『週刊ST』6/25「TOEFL® iBT対策講座」解説

前回同様、各段落の内容を短いメモにまとめることから始めます。

第一段落；第二次大戦後のテレビ放送の発達
第二段落；５０年代、広告と商業主義の氾濫と文化的均一化
第三段落；６０年代、体制側、反体制側双方の代弁者
第四段落；政治家によるテレビの利用
第五段落；PBS（公共放送）の設立
第六段落；様々な立場からのテレビ批判

この作業により、3,5,7,9 のようなタイプの設問が比較的楽に解けます。
　

設問 1, 正解 B。形容詞 chaotic の名詞形は chaos で、既に「カオス」として日本語化しています。リスニングのキーワードとしてもしばしば使われますので正確な発音も覚えてください。敢えてカタカナ表記すると、chaotic が「ケイアーティック」、chaos が「ケイァス」になります。

設問 2 ,正解 A。

設問 3, 正解D。 ただし、パッセ-ジ内の“homogenize” ( 均一化する )、 “conformity” ( 事大主義、画一性 )、 “ to exclude diversity” ( 多様性の排除 ) や選択肢D内の “uniformity” ( 統一性 ) のような鍵になる単語、表現を知らなければ正解するチャンスはありません。ちなみに今回取り上げた問題では、いわゆる専門用語と言えるものはありません。従って、未知の単語があったら全て覚えて下さい。

設問 4, 正解 B。

設問 5, 正解C。この設問では特に段落の指定がありませんが、リーディング問題では各設問を解くための鍵になる部分は、設問番号の若い順にパッセ-ジに現れます。あわてず一問一問、鍵になる部分を捜していきましょう。第三段落の最後のセンテンスがやや難解ですので意訳を付しておきます。「１９６０年代のテレビは体制側と反体制側の双方の代弁者としての役割を果たした。つまり、アメリカ人を一体化へ導くような映像を流した一方で、国内の人種間の、階層間の、或いは男女間の対立を反映した、時には激化させるような映像も流した。」（最後から二行目、others は other images を指します。）

設問 6, 正解B。語彙問題としてはかなり高レベルです。 exacerbate は二百五十点レベルの動詞です。

設問 7, 正解 B。

設問 8, 正解 A。不正解の中では選択肢 B が一番惜しいのですが、政府の情報を無批判に受け入れることと、政府を貴重な情報源としてみなすことは同じ意味とはいえないのでやはり間違いです。

設問 9, 正解 B。

設問 10, 正解 D。
最後にいつも多くの受験者を悩ませる挿入問題 37を見ましょう。挿入問題では、通常、挿入されるセンテンスの中の指示代名詞、指示形容詞 ( this, those 等 ) や人称代名詞 ( her, they 等 ) が、ヒントになるケースが大半です。これらの言葉が指している名詞を文意から類推し、その直後に挿入すればよい訳です。ただし、この解法が通用しない場合もあります。ここで取り上げた設問 29 もそのような厄介なタイプです。挿入文に指示代名詞・形容詞や代名詞が含まれていないので、一つずつA,B,C,Dにあてはめて、上手く文が繋がるかどうか考えなければなりません。挿入文の冒頭に also が置かれていますので、この文は、文化評論家、もしくは少なくとも何かの分野の評論家がテレビを批評している文に続く位置に来るべきです。従って、Aはあり得ません。さらに挿入文はかなり限定的・具体的な情報を伝えていますから、この段落のまとめ、ひいてはこの長いパッセ-ジのまとめになるべきDの位置も不適当です。ということでBかCに絞られます。最後に、まず右寄り・左寄りの政治評論家によるテレビ批判をそれぞれ紹介し、その後、文化評論家の主張に言及する、という自然な流れをつくる正解Cが導かれます。
設問 11, 正解 C。

