順天堂大学
医学部 英語
2025年度 解答・解説

Interviewer: Marcus Hale grew up on the Cornish coast and is now a professor of marine ecology and the director of the Harlow Institute for Reef Studies. (...) So, what do reef ecologists actually study?

Marcus Hale: At the simplest level, we study how coral colonies live, grow and die. But it is bigger than that. A reef is a city built by animals: it covers less than one per cent of the sea floor, yet it is home to roughly a quarter of all marine species. Reefs thrive_(a) only where the water is clear, warm and fairly stable, so they act like a thermometer for the whole ocean.

Interviewer: How did you first get interested in corals?

Marcus Hale: By accident, really. As a student I took a summer job on a dive boat, and one morning I saw a stretch of reef that had turned completely white. The older divers told me it had been full of colour only a few weeks earlier. I could not stop wondering what had happened, so for my PhD I tried to understand why heat makes corals lose the tiny algae that live inside them. At the time, many of my colleagues believed the cause was local pollution. Our data suggested otherwise.

Interviewer: Is bleaching always fatal?

Marcus Hale: No, and that is the hopeful part. Corals can tolerate_(b) a hot spell of a few weeks if the water cools again, and some colonies recover within a year. But if the heat returns before they have recovered, their numbers dwindle_(c) very quickly. Recovery also depends on whether fish that eat seaweed are still present, because they keep the reef clean and make room for young coral. Protecting those fish is one of the cheapest ways to bolster_(d) a reef's defences.

Interviewer: What can ordinary people do to help?

Marcus Hale: Three things matter. First, cut emissions, because warming is the main driver. Second, choose seafood from sustainable sources. Third, support local monitoring: volunteer divers have been pivotal_(e) in our work, because they send us photographs from places that no research ship could ever visit.

①Teenagers are not known for their caution. The part of the brain that helps people stop and think matures later than the parts that respond to rewards, and this gap leaves adolescents prone to_(a) impulsive choices, from speeding in cars to accepting dangerous dares.

②A study published on March 4 in the Journal of Comparative Cognition suggests that young crows may behave in a similar way. Adolescent crows seem to be bold when they meet unfamiliar things, yet the researchers found that they can be quite patient when they have to wait for a reward.

③“Adolescent crows are, in some ways, facing the same dilemma that human teenagers face,” said lead author Priya Raman, a senior lecturer in animal behaviour at Northfield University, in a statement. “Our findings show that several features of adolescent psychology are not unique to humans.” Crows can live for more than 15 years in the wild, and their adolescence lasts from about the end of their first winter until the age of three. During this time, young crows leave their parents, form loose groups with other young birds, and compete for food in a way that is akin to_(b) the rivalry among human teenagers.

④In the study, the team ran two tests with 36 wild-caught crows at the Marlow Bird Sanctuary in Kent, England. The group included 20 males and 16 females between one and nine years old, with an average age of four.

⑤During test one, each bird was placed in a large cage with a familiar feeding dish and a novel_(c) object, a bright plastic toy on a string. The team measured how quickly each crow approached the toy and recorded its calls and body movements. Adolescent crows approached the toy sooner than adults, but both groups gave loud warning calls when the toy suddenly made a noise.

⑥Test two was modelled on a famous experiment with human children that measures how well people can wait for a reward. A crow could take one piece of cheese at once or wait 45 seconds to receive three pieces. Adults and adolescents both chose to wait in most trials. In the same situation, human teenagers tend to be more impulsive than adults and would more often choose the instant reward.

⑦“Earlier research indicates that crows are patient compared with many other birds, and our study shows that this self-control is already mature at a young age,” said Raman. What set the adolescent crows apart from the adults was how they behaved after the scare: adults tended to retain_(d) their caution for a long time, whereas adolescents recovered their nerve within minutes and went back to the toy.

⑧According to Raman, bold behaviour in young crows appears to be partly inherited, but learning from other birds may also matter. “We are now looking at several other mental capabilities_(e) in crows, including memory and the ability to plan ahead, and at how social skills help young birds build and keep friendships,” she told Wildlife Weekly in an email.

①Music lessons might seem like a luxury in schools where budgets are shrinking. But a growing body of research suggests that learning to play an instrument is one of the best ways for children to absorb_(a) new information and to build self-control, especially in the early years.

②In a study published recently in the Journal of Child Brain Science, researchers monitored the brain activity of schoolchildren and found that those who played a real keyboard showed higher levels of activity across many connected brain regions. The result adds to a body of evidence that supports teaching children to play, and not merely to listen to, music.

