第7章
総合問題
総合問題③
次の英文を読んで後の問に答えなさい。
（＊解説の都合上，本文を①∼④段落に分けています。）
(1)My
①
father has a peculiar habit.
Sometimes I come home very late.
do not want to disturb my mother.
undress in the dark.
noise.
He is fond of
The house is dark.
(a)sitting
in the dark, alone.
I let myself in quietly because I
She is a light sleeper.
I tiptoe into my room and
I go to the kitchen for a drink of water.
I step into the room and almost trip over my father.
My bare feet make no
He is sitting in a kitchen
chair, in his pajamas, (b)smoking his pipe.
“Hello, Pop,” I say.
“Hello, son.”
“Why don’t you go to bed, Pop?”
But he doesn’t.
②
can’t understand it.
“(2)I will, son.”
He just sits there and smokes and thinks.
What can he be thinking about?
“What are you thinking about, Pa?”
It worries me.
Once I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said.
Once I left him there and went to bed, I awoke several hours later.
③
thirsty.
I went to the kitchen.
(c)staring
into a corner of the kitchen.
darkness.
I took my drink.
There he was.
His pipe was out.
After a moment, I
He still sat and stared.
thought he was not even aware of me.
I
(3)became
I was
But he sat there,
accustomed to the
His eyes did not blink.
I
I was afraid.
“You’ve been sitting here for hours.
What’s wrong?
What are you thinking
about?”
“Nothing, son,” he said.
④
It’s just restful.
The way he said it was convincing.
even and pleasant.
29
“Nothing.
It always is.
That’s all.”
He did not seem worried.
But I could not understand it.
His voice was
How could it be
第 46 講
総合問題④
restful to sit alone in an uncomfortable chair far into the night, in darkness?
(Adapted from Jerome Weidman, “My Father Sits in the Dark”)
問１ 下線部(1)で述べられている「筆者の父親の奇妙な癖」とは何か。その具体的な内容を
20 字以内（句読点含む）の日本語で説明しなさい。
問２ 下線部(a)∼(c)の∼ing 形には１つだけ用法の異なるものがある。その記号を書きなさ
い。
問３ 下線部(2)の具体的な内容として最も適切なものを，①∼④の中から１つ選び，番号で
答えなさい。
① お前に話したいことがある。
② パジャマを着替えたいんだ。
③ ベッドで寝るよ。
④ 椅子で寝るよ。
問４ ①∼④の中で，下線部(3)とほぼ同意になるように，accustomed の代わりに用いるこ
とのできるものを，１つ選び，番号で答えなさい。
① acquainted
② bored ③ concerned
④ used
問５ 本文の内容に一致しているものを，下の①∼④の中から１つ選び，番号で答えなさい。
① 私は，時おり遅く帰宅した際，母が寝ているのを邪魔しないようにそっと家の中に
入っていく。
② 私の父はよくリビングルームで，暗がりの中，パジャマ姿でじっと椅子に座ってい
る。
③ ある時，私は父に何を考えているのか尋ねたが，何の返事も返ってこなかった。
④ 父がなぜ暗がりの中でひとりで座っているのか，私にもやっと理解できた。
30
第7章
総合問題
次の英文を読んで後の問に答えなさい。
Green is an important color in nature.
trees.
It is the color of grass and the leaves on
It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing.
Sometimes, it
describes something that is not yet ripe or finished.
For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience or who is new to a
situation.
In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow whose horns had not
yet developed.
A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any
experience in battle.
By the eighteenth century, greenhorn had the meaning it has
today ― a person who is new in a job.
About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the
American West.
Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of
the big cities back East.
The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the
hard, rough country.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb.
The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds.
A person with a green thumb
seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well.
You might say
that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after
your plants have died.
The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of
new kinds of rice and other grains.
The new plants produced much larger crops.
The
Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green
thumbs.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion of jealousy.
green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space.
31
The
It is an expression
第 46 講
総合問題④
used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play
“Othello.”
It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone else has
something the person wants.
A young man may be troubled by the green-eyed monster
if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else.
Or, that green-eyed monster may
affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.
(出典：“Words and Their Stories: Green Expressions” Voice of America: Special English,
22 May 2010 一部改変)
問１ “Greenhorn”という言葉について，以下のそれぞれの意味が生じた時期の古い順に，
番号を並び替えなさい。
① A man who had just arrived in the American West from a big city in the East and
who lacked the skills necessary to live in the hard conditions.
② A soldier who had not yet had experience in battle.
③ A young cow whose horns had not yet developed.
④ A person who is new in a job and has no experience.
問２ “Green thumb”を持っている人とはどのような人か。日本語で説明しなさい。
問３ 以下の“The green-eyed monster”の説明が本文の内容に合っていれば１を，それ以外
の場合は２と書きなさい。
① The green-eyed monster is a real creature which was born about four hundred
years ago.
② The green-eyed monster stands for the powerful human emotion of jealousy.
③ If your girlfriend or boyfriend goes out with someone else, you may be troubled
by the green-eyed monster.
④ If you get a pay raise earlier than your friend, you may be troubled by the
green-eyed monster.
32