【高校英語】共通テストの英文解釈 vol.1452≪2023年共通テスト第6問B≫

□--■--□--■--□--■--□--------------------------------------------◆ 　　　【高校英語】共通テストの英文解釈 vol.1452 　　　　　　　　≪2023年共通テスト第6問B≫　　　2024/1/13配信 ◆----------------------------------------□--■--□--■--□--■--□--■ 目次・・・■　問題　■　全文訳　■　解答・解説　■　語句　■　解答一覧 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 今回は2023年共通テスト第６問Ｂを解説します。 ■　問題 第６問 Ｂ　You are in a student group preparing for an international science presentation contest. You are using the following passage to create your part of the presentation on extraordinary creatures. 　Ask someone to name the world's toughest animal, and they might say the Bactrian camel as it can survive in temperatures as high as 50℃, or the Arctic fox which can survive in temperatures lower than -58℃. However, both answers would be wrong as it is widely believed that the tardigrade is the toughest creature on earth. 　Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are microscopic creatures, which are between 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm in length. They live almost everywhere, from 6,000-meter-high mountains to 4,699 meters below the ocean's surface. They can even be found under thick ice and in hot springs. Most live in water, but some tardigrades can be found in some of the driest places on earth. One researcher reported finding tardigrades living under rocks in a desert without any recorded rainfall for 25 years. All they need are a few drops or a thin layer of water to live in. When the water dries up, so do they. They lose all but three percent of they body's water and their metabolism slows down to 0.01% of its normal speed. The dried-out tardigrade is now in a state called "tun," a kind of deep sleep. It will continue in this state until it is once again soaked in water. Then, like a sponge, it absorbs the water and springs back to life again as if nothing had happened. Whether the tardigrade is in tun for 1 or 10 years does not really matter. The moment it is surrounded by water, it comes alive again. When tardigrades are in a state of tun, they are so tough that they can survive in temperatures as low as -272℃ and as high as 151℃. Exactly how they achieve this is still not fully understood. 　Perhaps even more amazing than their ability to survive on earth――they have been on earth for some 540 million years――is their ability to survive in space. In 2007, a team of European researchers sent a number of living tardigrades into space on the outside of a rocket for 10 days. On their return to earth, the researchers were surprised to see that 68% were still alive. This means that for 10 days most were able to survive X-rays and ultraviolet radiation 1,000 times more intense than here on earth. Later, in 2019, an Israeli spacecraft crashed onto the moon and thousands of tardigrades in a state of tun were spilled onto its surface. Whether these are still alive or not is unknown as no one has gone to collect them――which is a pity. 　Tardigrades are shaped like a short cucumber. They have four short legs on each side of their bodies. Some species have sticky pads at the end of each leg, while others have claws. There are 16 known claw variations, which help identify those species with claws. All tardigrades have a place for eyes, but not all species have eyes. Their eyes are primitive, only having five cells in total――just one of which is light sensitive. 　Basically, tardigrades can be divided into those that eat plant matter, and those that eat other creatures. Those that eat vegetation have a ventral mouth――a mouth located in the lower part of the head, like a shark. The type that eats other creatures has a terminal mouth, which means the mouth is at the very front of the head, like a tuna. The mouths of tardigrades do not have teeth. They do, however, have two sharp needles, called stylets, that they use two piece plant cells or the bodies of smaller creatures so the contents can be sucked out. 　Both types of tardigrade have rather simple digestive systems. The mouth leads to the pharynx (throat), where digestive juices and food are mixed. Located above the pharynx is a salivary gland. This produces the juices that flow into the mouth and help with digestion. After the pharynx, there is a tube which transports food toward the gut. This tube is called the esophagus. The middle gut, a simple stomach/intestine type of organ, digests the food and absorbs the nutrients. The leftovers then eventually move through to the anus.