次の文章は，2009年4月18日にTHE DAILY YOMIURIに掲載された“Honeybee shortage stinging farmers”という見出しの記事である。これを読み，以下の設問に答えよ。なお，*のついた語には注がある。
People working in agriculture are worrying that a nationwide shortage of honeybees used to *cross-pollinate strawberries, watermelon and other fruits and vegetable crops will hurt harvests soon.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has begun to assist farmers in breeding honeybees and is negotiating with the Argentine government to increase bee imports.
Yoshiyuki Misono, a 34-year-old watermelon farmer in Tomisato, Chiba Prefecture, said, “If I can’t secure enough honeybees, I’ll have to (1)reduce my production of watermelons.” Misono grows about 8,000 watermelons a year in the city famous for its watermelon production.
Farmers buy honeybees from beekeepers or other suppliers and release the insects to fields or in plastic greenhouses to cross-pollinate plants.
For summer fruits such as melons and watermelon, cross-pollination work peaks in early May. But an investigation by the Chiba prefectural government found that farmers in the prefecture had secured only about 70 percent of the needed number of honeybees.
Misono was able to secure 13 boxes, each ( 2 ) 2,000 honeybees, the same number as last year. But he said the price per box was 30 percent to 40 percent higher compared with last year at about \15,000.
Tadashi Onoda, 55, who has worked as a beekeeper for 40 years in Shioyamachi, Tochigi Prefecture, is the head of an *apiarists’ union in the prefecture and breeds honeybees in 100 hive boxes. Onoda collects honey and also sells honeybees for cross-pollination to fruit farmers. He said the number of hatched queen bees this spring was about 20 percent lower than average. “At least 50,000 honeybees were in one box before. But now the number is about 40,000. I have no idea why,” Onoda said.
The direct cause of the decrease in honeybees is ( 3 ) a disease outbreak in Australia, from where most queen bees are imported. An accord between Japan and Australia has completely suspended honeybee imports from Australia.
The farm ministry then began negotiations with Argentina to import honeybees from there. But Prof. Jun Nakamura of Tamagawa University’s Honeybee Science Research Center said Africanized honeybees, which are highly aggressive and sometimes attack humans, live in the northern part of Argentina. “It’s possible that (4)the species could be mixed in with honeybees to be imported to Japan. So the plan should be considered very carefully,” he said.
(5)The decline in the number of honeybees in the nation cannot be attributed only to the suspension of imports. The use of agro-chemicals to kill bugs in rice *paddies also has been cited as a contributing factor.
Beekeepers move northward across the country (6)to coincide with the blooming of flowers in each region. Starting about three or four years ago, reports started coming in of honeybees dying near rice paddies in the summer, when *pesticide is used in the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions.
There also are reports of damage from *parasitic ticks preying on honeybees, and that some ticks from overseas have become resistant to targeted pesticides. Studies into this point are expected to get under way soon. Nakamura said, “Honeybees kept in large numbers can’t keep their basic physical strength and they become prone to the effects of agro-chemicals and ticks.”
According to a farm ministry survey in 2007, about 26 percent of plastic greenhouses, or about 12,000 hectares in total, used honeybees to cross-pollinate vegetables and fruits, such as strawberries, eggplants, pumpkins, bitter gourds and cherries. Though there have not been any price hikes for fruit and vegetables at supermarkets and other retailers, if the shortage of honeybees continues, (7)[vegetables and fruit, fall, would, and, rise, the production volume, would, prices, of].
〔注〕
cross-pollinate 「他家受粉させる，交配させる」
apiarist 「養蜂家」
paddy 「稲田，水田」
pesticide 「殺虫剤」
parasitic tick 「寄生性のダニ」
| 〔設問〕 |
| 問１ |
下線部(1)とほぼ同じ意味を表す語句を１つ選べ。 |
| |
（ア）break down（イ）cut down（ウ）make up（エ）catch up |
| 問２ |
空所(2)に入れるのに最も適当な語を１つ選び，文脈にふさわしい形に直せ。 |
| |
（ア）observe（イ）estimate（ウ）contain（エ）produce |
| 問３ |
空所(3)に入れるのに最も適当な語句を１つ選べ。 |
| |
（ア）due to（イ）subject to（ウ）inferior to（エ）opposed to |
| 問４ |
下線部(4)が指すものを１つ選べ。 |
| |
（ア）Australian honeybees（イ）Japanese honeybees
（ウ）Argentine honeybees（エ）Africanized honeybees |
| 問５ |
下線部(5)を和訳せよ。 |
| 問６ |
下線部(6)と用法が最も近いtoを含むものを１つ選べ。 |
| |
（ア）Most people are opposed to his plan.
（イ）I thought it better not to let her go alone.
（ウ）Eventually, he announced his decision to resign.
（エ）He turned on the television to watch the news. |
| 問７ |
(7)の［ ］内の語（句）を，文意に合うよう最も適切な順に並べ替えよ。 |
| 問８ |
本文の内容と一致するものを２つ選べ。 |
| |
- （ア） The farm ministry is negotiating with the Argentine government to import more of the Africanized honeybees.
- （イ） According to the investigation by the Chiba prefectural government, farmers in the prefecture are short of about 30 percent of the needed honeybees.
- （ウ） The death of honeybees near rice paddies indicates that they cannot sustain their basic physical strength in the summer.
- （エ） The causes of the honeybee shortage are considered to be not only a disease outbreak in Australia, but also the effects of domestic pesticides and parasitic ticks.
- （オ） As there have already been several symptoms of a terribly poor harvest in some regions, prices of fruit and vegetables are rising steadily.
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