勉強で蛍光ペンを使うべきではない 東大入試問題文(英語) 東京大学1992年 The use of highlighters ─ those marking pens that allow readers to emphasize passages in their books with transparent overlays of bright color ─ is significantly affecting the education of university students by distorting and cheapening the way many read. While some students still read without using any kind of marker, and some continue to use pens or pencils, most have switched to highlighters. The most common use of highlighters is for simply marking, with a colorful coating over the words, the main points of a text that the student needs to read. While this might seem harmless, such highlighter use in fact encourages passive reading habits ─ a mindless swallowing of words that pass through the reader without making any lasting impression. This can have a serious effect on young adults who very much need to learn to read actively, critically, and ytically. It might be objected, with some justification, that the use of a pencil or pen could also bring about the same result. It is nevertheless proper to hold the highlighter responsible for the actual decline in reading skills. When a pencil or pen is used for a highlighting (that is, underlining) purpose, it is ordinarily used also for writing notes in the margins, a process that greatly intensifies the reader's involvement with the text. The highlighter is practically useless for this purpose.