国際教養AO入試 TOEFL Reading reference, life, struggle for existence, happiness, Wataru Iwasaki

「しかたない」を乗り越える。誰もが生きることを脅かされないために
相模原事件から1年。「障害者は不幸しか作れない」と名指しされた一人として、今伝えたい言葉
2017/07/26 06:01   Wataru Iwasaki   岩崎航 BuzzFeed Japan, Contributor / 詩人、エッセイストhttps://www.buzzfeed.com/jp/wataruiwasaki/sikatanaiwonorikoeru?utm_term=.eaarwD9NJK#.jjPrz7Lnyp

《参考》
亡くなった１９人のエピソード＝相模原事件１年
http://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2017072500720&g=soc

事件１年、変わらぬ主張＝元職員、公判見通し立たず－相模原障害者施設襲撃http://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2017072500710&g=soc

国際教養AO入試 , SILS, Language in Africa - rewrite -

解答のポイント

主題 アフリカ民族主義の父とされるAlexander Crummellは英語をアフリカの言語より優れていると考え、アフリカ人が英語を話すことを良いことだと考えていたが、現在、アフリカの国々はほとんどがヨーロッパ言語（特に英語）を公用語とするにもかかわらず、国民の大多数は公用語があまり使えず、母国語は国内に多数ある現地語である。エリート層は旧宗主国の言語（ヨーロッパ言語）を敬愛し現代アフリカ文学をヨーロッパ言語で書いており、地域の作家は国全体での認知を得るために作品を公用語に翻訳しなければならない。

本文該当箇所  第1段落Crummell, who is widely regarded as one of the fathers of African nationalism. had not the slightest doubt that English was a language superior to the “various tongues and dialects” of the indigenous African population:  Crummellはアフリカ民族主義の父の一人と広くみなされているが英語が現地のアフリカ人の様々な「言語や方言」よりも優る言語だと言う事にわずかの疑いも持っていなかった。 Now, over a century later, more than half of the population of black Africa lives in counties where English is an official language, and the same providence has decreed that almost all the rest of Africa should be governed in French or Arabic or Portuguese. 現在、一世紀以上たって、サハラ砂漠以南のアフリカの人口の半分以上が英語が公用語の国に住み、同じ神の摂理（《注》第3文の「神の摂理」のこと）により残りのアフリカのほぼすべてがフランス語かアラビア語かポルトガル語で統治されている。   第2段落For―with few exceptions outside the Arabic-speaking counties of North Africa―the language of government is the first language of a very few and is securely possessed by only a small proportion of the population; in most of the English-speaking states even the educated elites learn at t least one of the hundreds of indigenous languages as well as―and almost always before―English. というのは（北アフリカのアラビア語圏外ではほとんど例外なく）政府の言語が第一言語の人はほとんどおらず、国民のごく一部しかしっかり使えないからだ。英語を話す国々のほとんどではエリートでさえ英語同様に（そしてほとんど常に英語より先に）何百もある現地語の少なくともひとつを身に付ける。   第4段Yet despite these differences, both French-speaking and English-speaking elites not only use the colonial languages as the medium of government but know and often admire the literature of their ex-colonizers, and have chosen to make a modern African literature in European languages. しかしこれらの違いにも関わらずフランス語が公用語の国と英語が公用語の国両方のエリートたちは統治の媒体として植民地時代の言語を使うだけでなく旧宗主国の文学を知っており、しばしば敬愛している。そして現代アフリカ文学をヨーロッパ言語で書くことを選択してきているのだ。    最終段落 But to find their way out of their own community and acquire national, let alone international, recognition, most traditional languages have to be translated. しかし地域社会の外に出て（国際的にはもとより）国家的認知を獲得する方法を見つけるためには、伝統言語は翻訳されなくてはならないのだ。

各段落の要旨

第１段落　アフリカ民族主義の父とされるAlexander Crummellは英語をアフリカの言語より優れていると考え、アフリカ人が英語を話すことを良いことだと考えていたが、現在、アフリカの国々はほとんどがヨーロッパ言語（特に英語）を公用語とする

第2段落　にもかかわらず、国民の大多数は公用語がほとんど使えず、母国語は国内に多数ある現地語である。フランス語を公用語とする国では発音以外はネイティブ並みのフランス語を話すエリートがいるが大衆はあまり話せない。

第3段落　フランス語の国と英語の国で公用語を話せる人の割合が若干異なる理由は植民地時代の統治政策の違いで、フランスは同化政策を行ったがイギリスは行わなかった（分離政策）。

