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１． 長文読解Moxon's Masterの原文（著作権フリー）
（テクスト起こしをしたのはChatGPTと株式会社田畑企画です。起こし作業において正確性を完全に保証するものではありません。誤字脱字や解釈の誤りが含まれる可能性があることをご了承ください。）
"Are you serious? Do you really believe that a machine thinks?"
I got no immediate reply; Moxon was apparently intent upon the coals in the grate, touching them deftly here and there with the fire-poker till they signified a sense of his attention by a brighter glow. For several weeks, I had been observing in him a growing habit of delay in answering even the most trivial of commonplace questions. His air, however, was that of preoccupation rather than deliberation: one might have said that he had “something on his mind.
” Presently he said:
"Smith, what is a 'machine'? The word has been variously defined. Here is one definition from a popular dictionary: 'Any instrument or organization by which power is applied and made effective, or a desired effect produced.' Well, then, is not a man a machine? And you will admit that he thinks—or thinks he thinks."
"If you do not wish to answer my question," I said, "why not say so?—all that you say is mere evasion. You know well enough that when I say 'machine,' I do not mean a man, but something that man has made and controls."
"When it does not control him," he said, rising abruptly and looking out of a window, whence nothing was visible in the blackness of a stormy night. A moment later, he turned about and, with a smile, said: "I beg your pardon; I had no thought of evasion. I considered the dictionary man’s unconscious testimony suggestive and worth something in the discussion. I can give your question a direct answer easily enough: I do believe that a machine thinks about the work that it is doing."
That was direct enough, certainly. It was not altogether pleasing, for it tended to confirm a sad suspicion that Moxon’s devotion to study and work in his machine-shop had not been good for him. I knew, for one thing, that he suffered from insomnia, and that is no light affliction. Had it affected his mind? His reply to my question seemed to me then evidence that it had; perhaps I should think differently about it now. I was younger then, and among the blessings that are not denied to youth is ignorance. Incited by that great stimulant to controversy, I said:
"And what, pray, does it think with—in the absence of a brain?" The reply, coming with less than his customary delay, took his favorite form of counter-interrogation:
"With what does a plant think—in the absence of a brain?"
"Ah, plants also belong to the philosopher class! I should be pleased to know some of their conclusions; you may omit the premises."
"Perhaps," he replied, "you may be able to infer their convictions from their acts. I will spare you the familiar examples of the sensitive mimosa, the several insectivorous flowers, and those whose stamens bend down and shake their pollen upon the entering bee in order that he may fertilize their distant mates. But observe this: In an open spot in my garden, I planted a climbing vine. When it was barely above the surface, I set a stake into the soil a yard away. The vine at once made for it, but as it was about to reach it after several days, I removed it a few feet. The vine at once altered its course, making an acute angle, and again made for the stake. This maneuver was repeated several times, but finally, as if discouraged, the vine abandoned the pursuit and, ignoring further attempts to divert it, traveled to a small tree, further away, which it climbed."
"And all this?"
"Can you miss the significance of it? It shows the consciousness of plants. It proves that they think."
"Even if it did—what then? We were speaking, not of plants, but of machines. They may be composed partly of wood—wood that has no longer vitality—or wholly of metal. Is thought an attribute also of the mineral kingdom?"
"How else do you explain the phenomena, for example, of crystallization?"
"I do not explain them."
"Because you cannot without affirming what you wish to deny, namely, intelligent cooperation among the constituent elements of the crystals. When soldiers form lines or hollow squares, you call it reason. When wild geese in flight take the form of a letter V, you say instinct. When the homogeneous atoms of a mineral, moving freely in solution, arrange themselves into shapes mathematically perfect, or particles of frozen moisture into the symmetrical and beautiful forms of snowflakes, you have nothing to say. You have not even invented a name to conceal your heroic unreason."
