英検準1級の長文読解練習｜オリジナル英文と4択5問

2026年10月2日 ／ 士心塾 オンライン校

英検準1級の長文読解に向けて、この教材では483語のオリジナル英文と4択5問で、答えの根拠を本文から見つける練習をしましょう。人物・時間・理由を整理し、選択肢の意味を本文と照らします。

この級（準1級）の単語テスト（無料）

出典：日本英語検定協会「準1級の試験内容」。引用：「パッセージの内容に関する質問に答える。」https://www.eiken.or.jp/eiken/exam/grade_p1/solutions.html。長さの参考：「2026年度第1回 問題冊子」https://www.eiken.or.jp/eiken/exam/kakomon/2026-1-1ji-p1kyu.pdf

本文語数は上記の問題冊子の説明文から数えた参考値です。教材の問題数と長さは、読み直しながら学ぶために設定しています。

1. 本文と選択肢を3段階で照らす

2. オリジナル英文と4択5問

Who Owns a Recorded Memory?（本文483語）

A cultural center in the fictional district of Bellmere launched an oral history archive to preserve residents’ accounts of everyday life. Interviews were recorded, and participants initially agreed that the recordings could be made available online. The organizers expected wider access to benefit students and researchers who could not visit the center. They also hoped that hearing ordinary voices would challenge the idea that local history consists only of famous events. Yet the prospect of a permanent audience raised a question that the original agreement had barely addressed: what should happen when a participant later wanted a recording withdrawn?

The difficulty became apparent when a retired shopkeeper requested the removal of his interview. At the time of recording, he had spoken freely about a disagreement with a former colleague. Months later, he worried that the account presented the colleague unfairly, particularly because that person had not been interviewed. The shopkeeper did not claim that his memories were false. Rather, he felt that a story told in one setting could acquire a different significance when heard by strangers. The archive’s coordinator initially argued that removing accounts after publication would undermine the reliability of the collection.

A review group considered both positions. Historians in the group observed that a recording is evidence of what someone recalled at a particular moment, not necessarily a complete description of an event. They favored retaining the original files while adding context where appropriate. Community representatives, however, emphasized that participants had contributed voluntarily. If the archive treated their first decision as irreversible, residents might be reluctant to speak honestly in future interviews. Preserving every published account could therefore protect the present collection while weakening the trust on which future contributions depended.

The group proposed separating preservation from public access. Under the revised arrangement, participants would receive a copy of their interview and have thirty days to request changes before it appeared online. After publication, they could ask the center to restrict public access while the original file remained in a protected collection. Researchers seeking to consult restricted material would need a further agreement with the participant. The center would also keep a record of changes so that gaps in the public archive would not be mistaken for evidence that certain experiences had never been recorded.

This arrangement did not resolve every difficulty. Copies already downloaded could not reliably be recalled, and reviewing requests would demand staff time that the center had not originally budgeted. Nevertheless, the group rejected the assumption that maximum visibility was the same as maximum public value. An archive could serve its community by preserving material carefully without exposing every account to unrestricted circulation. The revised policy would be evaluated after a year, with attention to both research use and participants’ confidence. Its success would depend on whether the center could maintain meaningful access without treating the people behind the recordings as merely a source of content.

本文の内容に最も合う答えを1〜4から一つ選びましょう。根拠の英文を見つけてから解答を開きます。

問題1

Why did the shopkeeper want his interview removed?

1. He admitted that he had deliberately invented the entire story.
2. He had never agreed to any form of online publication.
3. He wanted the center to pay him before researchers could listen.
4. He became concerned about how others might interpret his account.

問題2

What concern did the community representatives raise about keeping all interviews public?

1. It would prevent historians from keeping original files.
2. It might discourage honest contributions to the archive in the future.
3. It would prove that all recorded memories were inaccurate.
4. It would immediately eliminate the need for further interviews.

問題3

Under the revised arrangement, what happens when public access is restricted after publication?

1. The original file remains protected, and research access requires another agreement.
2. The original recording must be destroyed immediately.
3. Any researcher can still download the recording without contacting the participant.
4. The center guarantees that every previously downloaded copy will be returned.

問題4

Why will the center keep a record of changes to the public archive?

1. To show that no participant ever changed an earlier decision.
2. To give the public automatic access to every restricted interview.
3. To prevent missing public material from being mistaken for a lack of recorded experience.
4. To replace the original files with summaries written by staff.

問題5

Which statement best represents the review group’s final position?

1. An archive has value only when every file is freely available to everyone.
2. Participants’ confidence matters only until the first recordings are collected.
3. The revised arrangement removes all costs and practical limitations.
4. Public value requires balancing meaningful access with respect for participants.

3. 選択肢の違いを説明する

4. 4週間の復習計画

4週間は復習計画の一例です。試験までの日数と読める量に合わせて調整しましょう。

関連：長文読解の進め方 ／ ライティングの進め方 ／ リスニングの進め方