People feel safer behind some kind of physical barrier. If a social situation is in any way threatening, then there is an immediate urge to set up such a barricade. For a tiny child faced with a stranger, the problem is usually solved by hiding behind its mother's body and (A)peeping out at the intruder to see what he or she will do next. If the mother's body is not available, then a chair or some other piece of solid furniture will do. If the stranger insists on coming closer, then the peeping face must be hidden, too. If the insensitive intruder continues to approach despite these obvious signals of fear, then there is nothing for it but to scream or　[ 9 ].

This pattern is gradually reduced as the child matures. In teenage girls it may still be detected in the giggling cover-up of the face, with hands or papers, when acutely or jokingly embarrassed. But by the time we are adult, the childhood hiding, which dwindled to adolescent [ 10 ] , is expected to disappear altogether, as we bravely stride out to meet our guests, hosts, companions, relatives, colleagues, customers, clients, or friends. Each social occasion involves us, once again, in encounters similar to the ones which made us hide as scared infants and, as then, each encounter is slightly threatening. In other words, the fears are still there, but their expression is blocked. (B)Our adults roles demand control and suppression of any primitive urge to withdraw and hide ourselves away. The more formal the occasion and the more dominant or unfamiliar our social companions, the more worrying the moment of [ 11 ] becomes. Watching people under these conditions, it is possible to observe the many small ways in which they continue to 'hide behind their mother's skirts'. The actions are still there, but they are transformed into less obvious movements and postures. It is these that are the Barrier Signals of adult life.

The most popular form of Barrier Signals is the Body-cross. In this, the hands and arms are brought into contact with one another [ 12 ] the body, forming a temporary 'bar' across the trunk, rather like a bumper or fender on the front of a motor-car. This is not done as a physical act of fending-off the other person, as when raising a forearm horizontally across the front of the body to push through a struggling crowd. It is done, usually at quite a distance, as a nervous guest approaches a dominant host. The action is performed unconsciously and, (c)if tackled on the subject immediately afterwards, the guest will not be able to remember having made the gesture. It is always camouflaged in some way, because if it were performed as a primitive fending-off or covering-up action, it would obviously be too transparent. The disguise it wears varies from person to person. Here are some examples:

The special guest on a *gala occasion is alighting from his official limousine. Before he can meet and shake hands with the reception committee, he has to walk alone across the open space in front of the main entrance to the building [ 13 ] the function is being held. A large crowd has come to watch his arrival and the press cameras are flashing. Even for the most experienced of celebrities this is a slightly nervous moment, and (D)the mild fear that is felt expresses itself just as he is halfway across the 'greeting-space'. As he walks forward, his right hand reaches across his body and makes a last-minute adjustment to his left *cufflink. It pauses there momentarily as he takes a few more steps, and then, at last, he is close enough to reach out his hand for the first of the many hand-shakes.

On a similar [ 14 ], the special guest is female. At just the point where her male counterpart would have fiddled with his cuff, she reaches across her body with her right hand and slightly shifts the position of her handbag, which is hanging from her left forearm.

There are other variations on this theme. A male may finger a button or the strap of a wristwatch [ 15 ] his cuff. A female may smooth out an imaginary *crease in a sleeve, or re-position a scarf or coat held over her left arm. But in all cases there is one essential feature: at (あ)(a/is/the/of/Body-cross/nervousness/moment/peak/there), in which one arm makes contact with the other across the front of the body, constructing a fleeting barrier between the guest and the reception committee.

Such are the Barrier Signals of the greeting situation, where one person is advancing on another. Interestingly, field observations reveal that (E)it is most unlikely that both the greeter and the greeted will perform such actions. Regardless of status, it is nearly always the new arrival who makes the body-cross movement, because it is he who is invading the home territory of the greeters. They are on their own ground or, even if they are not, they were there first and have at least temporary territorial 'rights' over the place. This gives them an indisputable dominance at the moment of the greeting. Only if they are extremely subordinate to the new arrival, and perhaps in serious trouble with him, will there be a likelihood of them taking the 'body-cross role'. And if they do, this will mean that (F)the new arrival on the scene will omit it as he enters.

These observations tell us something about the secret language of Barrier Signals, and indicate that, although the sending and receiving of the signals are both [ 16 ] done, the message gets across, nonetheless. The message says: 'I am nervous but I will not retreat'; and this makes it into an act of subordination (い)(slightly/makes/automatically/dominant/which/feel/and/the other person/more) more comfortable.

The situation is different after greetings are over and people are standing about talking to one another. Now, if one man edges too close to another, perhaps to hear better in all the noise of chattering voices, the *boxed-in companion may feel the same sort of threatening sensation that the arriving celebrity felt as he walked towards the reception committee. What is needed now, however, is something more long-lasting than a mere cuff-fumble. (G)It is simply not possible to go on fiddling with a button for as long as this companion is going to thrust himself forward. So a more composed posture is needed. The favourite Body-cross employed in this situation is the arm-fold, in which the left and right arms *intertwine themselves across the front of the chest. This posture, a perfect, frontal Barrier Signal, can be held for a very long time without appearing [ 17 ]. Unconsciously it transmits a 'come-no-farther' message and is used a great deal at crowded gatherings. It has also been used by poster artists as a deliberate 'They-shall-not-pass!' gesture, and is rather formally employed by bodyguards when standing outside a protected doorway.

