テーマ 01
知性と思考.
Knowledge, Thinking & the Mind
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
When the city commissioned a history of its oldest public library, the research team's first task was a narrow one. They did not need to judge the building's architectural merit, and no one had asked them to weigh its value on the current property market; they needed only to the year the doors first opened. A single line in the 1887 ledger stated it outright.
appraise appraise は価値や値段を査定する語です。本文は「its value on the current property market」を weigh する必要はないと明言しているので外れます。
ascertain 求められているのは建物の良し悪しではなく、開館した年という事実の確認だけです。ascertain は「事実をはっきり確かめる」で、この場面にぴったり合います。
assess assess は質そのものを評価する語ですが、本文は「judge the building's architectural merit」は不要だと言っています。目的は評価ではなく年の確認です。
discern discern ははっきりしないものを見分ける語です。ここでは年が台帳に「stated it outright」と明記されており、見分ける苦労がありません。
02
The glaciologist Ilse Mandt was, by every account, quick; colleagues noted that she grasped a new measuring technique the first time she saw it demonstrated. Yet for two full seasons she was simply , because the rival readings that would have changed her model were piling up in a journal that never reached her field station. The gap in her work was one of delivery, not of intelligence.
fatuous fatuous は本人が自分の愚かさに気づいていないことを責める強い語です。本文は「not of intelligence」と述べ、彼女を愚かだとは言っていないので不可です。
inane inane は言動の中身がくだらないことを指します。ここで問題になっているのは彼女の発言や研究の中身ではなく、雑誌が届かなかったという事情です。
oblivious 雑誌が届かず、ただ知らない状態が続いただけです。oblivious は能力と無関係に「気づいていない」状態を表すので、ここに合います。
obtuse obtuse は理解が鈍いという批判ですが、本文は「grasped a new measuring technique the first time she saw it demonstrated」と理解の速さを示しています。
03
When the poet Aurelia Sato took over the failing Ravenscroft Press at twenty-six, she had published nothing and knew no one in the trade. What saved the house was not some hidden insight into literature — every title she reprinted was one her rivals had also considered — but plain business : she cut the list in half, renegotiated the paper contracts, and priced the books for the readers who actually walked in.
acumen 「cut the list in half, renegotiated the paper contracts, and priced the books」はどれも実務上の判断です。business acumen はこうした実際的な判断力を指す定番の組み合わせです。
discretion discretion は何を言い、何をしないかをわきまえる分別の語です。本文には口の堅さや言動の慎みの話はなく、経営上の決断だけが並んでいます。
perspicacity perspicacity は他人が見落とすものを見抜く鋭さですが、本文は「every title she reprinted was one her rivals had also considered」と、彼女が見抜いた点はないとはっきり書いています。
sagacity sagacity は長い経験から積み上がった英知です。彼女は「at twenty-six」で「had published nothing」なので、経験に基づく知恵とは言えません。
04
The survey's only camera fogged on the third morning, and the ship's mechanic — a self-taught man who had read almost nothing about optics — taped a strip of blotting paper inside the housing to draw the moisture off. The repair settled no scientific question and cut through no one's argument; there was also no choice to weigh, since nothing else aboard could have served. The blotting paper had been sitting in the chart room all season, and it had occurred to no one else on the ship. Later accounts of the expedition call the fix .
