Eiken Grade Pre-1 (2020-1)

Bedless Hospitals (with Japanese Dictionary)

In the United States, there is a growing trend toward moving patient care outside of the traditional hospital setting. An increasing number of hospitals are therefore being designed without overnight-stay facilities. In-hospital care for patients is often extremely costly. ( 29 ), patients staying in hospitals after treatment or surgery are at greater risk of infection than patients who return home. Dr. Akram Boutros, the CEO of a nonprofit healthcare provider in Cleveland, Ohio, says this new trend allows people to “go home to a less-risky environment, where they tend to get better faster.”

Originally, keeping patients in hospital beds overnight or longer was meant to prevent diseases from spreading to the outside population. However, lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, have overtaken infectious diseases to become the most significant threat to human health. Therefore, many healthcare professionals believe hospital beds ( 30 ). In fact, for many modern-day health issues, lengthy periods of bed rest can actually worsen patients’ condition.

Some critics, however, worry the shift toward “bedless” hospitals ( 31 ). Certainly, the new hospitals offer more overall convenience to patients, who otherwise would have had to put their lives on hold while recovering in a hospital. Nevertheless, Harold Miller of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform says that “the untold story is what’s happening to all of those patients who do still need to be in the hospital.” He worries the new facilities could take valuable resources away from people requiring more-complex treatments. Despite this, it seems the bedless hospital is here to stay, as more facilities are springing up steadily across the United States.

Seagrasses(with Japanese Dictionary)

Seagrasses, flowering plants that live in shallow coastal waters, are under threat worldwide. Areas where these plants grow play an essential role as nurseries for young fish and other sea creatures, providing not only a steady supply of nutrients but also shelter from hungry predators. Seagrass beds are inhabited by a broad range of species, making them important fishing grounds for both recreational and commercial operations. They are declining rapidly, however, because of human activity mainly coastal development, water pollution, and overfishing. Chemicals and things like soil finding their way into rivers also contributes to the problem.

　The Indonesian part of the Coral Triangle, a huge area with thousands of islands, contains seagrass beds considered the most biologically diverse in the world. But research has shown these have been significantly damaged since 2013. Leanne CullenUnsworth of the United Kingdom’s Cardiff University calls this a “tragedy of the seagrass commons” a reference to an economic problem in which people overuse a shared resource, thinking only of their own shortterm benefit and ultimately causing its destruction. Seagrass beds in Indonesia, she says, are often overlooked by conservationists, so they are poorly monitored. Their loss threatens the livelihood of millions of people in the surrounding area as the fish these people rely on for food and income become scarce. It could also reduce the populations of endangered species that live in seagrass beds, such as sea horses.

　Fortunately, efforts are being made in various countries to address the problem. A local NGO in Sulawesi, Indonesia, has launched a treeplanting project alongside rivers in order to block harmful soil and rocks from falling into them and eventually ending up in seagrass beds. In Denmark, work has been done to improve coastal water quality by reducing agricultural pollution from fertilizer, significantly improving the condition of seagrass beds. Undoubtedly, however, additional measures to reverse seagrass destruction are still necessary.

Risk in Childhood Development (with Japanese Dictionary)

　Every year on playgrounds in the United States, about 200,000 children suffer injuries severe enough to require a hospital visit. Most are caused by falls from, or forceful contact with, playground equipment. Organizations like Safe Kids Worldwide are working to minimize the dangers children encounter in play spaces. At their urging, wood and steel equipment is being replaced with plastic and rubber structures, and the ground underneath it is covered with sand, shredded rubber, or other materials that cushion impacts. Both the play environment and playtime have also become more structured and supervised, with some places introducing laws barring children from playing in parks alone.

　On the other hand, some parents, teachers, and scientists view a certain amount of risk in playgrounds and other spaces as being healthier for children’s longterm development than sheltering them from injury is. Nga Nguyen, a biologist who studies primates at California State University, Fullerton, asserts that risk in play environments “is a vital part of our animal/primate heritage. It is through our engagement with risk… that we learn how to use our bodies safely to interact with the physical and social challenges in the environment.”

