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。
※(61)の解答①(anxious)②(foot)③(these appeared as though)④(gloomy)⑤(sniffed at every crack)⑥(be no use of)⑦(is so saturated with)⑧(drifting)⑨(perish)⑩(where)⑪(might put us on)⑫(trapped) ⑬(been likely to take)⑭(fair)⑮(do is to let)⑯(show us what part) ⑰(no better off than)⑱(out of my sight)⑲(crawls)⑳(set him to work )
(62)
Again we all ①***(succumbed : resumed : disrupted : clustered) round the Doctor as he carefully lifted off the glass lid and let the big beetle climb out upon his finger.
"Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home!" crooned Bumpo. "Your house is on fire and your chil—"
"Oh, be quiet!" snapped Polynesia crossly. "Stop insulting him! Don't you suppose he has ②(go / wits / to / enough) home without your telling him?"
"I thought perchance he might be of a philandering disposition," said Bumpo humbly. "It could be that he is tired of his home and ③(to / needs / encouraged / be). Shall I sing him 'Home Sweet Home,' think you?"
"No. Then he'd never go back. Your voice needs a rest. Don't sing to him: just watch him—Oh, and Doctor, why not ④*(invent : tie : operate : elect) another message to the creature's leg, telling Long Arrow that we're doing our best to reach him and that he mustn't give up hope?"
"I will," said the Doctor. And in a minute he had pulled a dry leaf from a bush near by and was covering it with little pictures in pencil.
At last, neatly ⑤*(shaped : fixed : predicted : identified) up with his new mail-bag, Mr. Jabizri crawled off the Doctor's finger to the ground and looked about him. He stretched his legs, ⑥*(worried : followed : rescued : polished) his nose with his front feet and then moved off leisurely to the westward.
We had expected him to walk UP the mountain; instead, he walked AROUND it. Do you know ⑦(takes / it / long / how) a beetle to walk round a mountain? Well, I ⑧*(address : translate : assure : endure) you it takes an unbelievably long time. As the hours dragged by, we hoped and hoped that he would get up and fly the rest, and ⑨(carry / let / on / Polynesia) the work of following him. But he never opened his wings once. I had not ⑩*(recommended : granted : committed : realized) before how hard it is for a human being to walk slowly enough to keep up with a beetle. It was the most ⑪**(tedious : modest : legitimate : prompt) thing I have ever gone through. And as we dawdled along behind, watching him like hawks ⑫(we / him / lest / lose) under a leaf or something, we all got so cross and ill-tempered we were ready to bite one another's heads off. And when he stopped to look at the scenery or polish his nose some more, I could hear Polynesia ⑬(out / behind / letting / me) the most dreadful seafaring swear-words you ever heard.
After he had led us the whole way round the mountain he brought us to the ⑭*(rapid : false : exact : decent) spot where we started from and there he came to a dead stop.
"Well," said Bumpo to Polynesia, "what do you think of the beetle's sense now? You see he DOESN'T know enough to go home."
"Oh, be still, you Hottentot!" snapped Polynesia. "Wouldn't YOU want to stretch your legs for ⑮*(evidence : voyage : exercise : pity) if you'd been shut up in a box all day. Probably his home is near here, and that's why he's come back."
"But why," I asked, "did he go the whole way round the mountain first?"
Then the three of us got into a violent ⑯*(method : luxury : argument : expression). But in the middle of it all the Doctor suddenly called out,
"Look, look!"
We turned and found that ⑰(was / to / he / pointing) the Jabizri, who was now walking UP the mountain at a much faster and more business-like gait.
"Well," said Bumpo sitting down wearily; "if he is going to walk OVER the mountain and back, for more exercise, I'll wait for him here. Chee-Chee and Polynesia can ⑱*(reveal : follow : recall : oppose) him."
Indeed it would have ⑲(made : given : taken : led) a monkey or a bird to climb the place which the beetle was now walking up. It was a smooth, flat part of the mountain's side, steep as a wall.
But presently, when the Jabizri was no more than ten feet above our heads, we all cried out together. For, even while we watched him, he had disappeared into the face of the rock like a raindrop ⑳***(ascending : soaking : assaulting : enclosing) into sand.
