難関大学を目指し、英文記事を読む！

nanotechnology

後期でも出題の可能性があるnanotechnology。確認しておきましょう。［以下の文は抜粋です。最後の部分の意味が不明な場合は出題番号２全体を読んでみてください。

  So, what is the solution to these technological problems[one of them is the physical limit of semiconductor industry]? Perhaps the most exciting alternative comes in the form of nanotechnology. Basically, nanotechnology will allow humans to control matter on a tiny scale. The smallest possible scale is the atomic level and if humans could control atoms we would be able to make incredibly small chips and computers. This is what nanotechnology is all about: the control of matter at the atomic level.
  In 1981 IBM took the first practical step toward making nanotechnology a reality by making a new microscope. The microscope was so powerful it allowed researchers to see atoms and molecules for the first time. Scientists had talked and written about working at this atomic level before, but they had to wait until IBM's invention to make it possible. Now that scientists can see at this atomic level it may be possible to control atoms, move them around and build products from the atomic level. This would allow humans to make virtually perfect materials and products, atom by atom. Many scientists believe that nanotechnology will become as important as electricity, that it will allow the creation of new materials and products and great advances in electronics, energy and medicine. It would certainly allow chips to become smaller and more powerful than Gordon Moore ever imagined and get his law beyond "the wall."

Question:
According to the text, what is likely to happen with the development ofnanotechnology? Choose THREE of the responses below.

(A) Chip makers like Intel will be able to make considerable profits from it.
(B) IBM will have a virtual monopoly in the field of nanotechnology.
(C) It will be possible to make new materials which do not currently exist.
(D) The "law" Gordon Moore put forward in 1965 will be ignored as inaccurate.
(E) Less energy will be required to produce new medicine.
(F) Making chips which are much faster than they are now will be possible.
(G) Matter will be able to be controlled at the atomic level.
(H) The need for electricity will be reduced.
[２０００年北海道大学]hokkaidomon1.pdfをダウンロード

東大の要約問題

昨日(25日）から国公立大の前期の試験が始まりました。今年の東大の「要約」問題は以下の英文でした。

   Democracy is unthinkable without the ability of citizens to participate freely in the governing process. Through their activity citizens in a democracy seek to control who will hold public office and to influence what the government does. Political participation provides the mechanism by which citizens can communicate information about their interests, goals, and needs, and create pressure to respond.
   Voice and equality are central to democratic participation. In a meaningful democracy, the people's voice must be clear and loud---clear so that policymakers understand citizen concerns and loud so that they have to pay attention to what is said. Since democracy implies not only governmental action in response to citizen interests but also equal consideration of the interests of each citizen, democratic participation also must be equal.
   No democratic nation ---certainly not the United States ---lives up to the ideal of participatory equality. Some citizens vote or engage in more active forms of participation. Others do not. In fact, a majority of Americans undertake no other political activity aside from voting. In addition, those who do take part are in important ways not representative of the citizenry as a whole. They differ in their social characteristics and in their needs and goals. Citizen activists tend to be drawn more from more advantaged groups-to be well-educated and wealthy and to be white and male. The voice of the people as expressed through participation thus comes from a limited and unrepresentative set of citizens.
[2006年東京大学]

◎No democratic nation ---certainly not the United States ---lives up to the ideal of participatory equality.
Democracyの原則的あり方あるいはidealと現状とのギャップを文章に即して説明してみましょう。また、これをアメリカ合衆国の場合で考えると具体的にどんなことが言えるか、自分の知識の範囲で考えてみましょう。

出題のオリジナルな設問は
「次の英文の内容を，65字～75字の日本語に要約せよ。句読点も字数に含める。」です。

荒川静香選手

受験生にとっては、オリンピックどころではありませんね。まったくメダルのとれなかった日本選手団でしたが、荒川選手がやってくれました。以下に各国の新聞報道から荒川選手の発言の英訳を集めてみました。何かの足しにしてほしいものです。
明日は、「国公立」の前期試験ですね。このブログにきていただいた方は、合格という「金メダル」を獲得してくれるものと信じます。

[BBC]
"I thought about quitting - I'm very glad now that I chose to continue," said the 24-year-old.
"I want to give hope to everybody who watches me skate.
"I made a mistake in the programme but I could skate with pleasure. I was hoping to win a medal but I'm surprised - it hasn't sunk in."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4738110.stm
[CNN]
"I still can't believe this," said Arakawa,
.....
"Right now I'm just so surprised about all of this that I'm speechless," she said. "I never expected that I would be the first one to win a medal for Japan, so I didn't feel that pressure. But I'm very happy that I am the one who won it."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/02/23/figure.skating.gold.ap/index.html

[NYTimes]
"I can't find the words for this," she said through an interpreter.
.....
And she did not seem nervous, which may have been her biggest accomplishment. "She expected to win the first medal for Japan," Arakawa's interpreter said, paraphrasing her answer. "She didn't feel any pressure."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/sports/olympics/24skate.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=login

◎以下の表現は他にどんな言い方をしていますか。
１．it hasn't sunk in.

