難関大学を目指し、英文記事を読む！

東大後期（総合科目I）

このブログやブログ『Natureを読む』にアクセスしてくれた人は、東大の後期（総合科目I）の試験は非常にやりやすかったのではないでしょうか。１，３などは「的中」とは行かないまでも、ここで類似した文章を読むと読まないとではかなりの差がでたと思われます。

来年が本番の人は、この問題をやってみると同時に、このブログやブログ『Natureを読む』を読み返してみてください。３．はNatureからの出題です。

東大後期（総合科目I）06tokyo_kohki_sogo1mon.pdfをダウンロード

extraterrestrial life

   The question of whether or not mankind is alone in the universe is one of the oldest problems of philosophy, and has deep implications for our world view. In recent years, the subject has become increasingly important to science too. Advances in biochemistry and molecular biology have begun solving the mystery of the origin of life. Discoveries in astronomy are casting light on the existence of other planets and their chemical and physical structures, while the space programme has provided the opportunity to search for life directly on our neighbouring planets. In addition, a major new project has begun which sets as its goal the detection of radio signals from advanced technological communities elsewhere in the galaxy. It is therefore very timely to consider in detail what the discovery of extraterrestrial life would mean for our view of ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
   There is little doubt that even the discovery of a single extraterrestrial microbe, if it could be shown to have evolved independently of life on Earth, would drastically alter our world view and change our society as profoundly as the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It could truly be described as the greatest scientific discovery of all time. In the more extreme case of the detection of an alien message, the likely effects on mankind would be highly significant.[2003年、東京農工大]

biochemist生化学　　　
molecular biology分子生物学
detection発見　
extraterrestrial地球外の　
microbe　微生物

上記の文章を踏まえて、"extraterrestrial life"について、考えて見ましょう。

the digital world

国公立大学の合格発表が始まりました。

合格した人へ

１．本当の勉強はこれからなので、一息入れながらも、語学の練習や読書を中断しないように。

２．合格すると「運転免許」を取りに教習所通いをする人が多いが、特に必要がない場合は、夏までは延期するほうがよい（勉学に運転免許は不要）。

３．受験勉強中どうしてもやりたかったことがあれば、支障のない範囲でやっておく。

後期試験に臨む人へ

１．これまで取り組んだ英文を読み直す。

２．印象に残った英文は、音読や暗誦をする。

３．英文が扱ったテーマを整理し、理解を深める。

４．過去問をしっかりやり、不明な事項を整理し、問題意識を持つ。

浪人する人へ

１．一息入れない

２．どういう「浪人」生活をするかを考える

３．いくいかないは別にして、予備校の選抜試験を受ける（給費生を狙う）

４．運転免許などをとりにいかないこと

５．その他、後期試験終了後にもう少し詳しくまとめたいと思います。

さて、今日の課題は、the digital worldに関するものです。

  In the digital world, everyone has access to a global market, both as seller and as buyer. Everyone can make requests for information or for goods and services, and have these requests "disseminated to a large population. Everyone has access to the "world library" of interconnected computers and can contribute material to the library for others to see. Digital technology tends to make it difficult for a population to be isolated in its own private "reality." Opinions and priorities may differ, and the world library will certainly contain a lot of material that is incorrect, misleading, or offensive.  Governments and other institutions will try to control the content of the world library and to limit people's access to it. But in a span of decades, the overall trend will be toward a free global market in which barriers to information flow are lowered and people can seek out the ideas that they find most useful.

[2005年、東京農工大（前期）]

a free global marketにいたるまでにどのような状況を予想しているでしょうか、またそこにいたった後にはどのような状況を予想しているでしょうか。

Tracing a Y chromosome through 100 generations

「世継」問題です。

Those justifying a mate-only system routinely refer to an unbroken male line of 125 generations since Japan's first emperor Jimmu. Although the first ten or so generations are probably mythical, and there may have been a break after the 25th emperor, Japanese historians say they are confident that the line has been continuous (if not always directly father-to-son) for 100 generations, or since about 500 ad.
If that's true, the imperial Y chromosome should be largely conserved, say geneticists. Accumulated point mutations are probably negligible, and although inversions and deletions might have built up, the sequence should still be recognizable, says geneticist Yutaka Nakahori of Tokushima University.
A genetics expert consulted by the government committee told Nature that digging up emperors to analyse their DNA could show how far the Y chromosome stretches back, how much it has changed in that time, and whether the line has ever been broken. But he says he doesn't want to be named, much less involved in such a project, (or fear of being "assassinated". And Mark Jobting of Leicester University. UK, who studies Y-chromosome evolution, says that most nuclear DNA from 1500 years ago would have deteriorated: "You would be very lucky to get good Y data from your ancient emperor,"
An alternative to digging up graves would be to trace a tree of the imperial family by comparing the Y-chromosomes of distant living relatives to estimate when the oldest family member would have lived. Nakahori says he would love to do this, but realizes it would never be allowed by the Imperial Household Agency, which keeps a jealous guard on such matters.      
[from Nature, 23 February 2006]

遺伝学者は、「男系継承」についてどんな見解を持っていますか。

◎遺伝関連語句
Y chromosome=Y染色体

point mutation=点[突然]変異
ある遺伝子内で起こった突然変異による変化が非常に狭い範囲に限定されているもの

inversion=逆位　
染色体上の遺伝子座の配列が一部逆転したもの。

deletion=染色体欠失（chromosomal deletion)　
染色体異常の一つの型であり，染色体の一部分が欠けていること

◎その他の語
deteriorate=劣化する
jealous=守るに汲々とした