【高校英語】共通テストの英文解釈 vol.1053≪2015年第3問C≫

□--■--□--■--□--■--□--------------------------------------------◆ 　　【高校英語】共通テストの英文解釈 vol.1053 　　　　　≪2015年第3問C≫　　月・水・土発行　　2021/6/26 配信 ◆----------------------------------------□--■--□--■--□--■--□--■ 目次・・・■　問題　■　全文訳　■　解答・解説　■　語句　■　解答一覧 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 今回取り上げる問題は、2015年大学入試センター試験英語第３問Ｃです。 ■　問題 第３問　次の問い(Ａ～Ｃ)に答えよ。 Ｃ　次の会話は、「迷信」をテーマとして、日本のある大学において行われた 公開講座でのやりとりの一部である。[ 32 ]～[ 34 ]に入れるのに最も適当な ものを、それぞれ下の{1}～{4}のうちから一つずつ選べ。 Moderator: The title of today's discussion is "Superstitions -- what they are, and why people believe in them." Our guest speakers are Joseph Grant, a university professor who lives here in Japan, and Lily Nelson, a visiting professor from Canada. Joseph, can you explain what a superstition is? Joseph: Superstitions are beliefs for which there is no obvious rational basis. For example, there are various dates and numbers that people are superstitious about. In many places, "Friday the 13th" is thought to be unlucky. In contrast, 7 is known as "Lucky 7." A superstitious person believes that actions such as choosing or avoiding certain numbers can influence future events even though there is no direct connection between them. Believing in superstitions is one of the ways humans can make sense of a set of unusual events which cause someone to feel lucky or unlucky. This seems to have been true throughout history, regardless of race or cultural background. Moderator: So, it is your view that [ 32 ]. {1} superstitions are traditionally based on certain dates and numbers {2} superstitions can be used to explain strange happenings around us {3} superstitious people believe race and culture are related to luck {4} superstitious people tend to have identical beliefs regarding history Joseph: That's right. Superstitions tend to come from a combination of primitive belief systems and coincidence -- things that happened by chance. Moderator: Could you tell us more about that? Joseph: A primitive belief system develops from the natural human tendency to look for patterns in the world around us. Noticing patterns allow us to learn things quickly. However, sometimes chance or coincidental events are mistaken for a pattern, like passing a series of tests using the same pencil every time. The pencil is unrelated to passing the tests, but becomes a "lucky" pencil because of the coincidental connection. So, we may come to believe that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events. I experienced this myself when I was called "Ame-otoko" or "Rain-man" by Japanese friends. By coincidence, I was present on occasions when it was raining and so gained a "rainy reputation." Rationally speaking, we know that nobody can make rain fall from the sky, but our primitive belief system, combined with coincidence, creates a superstition around the "Rain-man." Moderator: How interesting! So, you are saying that [ 33 ]. {1} an "Ame-otoko" or "Rain-man" causes rain to fall from the sky {2} coincidental events or chance patterns can create superstitions {3} looking for patterns is in an unnatural action for humans {4} primitive belief systems create coincidental events Moderator: How about you, Lily? Do you agree with Joseph? Lily: Yes, I do, especially regarding the notion of coincidence or chance. In an attempt to better understand human behavior, an American psychologist conducted a famous experiment called "Superstition in the Pigeon" on a group of hungry birds. The pigeons were in cages and a feeding machine automatically delivered small amounts of food at regular time intervals. The psychologist observed that the pigeons began to repeat the specific body movements that they had been making whenever the food was delivered. He believed that the pigeons were trying to influence the machine to deliver food by their repeated movements. He assumed that we humans also do the same and try to influence future events by performing non-logical actions, associate an action with an outcome even though there is no logical connection. Moderator: So, that psychologist thought from the experiment that [ 34 ]. {1} pigeons and humans both perform superstitious actions {2} pigeons and humans both tend to influence machines {3} the pigeons knew when the food would be delivered {4} the pigeons' repeated actions influenced the food delivery Lily: Yes, that's exactly right. Moderator: Thank you, Joseph and Lily, for sharing your knowledge on superstitions and why people are superstitious. Let's take a quick break here before we move on with the discussion. ※マーク部分の□や下線部は[ ]で、マル１は{1}で表記しています。