「ドリトル先生航海記」から学ぶ大学入試・英検・TOEIC頻出語彙と読解(64)

　やさしいものができずに難しいものに手を出しても力がつかないのは英語に限ったことではないでしょう。残念ながら日本の英語教育では、児童書に触れる機会が乏しいまま大人向けの英語を読まされる傾向が続いてきました。これでは英語学習で挫折者が続出するのも無理はありません。しかしやさしいものを確実に習得していけば余計な苦労はせずに済みます。そんなわけで、著作権の切れた童話「ドリトル先生航海記」から、シンプルで、大学入試にもTOEICにも英検にも有効な練習問題を作成しています。
　コロンで区切られているのが四語選択問題、スラッシュで区切られているのが四語整序問題です。＊印は難易度の目安で、＊印が多いほど難しい単語になっています。無印は語法・文法等の問題です。楽しみながら英語力を伸ばしていただければ幸いです。ドリトル先生航海記で学ぶ語彙・読解をクリックするとまとめて読めますのでご利用下さい。
　いままでにここのブログで連載した「オズの魔法使い」から学ぶ頻出語彙と読解、ドリトル先生アフリカゆきで学ぶ語彙・読解もクリックすると全文読めます。
　訳本は三点とも岩波少年文庫からいいものが出ています。たとえ数分でも自力で英文を理解するよう努力してからの訳本の利用がおすすめです。考えずに訳文を暗記するような横着をしていては英語思考力が伸ばせません。

※(63)の解答①(clinging)②(dreadful)③(army)④(wonder how thick it)⑤(against)⑥(echo of it died)⑦(one another as though)⑧(gigantic)⑨(for our tiny strength)⑩(around trying to find)⑪(where it leaned against)⑫(conceal)⑬(prisoners inside to eat)⑭(discovery which led to )⑮(resting on nothing but)⑯(guess)⑰(direction)⑱(whole crew of us )⑲(during which in spite)⑳(squash him flatter than)

(64)
Presently there was a grating, grinding sound.

"Look out!" ①*(convicted : yelled : consented : irritated) John Dolittle, "here she comes!—Scatter!"

We ②(our / ran / lives / for), outwards, toward the sides. The big rock slid gently down, about a foot, into the trough which we had made beneath it. For a moment I was disappointed, for like that, it was as hopeless as before—no signs of a cave-mouth showing above it. But as I looked upward, I saw the top coming very slowly away from the mountainside. We had unbalanced it below. As ③(moved / from / it / apart) the face of the mountain, sounds of human voices, crying gladly in a strange tongue, issued from behind. Faster and faster the top swung forward, downward. Then, with a roaring crash which shook the whole mountain-range beneath our feet, it ④*(treated : struck : glanced : supplied) the earth and cracked in halves.

How can I ⑤*(describe : explore : justify : compare) to any one that first meeting between the two greatest naturalists the world ever knew, Long Arrow, the son of Golden Arrow and John Dolittle, M.D., of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh? The scene rises before me now, plain and clear in every detail, ⑥(so : unless : when : though) it took place so many, many years ago. But when I come to write of it, words seem such poor things with ⑦(you / tell / to / which) of that great occasion.

I know that the Doctor, whose life was surely full enough of big happenings, always counted the setting free of the Indian scientist as the greatest thing he ever did. For my part, ⑧(much / this / knowing / how)meeting must mean to him, I was on pins and needles of expectation and curiosity as the great stone finally thundered down at our feet and we ⑨*(bowed : supplied : argued : gazed) across it to see what lay behind.

The gloomy black mouth of a tunnel, full twenty feet high, was ⑩*(represented : intended : attempted : revealed). In the centre of this opening stood an enormous red Indian, seven feet tall, handsome, muscular, slim and naked—but for a beaded cloth about his middle and an eagle's feather in his hair. He held one hand across his face to ⑪(his / shield / from / eyes) the blinding sun which he had not seen in many days.

"It is he!" I heard the Doctor ⑫*(seek : whisper : aim : fix) at my elbow. "I know him by his great height and the scar upon his chin."

And he stepped forward slowly across the fallen stone ⑬(outstretched / with / hand / his) to the red man.

Presently the Indian uncovered his eyes. And I saw that they had a curious piercing gleam in them—like the eyes of an eagle, but kinder and more gentle. He slowly raised his right arm, the rest of him still and motionless like a statue, and took the Doctor's hand in his. It was a great moment. Polynesia nodded to me in a knowing, satisfied kind of way. And I ⑭(old / sniffle / heard / Bumpo) sentimentally. Then the Doctor tried to speak to Long Arrow. But the Indian knew no English of course, and the Doctor knew no Indian. Presently, to my surprise, I heard the Doctor trying him in different animal languages.

"How do you do?" he said in dog-talk; "I am glad to see you," in horse-signs; "How long have you been ⑮*(reduced : buried : wounded : flourished)?" in deer-language. Still the Indian made no move but stood there, straight and stiff, understanding not a word.

The Doctor tried again, in several other animal dialects. But with no result.

Till at ⑯(best : least : most : last) he came to the language of eagles.

"Great Red-Skin," he said in the fierce screams and short grunts that the big birds use, "never have I ⑰(in / been / glad / so) all my life as I am to-day to find you still alive."

In a flash Long Arrow's stony ⑱(lit / face / with / up) a smile of understanding; and back came the answer in eagle-tongue,

"Mighty White Man, I ⑲*(adopt : owe : save : cure) my life to you. For the remainder of my days I am your servant to command."

Afterwards Long Arrow told us that this was the only bird or animal language that he had ever been able to learn. But that he had not spoken it in a long time, ⑳(but : for : so : though) no eagles ever came to this island.

解答は次回発表。ご意見、ご要望等はsuzuyasu@wmail.plala.or.jpでも承っております。