こんにちは!私は47歳の時に英検1級に合格しました。
英検1級の二次試験(面接)は、社会性の高い幅広いテーマについて、その場で2分間のスピーチを組み立てなければならない最難関の試験です。
「本番でどんなお題が出ても、瞬時にスタンスを決めて理由を2つ以上答えられるようになりたい……」
そう考えた私は、面接対策のために自作で43個のトピック(想定質問)を作成し、それぞれのスタンス(Yes/No)と、解答の骨組みとなる根拠をまとめた「秘伝のリスト」を作り上げました。
- 1日12時間「ゾーン」に入って猛勉強した1ヶ月
- 本気で英検1級を掴みたい方へ:この記事の「トリセツ」
- 英検1級面接対策:厳選43トピック&回答根拠リスト
- Which is the greater threat to humankind, terrorism or world hunger?
- Is world peace a remote possibility?
- Should capital punishment be abolished?
- Do nuclear weapons make the world less secure?
- What role should the United Nations play in international politics?
- Should economic sanctions be used to achieve foreign policy objectives?
- Is foreign aid an effective way to promote economic growth in developing countries?
- What are the social responsibilities of large corporations?
- Should the mandatory retirement system be abolished?
- Will the trend toward part-time employment negatively affect Japanese society?
- Should major companies in financial trouble receive government support?
- How can creativity be developed?
- Do the advantages of school uniforms outweigh the disadvantages?
- Do the advantages of gifted students’ grade skipping outweigh the disadvantages?
- What country has an ideal education system that can be a good model for other countries?
- Should teachers be responsible for parenting their students?
- What are the causes of juvenile delinquency?
- What are countermeasures for juvenile delinquency?
- What country has the best healthcare system in the world?
- What makes organ transplants so controversial?
- What are the causes of mental illnesses?
- Should smoking be banned in public places?
- Do the benefits of genetic engineering outweigh the dangers?
- Has technology changed education for the better?
- What is the future of robots in daily life?
- Will the use of solar energy become widespread in the future?
- How should companies and individuals make efforts to protect the environment?
- Do the benefits of daylight saving time outweigh the disadvantages?
- Is the extinction of some plants and animal species inevitable? If so, how is it possible to protect them from extinction?
- How serious are current environmental problems?
- Is multiculturalism beneficial to society?
- Is religion necessary to society?
- Is Japan making enough efforts to preserve its cultural heritage?
- Does art make an essential contribution to society?
- How can we deal with a super-aging society?
- Is it necessary for couples to share household chores?
- Do the benefits of same-sex marriage outweigh the disadvantages?
- Should Japan make more efforts to achieve gender equality?
- Does the benefits of the internet outweigh its disadvantages?
- Does individual privacy outweigh the public’s right to know?
- Should playing free online games be discouraged?
- Do the advantages of advertising outweigh its disadvantages?
- How objective or biased is current news coverage in the world?
- おわりに:このリストのPDF版をダウンロードしたい方へ
- 英語を学びたいすべての方へ
- 通塾できない方へ:合格率を跳ね上げる「4大おすすめツール」
1日12時間「ゾーン」に入って猛勉強した1ヶ月
面接本番の前の1ヶ月間は、とにかくこのリストを暗記し、完全に本番で再現できるように徹底的に頭に叩き込みました。
仕事が休みの週末には、早朝に起床して、一日計12時間は机に向かいました。 「気づけば2〜3時間が一瞬で過ぎ去っている」というほど、完全にゾーンに入って勉強に没頭する日々。この集中した圧倒的な勉強量こそが、私を合格へと導いてくれた最大の要因です。
正しいやり方を信じ、時間を忘れて没頭することこそ、英検1級合格への最も確実な道です。
今回は、私が合格を勝ち取るために実際に作成し、ボロボロになるまで暗記した「43個のトピック・スタンス・根拠の全リスト」を惜しみなく大公開します。これから受験される方は、ぜひご自身のスピーチ対策の参考にしてください!
本気で英検1級を掴みたい方へ:この記事の「トリセツ」
この記事には、模範解答としての完璧な英文をあえてすべては載せていません。
なぜなら、他人の作った英文を丸暗記するだけの勉強では、本番の二次試験で少し角度を変えた質問をされた瞬間に、頭が真っ白になって崩れてしまうからです。
本番で求められるのは、完璧な暗記ではなく**「ロジックの骨組みを瞬時に組み立てる力」**です。
あえて「答えのすべて」を書かないことで、あなた自身の頭で考える余白を残しています。この記事と、後半で配布している**「43トピック回答根拠リスト(PDF)」**を印刷し、手元でボロボロになるまで自分のロジックを書き込むトレーニングに使ってください。
楽な丸暗記に逃げず、本物の「合格力」を鍛え上げたい方だけ、この先にお進みください。
英検1級面接対策:厳選43トピック&回答根拠リスト
※受験生の皆さんがそのまま活用できるよう、スペルや表現を自然な英語にブラッシュアップして1〜43までの通し番号に整理しています。
Which is the greater threat to humankind, terrorism or world hunger?