２．I'm speechless

３．I didn't feel that pressure.

◎I want to give hope to everybody who watches me skate.
荒川選手が言った、どんな言葉の英訳でしょうか。

◎"She expected to win the first medal for Japan,"
原文のままですが、やはりこれは「誤植」だと思います。文脈に合うように直すとどうなりますか。

if名詞節

[その２]

"This process of reasoning and analysis can continue in other directions. For example, you might investigate to see if perhaps you have contributed in some way to the situation that made you angry. Also, when you are in the midst of anger, your tendency is to perceive the person who harmed you as 100% bad. But if you analyze further, you will realize that every human heing is composed of both ( 　 ) and negative characteristics, andyou can try to get a more realistic view of the person by attempting to find some positive aspects of the person.
"So, with practice, various lines of reasoning and investigation can be used to reduce the force of your anger. This doesn't mean you shouldn't respond, or try to do something if someone tries to harm you. On the contrary, one should take measures to prevent harm to oneself and others, even strong measures. But using analytic methods such as these can help reduce the intensity of your anger, which can have destructive effects, and instead allow you to respond to the situation without a feeling of hatred arising."
[２００２年　北海道大学]

◎other directionsの例を文にそってまとめてみましょう。

◎you might investigate to see if perhaps you have contributed in some way to the situation that made you angry.
この文章の文章構造を考えてみましょう。

◎（　　）内に入る語を文中から探してみましょう。

◎A. On the contrary,B。AとBの内容をまとめてみましょう。

analytic meditation

[その１]
   As a psychiatrist, I was struck by the parallels between analytic meditation and modern cognitive therapy. Analytic meditation may have potential application in reducing a broad range of destructive emotions. So in several of my discussions with the Dalai Lama(Buddhist monk), I asked him to illustrate how this particular method can be applied to overcome a harmful emotion like anger.
   "One begins by learning about the destructive effects of anger," he explains. "One should systematically investigate and reflect upon the destructive effects of anger on one's physical health, one's family relationships and in society. One should analyze this and reflect upon it not just once or twice, but repeatedly until it becomes part of one's deeper understanding.
   "Then, let's say that someone does you harm. Your immediate response might be to become angry, but then you reflect upon the destructive nature of anger, and ,,,that immediately makes you more cautious of giving in to the anger and letting it escalate. Then you continue your analysis, investigating whether responding with anger is ultimately constructive or destructive, whether it will improve the situation or not, and so on.
[２００２年北海道大学]

◎the Dalai Lama(Buddhist monk)の指摘を段落ごとにまとめてみましょう。

◎次の文の文脈にそった意味を考えてみましょう。
let's say that someone does you harm.

語句
analytic meditation[meditation＝瞑想]
cognitive therapy[cognitive＝認知的]
destructive nature of anger[この場合のnatureの意味]
constructive or destructive

[その２]に続く。

The Validity of Cloning Human Cells

文章は興味深いものですが、設問は最悪なので全部はずしました。

   The group of researchers at Children's (Hospital Boston) is one of only five academic teams in the world with plans to clone human cells, a highly controversial technique. Yet, unlike the other groups, which hope for medical applications down the road, but are geared toward basic science, the team at Children's is focused on making cells to cure patients. Being at this hospital, where doctors sometimes watch helplessly as a young life slips away, makes them feel they do not have a day to waste. "It can be very emotional," said Dr. Leonard Zon, director of a new stem cell program at Children's. "There is a sense of urgency." In pursuit of this goal, Zon and his colleague, Dr. George Daley, have been drawn deeply into an area of science that is looking for a precise answer to a seemingly simple question: where does blood come from?
   Blood is so complex that scientists refer to it as an organ, like the brain or the heart. It includes the red blood cells that carry oxygen, at least five main types of white blood cells that protect the body, doing battle with invaders, as well as other specialized cells. Many things can go wrong with this system, such as leukemia, when blood cells become cancerous, or a long list of genetic diseases, including anemia, where the red blood cells do not form properly. To do bone marrow transplants today, doctors first use a combination of drugs and radiation to kill a patient's blood system. Then they give the patient bone marrow from a donor---often a family member---whose marrow is similar, and unlikely to be rejected by the body. In this bone marrow are a small number of blood stem cells. After they are injected into the patient, these stem cells travel to the patient's bone marrow, take up residence, and then completely rebuild the entire blood and immune systems. These blood stem cells, like every other cell in the body, began as a single fertilized egg cell. Using mice and tiny fish, scientists at Children's and elsewhere have been discovering how cells specialize as an embryo develops and trying to imitate that specialization in the laboratory. While these experiments are under way, the work on cloning human cells has not begun because the team does not yet have permission from the participating institutions, or from an independent board, which by U.S. federal law, reviews all research that involves people.
[2006年　早稲田（教育・部分）]