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。
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。
※(61)の解答①(anxious)②(foot)③(these appeared as though)④(gloomy)⑤(sniffed at every crack)⑥(be no use of)⑦(is so saturated with)⑧(drifting)⑨(perish)⑩(where)⑪(might put us on)⑫(trapped) ⑬(been likely to take)⑭(fair)⑮(do is to let)⑯(show us what part) ⑰(no better off than)⑱(out of my sight)⑲(crawls)⑳(set him to work )
(62)
Again we all ①***(succumbed : resumed : disrupted : clustered) round the Doctor as he carefully lifted off the glass lid and let the big beetle climb out upon his finger.
"Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home!" crooned Bumpo. "Your house is on fire and your chil—"
"Oh, be quiet!" snapped Polynesia crossly. "Stop insulting him! Don't you suppose he has ②(go / wits / to / enough) home without your telling him?"
"I thought perchance he might be of a philandering disposition," said Bumpo humbly. "It could be that he is tired of his home and ③(to / needs / encouraged / be). Shall I sing him 'Home Sweet Home,' think you?"
"No. Then he'd never go back. Your voice needs a rest. Don't sing to him: just watch him—Oh, and Doctor, why not ④*(invent : tie : operate : elect) another message to the creature's leg, telling Long Arrow that we're doing our best to reach him and that he mustn't give up hope?"
"I will," said the Doctor. And in a minute he had pulled a dry leaf from a bush near by and was covering it with little pictures in pencil.
At last, neatly ⑤*(shaped : fixed : predicted : identified) up with his new mail-bag, Mr. Jabizri crawled off the Doctor's finger to the ground and looked about him. He stretched his legs, ⑥*(worried : followed : rescued : polished) his nose with his front feet and then moved off leisurely to the westward.
We had expected him to walk UP the mountain; instead, he walked AROUND it. Do you know ⑦(takes / it / long / how) a beetle to walk round a mountain? Well, I ⑧*(address : translate : assure : endure) you it takes an unbelievably long time. As the hours dragged by, we hoped and hoped that he would get up and fly the rest, and ⑨(carry / let / on / Polynesia) the work of following him. But he never opened his wings once. I had not ⑩*(recommended : granted : committed : realized) before how hard it is for a human being to walk slowly enough to keep up with a beetle. It was the most ⑪**(tedious : modest : legitimate : prompt) thing I have ever gone through. And as we dawdled along behind, watching him like hawks ⑫(we / him / lest / lose) under a leaf or something, we all got so cross and ill-tempered we were ready to bite one another's heads off. And when he stopped to look at the scenery or polish his nose some more, I could hear Polynesia ⑬(out / behind / letting / me) the most dreadful seafaring swear-words you ever heard.
After he had led us the whole way round the mountain he brought us to the ⑭*(rapid : false : exact : decent) spot where we started from and there he came to a dead stop.
"Well," said Bumpo to Polynesia, "what do you think of the beetle's sense now? You see he DOESN'T know enough to go home."
"Oh, be still, you Hottentot!" snapped Polynesia. "Wouldn't YOU want to stretch your legs for ⑮*(evidence : voyage : exercise : pity) if you'd been shut up in a box all day. Probably his home is near here, and that's why he's come back."
"But why," I asked, "did he go the whole way round the mountain first?"
Then the three of us got into a violent ⑯*(method : luxury : argument : expression). But in the middle of it all the Doctor suddenly called out,
"Look, look!"
We turned and found that ⑰(was / to / he / pointing) the Jabizri, who was now walking UP the mountain at a much faster and more business-like gait.
"Well," said Bumpo sitting down wearily; "if he is going to walk OVER the mountain and back, for more exercise, I'll wait for him here. Chee-Chee and Polynesia can ⑱*(reveal : follow : recall : oppose) him."
Indeed it would have ⑲(made : given : taken : led) a monkey or a bird to climb the place which the beetle was now walking up. It was a smooth, flat part of the mountain's side, steep as a wall.
But presently, when the Jabizri was no more than ten feet above our heads, we all cried out together. For, even while we watched him, he had disappeared into the face of the rock like a raindrop ⑳***(ascending : soaking : assaulting : enclosing) into sand.
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。
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