長文では様々な題材が扱われるが，どのような題材でも，文章の要点を押さえることが読解のカギとな る。問われている内容を確認しながら，文脈を見失わないように読み進めるのがコツ。
1 校内でのボランティア活動について述べた長文の問題 次の英文は，中学生の隆子（ Takako ）が，英語の授 業で行ったスピーチの原稿です。これを読み，下の ア ～ オ を本文の流れに合うように並べなさい。
You often hear or read about a lot of children dying in a poor country because they have
＊
infectious diseases. If they have
＊vaccines, they can be
＊saved. You all want to save them, but many of you think you can do nothing about it. But we’ve found something we can do.
One day, I found a
＊website on the Internet. It said, “There’s a
＊campaign to save poor children. In this campaign, people collect
＊PET bottle
＊caps. If they collect eight hundred caps, they can get enough money to buy one vaccine. One vaccine can save one child.”
The next day I told the members of the
＊student council to collect PET bottle caps as volunteer work. They said, “That’s a good idea.” Soon we put a large box in our school and said to other students, “Do you have any PET bottle caps at home? Please put them into this box to save poor children.”
A few weeks later, we found that there weren’t many caps in the box. We were very sad.
But we never gave up. We thought about things we should do. One member said, “Let’s make
＊leaf lets to show pictures of poor children to the other students. If we make leaf lets to do so, some students can understand that they should save those children.”
We made a lot of leaf lets, and
＊handed them to students at the school gate every morning. We said to them, “Look at these children. Let’s save them. Please bring PET bottle caps and work with us.” After school, we also visited houses around our school with the leaf lets. We got more caps
＊little by little. We finally got 80,000 caps. We could get vaccines for one hundred children.
The
＊power of one person is small, but the power becomes greater when a lot of people work together. That’s an important thing I learned from our work. I’ll keep doing this work.
〔注〕
infectious disease感染症
vaccineワクチン
save救う
websiteウェブサイト
campaignキャンペーン
PET bottleペットボトル
cap蓋
ふたstudent council
生徒会
leaf letリーフレット
hand手渡す
little by little少しずつ
power力
ア The members of the student council started collecting PET bottle caps.
イ A lot of leaf lets were handed to students at the gate of Takako’s school.
ウ Takako found a campaign to save poor children by collecting PET bottle caps.
エ The student council was able to collect enough caps to get vaccines for one hundred children.
オ The members of the student council were sad because they didn’t get enough PET bottle caps.
〔 〕→〔 〕→〔 〕→〔 〕→〔 〕
５
10
1５
20
1 スピーチを題材にした長文の読解問題
KEY
日本人や外国人の生徒が自分の体験や意見を発表するスピーチの文章は
，長文読解でよく取り上げられる。体験した 出来事や伝えたい意見がどのような順で述べられているかを押さえながら
，スピーチの要点を読み取ろう。
問題を とく前に！
長文読解②
10
─
34─ ─
35─
3 ウサギと仲間たちを物語にした長文の問題 次の英文を読んで，あとの問いに答えなさい。
＊
Once upon a time in a
＊forest, there was a village of rabbits. The rabbits were trying hard to collect food. Soon winter would come, and it would be difficult and dangerous to look for something to eat.
In the village there was one rabbit named Frank. He liked to play the flute. All the rabbits were busy because they had to ① . But Frank was not
very good at running and jumping. So, he couldn’t collect food with the other rabbits. He felt sorry for that.
Winter came. It was colder and longer that year. They ate most of their food. They needed to go to a big village through the snowy forest to get some food. “It has begun to snow a lot.
We may
＊get lost, so we have to be careful,” said
＊the village chief. And he continued, “You should stay here, Frank. It’s too
dangerous for you.” Frank knew that the chief worried about him but
②he was sad to hear that. Soon after that, the
＊adult rabbits
＊left Frank and the children there, and went to the big village.
An hour
＊passed. Then two hours. Night came. Frank began to worry. The children came closer to Frank, and he knew that they also felt nervous. “I want to do something for them,” he thought and began to play the flute. His flute made the children
＊relaxed. He played it for many hours.
Then he saw something outside. The adult rabbits returned to the village!
“I am so happy everyone is OK! I thought everyone got lost in the snow!” said Frank. “We did. We couldn’t see anything. But we heard some beautiful music and followed it. You played the music, Frank? Because of your music, we were able to come back to the village!”
said the village chief. And the other rabbits said, “Thank you very much, Frank. You helped us.” Frank thought, “It is difficult for me to get food, but I can ③ .”
〔注〕
once upon a time昔々
forest森
get lost道に迷う
the village chief（ウサギの村の）村長
adult大人の
left～
there～をそこに残した
pass（時が）過ぎる
relaxedリラックスした 問 1 文中の ① に最も適するものを ア ～ エ から 1 つ選び，記号で答えなさい。
ア play music イ get food ウ be careful エ come back 〔 〕 問 2 下線部②の理由を示したものとして最も適するものを ア ～ エ から 1 つ選び，記号で答えなさい。
ア He was very hungry, but there was not any food in his village.