◎段落ごとに内容をまとめてみましょう。コメントに書き込むか、メールで送ってもらえば添削して返送します。

さて、単語の整理用に単語を書き出しておきました。
いくつわかりますか？不明なものは辞書などを引いてみてください。解決できない場合は質問してください。また全文を読みたい場合は連絡してください。
医学関連用語
clone human cell
medical application
stem cell
red blood cell
white blood cell
leukemia
cancerous
genetic disease
bone marrow transplant
a combination of drugs and radiation
bone marrow  cf.spinal marrow
donor
blood stem cell
immune system
fertilized egg cell
embryo

◎上記以外で確認しておきたい語句
highly controversial technique
gear (toward)
slip (away)
urgency
pursuit
precise
complex
invader
inject
participating institution
independent board
federal law
involve

なお、出題されたままのファイルはこちらにあります。w-kyoikumon-1.pdfをダウンロード
「悪問」として悪名高い早稲田の教育学部の英語。表現、発音、前置詞の選択、並べ替え、内容把握がごちゃ混ぜ！最近は難関大学でこういう出題は非常に少なくなった。しかし、英語教師の供給元である（英語英文学科があり、問題の作成はこの担当教師の作成）学部がこのような前時代的、かつ粗悪問題を出題するとはなんとも情けない話だ。また、選ぶべき選択肢に非常に偏りがある。今回もbが続いている。これは、O（助）教授の出題と思われる。かつて彼が千葉大にいたときには、同じ記号が５つ程度並んだことがある。つまり、興味深い英文を取り上げるセンスはあるが、受験生のどういう英語力を見たいのか、またそれはどういう問題を作成したらみることができるのかを考えたことがないようだ。

obesity

ブログ『医学部を目指し、Natureを読む』でも扱って文章ですが、こちらの方がアクセスが圧倒的に多いので、重複しますが載せておきます。

  Surgery should be a last-resort treatment for obesity. Operations involve risk, which is compounded by anesthesia and post-op recovery. But sometimes the last resort is the best option. Surgery is justified when the alternatives pose an even higher risk and when the potential benefits outweigh the dangers. Gastric bypass is getting safer all the time: With experienced surgeons, the mortality rate is much less than 1 percent, and the likelihood of an uneventful recovery is 80 percent or higher. (Research local surgeons to find one who does the procedure often, at a center with a large number of patients and a low complications rate; these statistics should be available upon request.) The risks aren't trivial---they range from mild infection to life-threatening blood clots---but surgery is probably less risky than your brother's current weight.
  After the bypass, diet and exercise will be essential. But before he commits to these changes, your brother should address his depression, since obesity is often a visible symptom of other problems. His overall health will improve only if he attends to his head and his waistline.
(Katz, David, L. "The Way to Eat." The Oprah Magazine Apr 2005: 100.)
[2006 上智（経）]

今年の上智の問題です。
obesityは、fast food,slow foodあるいはcomplication（合併症）などなどのキーワードとともによく登場する言葉です。
上記の文章は、obesityをどういう角度から扱った文ですか。まとめてみましょう。

語句解説
obesity=the state of being very overweight
post-op(eration)
Gastric bypass　<gaster-「腹部の」＜『ガスター１０』←この薬、テレビのCMでやっているけれど、危険な薬といううわさも

語句の整理
医学関連用語
surgery
treatment
anesthesia
mortality rate
complications rate
recovery
symptom

一般的な重要語/句
last-resort
statistics
trivial
likelihood
uneventful
procedure
essential
commit (to)
address
depression
attend (to)

なお、
ブログ『医学部を目指し、Natureを読む』では、
intelligent designについての文をアップしてあります。興味のある方はみてみてください。

