Inference Question の解き方ーーーTOEFL iBT

What does the author imply about changes 

in the African environment during this time period?

という問いを見ると、imply が目に飛び込んできます。これで「この内容は本文中に明確には述べられていない」とわかるからです。

「この期間中のアフリカの環境における変化について筆者が暗示しているものはどれか」という本設問。それでは本文を読んでいきましょう。

There's evidence of agriculture in Africa

prior to 3000 B.C. 

It may have developed independently, 

but many scholars believe 

that the spread of agriculture 

and iron throughout Africa 

linked it to the major centers of 

the Near East and Mediterranean world. 

The drying up of 

what is now the Sahara desert

had pushed many peoples to the south 

into sub-Saharan Africa. 

These peoples settled at first

in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, 

although in some places 

near lakes and rivers, 

people who fished, 

with a more secure food supply, 

lived in larger population concentrations. 

Agriculture seems to have reached 

these people from the Near East, 

since the first domesticated crops 

were millets and sorghums 

whose origins are not African

but West Asian.

Once the idea of planting diffused,

Africans began to develop their own

crops, such as certain varieties of rice,

and they demonstrated a continued

receptiveness to new imports.

The proposed areas of the domestication

of African crops lie in a band that

extends from Ethiopia across southern

Sudan to West Africa. 

Subsequently, other crops, such as

bananas, were introduced from

Southeast Asia.


上記８文で１つの段落が形成されていました。これが第一段落。お気づきになられたでしょうか。第３文です。

The drying up of what is now the Sahara desert

現在のサハラ砂漠の乾燥化が

had pushed many peoples to the south 

数多くの民族を南へと追いやっていた。

into sub-Saharan Africa. 

サハラ以南のアフリカへと。

これが imply していることは何か。サハラ砂漠には元々人が住んでいた、ということです。人が住めるような土地だった。でもその地域が気候変動によって乾燥化が進み、現在では砂漠になってしまったということです。

これをもとに選択肢を読んでみましょう。

(A) The climate was becoming milder, allowing for a greater variety of crops to be grown.

(B) Although periods of drying forced people south, 

they returned once their food supply was secure.

(C) Population growth along rivers and lakes 

was dramatically decreasing the availability of fish.

(D) A region that had once supported many people 

was becoming a desert where few could survive.

(A) The climate was becoming milder, → ここまで読んだところで却下。

(B) Although periods of drying forced people south, 

they returned → ここまで読んで却下。

(C) Population growth along rivers and lakes

was dramatically decreasing the availability of fish.

→ 本文中になし。

(D) A region that had once supported many people 

was becoming a desert where few could survive.

かつて数多くの人々を支えた地域がほとんど誰も生き残れない砂漠になりつつあった。

サハラ砂漠には元々人が住めるような土地だった。でもその地域が気候変動によって乾燥化が進み、現在では砂漠になってしまった、という文脈と合致するのは (D) ですね。この設問の選択肢に難しい点は見当たりません。

尚、many peoples は「数多くの民族」という意味を表します。一方、

many people は「数多くの人々」という意味を表します。

people は 「人」という意味の person の複数形でもあり、

「民族」という意味を表す名詞 people の単数形でもあります。

TOEFL の個別指導が必要な方は以下リンクからどうぞ。