【解答】
Ⅰ [出典：Joe Pinsker. "A Smarter Way to Divide Chores?" The Atlantic. April 25, 2022.]
1. (1) ② unbalanced (2) ① sole (3) ② executive (4) ④ value (5) ③ finally
2.[ア] ① equally [イ] ⑤ tolerable [ウ] ④ swapping
3. ① energy (you may not realize how much energy it takes)
4. ④ experiencing domestic chores which your partner does regularly
5. (1) F (2) T (3) F (4) T (5) T (6) T (7) T (8) F (9) T (10) F
6. ② Sharing Chores, Not Dividing Them, May Lead to Happier Relationships
【設問】
以下の英文を読んで，問1～問6に答えなさい。
In theory, coming up with a fair division of housework should be simple: take all the tasks and divide them into two.
In practice, it’s more complicated. Some people find certain tasks more bearable than their partners do. Some chores are ones that no one wants to do. And, on average, women end up bearing a (1)disproportionate share of their household’s chore burden. A new study adds another variable in the equation of couples’ (dis)satisfaction with how they split up chores: it found that men and women in long-term, different-sex partnerships tend to be happier with their relationships when they share responsibility for each chore on their to-do list, as opposed to when each partner has their own set of tasks. In other words, a couple in which one partner cooks and cleans and the other does the dishes and laundry will, on average, be less satisfied than a couple in which both partners jointly tackle all four chores.
“There is something about having all these tasks to deal with, as your (2)sole responsibility, that … seems to undermine a person’s sense of happiness in their relationship,” said Daniel Carlson, the author of the study, as well as a sociologist at the University of Utah and a (3)board member of the Council on Contemporary Families, a research group.
Although the study analyzes detailed survey data gathered from couples in the early 1990s and mid-2000s, the basic outline – and inequities – of how housework is divided haven’t changed much since then. In one data set Carlson looked at, couples who managed each chore jointly were twice as likely to say that their division of labor was fair than couples who assigned chores to one partner or another – even though both groups split the overall workload more or less [ ア ]. The data didn’t cover same-sex couples, but Carlson suspects the study’s results apply to them as well.
To be clear, these findings don’t necessarily mean that a certain chore distribution caused couples to become happier – couples that are happier and more cooperative may be more likely to share responsibilities for every chore in the first place. That said, if the chore distribution is what matters, maybe the explanation is that sharing responsibilities builds a spirit of teamwork, or encourages couples to communicate better. A “grass is greener” effect could also be a factor; if you never have to fold the laundry, that task may start to seem more [ イ ] than a pile of dirty dishes you’re about to work through.
Yet another possibility: “There might be something about really understanding all the work in the home that makes people (4)appreciate their partner and what they’re doing more deeply,” Melissa Milkie, a sociologist at the University of Toronto who wasn’t involved in the study, told me. “If you’re the partner that never cleans the bathroom, (X)それがどれくらい労力がかかることなのか，わからないかもしれない.”
This points to a way that couples might make their division of labor feel fairer without greatly altering the amount of time each person commits to housework. “You’re not being asked to do more,” Carlson told me. “You’re just changing the focus of your energy.”
Sharing tasks in this way gives couples aiming for an equal chore split something to experiment with. Milkie suggested that couples might try a week of sharing chores that they don’t usually share, or occasionally [ ウ ] chores, so that each partner gets a reminder of the annoyances that the other encounters regularly.
Additional research supports the idea that there could be value in having each partner do at least some of every task. Last year, I interviewed gender scholars about how they pursued equal partnerships in their own lives. One sociologist told me he was aware that some men spend less time looking after their kids because women are considered to be “better” at parenting. So he purposely started supervising his son’s bath time, even though the child acted out less when his wife was the one doing it. (5)Eventually, though, the sociologist became just as “good” at bath time as his wife.
The patterns that couples fall into when dividing up household tasks are often gendered and unfair, but (Y)this might be one way to bust out of them. Perhaps sharing more chores could lead to more of a shared understanding of all the work that goes into managing a home. (757 words)
問1 下線部(1)～(5)の語句に最も近い意味の語を選択肢から選びなさい。
(1) disproportionate
① huge ② unbalanced ③ underestimated ④ unexpected
(2) sole
① exclusive ② important ③ limited ④ qualified
(3) board
① active ② executive ③ flat ④ plate
(4) appreciate
① apologize ② explain ③ perceive ④ value
(5) Eventually
① Accidentally ② Dramatically ③ Finally ④ Occasionally
問2 空欄[ア]～[ウ]に入る単語として最も適切な語を選択肢から選びなさい。
[ア] ① equally ② kindly ③ orderly ④ properly ⑤ unfairly
[イ] ① colorful ② equitable ③ honorable ④ suitable ⑤ tolerable
[ウ] ① abandoning ② decreasing ③ outsourcing ④ swapping ⑤ undoing
問3 下線部(X)の日本語の文を英訳するために，以下の単語を並べ替えて英文を作る時，7番目に来る単語はどれか。
energy / how / it / might / much / not / realize / takes / you
問4 下線部(Y)のthisの内容として，最も適切なものを選択肢から選びなさい。
① dividing all household tasks equally into two
② encouraging fathers to take more tasks of bathing their babies
③ ensuring that both wives and husbands could escape from household chores
④ experiencing domestic chores which your partner does regularly
⑤ forcing husbands to share more household chores than their wives
問5 以下の①～⑩の英文について，本文の内容に合致している場合にはTを，そうでない場合にはFをそれぞれマークしなさい。
① The way that housework is divided between couples has evolved a lot since this study’s survey data was collected.
② It is likely that same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples feel similarly about household chore division.
③ Women are better at parenting.
④ When people don’t perform a household chore regularly, they may see it as less annoying.
⑤ The sociologist who supervised his son’s bath time was not successful at first.
⑥ A couple in which one person does the laundry and the other person cleans the toilet will likely be less satisfied than a couple that shares chores.
⑦ Women usually do more housework than men.
⑧ Sharing all of the chores in a household means more work for both partners, but it can also lead to more happiness.
⑨ The results of this study conflict with common assumptions about relationship satisfaction and dividing household chores.
⑩ The study concludes that dividing up chores in a certain way causes couples to be happier.
問6 この文章のタイトルとして最もふさわしいものを選択肢から選びなさい。
① How the Division of Household Chores Has Changed Over Time
② Sharing Chores, Not Dividing Them, May Lead to Happier Relationships
③ Marriages, Fairness, and Unequal Housework Burdens in the Home
④ How to Pursue a More Equal Partnership Through Housework
⑤ In Managing Household Chores, Empathy and Compromise Are Essential
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