N1 Reading · Test 11

Option 4 (人は仕事を通じて、自身が存在する意義を実感できる) matches the passage's central thesis. The author states that all work positions a person in the world (あらゆる仕事はなんらかの形で、その人を世界の中に位置づける) and that humans can only gain the sense of their own existence through engagement with the outside world (外の世界との関わり合いを通じてしか自分が存在する実感を得ることができず). Work is the means by which people confirm their existence.

• 1世界に存在するあらゆる仕事には、それぞれの価値がある — The passage does not discuss the relative value of different jobs. It discusses how work connects people to the world, not the intrinsic worth of each job.
• 2自然の中で働き、自身の存在を確認することが大切だ — This is too narrow. Farm work (畑仕事) is used only as one example; the author's point applies to all work, not just working in nature.
• 3人はどんなに豊かになっても、働くことをやめてはいけない — While the passage mentions that even wealthy people work, the main point is not a moral injunction to keep working. It is about why people work: to feel their existence through connection with the outside world.

• 位置いちづける — to position, to place (in a context)
• 渇望かつぼうする — to strongly desire, to crave
• 関わり合い（かかわりあい） — interaction, involvement, connection

Option 3 (過去を現代の人々の視点で解釈するもの) directly matches the passage's key idea. The author quotes 'すべての歴史は現代史である' (all history is contemporary history) and explains that when we examine historical materials, it is ultimately we in the present who view the past through them with our present eyes (現在のわれわれであり現在の眼である). We cannot escape being people of the present era. Therefore, history is the interpretation of the past from the perspective of contemporary people.

• 1史料の分析をとおして現代史を解明するもの — The passage is not about elucidating modern history (現代史 as a field). '現代史' here is used metaphorically to say all history is viewed through a contemporary lens, not that history studies modern history.
• 2古い時代の人々の立場に立って研究するもの — The passage explicitly says we cannot escape our present-era perspective (われわれが生きている現在の時代の人間であるということから脱出することはできない), so this contradicts the author's argument.
• 4過去を現代史と比較して理解するもの — The passage does not discuss comparing the past with modern history. It argues that the past is inevitably interpreted through present eyes, not that the two are compared.

• 史料しりょう — historical materials (documents, artifacts, etc.)
• 公平無私こうへいむしに — impartially, without private bias
• 脱出だっしゅつする — to escape, to break free from

Option 2 (人間も動物であるという視点で、人間について考えるべきだ) matches the passage's conclusion. The author argues that the original question 'How do humans differ from animals?' was fundamentally wrong. The correct question is 'How do humans differ from other animals?' — and to answer this, one must ask what kind of animal humans are (人間はどういう動物であるかを問う以外にない). This means we should approach the study of humans from the perspective that humans are themselves animals.

• 1言語・思想・文化は、人間だけのものと考えるべきではない — The passage does not claim that language, thought, and culture belong to non-human animals. It says the framing of the question was wrong, not that these traits are shared.
• 3人間と他の動物とのちがいを問うても意味がない — The passage says the opposite: '人間は他の動物とどうちがうか' IS the real question (問題は...「人間は他の動物とどうちがうか」ということだったのである). So asking this difference does have meaning.
• 4人間と動物のちがいを根本的に問い直すべきだ — This is close but too vague. The passage does not simply call for re-examining the difference between humans and animals in general; it specifically redirects to asking what kind of animal humans are, i.e., adopting the viewpoint that humans are animals.

• いわく — as the saying goes; it is said that
• 問といかけ — question, inquiry (the act of asking)