第4段落　エリート層は旧宗主国の言語（ヨーロッの言語）を敬愛し現代アフリカ文学をヨーロッパ言語で書く。

第5段落　口頭伝承による豊かな伝統文化は今も生きており伝統言語による文語もわずかに存在するが、国家レベルの認知を得るためには伝統言語で書かれた作品は公用語への翻訳を余儀なくされる。

問１　Crummelがアフリカの現在の言語状況に満足するかしないかその理由を述べてください。

考え方　Crummelの考え方と理想とアフリカの現状を照らし合わせて解答する。

Ideas and Expressions 

Crummell would not be satisfied with the present language situation in Africa because he thinks it is good for the black people to grow up using English as their mother tongue while this has not technically happened in Africa, where many indigenous languages are still alive and are learned as first languages before English or other European languages as the official languages.

問２　アフリカの英語を公用語とする国で生活することについてどんな利点・欠点があると思いますか。

考え方　「生活」とあるので日常の様々な場面を想像してみる。利点は誰もが公用語で外国人と基本的な会話ができることや外資系企業に就職しやすいこと、 欠点は他地域出身者との意思疎通や交友の難しさ、公用語のメディアが利用し辛い、たとえばテレビ番組 が面白くないか海外の英語番組が多いことや、地域間のコンセンサス確立に時間がかかることなどが考えられる。

Ideas and Expressions 

Advantages: People would be internationally active because there are less barriers against communication in English. Unlike Japan, where the larger percentage of the population are not required to use English on a daily basis, everyone has a basic command of English and this would make it easy to communicate with people from all over the world or to find a job in a company which uses English as its official language.

Disadvantages: Deeper communication between individuals from different communities would be halted in such a country because people cannot use their mother tongue in communicating with those from regions other than their own. For the same reason, it must be difficult to make friends with a person even from the next community if you do not speak the person’s language. Public media would be either superficial national program or imported programs from America, England or European countries. Also, life in such a country would be affected by lack of or delay of reaching consensuses between communities and introducing new ideas and systems throughout the country because the country could technically stay as a collection of many small nations.

問３　アフリカの国々の言語状況と日本の言語状況との違いは何でしょうか。

考え方　日本はアフリカと逆で単一言語を公用語＝母国語としていることから、（翻訳の必要がないので）国全体での言語文化の共有、成熟が可能である点が違うと考えられる。

Ideas and Expressions 

On the surface, the language situation in Japan and that in Africa might look the same, the people communicating in a common language, but the actual circumstances are totally different, one providing a much more favorable environment for development and sophistication of a language culture than the other. All Japanese speak the same mother tongue, and this situation provides perfect matrix for well-rounded evolution of their tradition. On the other hand, language situation in Africa would have difficulty in realizing cohesiveness throughout disparate regions in one nation. Given that their common languages are not directly rooted in their cultures and merely play the role of a communication tool that barely helps convey common denominators of each concept, building a mature culture common to all ethnic groups in a county might be almost impossible, and at least would take a long time. 

TOEFL summer reading reviews and related quizzes

TOEFL Reading

Summer 2 Reviews

Review 1
A picture of a creature which looks like an ammonite.

1.    This is a  ……………………………..

2.     …………………………… are its living relatives.

3.    Its ancestors appeared on the earth ……………………………………….…

Review 2

A picture of birds of a kind, each of which has a different type of beak.

1.    These birds are called ……………………………..…

2.    They have different beaks because ……………………………………………………………………………

3.    This fact is used as a proof for ………………………………………

Review 3

1.    ………, or energy, changes a solid into a liquid, and a liquid into a gas.

2.    When these changes happen, the speed of the movement of the atoms becomes ………………

3.    The study of these phenomena is called …………………..


See the bottom of this page for answer keys.

Answer Keys

Review 1
A picture of a creature which looks like an ammonite.

1.    This is a  nautilus.

2.    Cephalopods are its living relatives.

3.    Its ancestors appeared on the earth about 550 millions years ago.

Review 2

A picture of birds of a kind, each of which has a different type of beak.

1.    These birds are called Darwin's finches.

2.    They have different beaks because they have been isolated from each other and eating different kinds of prey for a long time.

3.    This fact is used as a proof for the theory of evolution.

Review 3
1.    Heat, or energy, changes a solid into a liquid, and a liquid into a gas.