③The new work builds on an earlier study from 2016, which suggested that reading music from a page is slow and makes learners pay close attention to each note, whereas tapping along to a recording requires little thought. This active effort of linking symbols to sounds may make it easier for students to stay focused and remember new pieces.

④To compare two ways of practising, the authors fitted 64 sensors to a soft cap and placed it on 40 children. The sensors recorded each child's brain activity while the child played a short tune on a keyboard or pressed a single key again and again. When the children played the tune, the sensors picked up robust_(b) brain connections linking auditory regions, which handle sound, and the motor cortex, which controls movement. Pressing a single key, by contrast, produced only minimal activity in these regions.

⑤“When you press one key, your finger makes the same small movement every time, but when you play a tune, your hand has to reach, stretch and change position for each note,” says co-author Lena Moritz, a neuroscientist at Northfield University. She notes that children who have learned only on touch-screen apps often struggle to judge the ( A ) between notes, such as the gap between a low C and a high G.

⑥Across many contexts, studies have shown that children learn better when they use their hands and ears together. Educational neuroscientist Tomas Berg says the new findings highlight the clear tie between movement and sound: “As you play a phrase, you listen to what you have produced and use your hands to correct it. That sound is then fed back into the ( B ), where it is processed again, strengthening the connection between an action and the sound it makes.” Too much reliance on screens, he adds, can hinder_(c) this loop.

⑦Moritz notes that the findings do not mean technology is always a disadvantage. Apps and recordings can give children from poorer families access to teaching that they might not otherwise have. But skills fade when they are not used, says Aiko Sato, who studies learning and memory at a music school in Osaka. “If we never practise by ear, then our listening skills are going to diminish_(d) over time, whether it is memory or coordination.”

⑧“Children who start early eventually_(e) play better, and they also concentrate better in other lessons,” Berg says. “I think there is a very strong case for giving young children real instruments in preschool and kindergarten, when they first learn what sounds are. There is something about engaging the hands and ears that really helps learning.”

①Salt is ubiquitous_(a) in the modern diet. It is added to bread, soup, snacks and sauces so routinely that many people eat far more than they realise. Most health agencies advise adults to take in no more than about five grams a day. While that number is a practical compromise rather than a sharp scientific boundary, the advice to eat less salt fits well with what doctors know about blood pressure.

②The body needs sodium, the main element in salt, to send nerve signals, to move muscles, and to keep the right amount of water inside cells. The amounts involved are tiny, however: an adult could manage on less than one gram a day. In other words, a mineral that is essential in small doses becomes harmful in large ones, a pattern that is common in nutrition.

③For most of history, salt was a prize rather than a worry. In inland regions far from the sea it was scarce_(b), and rulers taxed the mines and coastal pans that yielded_(c) it. Caravans carried it across deserts, and in some places a block of salt could be exchanged for a considerable amount of grain.

④Salt also made long journeys possible. Before refrigerators existed, fish and meat were packed in salt to stop them from rotting, so sailors and travellers could carry food for months. Without this simple method, many voyages of exploration would have been impossible, and cities far from the coast would have eaten fresh fish only rarely.

⑤The trouble began when salt became cheap. In the twentieth century, doctors noticed that in regions where people ate very salty diets, such as parts of northern Japan, high blood pressure and strokes were common. Later studies showed that cutting salt lowered blood pressure in many patients. Some people's blood pressure rises sharply when they eat salt, and researchers coined_(d) the term “salt-sensitive” to describe them.

⑥It would be wrong, however, to conclude that less is always better. Athletes who sweat heavily and drink only plain water can dilute the sodium in their blood, which may cause headaches, confusion and, in extreme cases, collapse. Older people who follow very strict low-salt diets can face similar risks. In short, both too much and too little salt can cause problems.

⑦Whether five grams is the ideal limit for everyone is still debated. Ellen Frost, a nutrition scientist, argued in a recent review that advice should be personalised: people with high blood pressure should cut their intake strictly, while healthy young adults who exercise a lot need not worry about small amounts. Her proposal is attractive, but it has not yet been confirmed by large long-term trials, so most agencies have kept the single figure.

⑧Whichever view proves correct, a profound_(e) change can come from simple habits. Cooking at home lets people control how much salt goes into a meal, and herbs, lemon juice or the savoury flavour of a good stock can replace much of it. Taste buds adapt within a few weeks, and after that, foods that once seemed normal often taste far too salty.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can now read medical images and suggest diagnoses with a high level of accuracy. While there may be many benefits, there may also be concerns. If given the choice, do you believe that hospitals should allow AI to make the final decision about a patient's diagnosis? Considering the medical, ethical, and social implications, discuss the potential positive and/or negative outcomes of using AI in medical diagnosis.