TOEFL iBTリーディングのパラフレーズ問題をサンプル練習

今回の記事では「TOEFL iBTリーディングのパラフレーズ形式問題」をサンプル問題を元に解説していきます。

リーディングのスコアに伸び悩んでいる方や、パラフレーズが特に苦手な方には参考になると思います。

具体的な問題を参考にしながら、対策勉強受講をするときのポイントを紹介していきますね！

「パラフレーズ」形式問題の対策方法

TOEFL iBTリーディングの「パラフレーズ問題」とは、パッセージ中に引かれた下線の意味を最も適切に要約したものを選択肢から選ぶ形式の問題です。

選択肢が似ているので非常にひっかけ要素が強く難しい問です。例をみてみましょう。

The Panaramitee style is a label which is taken from the large and incredible rock formations at Panaramitee North in the South Australian desert. These formations are covered with motifs that have been pecked into the surface of the rock. The appearance and frequency of these simple motifs in these ancient sites have led rock-art researchers to adopt this term to describe this style of ancient art.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?

A. The ancient rock art sites have simpler motifs than the best known sites of Panaramitee North.
B. Since motifs primarily associated with the Panaramitee region are common in these sites, the term Panaramitee style has become the general term for rock art of this type.
C. As Panaramitee style is so common in ancient sites, researchers have described it most extensively.
D. The motifs carved in the rocky surface of the Panaramitee region are the most ancient form of rock art discovered in Australia.

似たような選択肢が並んでいるのが確認できますね！

読解する量が多く難易度が高いと感じますが、ちゃんと解き方があります。以下のステップを踏んで回答していきましょう：

ステップ1：文章の型を理解する
ステップ2：選択肢を省略する
ステップ3：消去法で比較する

それぞれ詳しく説明していきますね。

ステップ1：文章の型を理解する

まずは、下線が引かれた文章の役割に焦点を当てます。

文章には主張を展開する場合、以下の3つのパターンがあります：

パターン1：原因結果型
パターン2：一般論と詳細
パターン3：条件型

パターンが分かることで、下線部で伝えたいメッセージは何かが明確になり、同じ意図の選択肢を選ぶことが容易になります。

ステップ2：選択肢を省略する

このステップは文章が2-4文と長い時に特に有効です。文章中のキーワードを拾って、文章を短くします。

メインアイデアを的確に理解することが目的です。以下の問に答えることで明確になります。

Q1. What are the keywords of the prompt sentence?
Q2. Paraphrase the prompt sentence.

ステップ3.：消去法で比較する

選択肢を比較した後に消去法で正答を選びます。必ずダブルチェックが必要です。

回答となる選択肢に非常に似た選択肢があるためです

コツを実践で練習

上記で紹介した3ステップを先ほどの問題で使用してみましょう。

ステップ1. 原因と結果型
原因: appearance and frequency of these simple motifs in these ancient sites
結果: researchers adopting this term to describe this style of ancient art

ステップ2. 既に短いため必要ない
一方でAとDのアイデアが原因と結果を含んでいないため消去可能です。

ステップ3. BとCの比較
Cは ‘most extensively’ と書かれていることがBとの違いですね。下線にそんなことは書かれていないのでBが答えです。

例題1.

ここから怒涛の練習でやんす！必ず3ステップを踏んでくださいね

Q. In the marine environment, these natural salt marshes are among the most productive habitat. A high rate of food production is possible, due to nutrient-rich water being brought to the wetlands during each high tide. Because the leaves of the marsh grass and seaweed decay, bacteria break down the plant material; insects, small shrimp like organisms, ingest this decaying plant tissue; marsh snails, fiddler crabs and insects also digest it and excrete wastes high in nutrients. Several insects live in the marsh, living and feeding on the decayed or living tissue of cord grass and redwing blackbirds, sparrows, deer, rabbits and rodents feed directly on the cord grass. With every tidal cycle, plant material is carried into the offshore water to be used by the subtidal organisms.

Which of the sentence below best express the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in essential ways or omit important information.

A. Insects feed only on dead cord grass, while most other marsh inhabitants feed on live cord grass.
B. The marsh is a good habitat for insects, but a relatively poor one for birds and animals
C. Although cord grass provides food for birds and animals, it gives insects both food and a place to live.
D. Cord grass provides food for numerous insects, birds, and other animals.