2.    When these changes happen, the speed of the movement of the atoms becomes faster.

3.    The study of these phenomena is called thermodynamics.

TOEFL, iBT, Independent Writing, Grades (marks) encourage students to learn. / It is generally agreed that society benefits from the work of its members. Compare the contributions of artists to society with the contributions of scientists to society. Which type of contribution do you think is valued more by our society? - rewrites -

Writing Topic 1

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to learn. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

☆Let’s think

This topic might be difficult for many to give a clear-cut answer. Most people have both experiences of being encouraged and discouraged by grades. If the grades are high or higher than before, we are happy. If we keep getting lower grades, we might decide we are not apt for the subject and stop making efforts.

When you can think of both merits and demerits of a statement, you might want to use words like “mostly agree”, “partly agree”, or “cannot totally agree” in the sentence to express your opinion. If your stand is clear, you could use entirely, totally, etc.

☆Ideas and Expressions

For the statement:

1)  Students can see objectively how much they have or have not made progress.

2)  Students can set the next goal by grades.

3)  Competition makes students study harder.

Against the statement:

1)  Some students get discouraged by repeatedly being told that they are not good.

2)  Grading force teachers to focus on making students get higher scores on tests. This will lead to rote learning, depriving students of real knowledge and making them less interested in the subject.

3)  Grading instill students with the idea that society is nothing but competition, and students will miss experiencing joy of learning since it arises when there is no pressure to learn.

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions  (Barron’s, Writing for the TOEFL iBT, pp.285-286)

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☆Sample short response:

I cannot totally agree with the statement that grades encourage students to learn because there are people who are discouraged by competition. Grades make students compete against each other. There are two kinds of people who dislike this situation: those who are always at the bottom and those who just do not like to see themselves competing against their classmates. Both types can lose interest in study the moment they become aware that they are being made to race their classmates.

It is true that competition raises levels of achievements on the whole and grading is a way to provide students with objective means of reflection about their jobs, but learning is primarily a personal activity, which is stimulated by pure interest in the subject whether you have rivals or not. A student whose motivation to learn is to defeat someone in tests would lose interest in learning if his target leaves him. Students need more fundamental motivation to learn.

Thus, it is important that teachers not grade students, and if they are required to grade, I think they should grade in reference to individual’s previous grades based on absolute standards, not relative to other students.

Your short response:

I totally /mostly /partly agree / disagree with the statement that grades encourage students to learn because

It is true that

but

Thus,

Writing Topic 2

It is generally agreed that society benefits from the work of its members. Compare the contributions of artists to society with the contributions of scientists to society. Which type of contribution do you think is valued more by our society? Give specific reasons to support your answer.

☆Let’s think

The first sentence presents the premise of this writing topic that any job is beneficial to society in general. The second sentence directs you to compare contributions of two types of people: artists and scientists. Because of the premise, you are saved from discussing if either or both of these two occupations are not necessary. The third sentence asks you to judge which job is valued more by our society. Thus, what you are supposed to do is as follows:

1) to compare contributions of artists with those of scientists

2) to write which job you think is valued more.

☆Ideas and Expressions

Contributions of artists to society

1)    They help us develop our emotions and sense for beauty.

2)    They cultivate our imagination and creativity.

3)    They ease our soul.

4)    They increase our knowledge about the world and humans through their expressions.

Contributions of scientists to society

1)    They protect and develop our life.

2)    They help us save our future.

3)    They increase our knowledge about the world and humans.

Decisive factors on which type of contribution is valued more by our society

1)    money paid for their work   e.g. salary, funding

2)    tokens of respect they receive  e.g. permanent resident status

3)    the way they are treated in the education system  e.g. the number of subjects, lessons, teachers, and universities)

4)    attention paid by society   e.g. whether most parents want to see their children become artists or scientists

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions

(Barron’s, Writing for the TOEFL iBT, pp. 304-305)

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Your Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction】

【Contributions of Artists】

【Contributions of Scientists】

【Which is more valued by society】

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】

☆Sample Paragraph Developments

Sample Paragraph Development 1

【Topic Sentence】In think scientists are more valued than artists in society because they seem to gain more respect by people of all walks of life.

【Supporting Detail - in general】              How they are treated in society shows which specialists are more valued.

【Supporting Detail - specific】Scientists are called with titles like “doctor” or “professor” while artists are not. Also, governments are more ready to spend money on science than on art.

【Follow-up 】There are some artists who are treated like god, but they are exceptions.

