新潟大学学士編入試験で出題された（学部の試験でも好まれている）、レストランに関するもの、「食」に関するもの、「列挙せよ」（男女の違いについて）など、出題傾向のそった課題です。毎年傾向が変わっていますが、こういう例の列挙、というのは練習しておくべきだと思います。もれなく記述しようとするとき、そんな点で作業が止まってしまうかをしっかり把握して弱点の克服につなげてください。英文自体は平易内容です。
以下の英文を読んで、下線部の具体的な例を出来るだけ多く列挙しなさい。
Various superstitions should be observed by diners as they sit at the table for a meal. To avoid the risk of bad luck, no one should move from the seat allocated to them and care should be taken not to kick over one’s chair when getting up, which indicates that one has been telling lies. Children, meanwhile, should be discouraged from going under the table as this threatens their safety; if they do crawl under the table they should be sent back the same way in order to escape harm.
Single girls in particular should not sit at the corner of a table, which means they will never be married, and girls engaged to be married should never talk to their partners while sitting on a table because this risks the engagement being called off (though some people say that girls who sit on tables are unconsciously expressing their desire for a mate). Should two people sit on a table together, meanwhile, there is sure to be a quarrel.
Other taboo activities at the table include singing, lying down on it (said to be a sign of death), and placing shoes on top it. British superstition informs that should a coffin shape be found at the center of a tablecloth when it is unfolded, this is a warning of death in the family. Some people add that it is also unwise to leave a tablecloth on the table overnight. A guest eating his first meal in a house should not fold his napkin at the end of the meal, since this means that he will never eat there again.
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