イ He liked to go to a big village because many kinds of food were there.
ウ He couldn’t go with other rabbits because it was too dangerous for him.
エ He wanted to play music for the children, but they were not interested in it. 〔 〕
◆
問 ３ 文中の ③ に入る英語を，この物語の展開をふまえ，５ 語以上で書きなさい。
５
10
1５
20
2５
2 物語を題材にした長文の読解問題
KEY
物語を題材にした長文の読解問題もよく出題される。登場人物を整理した上で
，その行動や発言内容を押さえながら
，どのような出来事が描かれているのかを正確に読み取ろう。
─
36─ ─
37─
5 運動が体と心に及ぼす効果について述べた長文の問題 次の英文を読んで，あとの問いに答えなさい。
Do you like
＊exercise? You may know that exercise is good for your health. After light exercise you may get a little tired, but you will feel
＊refreshed and
＊active because it can reduce your
＊stress. In addition, when you exercise
＊regularly, you can sleep well at night, and then you may improve your
＊lifestyle. You can become
＊healthy in both body and
① .
Look at the graph on the right. This graph shows the
＊percentage of men and women （ from 6 to 79 years old ） who exercised more than once a week in 2015.
Both boys and girls in junior high school often exercised. However, high school students didn’t exercise as often as junior high school students.
②Why was the percentage of high school students low?
There are some high school students who play sports very hard in their club activities to improve their
＊skills.
However, others don’t exercise regularly.
Why? One reason is that some of them are so busy with studying and taking some lessons that they can’t have a chance to exercise. Another reason is that some students are not interested in exercise. If high school students keep exercising, they may continue to exercise even when they grow up. So, they will have a healthy life in the future.
How can we have the
＊habit of exercising to keep healthy? Many books about health show some ways. First,
＊stretching is one good and easy exercise. Stretching makes you refreshed, and then you can
＊concentrate on studying. Second, playing
kei-sports, forexample,
＊soft-volleyball and
＊dodgebee, is another way. There are many sports events in your town. You can try kei-sports there. Third, if you don’t have time to play sports, you should walk
＊as often as possible. Just walking to school is good exercise for you. Finally, you should also be more active in P.E. class to learn the habit of exercising.
You have found that exercise can make your body healthy and your mind refreshed.
Different people have different ideas about exercise. What do you think of exercise?
〔注〕
exercise運動，運動する
refreshedさわやかになって
active活発な
stressストレス
regularly定期的に
lifestyle生活習慣
healthy健康的な
percentage割合
skill
技術
habit習慣
stretch体を伸ばす
concentrate on～ ～に集中する
soft-volleyball
ソフトバレーボール（軽くて柔らかいボールをネット越しに打ち合う競技）
dodgebee
ドッヂビー（ボールの代わりに布製のフライングディスクを用いたドッジボール）
as often as possible
できるだけ頻繁に
５10
1５
20
2５
３0
運動の実施状況が 週 日以上の者 の年齢別割合
※グラフの数値には学校での体育の授業の時間は含まれていません｡
(文部科学省資料から作成)
0%20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920 24
〜
25〜
29 30〜
34 35〜
39 40〜
44 45〜
49 50〜
54 55〜
59 60〜
64 65〜
69 70〜
7475(歳)
〜
79小学校 中学校 高校
男子 女子
3 資料を使った長文の読解問題
KEY
グラフや表などの資料を使った長文の読解問題もよく出題される。資料を使った長文問題では
，グラフや表と英文を 正しく照らし合わせて読み取る力が求められる。特に
，グラフや表の数字を的確に読み取れるようにしよう。
─
38─ ─
39─
問 1 文中の ① に入る最も適当な英語 1 語を，本文中から抜き出して書きなさい。
問 2 グラフから読み取れることとして最も適当なものを ア ～ エ から 1 つ選び，記号で答えなさい。
ア Men who were 60 ─ 64 years old exercised more often than women who were the same age.
イ Girls who were 18 years old exercised as often as men who were 55 ─ 59 years old.
ウ Girls who were 15 years old exercised more often than boys who were the same age.
エ Men who were 70 ─ 74 years old exercised as often as boys who were 6 years old. 〔 〕 問 ３ 下線部②の問いに対する答えとして最も適当なものを ア ～ エ から 1 つ選び，記号で答えなさい。
ア They had a lot of other things to do in their lives.
イ They enjoyed playing some sports better than watching them.
ウ They understood well that exercise was good for their health.
エ They wanted to exercise very hard when they became adults. 〔 〕 問 ₄ 運動の習慣を身に付けていく方法として本文に示されているものはどれですか。最も適当なものを ア ～
エ から 1 つ選び，記号で答えなさい。
ア To reduce your stress.
イ To study hard after exercise.
ウ To play kei-sports in your town.
エ To stretch after playing sports. 〔 〕
◆