- Stance: World hunger
- Reasons:
- World hunger has far-reaching effects on terrorism.
- World hunger is the root cause of terrorism.
Is world peace a remote possibility?
- Stance: YES
- Reasons:
- Religious and ethnic differences often cause diplomatic failure and often escalate into military confrontation.
- Human beings’ uncontrollable desire to dominate others often leads to territorial expansionism and conflicts.
Should capital punishment be abolished?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- The risk of executing innocent people.
- It represents an inhumane and unethical penal system that devalues human life.
Do nuclear weapons make the world less secure?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- The possession of nuclear weapons threatens global security.
- The possibility of nuclear accidents can severely damage the environment.
What role should the United Nations play in international politics?
- Stance: (Key Roles)
- Reasons:
- To promote global peace and stability by taking the initiative in conflict resolution.
- To ensure the protection and promotion of human rights.
- To promote sustainable development in the world.
Should economic sanctions be used to achieve foreign policy objectives?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Avoiding the bloodshed of innocent civilians.
- Diluting the target countries’ aggression.
- Maximizing pressure on leaders while minimizing citizens’ suffering.
Is foreign aid an effective way to promote economic growth in developing countries?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- To build infrastructure and factories to develop their industries.
- To enhance the quality of education in developing countries.
What are the social responsibilities of large corporations?
- Stance: (Key Responsibilities)
- Reasons:
- Protection of the environment by developing eco-friendly products and technologies.
- Practicing business ethics, such as fair trade, avoiding bribery, preventing the abuse of employees, and prohibiting insider trading.
Should the mandatory retirement system be abolished?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Alleviating labor shortages by utilizing the elderly workforce.
- Maintaining and sustaining the pension system.
Will the trend toward part-time employment negatively affect Japanese society?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Declining birthrates due to the increasing numbers of part-timers.
- Undermining Japanese domestic consumption due to their lower disposable income.
Should major companies in financial trouble receive government support?
- Stance: No
- Reasons:
- The unfairness of bailing out major companies.
- Creating a heavy financial burden on the government.
- Going against the principles of capitalism.
How can creativity be developed?
- Stance: (Key Methods)
- Reasons:
- Question traditions and remove perceptual blocks generated by your biases.
- Try to find a “Plan B,” overcoming limited resources.
- Practice divergent and convergent thinking simultaneously.
Do the advantages of school uniforms outweigh the disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Encouraging students’ academic, athletic, and artistic achievements by saving time spent thinking about what to wear to school.
- Saving family expenses.
- Developing students’ sense of pride in belonging to their schools.
Do the advantages of gifted students’ grade skipping outweigh the disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Enhancing teaching and learning effectiveness.
- Creating a cost-effective education system for gifted students.
What country has an ideal education system that can be a good model for other countries?
- Stance: Finland
- Reasons:
- Non-test-based educational models result in students’ highest academic performance on international tests.
- Highly qualified teachers.
Should teachers be responsible for parenting their students?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Parents are too busy working and caring for both their children and elderly parents.
- The advantages of teachers teaching social rules and manners within the school educational environment.
What are the causes of juvenile delinquency?
- Stance: (Key Causes)
- Reasons:
- Lack of parental love and guidance.
- Harmful media influence on young people’s minds.
- Exam-centric education with little emphasis on character development.
What are countermeasures for juvenile delinquency?
- Stance: (Key Countermeasures)
- Reasons:
- Parents disciplining their children more with love.
- Providing professional support for children receiving less parental guidance and love.
- Enhancing schools’ moral education to build children’s character.
What country has the best healthcare system in the world?
- Stance: Japan
- Reasons:
-
- An egalitarian universal healthcare system that provides world-class medical services to everyone at affordable costs.
-
What makes organ transplants so controversial?
- Stance: (Key Issues)
- Reasons:
- Lack of national consensus about the definitions of death.
- Degradation of the human body and human dignity.
What are the causes of mental illnesses?
- Stance: (Key Causes)
- Reasons:
- Traumatic, life-threatening experiences such as natural disasters.
- Business restructuring or bankruptcy due to economic recession.
- Lack of social support for women taking care of their children and elderly parents.
Should smoking be banned in public places?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.
