Question

マリちゃん

英語の長文です。
文法表現のあるところが知りたいです。
よろしくお願いします。

UNIT 1
5
Reading Passage
10
15
20
20
25
Listening
There are more than 37,000 known species of spiders in the world in a wide variety of shape's
and sizes! The largest spiders in the world live in the rain forests of South America and are known
by the people who live there as the "bird-eating spiders." These spiders can grow up to 28
centimeters in length- about the size of a dinner plate, and, as their name suggests, have been
known to eat small birds. In comparison, the smallest species of spider in the world is native to
Western Samoa. These tiny spiders are less than half a millimeter long — about the size of a period
on this page and live in plants that grow on mountain rocks.
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Some people like to keep spiders as pets, particularly tarantulas, which are native to North America
and can live for up to twenty-five years, Most people, on the other hand, do not like touching
spiders, and a significant number of people are afraid of them, mainly because of their poison.
However, despite their bad reputation, only thirty of the 37,000 known species of spiders are
deadly to humans. Spiders actually provide benefits to humans, by catching and eating harmful
insects such as flies and mosquitoes.
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The main thing that makes spiders different from other animals is that they spin web's to catch the
small insects they feed on. The unique silk of a spider's web is produced by special organs found
spider web is five times
in the lower part of the spider's body. It is light, elastic, and strong
stronger than steel. Additionally, it is completely biodegradable. This means that the web will
making it perfect for uses
completely decompose¹ and eventually return to nature over time
such as making fishing nets. Some people have tried to raise spiders commercially in order to
collect the silk these spiders produce, but no one has ever really managed to make a go of it. One
reason why these businesses never stand a chance is because it takes 670,000 spiders to produce
half a kilogram of silk, and all of these spiders need living insects for their food. In addition, spiders
are usually solitary² animals, and need to be kept alone.
Researchers at an American company working together with two U.S. universities may have found
a solution to making artificial spider web. Using genetically modified silkworms,³ the company
hopes that in the long run it will be able to make large quantities of very light, very strong fiber
for medical as well as other uses. Additionally, because the manufacture of the artificial web is from
living silkworms, the industry potentially would be non-polluting and less harmful to
the environment

5
110
10
15
20
20
25
25
30
VNIT2
Reading Passage
Listening
O
For any tourist visiting Egypt, there are two things that everyone must see. The first is the
137-meter-high Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of all the pyramids in Egypt. The second is
the Great Sphinx of Giza, a sculpture with the body of a lion and the head of a man, which stands
20 meters tall and 73 meters long.
The origin of the Great Sphinx of Giza goes back 5,000 years. Although many sphinx sculptures
have been found over the years, researchers believe that the Great Sphinx, which guards the
pyramids in Giza, was actually the first one to be made (around 2600 - 2500 B.C.). The head of
the Sphinx represents Khafre, the Pharaoh² who ruled Egypt at that time.
About two thousand years later, around 570 B.C., sand had covered all but the head of the Great
Sphinx. The people living in the area at that time did not know the history of the statue, so they
imagined that the head represented the sun god Ra and began worshiping it. The son of
Pharaoh Amenhotep II heard the head speak to him in a dream. The Sphinx's head made him
promise to clear the sand from the statue's body. The son, Thutmose, kept his word and did what
he was told in the dream. He also built walls around the statue to prevent the sand from covering
it again. After all of the sand was cleared away, Thutmose made a large stone tablet³ that told the
story of his dream. He placed this tablet between the two front feet of the Sphinx, where it stands
to this day.
For hundreds of years, the Sphinx attracted people both as a religious monument and as a work
of art. Eventually, the desert sand once again covered the Sphinx, leaving only the head visible. It
was not until the 1800s that archaeologists began clearing the sand from the statue and began
researching the long history of the Sphinx. At last, in the 1920s, all of the sand was finally cleared
away and restoration work, which continues to this day, was begun.
The name "sphinx" comes from an ancient Greek word, meaning "strangler." According to Greek
legend, the Sphinx was a demon with the body of a winged lion, and the head of a woman. She
sat beside a road and asked all people who passed her a riddle: "Which animal in the morning
goes on four feet, at noon on two, and on three in the evening?" She strangled anyone who could
not make sense of the question. The riddle was finally solved by the Greek king, Oedipus. The
answer was man, who crawls on hands and knees as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult,
and finally walks with a cane in old age. The Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock
and died.
¹ Giza a town in Egypt, now part of Cairo
2 Pharaoh the title of the kings of ancient Egypt
3 tablet a flat piece of clay or stone with writing on it
4 demon an evil creature; a devil

文法、表現