and that when my Japanese mother-in-law found some in our refrigerator, she opened the jar, she sniffed it, and she decided instantly that this was something so old, rotten and disgusting that she had better throw it away very quickly before it walked away by itself. I nearly cried when I got back from work and found it gone. Maybe an English mother-in-law would react the same way to miso, natto or umeboshi, but it is still a shock to find your Marmite gone.　[NHK『ビジネス英会話』テキストより]

It is strange the things which people miss.　見慣れない表現かもしれません。どういう表現のバリエーションと考えればいいでしょうか？その他、ここに表れる文章構造を考えてみましょう。

４月から高校１年生になる人たちへ

ここでは文章構造の分析をやります。英語の勉強に必ずしも必要な作業ではありませんが、多読、口頭訓練、音読、リスニングと併用することを前提に進めてゆきます。英語学習の補助学習と位置づけでやってゆきます。

当スクールで常に強調する３点

１．  時制[現在か過去か]

２．  数[単数か複数か、数えられる名詞か数えられない名詞か]

３．  S+V[動詞語法を軸に、動作の主体、話題の主体を常に捉える習慣をつける]

具体的には少しずつお話してゆきます。