テーマ 02
明快さと難解さ.
Clarity, Obscurity & Understanding
帰国子女・インターナショナルスクール生のための、デジタルSAT の無料単語教材。独学で進められます。
読み込み中…
使ってみる — 4問
おぼえたかどうかではなく、文に合う語を選べるかを試します。 選択肢はすべて、このテーマの語です。意味の遠い語は混ぜていません。 だから「よい意味か、わるい意味か」と「どのくらい強いか」で絞るのが、そのまま解き方になります。
01
In her first paper on medieval pigments, the conservator Adeyemi did no more than hint at a way of separating the binders from the mineral grains. The follow-up article is written for other laboratories to copy: it names each solvent, gives its concentration, and specifies how long the sample must rest before filtering. Her aim throughout is to the method completely, leaving nothing to inference.
adumbrate adumbrate はぼんやりと輪郭を示すだけの語です。第一論文の「did no more than hint」がまさに adumbrate の段階であり、完全に示すという本文とは逆になります。
construe construe は他人の言葉や規則に意味を読み取る、つまり解釈する語です。ここで Adeyemi は自分の手順を書き出している側なので、解釈するでは文意が通りません。
delineate 「names each solvent, gives its concentration」と細部まで書き出し、「leaving nothing to inference」と推測の余地を残さないと述べています。delineate は細かい点まで描き出す語なので、ここに合います。
obfuscate obfuscate はわざと分かりにくく濁すことです。本文は「written for other laboratories to copy」と再現させるために書かれたとあり、方向が正反対です。
02
The dips in brightness recorded by the Hoyt ring survey were not merely puzzling. Any model that explained how deep the dips were predicted rings too faint for the telescope to see at all, and any model that got the rings right placed the dips at the wrong hours of the night. For thirty years the data seemed to everyone who worked on it: not one astronomer of that generation could offer even a partial account.
confound 「were not merely puzzling」で、ただ戸惑わせる程度ではないと言い、さらに「not one astronomer ... even a partial account」と誰も部分的な説明すらできなかったとあります。完全に混乱させる強い語 confound が必要です。
elucidate elucidate は「解き明かす」で方向が逆です。誰一人説明できなかったという本文と矛盾しますし、elucidate の目的語は説明される事柄であって everyone のような人ではありません。
evince evince は性質などをはっきり示す語で、目的語は示される性質です。ここの目的語は「取り組んだ人たち」なので形として合わず、「明らかに示す」という意味も本文の混乱と逆です。
perplex perplex は本文の puzzle とほぼ同じ強さの語です。本文は not merely puzzling とその段階をはっきり否定しているので、同じ強さの perplex では足りません。
03
The shorthand that eighteenth-century Dutch instrument makers used in their workshop ledgers looks impenetrable to a modern reader, but there was nothing mysterious about it and nothing especially demanding: an apprentice learned the whole system within a week, and one clean stroke stood for a step that would otherwise take a full sentence to record. The notation was rather than difficult, immediately readable to anyone trained in that shop and blank to everyone else.
abstruse abstruse は中身自体がとても難しい語です。本文は「nothing especially demanding」「learned the whole system within a week」と難しくないと明言し、空所の直後にも rather than difficult とあります。
arcane arcane は謎めいて分かりにくいという含みを持つ語です。本文は「there was nothing mysterious about it」と、謎めいた点はないとはっきり否定しています。
convoluted convoluted は無駄に込み入っていることです。「one clean stroke stood for a step that would otherwise take a full sentence」と、むしろ簡潔だと述べられています。
esoteric 「immediately readable to anyone trained in that shop and blank to everyone else」は、内輪の人にだけ通じるという状態そのものです。esoteric は中立に「内輪だけに通じる」を表すので、ここに合います。
04
No treaty was ever signed between the two fishing villages, and the boundary at the reef was never put into words at all, not even indirectly. Yet for four generations each fleet kept to its own side of it, and a captain who crossed the line found the harbor silent toward him for a month. Historians who have studied the parish records describe the arrangement as : there was no charter, no ruling, and no remembered saying in which the line was so much as implied, only a consent that every crew kept and that no one ever spoke aloud.
implicit implicit は、言葉や文脈の中に意味として含まれている場合に使います。しかしこの文章は「no remembered saying in which the line was so much as implied」と、線を暗に含んだ言い回しすら一つも残っていないと明言しています。意味を含ませる言葉自体が存在しないので implicit は成り立ちません。
latent latent は「まだ表に現れていない」状態を指します。ところがこの取り決めは「each fleet kept to its own side of it」と四世代にわたって実際に守られ、線を越えた船長は一か月間港で無視されています。効果ははっきり表に出ているので、潜在的という latent は合いません。
oblique oblique は、遠回しではあっても何か言葉による表現があることが前提です。しかし冒頭で「never put into words at all, not even indirectly」と、遠回しにさえ言葉にされなかったと書かれています。遠回しの表現そのものがないので oblique は当てはまりません。
tacit 空欄は「only a consent that every crew kept and that no one ever spoke aloud」と言い換えられています。全員が実際に守っているのに誰も口に出さない合意なので、「口に出さない了解」を指す tacit が正解です。
Clarity, Obscurity & Understanding — 36語36 words
このテーマの全語です。定義を隠して、 よい意味・わるい意味・中立の三つに分けてみるのが、いちばん効く使い方です。 分け間違えた語が、そのまま自分の弱点になります。
Every word in this theme. The best use of it is to cover the meanings and sort the list into positive, negative and neutral. Whichever ones you put in the wrong pile are exactly your weak spots.