譲歩

こんな文章はどうでしょうか？獄中のホリエモンはどうおもうでしょうか？
   Economists tend to assume that people are mainly aiming to improve their material standard of living. Disgracing as this idea may be to the human spirit, there is a lot of evidence, based on the way people behave when confronted with choices, to support it. The trouble is, there is also evidence to suggest that money doesn't make you happier--- or not much happier, anyway.
   Up to now, studies have tended to find that the strongest influence on happiness is employment: people with jobs are very much happier than the unemployed. Low inflation also makes people happier. Income promotes happiness a little, but the effect tends to be small and statistically insignificant. In many countries incomes have risen sharply in recent years. This has not increased happiness overall: national surveys of "subjective well being" have stayed flat. Within countries, comparing people across the income distribution, richer does mean happier, but the effect is not large.
[2000年、立教]

1.The troubleとは、この文ではどういうことですか。

2."subjective well being"は、この文に即していうと具体的にどういうことですか。

3.Disgracing as this idea may be to the human spirit,を文脈に合うように接続詞を使って書き換えてみてください。

4.comparing people across the income distribution,どういう使われ方ですか。

◎表現
very much happier：比較級はmuchで強調。「少しだけ」はa little。
the unemployed=unemployed (     )
to support it　この不定詞の用法は？

◎語句
assume
improve
material standard of living
disgracing <disgrace
spirit
evidence
confront
choice
suggest
influence
inflation
promote
effect
statistically
insignificant
overall
survey
subjective
well being
distribution

blog

ここ数年米国で急速に広まり、昨年は日本でもその大波に飲まれた形になっている「ブログ」についての記述です。

  Imagine a costless or very cheap printing press in the hands of each and every writer. Imagine a world where opinion and commentary bypass the elites and are unregulated by government. Well, we have entered this new world in the last few years. These virtual-reality printing presses, called "blogs," are reshaping the world of publishing. The word "blog" is a neologism, short for "weblog." A weblog, quite simply, is a website that is updated on a regular basis, often every day. Think of a diary, or an editorial page, but in cyberspace, and yon come close to imagining what blogs are ( ？ ). It is disputed who wrote the first blog, but the first systematic, easy-to-use blogger software appeared in 1999. Since that time millions of new blogs have been started. No one knows for sure how many blogs are out there.
[2005 青山学院（法）]

１．上の文章では「ブログ」をどのように説明していますか。まとめてみましょう。

２．（　　）内に適語をいれましょう。

ところで、実際の入試問題は、５つのパラグラフがばらばらに並んでおり、これを正しく並べかえる問題がからはじまっています。
上記の「ブログの定義」にはじまり、
１．ブログの多様性
２．ブログの普及
３．ブログの肯定的側面
４．ブログの問題点
と話が進みます。今の皆さんの知識でそれぞれを説明してみてください。

なお、しっかり意味を確認しておきたい文は、
１．Imagine a world where opinion and commentary bypass the elites and are unregulated by government.

２．These virtual-reality printing presses, called "blogs," are reshaping the world of publishing.

３．It is disputed who wrote the first blog,

確認しておくとよい単語。
costless
printing press
in the hands of
bypass
reshape
publishing
dispute

なお、blogのほかに、vlogはビデオ映像をアップするweblogや、音声、映像を自動配信するpodcatingがあります。特にpodcatingは、iPodとサポートソフトiTunesで注目されています。これも出題テーマとして視野に入れておきたいものです。

panderとodd

ちょっと脱線気味ですが・・・
テレビのニュースで、麻生外相が米国の新聞の社説（editional）で酷評されている報道がありました。さっそくNYtimes.comに行って読んでみました。
全文は、
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13mon3.html
閲覧は無料ですが、登録が必要です。

一部を紹介しましょう。
Besides offending neighboring countries that Japan needs as allies and trading partners, he is disserving the people he has been pandering to.

注目すべき言葉は、panderです。ここでは動詞ですが、名詞の意味は「ポン引き」「女衒」の意味です。動詞では「弱みに付け込んで甘い汁を吸い上げる」といった意味があります。
麻生氏の家は、かつて日本の朝鮮統治に寄生し、その甘い汁を吸っていた歴史があります。この辺を知った論説委員（=editionalist）が書いたのでしょうか。

ついでに
offend＝怒らせる、気持ちを傷つける
allies<ally＝同盟国、見方
disserve=…に害をなす, 傷つける, そこなう.d

Mr. Aso's sense of diplomacy is as odd as his sense of history.
「麻生氏の外交感覚は、歴史感覚と同様、奇妙奇天烈（きてれつ）だ」
oddは、「変な」ということですが、strangeとの違いは、「突拍子のない」奇妙さの意味があります。「頭おかしいんじゃないの」だったら、He is odd in the headかな。

panderは入試にはあまり出てこないかもしれませんが、odd必須。その他いくつかよく使う言葉、表現が使われています。全体を一読して、心にとまった文章を覚えてしまいしょう。