The same device of arm-folding can be used in a sitting relationship where the companion is approaching too close, and it can be amplified by a crossing of the legs away from the companion. Another variant is to press the tightly clasped hands down on to the *crotch and squeeze them there between legs. Girls wearing *skimpy costumes that expose their thighs frequently perform a special Barrier Signal that protects their *genital region. The message of this particular form of barrier is clear enough, even though neither side becomes consciously [ 18 ] it. But perhaps the major Barrier Signal for the seated person is that ubiquitous device, the desk. Many a businessman would feel naked without one and hides behind it gratefully every day, wearing it like a vast, wooden *chastity-belt. (H)Sitting beyond it he feels fully protected from the visitor exposed on the far side. It is the supreme barrier, both physical and psychological, giving him an immediate and lasting comfort while he remains in its solid embrace.

• Notes:
  • gala occasion 「華やかな式典」
  • cufflink 「カフスボタン」
  • crease 「しわ」
  • boxed-in 「追いつめられた」
  • intertwine 「からみ合う」
  • crotch 「股」
  • skimpy 「露出度の高い」
  • genital region 「陰部」
  • chastity-belt 「貞操帯」

• 問1 下線部(A)~(H)の意味に最も近いものを下の(a)～(b)の中からそれぞれ1つ選びマークしなさい。
  • (A)[ 1 ]
    • (a) making fun of the visitor
    • (b) paying much attention to the close friend
    • (c) staring fixedly at the enemy
    • (d) timidly looking at the stranger
  • (B)[ 2 ]
    • (a) As an adult, we have to satisfy our desires of hiding ourselves behind the mother's body
    • (b) As an adult, we must restrain ourselves from an impulse to run away out of fear
    • (c) We adults need to save our children from any primitive danger that makes them frightened
    • (d) We adults should repress our children's tendency to hide themselves away from strangers
  • (C)[ 3 ]
    • (a) if someone tells the guest that he was doing the Body-cross a little while ago
    • (b) if someone tells the host that he was fending off the other person right away
    • (c) if the dominant host is spoken to by the nervous guest right after the encounter
    • (d) if the nervous guest is spoken to by the dominant host long before the encounter
  • (D)[ 4 ]
    • (a) he feels a slight anxiety and it shows on his body
    • (b) he feels considerable worry and he tries to put the feeling into words
    • (c) the slight fear disappears just after it is felt
    • (d) the subtle anxiety he feels is the expression of his nervousness
  • (E)[ 5 ]
    • (a) it is uncommon that each of the greeters will play his own role
    • (b) it is unusual that both the guest and the host will behave like that
    • (c) it is very exceptional that neither of the greeters will do a Body-cross
    • (d) it is very rare that both the male and the female take such actions
  • (F)[ 6 ]
    • (a) the guest who arrives later will have serious trouble with the greeter
    • (b) the host who arrives earlier will show the slight fear of encounter
    • (c) the person who comes afterwards will express his respect for the dominant host
    • (d) the person who comes afterwards won't take any actions of Body-cross
  • (G)[ 7 ]
    • (a) He can't cope with the nervousness just by fingering his cuff button
    • (b) He just can't help fingering with his cuff button for fear
    • (c) He just can't press the button feeling some threatening sensation
    • (d) He won't settle the matter just by pressing the button
  • (H)[ 8 ]
    • (a) Since the desk serves as a barrier between the two, he feels totally safe
    • (b) Sitting on the desk, he can see the visitor far down below, which makes him feel secured
    • (c) Thanks to the Barrier Signal, he can hide himself completely from the visitor
    • (d) Wearing the wooden barrier, he feels not physically but psychologically exposed to the visitor
• 問2 ［ 9 ］～［ 18 ］の空所を補うのに最も適切なものを下の(a)～(d)の中からそれぞれ1つ選びマークしなさい。
  • ［ 9 ］
    • (a) flee
    • (b) miss
    • (c) relax
    • (d) wander
  • [ 10 ]
    • (a) despair
    • (b) naughtiness
    • (c) shyness
    • (d) wildness
  • [ 11 ]
    • (a) encounter
    • (b) experiment
    • (c) isolation
    • (d) separation
  • [ 12 ]
    • (a) above
    • (b) behind
    • (c) in front of
    • (d) under
  • [ 13 ]
    • (a) which
    • (b) what
    • (c) when
    • (d) where
  • [ 14 ]
    • (a) evolution
    • (b) horizon
    • (c) occasion
    • (d) succession
  • [ 15 ]
    • (a) because of
    • (b) in spite of
    • (c) instead of
    • (d) on account of
  • [ 16 ]
    • (a) intentionally
    • (b) overtly
    • (c) seriously
    • (d) unconsciously
  • [ 17 ]
    • (a) bright
    • (b) neutral
    • (c) strange
    • (d) tough
  • [ 18 ]
    • (a) accustomed to
    • (b) aware of
    • (c) based on
    • (d) free from
• 問3 下線部(あ)，(い)の( )内の語を文脈に合うように並べかえるとき、3番目と7番目に来る語の組み合わせとして最も適切なものを下の(a)～(d)の中から1つ選びマークしなさい。
  • (あ)[ 19 ] 3番目-7番目
    • (a) is－nervousness
    • (b) moment－is
    • (c) the－a
    • (d) there－peak
  • (い)[ 20 ] 3番目-7番目
    • (a) feel－dominant
    • (b) feel－slightly
    • (c) makes－and
    • (d) makes－more