類題 第1問
次の英文を読み、下記の設問に答えよ。（本文は架空の報告書についてのTMPSオリジナルです）
[1]After decades of warnings, medicine has reached a crossroads: what hospitals and governments do in the next few years will decide whether common infections stay treatable. That choice is set out in the landmark report published on Tuesday, 3 June 2031, by the Global Panel on Antimicrobial Futures (GPAF), assembled by leading microbiologists and endorsed by every member state. The next review will come around 2036 — by then, the most important decisions will have been made.
[2]The report is (7) a stark warning: “The window for keeping routine surgery safe is closing fast. Decisions taken in this decade will affect patients for generations,” it says. Drug-resistant infections are already (1) thousands of lives each week, and the report adds that the future will be worse than expected: “For almost every major pathogen, resistance is spreading faster than previously estimated.”
[3]“Without new drugs, many strains will become (8) untreatable within a generation,” it says. To stay on the safest path — holding antibiotic use per person below its 2025 level — countries must cut unnecessary prescriptions “by 2028 at the latest,” (2) “steady annual reductions.” Yet in 2030, global sales rose again to a record. The target now looks almost out of reach, and the panel says: “Resistance is more likely than not to keep rising in the near term, even under a strong stewardship scenario.” (9) A surge in spending on hospital hygiene and new drugs will therefore be needed. For example, infections that affected one patient in a thousand in 2020 will affect one in a hundred by 2040 in half of all monitored regions.
[4]However, the faster prescriptions are cut, the better: “Every avoided course of antibiotics slows the spread of resistance.” Each prescription avoided also reduces the (3) untreatable disease: “Once a strain resists every available drug, it may stay that way permanently.”
[5]The report presents the choice in (10) plain language, made all the more sobering by the fact that this is compromise wording agreed by every member state — many would go further if speaking alone. But it also presents the signposts to the path the world should take.
[6]Among the many details (4) the 400 pages of supporting documents, three signposts stand out. First, resistance is a crisis of inequality: “The 10% of patients with the greatest access to specialist care receive 40-60% of newly approved drugs, while the poorest 50% receive 5-8%.” The crisis cannot be ended without addressing unequal access to medicine, for the simple reason that “public trust” is required for “behavioural change.”
[7]The second signpost is that cheap, unregulated antibiotic sales are utterly incompatible with the goal of safe care. “Projected resistance from current farm and pharmacy practice without additional controls would exceed the safe level for 2040,” the report says. Put plainly, the drugs sold freely today will weaken our chance of keeping them effective, unless sales are controlled early or replaced by rapid testing that is yet to be proven at scale.
[8]The third signpost points to the tools and money we need: “Practical, effective, low-cost options for prevention and treatment are already available.” Rapid testing, vaccines, and cuts in [ A ] are 12 ones.
[9]The report does not (5) how big and difficult the choices are: “The change required is unprecedented in scale, and near-term action involves high up-front investment.” The money is key, but the panel says “there is enough global capital to close the funding gaps” if barriers are removed. Furthermore, it states that the costs of action are clearly lower than the harm that inaction will cause. But there is also a wide policy gap, (6) is in place and what is needed: “Without stronger policies, resistance will cause ten million deaths a year by 2050.” That is the “road to a post-antibiotic age.”
[10]Thirty years of warnings, mostly unheeded, have brought us here. Perhaps the plainest way to put the choice before political and medical leaders is this: what is the price of safe care for everyone?