【Conclusion】Those who deal with technology are more valued than those who treat our soul in today’s society.

Sample Paragraph Development 2

【Topic Sentence】In think artists are more valued than scientists in society because more attention is paid to the former than to the latter.

【Supporting Detail - in general】The names and performances of artists are taken up in the media every day while those of scientists are not treated in the same way.

【Supporting Detail - specific】Television and magazines are full of news about artists. Their works are easy to understand and pleasure to the eye and ear. However, science news that appears on the front page once in a while is usually that related to awards like Nobel Prize, and the names of the scientists will seldom be learned by the public.

【Follow-up 】If asked whether they value science, people would answer in the affirmative, but they do not realize how much they owe to the work of scientists, and some even suspect that they are conjuring up a hoax.   e.g. climate change deniers

【Conclusion】Artists are the sweetheart of society while scientists are brothers in the basement in the eye of the public.

Your Sample Paragraph Development

【Topic Sentence】

【Supporting Detail - in general

【Supporting Detail - specific】

【Follow-up】

【Conclusion】

TOEFL, iBT, Independent Writing, Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. / Would you rather be self-employed, work for someone else, or own a business? - rewrites -

Writing Topic 1

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

☆Let’s think

Let’s take a look at the details of the topic. It says, “MOST experiences,” so some experiences, those irreversibly damaging cases like child abuse or rare disasters are excluded. It says, “seemed difficult at the time,” and “valuable lessons for the future,” so it is talking about the tough experiences you will appreciate later.

We live and learn. We go through an endless series of difficulties of various degrees. The tougher the experience is, the stronger we become. The more complicated the experience is, the more knowledge we acquire. I guess most people agree with this statement and can easily come up with examples from your childhood piano lessons to moving to a foreign country to losing your pet.

When and where did you have the experience? What was tough? How did you feel then? How do you feel about the experience now? What have you learned from it?

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions   (Barron’s, Writing for the TOEFL iBT, p.280)

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☆Reminders of harsh experiences

going abroad,

sharing a room with someone

living by yourself

living in poverty

having trouble with your neighbor

fighting a disease

having an injury

practicing piano

taking a difficult test,

failing a crucial test

starting a project

being in charge of something important

being extremely busy

making a serious mistake,

hurting someone,

embarrassing yourself,

being rejected

being betrayed,

being misunderstood, 

being discriminated against

losing something or someone important

having a difficult relationship

☆Your short responses

Answer the following questions briefly.

When and Where did you experience it?

What was tough?

How did you feel?

How do you feel about the experience now?

What have you learned from the experience?

Writing Topic 2

Some people prefer to work for themselves or own a business. Others prefer to work for an employer. Would you rather be self-employed, work for someone else, or own a business? Use specific reasons to explain your choice.

☆Let’s think                   

The question is related to your value or lifestyle. What is important in your life? What does work mean in your lifestyle? It might also be related to your property.

1)    What is important in your life?

2)    What does work mean in your lifestyle?

3)    What is your property related to work?

☆Ideas and Expressions

1.    Owing a business provides a lot of freedom as well as responsibility.

2.    Working for an employer can be stressful in some ways or depending on the person even though it is often the case that you can forget about work once you leave your office.

3.    Being self-employed allows some freedom but it is basically the same as working for someone else, because you cannot refuse job-offers for fear of missing opportunities in the future.

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions

(Barron’s, Writing for the TOEFL iBT, pp.280-281)

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Your Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction = Outline】

【Point 1】

【Point 2】

【Point 3 / Counterargument-treatment】

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】

☆Sample paragraph Development

【Main Idea】 Owning a business would give me a lot of freedom.

【Explanation】 It would allow me to try new ideas.

【Detail / Example】 If you work for an employer, it is almost impossible to put new ideas into practice. You are supposed to do your assignment under the policy decided by your employer. If you are the boss, you can carry out your idea at your discretion.

【Follow-up】 It is true that decision making in business actually involves a lot of consultation with other executives because there are many things for a CEO to consider such as effects to the community or the fate of your employees and clients, but the same considerations have to be made in any other important decisions. As long as I am aware of my responsibility and listen to others, I think I can do well, and the pressure and bother will not prevent me from feeling thrilled by the challenge in business.

【Conclusion】 I think my life would be livelier if I owned a business.

☆Your test paragraph development:

【Main Idea】

【Explanation】

【Detail / Example】

【Follow-up】

【Conclusion】