■明治大学の入試問題の難易度レベル
今回も文法力と精読力が大きな役割を果たす良問を紹介したいと思います。
今回も、解説が済むまで、出典は伏せておくことにします。
ご自分で答えを導き出し、自分にとっての問題点を明確にしておいてください。
次の英文を読み、空所(a – j)に入れるのにもっとも適当な動詞を下の語群(0 – 9)から選びその数字を解答欄に記入しなさい。ただし、語群の動詞は原形が与えられています。同じ数字を二度使ってはいけません。
Few questions in evolution have caused more debate than the genesis of birds. Most scientists believe birds are ( a ) from dinosaurs called theropods1, but they hadn’t found the actual dinosaur-bird link. Now, two Argentinean paleontologists2, writing in last week’s Nature, say they have found a dinosaur so birdlike that they’ve ( b ) it Unenlagia, from local Indian words for “half” and “bird.”
The fossil ( c ) a theropod, but its pelvis3 looks like a cross between a dinosaur’s and a bird’s. And its shoulder is even more remarkable: not only did it ( d ) the animal to move its short arms forward, it also permitted an up-and-down “flapping” motion – one never before ( e ) with nonavian4 dinosaurs. These limbs were too small to ( f ) the animal off the ground; they may have been used for balance when the dinosaurs jumped and ran, much as gymnasts hold out their arms to ( g ) themselves from falling.
Some skeptics sill argue that dinosaurs and birds could have acquired similar traits independently, just as bats – unrelated to birds – also ( h ) wings. Unenlagia’s discoverers, meanwhile, say the fossil ( i ) light on yet another mystery: the origin of flight. One theory holds that flight arose when arboreal5 animals began gliding from tree to tree; another, ( j ) up by the new find, says flapping ground dwellers were the first to take wing.
1 theropod 「獣脚竜」
2 paleontologist 「古生物学者」
3 pelvis 「骨盤」
4 nonavian 「飛翔しない」
5 arboreal 「樹上生活の」
0. lift
1. allow
2. associate
3. back
4. descend
5. evolve
6. keep
7. name
8. resemble
9. shed