難関大学を目指し、英文記事を読む！

Bird-flu experts question advice on eating poultry

Can people catch the H5N1 avian flu virus from eating infected poultry? Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the UK Medical Research Council, says the public need not worry. "There is no evidence of transmission to people by eating cooked eggs or chicken," he said on BBC radio last week, adding that the only food risk he could see was from "drinking swans' blood".

Blakemore's sound bite came a day after Britain's first case of H5N1 in a wild bird was confirmed —-- a dead swan found floating in a harbour in Cellardyke, Scotland. And it echoes a slew of recent reassurances by governments worldwide and by the World Health Organization (WHO), all conscious of damaging public confidence and the poultry industry.

But many flu scientists are concerned that, although the risks are low compared with those associated with contact with diseased birds, there is not enough evidence to say that the virus cannot be transmitted by eating infected poultry. "Oral transmission is an open question," says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo. "Direct evidence of oral infection is lacking, but so too is proof against."
[from Nature 13 April, 2006]

内容：
1.鳥インフルエンザに感染した鶏肉を食べることは、感染の心配なし、というUK Medical Research Councilの関係者のコメントがラジオニュースで流されたことに対して、専門家の多くはどんな意見を言っていますか。

文法・語法：
1.although the risks are low compared with those associated with contact with diseased birds,のthoseはどの言葉を受けていますか。

2.　so too is proof againstを、
proof against it....で書き始めたら、soの内容を具体的に表現するとすれば、あとにどう続ければよいでしょう。

語句：
a slew of=a large number of
sound bite:BBCのラジオニュースで流された発言
virologist=vir(us)/o/logistブログ「Natureを読む」参照。

Dieting

obesity(肥満)ととも（それ以上に）テーマとしてよく扱われる。以下の文章は空所補充ですが、選択肢がありません。自分で考えなくてはいけないのですが、文章の意味がイメージできれば解答できそう。答えを聞くと「な～んだ！」というレベルです。肩の力を抜いてやってみましょう。

   Do you want to lose weight, keep it off, and stay fit? The truth is, there are no magic diets or shortcuts to weight loss and fitness. Both old fashioned common sense and modern science agree; the best combination for keeping a trim and healthy body is a well-balanced diet, along with a program of regular ( 1 ).
   Most of us realize this truth  yet often we find it hard to practice, and so we forget it. Often, we hope some new diet plan or weight-loss program will provide a quick solution. This hope creates big business. In the US alone, weight-loss products are a $35 billion a year industry. Unfortunately, the results from using these products are disappointing  and sometimes dangerous. Research shows that most people who use quick weight-loss diets soon ( 2 ) all of the weight they have lost, or even more. Furthermore, they may damage their kidneys, liver and other ( 3 )  as well as suffer mental depression and loss of confidence.
   Let's look at some of the recent popular quick diets. One of the most popular is the high protein diet. This diet allows people to eat lots of protein, but they must severely limit all carbohydrates. In the short run this can reduce weight, but in the long run it can be harmful because it doesn't ( 4 ) the body with necessary elements. Another common method is the liquid diet. It relies on nutritional supplements with few calories and offers the convenience of not having to cook meals. But using supplements leads to an unbalanced diet and it takes the fun out of ( 5 ).
[2006年　札幌医科大、II部分]

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。

immunity

「センター試験」の英文で使われていたimmunity。これがこれまで使われた例はちょっと思い当たらない。しかし、immuneという形容詞は出てくる。これまで東邦（医）、奈良女子大（2003、同じ英文が2004に北海道大学。当スクール的中！ ）。ただどの大学も注がついている。以下は、奈良女子大（北海道大学）で出題された英文の一部。まず読んでみてください。

Scientists have concluded that chimpanzees are not useful for AIDS research because, even though their genetic makeup differs from ours by about 1 percent, their immune systems deal much differently with the AIDS virus. Many scientists test drugs and vaccines on animals simply because they are required to by law rather than out of scientific merit. This is a shame, because our medical technology is beginning to provide alternatives. We can perform many tests on cell and tissue cultures without needing to harm animals. Computer simulations can also cut down on the number of animal tests we need to run. We aren't exploring these alternatives vigorously enough.

１．ここでいうthese alternativesを箇条書きにしてみよう
２．tissue culturesとはなにか？（tissueは「ちり紙」ではない。cultureは「文化」ではない。cultivateから連想できるか？tissue cultureと一まとまりで言う場合が多い。）

なお、「センター試験」immunityがでてくる英文第四問Cは、きちっと読んでおくとこれからの試験でも役に立つ思うのでアップしておきます。（問題をはずして英文のみ）06center4.pdfをダウンロード

Alzheimer's disease

入試問題では下線部の和訳が課されています。挑戦してみてください。
   Imagine your brain as a house filled with lights. Now imagine someone turning off the lights one by one. That's what Alzheimer's disease does. It turns off the lights so that the flow of ideas, emotions and memories from one room to the next slows and eventually ceases. And sadly --- as anyone who has ever watched a parent, a sibling, or a spouse succumb to the spreading darkness knows there is no way to stop the lights from turning off, no way to switch them back on once they've grown dim.
[from 2001 Tokushima-dai]

