【英語の文法・英作・読解問題①】英検3-4級相当、中学生向け

［はじめに］

国語の読解問題で掲載している長文を用いて、英語の文法・読解・英作練習の問題を作成しました。今回は「上杉鷹山」を題材にしています。
英検3-4級相当範囲の文法を使い、高校入試対策に使える長さ・難易度の長文にしています。下記の方向けです。

・英検3-4級受検のリーディング・ライティング対策をしたい
・高校入試の英語対策をしたい
・中学英語の実力アップをしたい

解答や全訳もつけています。繰り返し解くと実力をあげやすいので、何度も解きなおすようにしてみてください。
なお、英作文の解答例はあくまで「解答の例」です。同じように書かないといけないことわけではありませんので、参考程度・文法チェックにお使いください。

［文法問題］

以下の問題の（　　）に入る語を選択肢から選んでください。
（１）I ( ) have a cup of coffee.
〈ア：want、イ：would like、ウ：would like to、エ：am〉
（２）Jane ( ) tired when she came back home.
〈ア：is、イ：looks、ウ：seemed to be、エ：isn’t〉
（３）Takashi and Yoko ( ) friends since they were kids.
〈ア：are、イ：were、ウ：have、エ：have been〉
（４）They were surprised to see the man ( ) at the station.
〈ア：who taught them English、イ：who taught English them、ウ：who was taught them English、エ：who was taught English them〉
（５）Thanks to parental attention, the number of car accidents involving children is ( ).
〈ア：getting less、イ：increasing、ウ：getting fewer、エ：becoming large〉

［英語長文］

以下の英文を、時間を気にせずじっくり読んでみてください。長文読解に慣れている人は8分以内に読んでみましょう。読み終えたら、その後の問題に答えてください。
①Today, I would like to introduce a samurai named Uesugi Yozan. He had this to say.
“If you do something, it will be done; if you don't do something, it will not be done.”
No matter how difficult it may seem to accomplish something, if you are determined to achieve it and do it without giving up, you can always achieve it. If you cannot, it is because you have not tried to accomplish it. This is what it means.
②Uesugi Yozan was a man who took on a huge task that everyone had almost given up on and accomplished it. Everyone praised him, and even today, he is still respected as "Uesugi Yozan is an amazing person.
③He was born in 1751 and died in 1822, about two hundred years ago. He was the head of the Yonezawa clan(※) (now Yamagata Prefecture). The Yonezawa clan, of which Uesugi Yozan was the feudal lord（※）, Ahad little money, and their life was very difficult. The reason why there was little money was because too many samurai were living there.
④At that time, the samurai did the work for the clan, and in return, the clan provided money for the samurai and their families to live on. The fewer the number of samurai, the less money the clan had to pay.
⑤Many clans paid 30% of their income（※） to the samurai and their families. The Yonezawa clan paid 80% of the total amount. This was almost all of the income. The remaining 20% was used to build bridges for the farmers or to work for the feudal government (the Japanese government of the time). It cost a lot of money to do the work of the clan.
⑥However, the Yonezawa clan paid most of its income to the samurai and their families. Therefore, the Yonezawa clan did not have enough money to do their work, and had to borrow money from merchants（※） who had money to do their work. When Yozan Uesugi became a feudal lord, the amount of money borrowed from merchants had become too much.
⑦The borrowed money had to be returned. However, the samurai of the Yonezawa clan had so little money that they could not even survive.
⑧The Yonezawa clan's samurai made a request to the feudal government: "We can't do this anymore. Please let us return the Yonezawa clan to you.”The feudal government’s officials refused their request.“No," they said. “You should try harder on your own.”The people of the Yonezawa clan did not know what to do anymore. It was under these circumstances that Yozan Uesugi became the feudal lord.
⑨After talking with people around him about what to do, he decided to do the following plans.
1. Work together as one for rebuilding the clan.
2. Increase the clan's income by starting business.
3. Educate people to do better for the clan in the future.
First of all, he thought that all the people in the clan must work together to rebuild the clan. Therefore, he asked not only the samurai but also the farmers and merchants to work together.
He also thought they need to increase the clan's income. They tried to create products that people outside of the Yonezawa clan would want to buy.
⑩He also wanted to make his clan not to need to borrow a lot of money in the future. After he dies, the people of the clan may have to borrow money from merchants again. He didn’t want it.
⑪He decided to create a school to educate the samurai and taught them how to think in such ways as:
The samurai must do their best for all of the clan.
The clan must support the lives of the samurai and everyone else.
Many people agreed with his ideas. It took over 50 years to rebuild the Yonezawa clan but Uesugi Yozan continued to try it.（648語）
※clan：藩、the feudal lord：藩主、income：収入、merchant：商人

［全文和訳の問題］

上記の英文を全文和訳してみましょう。

［長文問題］

（１）Uesugi Yozan（上杉鷹山）は何年ほど前の人ですか。次の（　　）に入る語を書いてください。
Ans. about ( ) years ago
（２）下線部A「had little money, and their life was very difficult」とありますが、これはなぜですか。適切な選択肢を次から選んでください。
ア：武士の数が多いから
イ：商人の数が多いから
ウ：商人から借りたお金を返したから
エ：参勤交代で費用をたくさん使ったから
（３）米沢藩の再建のために上杉鷹山が考えた計画として当てはまらないものを次から選んでください。
ア：Everyone should cooperate to get the Yonezawa clan better.
イ：The Yonezawa clan earns from their new products.
ウ：We should try to borrow money from the feudal government.
エ：We educate people in the Yonezawa clan.
（４）本文の内容に合致する選択肢を下記から2つ選んでください。
ア：Uesugi Yozan tried to accomplish a huge task but he failed.
イ：After Uesugi Yozan became the lord of the Yonezawa clan, the clan became poor.
ウ：Many clans paid eighty percent of their income to the samurai and their families.
エ：After paying to the samurai and their families, the Yonezawa clan had only twenty percent of its income.
オ：Uesugi Yozan and his people gave up returning money to the merchants.
カ：The Yonezawa clan tried to make a school to educate the samurai but the samurai didn’t agree with the plan.
キ：Uesugi Yozan tried to rebuild the Yonezawa clan for more than fifty years.

［英作文］

以下の質問に対してyes/ noを示したうえで、その理由を含めて30語程度の英語で答えてください。

質問：Do you like doing homework alone?
答案：

［解答］