『週刊ST』6/25「TOEFL® iBT対策講座」問題

Television in the United States

1. Although experimentation with television broadcasting began in the late 1920s, technical difficulties, corporate competition, and World War II postponed itsntroduction to the public until 1946. Television constituted a revolutionary change from radio, but its ntroduction was not as chaotic as that of radio, for an institutional framework already existed. The television boom occurred between 1949, when 940,000 households had a set, and 1953, when the number soared to 20 million.
2. The rapid integration of television into American life coincided with the explosive rise of a consumer culture after the war. Pent-up demand fueled by the privations of the depression and the war, coupled with prosperity, was exploited by advertisers who turned to television to sell their products. In the early 1950s, many corporations produced and sponsored entire shows, and ads were at least one minute in length. But as programming became more expensive, and advertisers discovered that thirty-second spots were as effective as longer ones, shows were sponsored by several products, increasing dramatically the sheer number of commercials. As the pace and intensity of advertising increased, the images on television became more homogenized, portraying in such programs as “Leave It to Beaver” and “Bonanza” idealized white middle-class families and norms. Advertisers’ desires to appeal to the broadest possible audience, coupled with an atmosphere of conformity fueled by McCarthyism, blacklisting, and cold war paranoia, made programmers extremely cautious, and they pandered to the lowest common denominator. Television excluded diversity and elevated consumerism into a national obsession.
3. Yet the voices of those ignored or betrayed broke through on television in the 1960s, primarily on the nightly news. The often horrifying footage of the civil rights movement, followed by John F. Kennedy’s assassination, brought a new primacy to network news, which expanded from fifteen-minute to half-hour broadcasts in 1963. Soon television was bringing the Vietnam War, antiwar demonstrations, and the women’s movement into the nation’s homes. Television in the 1960s was an agent both of conformity and of rebellion, providing some images that unified America and others that reflected, and sometimes exacerbated, the country’s deep racial, class, and gender divisions.
4. Television has had both a salubrious and a corrupting effect on politics. Congressional investigations from the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 to Watergate in 1973 and the Iran-Contra hearings in 1988 exposed the wrongdoings of government officials. But politicians also learned to be cautious and calculating in their use of television. They emphasized appearances, exploited visual symbols, and stage-managed the news whenever possible. Television journalists, dependent on highly placed sources and government handouts, were not inclined to challenge official versions of reality. Network news executives, increasingly drawn from the ranks of the business community rather than from journalism, believed that the public did not want analyses of complex issues but simply entertainment. The symbiotic relationship between politicians and television journalists led to an emphasis on style over substance in the coverage of presidential campaigns so that, in 1988, the Pledge of Allegiance was a major campaign topic while the nation’s huge deficit was virtually ignored.
5. Because television brings images, as well as sound, into the home, it has been more criticized than radio for squandering its potential to educate and inform. Newton Minow, the FCC chairman in 1961, called television “a vast wasteland.” Others worried about the levels of violence in programming and its effects on children. Spurred by such criticisms, Congress in 1967 established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and, in 1969, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), which received some federal money to support noncommercial and educational programs. But PBS must still rely on viewer support and corporate sponsorship to survive.
6. Criticism of the medium has intensified, and many of the nation’s problems, from widespread illiteracy to political apathy, have been attributed to television. [A] Critics on the right charge that television news is infused with a liberal bias and that programming contains too much sex. [B] Critics on the left counter that news programs serve to legitimize the status quo and marginalize any proposals for far-reaching social change. [C] Although television continues to provide viewers with common stories and scenes of events that help construct a sense of national unity, the ideology of television programming, especially the message that limitless consumerism is the most important freedom, has alarming political and cultural implications. [D]

1. The word chaotic in the passage is closest in meaning to
   
   
   
   1. gradual
   
   
   2. disordered
   
   
   3. regulated
   
   
   4. sensational


2. The word sponsored in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to
   
   
   
   1. financed
   
   
   2. scripted
   
   
   3. dictated the content of
   
   
   4. broadcast


3. In paragraph 2, what criticism does the author make about television in the 1950s?
   
   
   
   1. The quality of news reporting was poor.
   
   
   2. Television contributed to the feeling of cold war paranoia.
   
   
   3. Programs became more violent to attract audiences.
   
   
   4. Programming became increasingly uniform.


4. The word primacy in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to
   
   
   
   1. urgency
   
   
   2. importance
   
   
   3. excitement
   
   
   4. interest


5. What positive quality does the author describe television as having in the 1960s?
   
   
   
   1. The quality of advertising was higher than in the 1950s.
   
   
   2. Programming was more varied than television in the 1950s.
   
   
   3. It revealed the major events of the time to a mass audience.
   
   
   4. There was a lower emphasis on consumerism.


6. The word exacerbated in the passage is closest in meaning to
   
   
   
   1. healed
   
   
   2. made worse
   
   
   3. exaggerated
   
   
   4. misrepresented


7. Which paragraph explains the relationship between television and politics?
   
   
   
   1. 3
   
   
   2. 4
   
   
   3. 5
   
   
   4. 6


8. Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important information.
   
   
   
   1. Television journalists were unlikely to question the information they received from their sources.
   
   
   2. Television journalists saw it as their job to challenge information from government sources.
   
   
   3. Television journalists found the government to be a valuable source of information.
   
   
   4. Television journalists found the government to be a misleading source of information.


9. In paragraph 4, why does the author give the example of the 1988 presidential campaign?
   
   
   
   1. To show how television informs the general public about what is important.
   
   
   2. To show the close relationship between television journalists and politicians.
   
   
   3. To show how television often focuses on trivial political issues .
   
   
   4. To show how television news covers a broad range of issues.


10. It can be inferred that Newton Minow described television as “a vast wasteland” because
    
    
    
    1. it depicted so much violence.
    
    
    2. it brought images as well as sound into the home.
    
    
    3. its quality was not as high as that of radio.
    
    
    4. it failed to provide education and information.


11. The following sentence could be added to paragraph 6.
    Also cultural critics lament the privatization of American life, with viewers staying home glued to the tube instead of participating in political or social activities.
    Where would it best fit into the paragraph?
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


12. What would be the best title for this passage?
    
    
    
    1. The Rise of Television Advertising.
    
    
    2. The History of Television News Coverage.
    
    
    3. The Development of Television Broadcasting.
    
    
    4. Government Regulation of Television.




投稿者 ilc : June 24, 2006

夏期短期集中コース開講

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≪コース内容≫
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