- Decreasing environmental and fire hazards caused by cigarette littering and smoke.
- Saving the government budget required for creating designated smoking areas.
Do the benefits of genetic engineering outweigh the dangers?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Alleviating world hunger.
- Curing intractable and incurable diseases.
Has technology changed education for the better?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Interactive multimedia enhances students’ learning effectiveness.
- Far more information is available online, which develops students’ research skills.
- E-learning increases people’s opportunities for study.
What is the future of robots in daily life?
- Stance: (Key Trends)
- Reasons:
- Popularization of housework robots and caregiver robots.
- Popularization of robot suits for the elderly and physically disabled people.
- Increased use of robot surgery and capsule endoscopy.
Will the use of solar energy become widespread in the future?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- It serves as a viable alternative to CO2-emitting fossil fuels.
- It has the potential to solve resource shortage problems.
How should companies and individuals make efforts to protect the environment?
- Stance: (Action Plans)
- Reasons:
- Companies: Should promote energy saving and tackle environmental degradation by complying with strict regulations and producing eco-friendly products.
- Individuals: Should practice the 3Rs: reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Do the benefits of daylight saving time outweigh the disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- A decrease in electricity consumption.
- Generating economic benefits.
- A decrease in the incidence of crime and traffic accidents.
Is the extinction of some plants and animal species inevitable? If so, how is it possible to protect them from extinction?
- Stance: Yes (It is happening, but protection is possible)
- Reasons:
- Implementing tighter controls on smuggling and poaching.
- Creating more sanctuaries to preserve natural habitats.
- Promoting more ecotourism.
How serious are current environmental problems?
- Stance: (Current Severity)
- Reasons:
- Global warming, which is increasingly getting worse, causes deforestation, desertification, and weather abnormalities, and will eventually cause coastal flooding.
- Water shortage problems are becoming more and more serious globally.
Is multiculturalism beneficial to society?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Boosting the economy through increased job opportunities from overseas investment.
- Promoting cultural diversity.
- Developing tolerance for other cultures.
- Stimulating people’s daily lives.
Is religion necessary to society?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Alleviating people’s mental suffering.
- Contributing to social stability.
Is Japan making enough efforts to preserve its cultural heritage?
- Stance: No
- Reasons:
- Having an extremely low budget for the protection of cultural heritage.
- A decrease in support for historical structures and craftspeople.
- An acute shortage of successors for traditional craftwork.
Does art make an essential contribution to society?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Boosting the local and national economy.
- Enhancing the quality of our daily lives.
- Promoting mutual understanding between people of different cultures.
- Contributing to the preservation of cultural legacies.
How can we deal with a super-aging society?
- Stance: (Key Countermeasures)
- Reasons:
- Increasing the number of caregivers and building more facilities for the elderly.
- Increasing the female and foreign workforce.
- Making anti-aging efforts, including preventive medicine.
Is it necessary for couples to share household chores?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- In the case of a full-time homemaker: Sharing housework mostly on weekends.
- In the case of couples with an equal workload: Sharing housework every day.
Do the benefits of same-sex marriage outweigh the disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Ensuring the equal right to marriage.
- Contributing to the elimination of various forms of discrimination.
- Contributing to social stability.
- Providing benefits to underprivileged orphans.
Should Japan make more efforts to achieve gender equality?
- Stance: No (meaning: Japan is NOT making enough efforts yet)
- Reasons:
- Falling behind other countries in female empowerment.
- A large gender difference in salary.
- Only 2% of fathers take paternity leave.
Does the benefits of the internet outweigh its disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- It serves as a great source of information.
- It creates numerous business opportunities.
- It enables convenient online shopping.
- It facilitates distance learning.
Does individual privacy outweigh the public’s right to know?
- Stance: No (The public’s right to know is more important in specific cases)
- Reasons:
- In criminal investigations that affect the public’s interest and safety.
- In matters involving celebrities’ privacy.
Should playing free online games be discouraged?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Wasting valuable time.
- Undermining physical and mental health.
Do the advantages of advertising outweigh its disadvantages?
- Stance: Yes
- Reasons:
- Boosting the economy.
- Financing TV programs and athletic events.
- Facilitating consumers’ product choices and purchases.
How objective or biased is current news coverage in the world?
- Stance: Biased
- Reasons:
- Media support for particular political parties and ideologies.
- The sensationalism practiced by media companies.
- Government censorship of media coverage.