Moxon was speaking with unusual animation and earnestness. As he paused, I heard in an adjoining room, known to me as his "machine-shop," which no one but himself was permitted to enter, a singular thumping sound, as of someone pounding upon a table with an open hand. Moxon heard it at the same moment and, visibly agitated, rose and hurriedly passed into the room whence it came. I thought it odd that anyone else should be in there, and my interest in my friend—with doubtless a touch of unwarrantable curiosity—led me to listen intently, though, I am happy to say, not at the keyhole. There were confused sounds, as of a struggle or scuffle; the floor shook. I distinctly heard hard breathing and a hoarse whisper, which said, "Damn you!" Then all was silent, and presently Moxon reappeared and said, with a rather sorry smile:
"Pardon me for leaving you so abruptly. I have a machine in there that lost its temper and cut up rough." Fixing my eyes steadily upon his left cheek, which was traversed by four parallel excoriations showing blood, I said:
"How would it do to trim its nails?"
２． 詩の原文 A Thousand Years from Now
（テクスト起こしをしたのはChatGPTと株式会社田畑企画です。起こし作業において正確性を完全に保証するものではありません。誤字脱字や解釈の誤りが含まれる可能性があることをご了承ください。）
A Thousand Years From Now
By Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886)
I sat within my tranquil room;
The twilight shadows sank and rose
With slowly flickering motions, waved
Grotesquely through the dusk repose;
There came a sudden thought to me,
Which thrilled the spirit, flushed the brow—
A dream of what our world would be
A thousand years from now!
If science on her heavenward search,
Rolling the stellar charts apart,
Or delving hour by hour to win
The secrets of earth’s inmost heart—
If that her future apes her past,
To what new marvels men must bow,
Marvels of land, and air, and sea,
A thousand years from now!
・・・・・・・・・・・・・
And we—poor waifs! whose life-term seems,
When matched with after and before,
Brief as a summer wind’s, or wave’s,
Breaking its frail heart on the shore,
We—human toys—that Fate sets up
To smite, or—spare—I marvel how
These souls shall fare, in what strange sphere,
A thousand years from now?
Too vague, too faint for mortal ken
That far, phantasmal future lies;
But sweet! one sacred truth I read,
Just kindling in your tear-dimmed eyes,
That states may rise, and states may set,
With age earth’s tottering pillars bow,
But hearts like ours can ne’er forget,
And though we know not where, nor how,
Our conscious love shall blossom yet,
A thousand years from now!
３． エッセイの攻略ポイント
●第1問の解釈については、ずばり「分かっているか」が問われるでしょう。
A Thousand Years from Nowの中で具体的に使われているフレーズを抜き出し、筆者の「プラス思考」を説明するとよいでしょう。
●第2問が実は「英検型のエッセイ」にも見えるので厄介です。
課題をもう一度見てみましょう。
今から1000年後、西暦3024年にいます。
あなたの家電製品 (冷蔵庫、掃除機、電気ポットなど) の1つに、sentience（：知覚）という興味深い機能が設計されています。
これがあなたの日常生活にどのような影響を与えるか、または生活の一部がどのように便利になるかを説明してください。
以下、田畑の分析および英語エッセイの指導方針です。
この課題を、英検エッセイのようにとらえると、自分の知っている「人工知能」についての知識や情報だけで合格点が取れてしまいます。
しかし、渋渋のエッセイはそれでは合格点が取れない。
すべての年度ではないですが、エッセイに「自己アピール」の要素を入れないと高得点が狙えないのではないでしょうか。
自己アピールとは、すなわち「今の私」につながる「過去の私」、「未来の私」です。
今回のキーワードは「1000年後のあなたの日常生活」ですが、この「あなた」を「人類」ではなく、「あなた個人ならどうですか」と解釈すれば自己アピールになります。
すなわち、英検型の「人類の生活はこう変わる」ではなく、「私ならば生活がこうなっていてほしい」というプラス思考の、明るい未来を夢見る思いを書けばよいということになります。
ご参考になれば幸いです。
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