erudite erudite は本を読んで蓄えた学識の深さを言う語ですが、この修理をしたのは「a self-taught man who had read almost nothing about optics」で、光学の知識はほとんど持っていません。知識量ではなく思いつきが称えられている場面なので合いません。
incisive incisive は議論や問題の核心を鋭く切り込むことですが、本文は「The repair settled no scientific question and cut through no one's argument」と、まさにその働きを打ち消しています。切り込む対象が最初から存在しません。
ingenious ずっと chart room にあった吸い取り紙を湿気取りに転用するという、身近な材料を使った思いがけない工夫です。「The blotting paper had been sitting in the chart room all season, and it had occurred to no one else on the ship」が、発想の巧みさを指す ingenious を求めています。
judicious judicious は複数の選択肢を比べて賢明に選ぶ思慮深さを表しますが、本文は「there was also no choice to weigh, since nothing else aboard could have served」と、比べるべき選択肢がなかったと述べています。判断の余地がない以上、判断の良さは褒めようがありません。
Knowledge, Thinking & the Mind — 27語27 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 12語 ／ わるい意味 6語 ／ 中立 9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。
12 positive, 6 negative, 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| acumen n | ＋ | ●● | sharp practical insight — 実務的な判断力 |
| acute adj | ＋ | ●● | keen and perceptive; also, sharp or severe — 鋭敏な |
| appraise v | 0 | ● | to judge the worth or quality of something — 査定する |
| ascertain v | 0 | ● | to find out for certain — 確かめる |
| assess v | 0 | ● | to evaluate carefully — 評価するappraise は価値や値段の査定、ascertain は事実の確認で、assess は質そのものの評価です。appraise sets what something is worth, ascertain pins down whether something is true, and assess is the careful sizing-up of a situation such as damage, risk, or a student's progress. |
| astute adj | ＋ | ●● | clever at reading situations to your advantage — 抜け目のない |
| canny adj | ＋ | ●● | shrewd and hard to fool — 用心深くて賢いastute が自分に有利に立ち回る賢さなのに対し、canny はだまされない用心深さを指します。astute is cleverness that works a situation to your own advantage; canny is the wariness that keeps you from being taken in by someone else. |
| cerebral adj | 0 | ● | appealing to the intellect rather than the emotions — 理知的な |
| cognizant adj | 0 | ● | aware of a fact and its weight — 認識している |
| didactic adj | 0 | ●● | intended to teach, sometimes preachily — 教訓的な教えるという中立の意味と、説教くさいという批判の両方で使われ、文脈で良し悪しが変わります。didactic can simply mean meant to teach, or it can be a complaint that the teaching has turned preachy, so let the surrounding sentence tell you which one is meant. |
| discern v | 0 | ●● | to make out something not obvious — 見分ける |
| discretion n | ＋ | ●● | good judgment about what to say and do — 分別 |
| erudite adj | ＋ | ●●● | deeply learned — 博学なerudite は蓄えた知識の量、sagacity は経験から来る判断の知恵を指します。erudite is about how much learning a person has stored up; sagacity is about the judgment that long experience has taught them. |
| fathom v | 0 | ●●● | to get to the bottom of something — 底まで理解するdiscern は見分けること、fathom は底まで理解しきることです。discern is making something out at all; fathom is following it all the way to the bottom until you understand it completely. |
| fatuous adj | − | ●●● | foolish without knowing it — 愚かで無自覚inane は中身がばかばかしいこと、fatuous は本人が愚かさに気づいていない点を責める強い語です。inane says the thing itself is silly and empty; fatuous is the harder hit, blaming the person for being foolish and not realizing it. |
| inane adj | − | ●● | silly and empty of sense — くだらない |
| incisive adj | ＋ | ●●● | cutting straight to the heart of a matter — 鋭く的確な |
| ingenious adj | ＋ | ●● | cleverly inventive — 発想が巧み |
| judicious adj | ＋ | ●● | showing sound judgment — 思慮深い |
| oblivious adj | − | ●● | completely unaware — 気づいていない |
| obtuse adj | − | ●● | slow to catch on — 理解が鈍いoblivious は単に気づいていない状態、obtuse は理解そのものが鈍いという批判です。oblivious only says someone failed to notice; obtuse attacks the mind itself as slow to take things in. |
| perspicacity n | ＋ | ●●● | sharpness in seeing what others miss — 洞察の鋭さacumen は実務で役立つ判断力、perspicacity は他人が見落とす点を見抜く鋭さです。acumen is judgment that pays off in practical dealings; perspicacity is sharpness of sight that catches what everyone else overlooks. |
| pragmatic adj | ＋ | ● | guided by what actually works — 実際的な |
| ruminate v | 0 | ● | to turn something over in your mind — じっくり考える |
| sagacity n | ＋ | ●●● | wisdom built on long experience — 深い英知 |
| solipsistic adj | − | ●●● | acting as if only oneself exists — 自分本位すぎる |
| vacuous adj | − | ●●● | empty of thought or content — 中身が空っぽ |
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。