内訳：よい意味 8語 ／ わるい意味 11語 ／ 中立 17語。 強さはこのテーマの中での相対です。テーマをまたいで比べる数字ではありません。
8 positive, 11 negative, 17 neutral. Strength is ranked within this theme only — the numbers are not comparable across themes.
| 語Word | 向き+/− | 強さStrength | 意味Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| abstruse adj | − | ●●● | very hard to understand — 難解な |
| accessible adj | ＋ | ● | easy to reach, obtain, or understand — 分かりやすい |
| adumbrate v | 0 | ● | to sketch out in vague outline — ぼんやり示す |
| ambiguous adj | − | ● | open to more than one interpretation — 曖昧な |
| arcane adj | − | ●● | obscure and understood by only a few — 神秘的で難解abstruse は中身そのものが難しい語、arcane は秘められていて知る人が少ない語です。abstruse means the material is hard in itself; arcane means the material is hidden away and only a few people have been let in on it. |
| coherent adj | ＋ | ● | holding together logically — 筋が通った |
| confound v | − | ●●● | to baffle or throw into confusion — 混乱させるperplex は軽く戸惑わせる程度、confound は完全に混乱させる強い語です。perplex leaves someone puzzled but still thinking; confound throws them into confusion completely. |
| construe v | 0 | ● | to read a particular meaning into something — 解釈する |
| conundrum n | 0 | ●● | a problem with no easy answer — 難問 |
| convoluted adj | − | ●●● | twisted into needless complexity — 込み入った |
| delineate v | 0 | ●● | to lay out the details of something clearly — 詳細に示すadumbrate はぼんやりと輪郭を示すだけ、delineate は細部まで描き出す語です。adumbrate gives only a rough outline; delineate fills in the details clearly. |
| disclose v | 0 | ●● | to make known what was hidden — 明かす |
| divulge v | 0 | ●●● | to reveal a secret — 秘密を漏らすdisclose は隠れていた事実の公表、divulge は秘密を漏らすことで、divulge の方が重い語です。disclose makes a hidden fact known; divulge lets out something that was supposed to stay secret, so it is the heavier word. |
| elucidate v | ＋ | ●● | to make something plain by explaining it — 解き明かす |
| enigmatic adj | 0 | ●● | puzzling and hard to read — 謎めいた |
| equivocal adj | − | ●● | worded so it can be taken two ways — どちらとも取れるambiguous は結果として二通りに読める、equivocal はわざと二通りに読めるように言う語です。ambiguous wording can be read two ways by accident; equivocal wording was built to be read two ways. |
| esoteric adj | 0 | ●● | understood only by insiders — 内輪だけに通じるarcane は謎めいて分かりにくいという批判寄りの語、esoteric は内輪だけに通じる知識を中立に指す語です。arcane is the disapproving word for knowledge shut away from all but a few; esoteric just states that the knowledge belongs to insiders. |
| evince v | 0 | ● | to show a quality plainly — はっきり示す |
| implicit adj | 0 | ● | understood without being stated — 言外の |
| ineffable adj | ＋ | ●●● | too great to put into words — 言葉にできない |
| latent adj | 0 | ● | present but not yet visible — 潜在的な |
| limpid adj | ＋ | ●●● | perfectly clear — 澄み切った |
| lucid adj | ＋ | ●● | easy to follow; also, clear-headed — 明快な |
| manifest adj | 0 | ●● | obvious; as a verb, to show plainly — 明白な |
| nebulous adj | − | ●● | hazy and ill-defined — ぼんやりした |
| nuance n | 0 | ● | a slight shade of meaning — 微妙な差 |
| obfuscate v | − | ●●● | to muddy something on purpose — わざと濁す |
| oblique adj | − | ● | indirect rather than straightforward — 遠回しな |
| obscure adj | − | ●● | unclear or little known — 不明瞭な |
| patent adj | 0 | ●● | plainly obvious — 一目瞭然manifest は表に現れて明らかになる語、patent は patent lie のように誤りが誰の目にも明白な場合に使います。manifest is what has come out into the open where anyone can see it; use patent for what is obvious on its face, often when you are calling out a fault, as in a patent lie. |
| pellucid adj | ＋ | ●●● | transparently clear in meaning — 透き通るほど明快limpid は澄んだ美しさ、pellucid は意味が透けて見えるほど明快なことを指します。limpid praises clearness you can admire, like clear water or clear prose; pellucid says the meaning itself shows straight through. |
| perplex v | − | ●● | to puzzle — 戸惑わせる |
| quandary n | 0 | ●● | a dilemma with no clean way out — 板挟みconundrum は答えの出ない難問、quandary はどう動いても具合が悪い板挟みの状況です。a conundrum is a problem with no easy answer; a quandary is a situation where every move open to you is a bad one. |
| salient adj | 0 | ●● | standing out as most noticeable — 際立った |
| tacit adj | 0 | ● | understood without being spoken — 暗黙のimplicit は文脈に含まれている意味、tacit は口に出さない合意や了解に使います。implicit is meaning carried inside what was said; use tacit for an agreement or approval that was never spoken aloud at all. |
| trenchant adj | ＋ | ●●● | sharp, clear, and effective — 鋭く的確な |
おぼえた語を、実際の設問で選べるようにする手順です。向きと強さで絞る練習をここでします。