ステップについては理解したと思いますので考え方の要点だけを記載していきますね。

ステップ1. 一般論と詳細
ステップ2. 以下短くした文章
元: Several insects live in the marsh, living and feeding on the decayed or living tissue of cord grass and redwing blackbirds, sparrows, deer, rabbits and rodents feed directly on the cord grass.
変化: In the marsh, insects feed on tissue of cord grass and other animals, and rabbits and rodents feed on the cord grass.
ステップ3. ステップ2から選択肢をみると答えはD以外ありえませんね。

例題2.

2つ目の例題です。

Around 7700B.C., five centuries later, a new village rose on the mound. In the beginning, the inhabitants continued to hunt gazelle intensively. About 7000 B.C., after a few generations, the population changed suddenly to herding domesticated goats and sheep and to cultivating einkorn, pulses, and other cereal grasses. Abu Hureyra expanded quickly until it covered nearly 30 acres. It was a close-knit community of rectangular, one-storey mud-brick houses, connected by narrow lanes and courtyards. It was finally abandoned in approximately 5000 B.C. Several complex factors led to the adoption of the new economies, not only at Abu Hureyra, but also at several other sites such as ‘Ain Ghazal’ in Syria, where goat toe bones indicating the telltale marks of abrasion created by foot tethering (binding) testify to early herding of domestic stock.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave re out essential information.

A. In many areas besides Abu Hureyra, complex factors led to new economies including the herding of domestic stock.
B. In Ain Ghazal and Syria, domestic stock was more important than it was at Abu Hureyra.
C. Once early methods of herding animals improved, new economies were adopted.
D. Many complex theories attempt to explain the early domestication of animals.

ステップ1. 一般論と詳細
ステップ2. 以下短くした文章
元: Several complex factors led to the adoption of the new economies, not only at Abu Hureyra, but also at several other sites such as ‘Ain Ghazal’ in Syria, where goat toe bones indicating the telltale marks of abrasion created by foot tethering (binding) testify to early herding of domestic stock.
変化: At Abu Hureyra and other Syrian sites, many factors led to the beginning of new work, evidenced by marks on goat toe bones which show that their feet were bound for herding.
ステップ3.
Bはdomestic stockについて述べていないので消去
Cは原因と結果に言い換えているため消去
Dはひっかけです、必要な情報が全て入っていません

Aが答えです。

例題3.

さて最後の例題です。

With “climax,” “biome,” “superorganism,” and several other technical terms for the connection of animals and plants at a particular locality being criticized, the term “ecosystem” was gradually taken on for the entire system of associated organisms along with the physical traits of their environment. Over time, the energy-transforming role of such a system was emphasized. Ecosystems thus involve the circulation, change and collection of energy and matter through the medium of living objects, animals and their activities. An ecologist is a person focused primarily on the quantities of substance and energy that pass through a particular ecosystem, and with the speed or rate at which they do so.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave re out essential information.

A. Unlike the terms “climax”, and “biome”, and “superorganism,” which refer to the given association of plants and animals at a give location, the term “ecosystem refers specifically to the physical factors within the environment.
B. The term “climax”, “biome”,”superorganism”, and “ecosystem” all refer to the system of plants and animals in an associated environment, but some are more controversial than others.
C. When the older term of ecology became too technical, they were replaced by the more popular and more widely used term “ecosystem”.
D. The term “ecosystem” gradually replaced discredited terms for the combination of a physical environment and the plants and animals living together in it.

ステップ1. 原因と結果
原因: “climax,” “biome,” “superorganism,” and several other technical terms…being criticized
結果: the term “ecosystem” was gradually taken on for the entire system
この時点で、AとBが反証のアイデアとなっているため削除可能。
ステップ2. 必要ない
元: With “climax,” “biome,” “superorganism,” and several other technical terms for the connection of animals and plants at a particular locality being criticized, the term “ecosystem” was gradually taken on for the entire system of associated organisms along with the physical traits of their environment.
元々1文なので短くする必要はないです。一方で上記キーワードがパラフレーズされて選択肢に並んでいるのがわかりますか？
criticized = discredited
taken on = replaced
ステップ3. AとDの比較
Aはecosystemについて間違った定義づけをしているので間違いだとわかります。

Dが答えです。