　Proponents of a growing worldwide movement to introduce higher levels of risk back into children’s playtime hope this change will counter the tendency toward overprotecting children. They promote spaces like “adventure playgrounds,” which encourage potentially hazardous activities such as building campfires or constructing things with bricks. Some schools are even making workbenches, complete with hammers and saws, available to children. Those who support such changes argue risk is necessary for healthy childhood development, since it involves facing challenges, problemsolving, decisionmaking, pushing limits, and building selfesteem and courage.

　These factors are also behind the growing “freerange parenting” movement in the United States, which supports giving children greater independence by encouraging them to walk and ride public transportation alone, spend more time outside, and pursue their own interests. The trend drew public attention some years ago when a family in the state of Maryland was investigated for child neglect because the parents had allowed their kids, then aged six and ten, to walk 1.6 kilometers home from a park by themselves. Though the charges were ultimately dropped, the case brought awareness to laws restricting children’s independence. Commenting on this situation, supporters of freerange parenting say this way of raising children was common for most of the twentieth century, and is still accepted in many cultures worldwide.

North Sentinel Island (with Japanese Dictionary)

　Uncontacted tribes are communities that live without significant influence from, or interaction with, the outside world. The most isolated such tribe can be found on North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman Islands in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Since the people’s own name for themselves is unknown, they are called the Sentinelese. The tribe rejects contact with the outside world, responding to most attempted visits with hostility ー they fire arrows at approaching boats, and have killed outsiders who set foot on their shores.

　Despite their isolation, some degree of contact with the Sentinelese has occurred in the past. Centuries ago, slave traders would take Andaman Islanders to sell as slaves. The British later claimed the islands as a colony, and Indians who had participated in rebellions against British rule were imprisoned there. The British also kidnapped Andaman Islanders including some from North Sentinel Island and forced them to undergo weeks of “education” in British culture and systems before sending them back, confused and often sick, to their tribe. More recently, combat in the Andaman Islands during World War II may also have affected the Sentinelese. Such experiences have almost certainly played a part in shaping their hostile attitude toward outsiders.

　In 1967, the Indian government, which officially governs the area, began conducting anthropologist-led expeditions to North Sentinel Island, offering gifts, such as coconuts, in attempts to establish peaceful contact. These expeditions continued over the following decades, but, for the most part, failed to achieve significant, sustained contact. Efforts were stopped in 1996 after similar attempts to establish contact with the Jarawa tribe, a group on a nearby island, resulted in many Jarawa dying of infectious diseases, such as measles. India now follows an “eyes-on and hands-off ” policy with regard to the Sentinelese, and it has introduced legislation forbidding boats from coming within about 9 kilometers of the island’s shores to protect the tribe from such a fate.

　Some scholars disagree with India’s policy, however, believing technological advances offer significant benefits for uncontacted groups. US anthropologists Robert S. Walker and Kim R. Hill assert that well-organized, controlled contact, which would include medical treatment and food, would be better than leaving such groups vulnerable to accidental and dangerous interactions with outsiders. Walker and Hill believe that since such harmful interactions are almost guaranteed to occur, isolation is not sustainable in the long term, and controlled contact is more “humane and ethical.” Once peaceful contact is established, they say, governments could better protect the groups from outside threats.

　Survival International, an international NGO, strongly opposes Walker and Hill’s view, pointing to terrible outcomes throughout history that resulted from similar approaches. Violence, alcohol abuse, and disease have destroyed many such tribes and reduced others to merely a few survivors. Tribes whose lands are protected, however, carry on living as they have for centuries. The Sentinelese, who have survived for hundreds of generations as hunter-gatherers, are by all appearances healthy, happy with their existence, and uninterested in the outside world. Given such a situation, contact with that world is unlikely to turn out well for them.

Multiple Choice

(1) John’s stomachache was quite mild at first, but soon the pain became so ( ) that his wife decided to drive him to the hospital.

1 deficient 2 acute 3 lame 4 juvenile

(2) ( ) among factory workers has grown since management refused to consider their demand for a pay raise. It is thought that a strike will be organized soon.