問1 本文中の(1)〜(6)の各空欄に入る最も適切なものを、それぞれ①〜⑤の中から一つずつ選べ。
(1) 解答番号 1
- ① carrying out
- ② making up
- ③ cutting short
- ④ setting down
- ⑤ holding off
(2) 解答番号 2
- ① owing to
- ② set against
- ③ ahead of
- ④ short of
- ⑤ followed by
(3) 解答番号 3
- ① risk of
- ② chance to
- ③ reversal in
- ④ end of
- ⑤ hidden from
(4) 解答番号 4
- ① cut off by
- ② made up for
- ③ run out of
- ④ set out in
- ⑤ put off by
(5) 解答番号 5
- ① hide from
- ② play down
- ③ look up to
- ④ give up on
- ⑤ make up for
(6) 解答番号 6
- ① as for
- ② despite
- ③ among which
- ④ more than
- ⑤ between what
問2 次の(7)〜(10)の英語に続く下線部に入るものを、それぞれ①〜⑤の中から一つずつ選べ。（下線部は本文中の語句の本文中での意味に最も近いもの）
(7) The phrase “a stark warning,” as used in the passage, is closest in meaning to ________. 解答番号 7
- ① an unusually bright signal that can be seen from far away
- ② a plainly worded and harsh message about a danger
- ③ a rough drawing that shows only the outline of a plan
- ④ a sudden announcement that is made without any evidence
- ⑤ a friendly reminder that is given early to avoid trouble
(8) The phrase “untreatable,” as used in the passage, is closest in meaning to ________. 解答番号 8
- ① able to be cured by drugs already in use
- ② not yet tested in any hospital
- ③ able to be treated only with surgery
- ④ not able to be cured by any available medicine
- ⑤ not noticed until the patient dies
(9) The phrase “A surge in spending,” as used in the passage, is closest in meaning to ________. 解答番号 9
- ① a sudden and large increase in the money used
- ② a slow fall in the amount of money saved
- ③ a wave of water that spreads over low land
- ④ a careful plan for how money should be kept
- ⑤ a sharp rise in the price of goods
(10) The phrase “plain language,” as used in the passage, is closest in meaning to ________. 解答番号 10
- ① words that are very simple and so avoid all technical terms
- ② unusual phrases that are only found in older reports
- ③ wording that is direct and clear and cannot be misunderstood
- ④ humble words that are used to make readers feel calm
- ⑤ a flat and dull style that hides the real message
問3 本文8段落目の空欄[ A ]に入る部分を完成するため、①〜⑤の語（句）を最も意味の通るように並べ替えたとき、(11)と(12)に入るものの番号を一つずつ選べ。ただし、各選択肢は一度しか使えない。
Rapid testing, vaccines, and cuts in [ ( ) and ( 11 )( )( ) ] are ( 12 ) ones.
- ① of
- ② stopping the sale
- ③ the cheapest
- ④ hospital infections
- ⑤ weak drugs
問4 次の(13)〜(15)の英語の質問の答えとして最も適切なものを、それぞれ①〜⑤の中から一つずつ選べ。
(13) Which of the following details is NOT found in the passage? 解答番号 13
- ① The most important decisions will have been made by around 2036.
- ② The poorest half of patients receive only a small share of newly approved drugs.
- ③ Under a strong stewardship scenario, resistance is certain to fall in the near term.
- ④ Rapid testing is described as a possible replacement for uncontrolled sales, though not yet proven at scale.
- ⑤ Safe care for everyone requires change on an unprecedented scale and high up-front investment.
(14) What is the overall message of the report, as presented in the passage? 解答番号 14
- ① Resistance is already beyond control, so the world can only wait for new drugs.
- ② New drugs alone will solve the problem if they are launched by 2040.
- ③ Low-income countries should lead the cuts because they are the most affected.
- ④ To keep common infections treatable, the world must act now, with large efforts and investment, to cut antibiotic use and widen access to medicine.
- ⑤ More studies are needed before any practical action can be taken.
(15) Which of the following ideas would fit best within the scope, context, and tone of the passage? 解答番号 15
- ① The message from the world’s leading microbiologists is sobering: carrying on as we do now puts the treatability of common infections at risk.
- ② We can keep prescribing as freely as before because new drugs will certainly arrive in time.
- ③ There is nothing anyone can do, so sales of antibiotics should be left uncontrolled.
- ④ Thirty years of warnings prove that every effort from now on will be useless.
- ⑤ Even if all prescriptions stopped today, every resistant strain would disappear at once.