おわりに:このリストのPDF版をダウンロードしたい方へ
スマホに保存してオフラインで勉強したい方や、紙に印刷して持ち歩きたい方のために、「43トピック回答根拠リスト」のPDFファイルを用意しました。
ご自由にダウンロードして、ご自身の面接・スピーチ特訓にご活用ください!皆さんの英検1級合格を心から応援しています。
💡 ダウンロードされる方へ:このリストに「あえてすべての答え」を書いていない理由
ここには、模範解答としての完璧な英文はすべて載せていません。「なんだ、全部載せてくれないのか」と思われたかもしれません。
ですが、英検1級の二次試験は、誰かが作った英文を丸暗記しただけでは、少し角度を変えた質問をされた瞬間に頭が真っ白になって崩れてしまいます。大切なのは、他人の英文をなぞることではなく、「なぜその結論になるのか」というロジックの骨組みを、あなた自身の頭と手で再現できるようになることです。
あえて余白を残しています。このリスト(PDF)を印刷し、手元に置いて、「自分ならどう表現するか」を徹底的に考えてみてください。ボロボロになるまでこの骨組みと向き合ったとき、あなたの本当の「合格力」が覚醒します。
英語を学びたいすべての方へ
英語力を伸ばしたい小中高生の方、
そして英語をやり直したい大人の方へ。
現在、マンツーマン指導の英語教室
Skakurai English アトリエでは、
- 小学生〜高校生の英語力の育成(英検対策を中心に指導)
- 大人のやり直し英語
まで、一人ひとりに合わせた指導を行っています。
「何から始めればいいかわからない」
「一人では続かない」
そんな方は、ぜひ一度ご相談ください。
👉無料体験レッスンのご連絡は、公式LINE 又は お問い合わせ へお願いします。
通塾できない方へ:合格率を跳ね上げる「4大おすすめツール」
上位級の壁を突破するためには、闇雲に参考書を解くのではなく、「何を使って、どのスキルを効率よく鍛えるか」という戦略が重要です。
「自分の苦手なセクション」や「今の学習スタイル」に合わせて、以下の4つの神ツールを賢く使い分けてみてください。
【単語・語彙対策】旺文社英検ネットドリル
👉 「まずは合格の土台となる上位級の難単語を、挫折せずに最速で覚えたい!」という方へ
英検の王道である旺文社の教材(パス単・過去問など)が丸ごとデジタル化されたドリルです。画面をタップするだけで正しい音声がその場で聴けるため、五感を使ってコロケーション(塊)を効率よく耳と目に焼き付けることができます。間違えた問題は自動で記録されるため、一人での暗記効率が劇的にアップします。
- おすすめの学習: スキマ時間の単語暗記、過去問演習
- リンク: 旺文社英検ネットドリル
【リスニング・速読対策】スタディサプリENGLISH
👉 「ネイティブのスピードに耳が追いつかない…」「長文を読むのが遅くて時間が足りない」という方へ
4技能の「英語の基礎体力」を最短で爆上げするトレーニングアプリです。アプリに搭載された「ディクテーション(書き取り)」と「シャドーイング」を毎日回すことで、ネイティブ特有の繋がる音を1語1句きれいに聞き取れる耳へと進化させ、リーディングの速読脳も同時に鍛えられます。
- おすすめの学習: リスニングの徹底強化、プロ講師の授業動画での文法・構造の基礎固め
- リンク: スタディサプリENGLISH
【英語力アップ・アウトプット対策】DMM英会話
👉 「学んだ文法や表現を実際に使ってみたい!」「二次試験のスピーキングや面接に自信をつけたい」という方へ
圧倒的なコスパで、世界120カ国以上の講師と毎日オンラインでマンツーマンレッスンができるサービスです。英検の各級に対応した専用のオリジナル教材が用意されており、プロの講師を相手に、自分のレベルに合わせた英会話や問題演習を何度も繰り返すことができます。筆記試験(リーディング・ライティング)でインプットした知識を、「話す・聞く」を通して本物の英語力へと定着させるのに最適です。
- おすすめの学習: 各級に対応した教材での英会話練習、リスニング・スピーキング対策
- リンク: DMM英会話 無料体験レッスンはこちら
【スケジュール・進捗管理】KIRIHARA Online Academy
👉 「一人だとどうしても三日坊主になる」「短期集中で絶対に一発合格したい!」という方へ
教科書でお馴染みの桐原書店が手がける、英検特化のオンライン個別指導です。アプリやドリルを使った自学自習だけでは「学習計画が立てられない」「モチベーションが続かない」という人のために、プロの講師がマンツーマンで伴走し、短期集中であなたを合格ラインまで徹底的に引き上げてくれます。
- おすすめの学習: 二次試験(面接)対策、ライティング(英作文)の個別添削、学習の進捗管理
- リンク: KIRIHARA Online Academy 無料体験レッスンはこちら
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