最近は「認知症」といわれている「アルツハイマー病」。この呼称は関係の専門家の間では評判が悪いようだ。「老人性痴呆」は、senile dementiaで、「痴呆」はdementia。dementiaの訳語として「認知症」は誤解を招く、というのが反対の理由。それでdementiaに｢認知失調症｣という呼び名を提案しています。ちなみに「アルツハイマー老人性痴呆」は、英語でsenile dementia Alzheimer's type（SDAT）。

運動によって予防が可能、という趣旨の最新のnews。
Exercise helps to flush a toxic molecule from the brain and causes a beneficial one to move in and protect nerve cells, research on mice shows. The discovery might help to explain why staying fit and keeping mentally active seem to fend off Alzheimer's  disease in humans.
[...]
Mattson(a researcher at the National Institute on Aging, in Baltimore)notes that the link between exercise and brain health is still not certain in humans, although the evidence is mounting up. Other research has found that staying mentally agile or even maintaining a slim physique may help to protect against Alzheimer's and other brain disorders.
[2 December 2005, [email protected]]

discoveryとはどういうことかまとめてみましょう。

アスベスト

ここ一年のキーワードの一つ、「アスベスト」

入試で登場する例、

   An estimated one-fifth to one-third of all U.S. buildings, including the EPA(the Environmental Protection Agency) headquarters, are considered "sick". Each year, pollutants inside factories and businesses in the United States cause from 100,000 to 210,000 early deaths in workers. According to the EPA and public health officials, cigarette smoke, radioactive radon-222 gas, asbestos, and formaldehyde are the four most dangerous indoor pollutants.
(東農工大-後期　2003年)

radioactive= 放射性の
radon-222=ラドン222はWHOの下部機関IARCより発癌性があると勧告されている。
asbestos=アスベスト
formaldehyde=ホルムアルデヒド

estimated,pollutantも知らなければチェックを。

Bird Flu --- 1

[from Newsweek, October 31, 2005]
  The best weapon against H5N1 would be a vaccine; at least two have been developed---one in the United States and one in Hungary-and are reportedly showing promise in tests. But there's a Catch-22 in vaccine production: the virus now in circulation, which infects humans only by way of birds, is not the one we have to worry about. It will have to mutate to cause a human pandemic, and the existing vaccine may or may not be completely effective against the new strain. (It presumably would offer at least some protection, but the standard vaccine now being given for this year's "seasonal" flu variety offers no protection at all against H5 viruses.)

発音のわからない言葉は、下記のサイトで調べよう。
ブラウザーのToolbarを作ることも出来るので利用するとよいと思う。
http://www.m-w.com/

脱線しながら行きます。言葉についての「脱線」は、その言葉の持つニュアンスを少しでも捉えられるようにとの思いから説明します。

H5N1はvirusの「名前」（前出）。

ワクチンが二種類開発中とのこと。

ところで、ここでdevelopはまさに「開発する」の意味合いで使われているが、
It's to be feared that lots of people are developing bird flue.
といった使われ方もある。これは「発病する」という意味合い。

本文にもどる
showing promise in tests
だが、このpromise、単に「約束」ではない。もちろん「約束できるもの」ということもいえる。
こんな風に使う。
He shows great promise as a pianist.
(or He is a pianist of great promise)
日本語に訳すと「有望」あたりの意味か。「約束」と「有望」と訳を二つ覚えるような学習はすすめない。直読直解の障害になるからだ。まあ、分詞形容詞のpromising=将来を約束された＞前途有望な、あたりでイメージをつかんでおけるかもしれない。

Catch-22は日本の高校生や大学生だとなじみがないだろうか。英文科の学生ならしっていなくては困るが・・・
この言葉は、もともとは小説の題名。
この一文の最後まで読めば、類推ができるだろう。こういう場合、意味がよく分からない時は訳語を当てようとしないこと。大まかな類推をする。つまり「プラスのイメージ」か「マイナスのイメージ」かを暫定的に想定する。後の文章を読んで、判断が間違っていたら修正する。
文全体の意味を読み取ってから、上記の辞書などで確認する。

また、脱線production、動詞形はproduce。
面白い意味がある。以下は東邦大-理の昨年の問題にあったものだ。
At the inn Wang told the story to the other guests. While he spoke, a gentleman having a bandaged eye came in. He listened to Wang's story with interest and asked if he might not be shown the paper. Wang was just about to produce it when the innkeeper noticed that the newcomer had a tail. 'He's a fox!' he shouted, and on the spot the gentleman turned into a fox and fled.
どんな意味だろう。

by way ofは定番。ついでにon the(one's) way, in the wayも確認を。

mutate to cause a human pandemic
mutateの意味は、virusについての知識で乗り切れないか？pandemicは、epidemicあたりから類推可能か？ただし、これはしっかり意味を確認しておこう。いま世界中でおそれられてるfluの流行に焦点が当てられる場合必須。
ところで、センター入試のimmunityが出ていた。類推がついただろうか。2004年に北海道大学で、immune systemとして出ていたが、注が付けられた。しかし、センター入試で注なしで出てきているところからみると、最新のテーマについてはそれなりの言葉が使われているので、テーマ別に知識を確認する習慣はつけること。
ネット上では、
http://ja.wikipedia.org/
が参考になる。

とりあえず、こんなところでしょうか？
不明な点は質問してください。