N1 Reading · Test 10

The correct answer is 2 (と同じく). The first paragraph describes the reviewer's own youthful experience of finding their mother's presence unpleasant (疎ましい). The second paragraph then shifts to the protagonist Suzuki, whose relationship with her mother is similarly antagonistic. 「と同じく」(just like / similarly) bridges these two parallel experiences: 'Just as I felt, for the protagonist Suzuki too, her mother was like a natural enemy (天敵).' The comparison is explicit and natural.

• 1ではないが means 'is not, but…' — this would negate the comparison and create a contrast where the text intends a parallel. The reviewer and Suzuki share a similar feeling about their mothers.
• 3とは違って means 'unlike…' — this implies the protagonist's situation differs from the reviewer's, but the passage is drawing a similarity, not a contrast.
• 4にとっても means 'even for…' — grammatically, 「鈴子にとっても母親は…」could work to mean 'even for Suzuki, her mother was…', but the key function of the blank is to connect the reviewer's experience to Suzuki's, which requires a comparative expression like と同じく, not にとっても.

• と同じく（とおなじく） — same as, similarly, just like
• 天敵てんてき — natural enemy, sworn enemy
• 疎うとましい — unpleasant, wanting to avoid

The correct answer is 1 (ある日). The preceding paragraph describes Suzuki's peaceful daily life running a pension in America. The paragraph beginning with （　42　） introduces the triggering event of the plot: news arrives from her family home that her mother's health is failing. 「ある日」(one day) is the natural temporal marker to shift from background description to a specific incident that sets the story in motion.

• 2あの日に means 'on that day' — it refers back to a specific day already mentioned in the discourse, but no particular day has been established yet.
• 3こうして means 'in this way / thus' — it would refer to the manner of the preceding description (her peaceful life), but the news from home is not a consequence of that lifestyle; it is a new event.
• 4そうやって means 'doing it that way' — similar to こうして, it refers to an ongoing manner or method, which does not fit the introduction of a sudden, specific event.

• ある日（あるひ） — one day
• 里帰さとがえり — returning to one's family home
• 危あやぶまれる — to be feared, to be in doubt (passive of 危ぶむ)

The correct answer is 1 (よく思う). The sentence is: '過去の記憶を過ぎたことと忘れてしまえばどんなに楽かと（　43　）。' This is a quotative construction: ' (How nice it would be if I could just forget past memories as things of the past) — I often think.' The pattern 「〜とよく思う」(I often think that…) fits perfectly, expressing the reviewer's recurring reflection. The と is a quotative particle marking the content of the thought.

• 2よく思うらしい means 'seems to often think' — らしい expresses hearsay or conjecture about a third party. This passage is written from the reviewer's first-person perspective, so conjecture is inappropriate.
• 3思った場合だ means 'in the case of having thought' — this is grammatically and semantically awkward here. The sentence is not describing a hypothetical case but a recurring thought.
• 4思っただけだ means 'just thought' — だけだ implies 'merely/nothing more than', which would dismiss the thought as trivial. The passage, however, goes on to seriously discuss how memories cannot be rewritten and continue to grip the heart, so the thought is not being dismissed.

• よく思う（よくおもう） — to often think
• 厄介やっかい — troublesome, bothersome
• 胸を締め付ける（むねをしめつける） — to grip one's heart (with emotion), to cause heartache

The correct answer is 2 (ただ). The preceding paragraph emphasizes the negative side of memories: they cannot be rewritten and always cause heartache. The new paragraph introduces a contrasting, more hopeful perspective: 'However, while memories cannot be rewritten, one can nurture new memories.' 「ただ」here functions as a conjunction meaning 'however / but', introducing a qualification or contrast to what was said before. The structure 「ただ〜けれど、…は出来る」(However, while X, Y is possible) is a natural rhetorical pattern.

• 1それに means 'besides / moreover' — this is an additive conjunction, but the relationship here is contrastive (negative → hopeful), not additive.
• 3だって means 'because / even' — it is colloquial and typically used in spoken Japanese to give a reason or emphasize, which does not fit the formal written style or the contrastive logic here.
• 4まして means 'let alone / much less' — this is used to say that if something is true in one case, it is even more true in a more extreme case. The logic here is not one of escalation but of contrast and qualification.

• ただ — however, but (conjunction); merely, just (adverb)
• 塗り変える（ぬりかえる） — to repaint, to rewrite/alter (memories, history)
• 育はぐくむ — to nurture, to foster

The correct answer is 3 (母親に会いたくなって). The final sentence is: '本を閉じた後、（　45　）車を実家に走らせた。' The subject is the reviewer (first person), who, after finishing this moving book about mother-daughter relationships, felt compelled to visit their own mother and drove to their family home. Option 3, 「母親に会いたくなって」(wanting to see (my) mother), correctly omits the explicit subject because it is understood as the first-person reviewer. The te-form (なって) naturally connects to the action of driving. This mirrors the opening paragraph where the reviewer reflects on their own mother, creating a satisfying narrative frame.

• 1鈴子は会いたくなって specifies Suzuki as the subject, but Suzuki is a character in the novel. The person who closes the book and drives to their family home is the reviewer in the real world, not the fictional character.
• 2鈴子は母親に会いたくなって also incorrectly identifies Suzuki as the subject. The sentence describes the reviewer's real-world action after reading the book, not a character's action within the story.
• 4母親は鈴子に会いたくなって makes 'the mother' the subject who wants to see Suzuki — this reverses the agent. The person driving the car is the one who wants to see their mother, not the other way around.

• 実家じっか — one's family home, parents' home
• 走はしらせる — to drive (a car), to run (a vehicle)