N1 Vocabulary · Test 51

貧富 is read ひんぷ. It means 'rich and poor, wealth and poverty'. 貧 is read ひん (as in 貧困) and 富 is read ふ, which undergoes rendaku (voicing) to become ぷ in this compound. The sentence means 'Over the past 30 years, the gap between rich and poor in this country has been narrowing.' Option 2 (ひんぷ) is correct.

• 1ひんふ — close, but the second character undergoes rendaku (voicing) in this compound, so ふ becomes ぷ.
• 3びんふ — wrong first character reading; 貧 is ひん here, not びん. (びん appears in words like 敏.)
• 4びんぷ — wrong first character reading; 貧 is ひん, not びん.

• 貧富ひんぷ — rich and poor, wealth and poverty
• 縮ちぢまる — to shrink, narrow, close (a gap)

The correct answer is 3 (腕前). 腕前 (うでまえ) means 'skill, prowess,' especially in a practical craft such as cooking, arts, or sports. 腕前を披露する (ひろうする) means 'to show off one's skill.' The sentence means: 'At the party, Hayashi-san made the food and showed everyone her cooking skills.'

• 1そぶり (振る舞い/挙動) means 'behavior, demeanor, manner.' One does not '披露' one's behavior in the context of cooking.
• 2しわざ (仕業) means 'deed, act, handiwork' and often carries a negative or mischievous connotation (e.g., 誰の仕業か). It is not appropriate for praising someone's cooking skill.
• 4手間 (てま) means 'time and effort, labor.' While cooking involves 手間, saying 手間を披露する ('showing off one's effort') is unnatural; you show off skill, not effort.

• 腕前うでまえ — skill, prowess (in a craft/art)
• そぶり — behavior, demeanor
• 仕業しわざ — deed, act (often negative connotation)
• 手間てま — time and effort, labor
• 披露ひろう — to show, display, present (to an audience)

Option 2 (ためらって) is correct. The sentence describes a situation where the speaker lacked confidence in their ideas and hesitated to speak, and while they were hesitating, the discussion moved on. 'ためらって' (te-form of ためらう) means 'to hesitate' or 'to be reluctant to do something,' which perfectly fits the context of holding back one's opinion.

• 1遠ざけて (toozakete) means 'to keep away' or 'to distance oneself from something.' While it can mean avoiding something, it is not used for the psychological hesitation of speaking up. You cannot 'toozakete' a speech act in this manner.
• 3案じて (anjite) means 'to worry about' or 'to be anxious about.' The speaker might have been worried, but '案じる' takes a noun object (e.g., 結果を案じる), not an action like 発言するのを. It does not mean 'to hesitate to do something.'
• 4よけて (yokete) means 'to avoid' or 'to dodge' (often physically, like avoiding an obstacle or a person). While it can mean avoiding a situation, '発言するのをよけている' is not a natural Japanese collocation for hesitating to speak.

• ためらう — to hesitate, to be reluctant
• 遠とおざける — to keep away, to distance
• 案あんじる — to worry about, to be anxious about
• よける — to avoid, to dodge