1 Innocence 2 Portrayal 3 Discontent 4 Prevalence

(3) The pianist ( ) elements of jazz and rock into her music. Some critics believe she combines the two genres better than anyone else.

1 integrates 2 pledges 3 grumbles 4 snores

(4) Miranda apologized for being late and explained to the client that she had been ( ) in a meeting.

1 agitated 2 condemned 3 detained 4 deprived

(5) A: Why did you and Anne break up?

B: We just weren’t ( ). Our characters were completely different, and we had hardly any interests in common.

1 permissible 2 compatible 3 allowable 4 expendable

(6) People say Jerry is a ( ) because he often talks about the importance of going to church but rarely attends himself.

1 hypocrite 2 phenomenon 3 beggar 4 sequence

(7) The belief that world peace can be achieved is considered by many people to be too ( ) as nations will always be in conflict over one issue or another. 1 punctual 2 evident 3 authentic 4 idealistic

(8) The young explorer’s trek through the jungle was very dangerous. Everybody praised her ( ) in choosing to make such a journey.

1 suspension 2 insightfulness 3 deadlock 4 daring

(9) Jim waited to begin repairs on the fan until the movement of the blades ( ) completely. He knew they could cause injury even when they were moving slowly.

1 transferred 2 ceased 3 conquered 4 accommodated

(10) Blake was happy that his cousin Natalie was living with his family, but he sometimes ( ) it when his parents were stricter with him than they were with her.

1 resented 2 implied 3 alternated 4 dislocated

(11) Although the novel was based on real historical events, most of the characters in it were ( ).

1 aimless 2 cooperative 3 superstitious 4 fictitious

(12) A: Any news about why our car won’t start, Vic?

B: The mechanic said the engine needs a complete ( ). I think we should buy a new car rather than spend so much on fixing it.

1 overhaul 2 blueprint 3 probation 4 apparatus

(13) Many ( ) have been complaining about the crowded conditions they experience in state prisons. They say this situation is negatively affecting their mental health.

1 orphans 2 comrades 3 victors 4 inmates

(14) Despite seeming ( ) throughout her speech, Farrah was actually incredibly nervous.

1 composed 2 ambitious 3 influential 4 analytical

(15) The new employee ( ) everyone by complaining all the time and talking loudly on his private phone during work hours. Eventually, he was fired. 1 enriched 2 laundered 3 irritated 4 chopped

(16) After his shower, Yannis used a towel to wipe the ( ) off the bathroom mirror so he could see his reflection.

1 equation 2 condensation 3 personnel 4 armor

(17) Len often makes his classmates laugh by ( ) their teacher. He can make his voice sound exactly like hers.

1 mimicking 2 encircling 3 blasting 4 undoing

(18) Following a lengthy conflict with neighboring nations, the country entered a ( ) period in which it enjoyed decades of peace and harmony.

1 rigid 2 tranquil 3 shameful 4 wholesale

(19) After losing money for over five years, the bookstore finally went ( ). It could no longer compete with the rising popularity of online stores.

1 bankrupt 2 shady 3 damp 4 clerical

(20) Any complaints by employees can be made ( ) in order to protect their privacy.

1 gravely 2 suspiciously 3 anonymously 4 comparatively

(21) Local people have ( ) the town council to put up a stoplight at a corner where there are a lot of accidents. They collected over 900 signatures.

1 catered 2 disguised 3 headlined 4 petitioned

(22) The marketing team ( ) some rough ideas until they had one that they were happy with. Then, they called in the manager and presented it to her.

1 kicked around 2 dropped off

3 buckled up 4 piled on

(23) A: I’m sorry I had to end our lesson early yesterday, Greg. Do you remember where we ( )?

B: Yes, we were doing the questions on page 8 of the textbook.

1 geared up 2 left off 3 locked on 4 brought about

(24) A: Here’s the report you asked me to write, Mr. Davis. Sorry it’s late. B: Finally! I was beginning to think you might not finish it, but I’m glad you eventually ( ).