Reading: Argument and Inference
Reading in Scholarship Japanese tests extended authentic texts: expository articles, essays, literary extracts and multi-text comparisons. The assessment asks for the author's claim, the function of a paragraph, the referent of a pronoun and the tone of a passage, not just dictionary meaning. You need to distinguish what is stated, what is implied and what is merely exemplified.
Core rules
- Map paragraph function: 問題提起, 具体例, 反論, 譲歩, 結論. A paragraph beginning 確かに often sets up a concession before the main claim.
- Resolve こそあど referents by looking backward for the nearest compatible noun phrase; do not assume これ means the previous sentence.
- Check scope: 必ずしも…とは限らない, ないわけではない, すべて…わけではない qualify a claim. The correct answer usually preserves that qualification.
- Separate fact from evaluation: 〜とされる, 〜ようだ, 〜にすぎない signal distance or limitation.
- In paired texts, identify agreement and disagreement by proposition, not by shared vocabulary.
Worked example
Passage: 「スマートフォンの利用は必ずしも学力低下を招くとは限らない。むしろ、使い方によっては調べ学習を支える。」 Question: What is the author's view? Reasoning: 必ずしも…とは限らない denies a necessary link; むしろ introduces a conditional positive; 使い方によっては limits it. Answer: smartphones are not inherently harmful; their effects depend on use. It is not an absolute claim that smartphones improve learning.
Traps
- Choosing an option that repeats passage vocabulary but reverses the scope.
- Reading an example as the main claim.
- Missing 〜わけではない and selecting an absolute statement.
- Assuming the author agrees with every quoted view.
- Losing the contrast in 一方/しかし across paragraphs.