英文讀解自修室

  - in the historical Japanese kana/kanji orthography

・56 センター試驗 2018 (1) 全文

2018-01-15 | 出題英文讀解

第6問  次の文章を読み、下の問い(A・B)に答えよ。なお、文章の左にある(1)~(6)はパラグラフ(段落)の番号を表している。

 

(1)     History teaches us that technology and associated discoveries have changed how we understand the world.  Many technological devices provide additional range and power to our natural capacities, such as our five senses.  Among these devices, many enable us to see things that we cannot see with the naked eye.  This change from invisible to visible has led to tremendous growth in our comprehension of the world and has strongly influenced our ways of thinking.

 

(2)     In the 17th century, a scientist noticed that by holding two lenses together in a certain way he could make an object appear larger.  He used this technique to construct the first simple telescope.  Using these archaic telescopes, early scientists were able to describe the surface of the Moon in detail and to see that Jupiter had at least four such satellites.  Since that time, people have developed various devices that expand our range of sight, thus revealing facts about the universe that lies beyond the Earth.  The telescope continues to offer us new views concerning things beyond our immediate reach.

 

(3)     Later, the microscope was developed using principles similar to the telescope.  The microscope allows us to study objects we normally cannot see because they are too small.  Looking through a microscope opened up an entirely new world to scientists.  Before the invention of the microscope, they couldn’t see the structures of human tissues or cells in plants and animals.  When they saw these things, they became aware that some things that they had thought were whole and could not be divided, actually consisted of smaller components.  These were only visible with the assistance of microscopes.  Today, electron microscopes allow us to investigate even smaller items, such as molecules.  These advances have altered our concepts regarding the composition of things in the world.

 

(4)     The invention of the camera also made the invisible world visible.  In the world, everything is changing.  Some things change faster than we can see.  The camera is a tool that gives us the power to freeze change at different points in time.  Series of pictures have revealed how birds move in flight and athletes run.  The camera can also help us see changes that are so gradual that we usually don’t notice them.  For example, by comparing photos of the same scene taken months or years apart, we can gain insights into how societies change.  There are many other ways besides these in which the camera has changed our perceptions of the world.

 

(5)     In the late 19th century, machines that used the newly discovered X-rays revolutionized the way in which we looked at things.  Rather than seeing only the surface of an object, we gained the ability to look into it or through it, bringing the inner elements of many things into our range of view.  This capability proved practical in the workplace, useful in laboratories and museums, and instructive in universities.  One of the most important applications was in medicine.  Doctors often had difficulty diagnosing illnesses or finding problems inside the body.  X-rays allowed them to look into their patients, identify where there were problems, and cure them.  This use of X-rays brought new understandings and methods for diagnosis and treatment.

 

(6)     Different technological devices have made it possible to observe things that we could not see with the naked eye.  This has significantly altered our understandings of the world around us.  Each technological advance changes us in unpredictable ways, and each discovery increases our knowledge about the world.  Just as the devices mentioned above have done, new devices will continue to impact our lives and change our ways of thinking in the future.

 

A  次の問い(問1~5)の [  46  ]~[  50  ]に入れるのに最も適当なものを、それぞれ下の①~④のうちから一つずつ選べ。

 

問1  Which of the following is closest to the meaning of archaic as used in paragraph (2)?  [  46  ]

  ①  advanced

  ②  contemporary

  ③  ordinary

  ④  primitive

 

問2  According to paragraph (3), what did people learn by using microscopes?  [  47  ]

  ①  Cells were too small to be seen with microscopes.

  ②  Materials were made up of smaller things.

  ③  Molecules were the smallest components.

  ④  Sets of lenses decreased the size of items.

 

問3  According to paragraph (4), what do cameras enable us to do? [  48  ]

  ①  To capture moments in time accurately

  ②  To compare rapid social changes

  ③  To make invisible things move faster

  ④  To predict what will happen

 

問4  According to paragraph (5), how are X-rays used?  [  49  ]

  ①  To find the locations of problems in the body

  ②  To improve visibility of objects’ surfaces

  ③  To learn when paintings were created

  ④  To test the quality of chemical compounds

 

問5  What is the main idea of this passage?  [  50  ]

  ①  Applications of two lenses can improve people’s sight.

  ②  Development of technology affects our ways of thinking.

  ③  People need to be aware of the dangers of technology.

  ④  Technology plays a vital role in changing our five senses.

 

B  次の表は、本文のパラグラフ(段落)の構成と内容をまとめたものである。[  51  ]~[  54  ]に入れるのに最も適当なものを、下の①~④のうちから一つずつ選び、表を完成させよ。ただし、同じものを繰り返し選んではいけない。

  Paragraph                     Content

      (1)                       Introduction

      (2)                        [  51  ]

      (3)                        [  52  ]

      (4)                        [  53  ]

      (5)                        [  54  ]

      (6)                       Conclusion

 

  ①  Examining the interiors of things

  ②  Exploring the universe of small things

  ③  Looking at instants during a series of changes

  ④  The use of lenses to look out into space