General Knowledge 1: Humanities, Social Studies, Science and Current Affairs

The person coming is the principal, so you use the respectful form irassharu, which elevates that person. Mairu is a courteous humble form (謙譲語Ⅱ, 丁重語) for describing your own side's actions politely to the listener, so it is not used for someone you should elevate. Ukagau is a humble form (謙譲語Ⅰ) that elevates the person you go toward, again used for your own side. Omie ni narareru stacks the passive-style honorific -rareru on omie ni naru, a double honorific that is generally considered inappropriate.

Mairu politely presents the speaker's own action to the listener, which makes it humble form II (courteous form). It does not elevate the destination, Osaka, which is the difference from humble form I (e.g. ukagau), which elevates the person you go toward. The respectful form elevates the actions of the listener or a third party, so it is not used for your own business trip. The beautifying form refers to words such as osake and oryōri that present things in a refined way; the verb mairu is not one of them.

Inside or at the end of a word, は・ひ・ふ・へ・ほ become わ・い・う・え・お, so いふ becomes いう and あはれ becomes あわれ. てふ first becomes てう, and the "eu" sound is read as "yō", giving ちょう. The set that keeps the historical spellings has not been converted. てうてう stops halfway. The set that keeps あはれ fails to change the medial は to わ.

The re mark (レ点) means you read the character immediately below first and then return upward, so 書 is read first and then 読: "書を読む". "読みて書く" reads straight down and treats 書 as a verb, ignoring the mark. "読書す" reads the pair as a Sino-Japanese compound and is not a kundoku reading. "書きて読む" reverses both the order and the meaning.

The Pillow Book is an essay collection by Sei Shōnagon that opens with "In spring, the dawn". Essays in Idleness was written by Kenkō (兼好法師); Kamo no Chōmei wrote Hōjōki (方丈記). The Narrow Road to the Deep North is Matsuo Bashō's haikai travel journal; Kobayashi Issa was a different, later Edo-period haiku poet. The Tale of Genji was written by Murasaki Shikibu; Izumi Shikibu was a poet of the same era.

The Kokin Wakashū was compiled in the Heian period by imperial order as the first imperial anthology (勅撰和歌集), with Ki no Tsurayuki among the compilers. The oldest surviving anthology linked to Ōtomo no Yakamochi is the Man'yōshū. The anthology compiled by Fujiwara no Teika and others in the Kamakura period is the Shin Kokin Wakashū. Matsuo Bashō was an Edo-period haikai poet with no connection to imperial waka anthologies.

Repeating the same words for emphasis is repetition. Inversion changes the normal word order, as in "Let's go, to tomorrow's sea". Ending on a noun closes a sentence with a noun to leave a lingering effect. Figurative comparison likens one thing to another, as in "white like snow". All four are techniques taught in the first year of junior high school.

Grade 6 aims for students to "understand history broadly through key events in our country's history, and understand the achievements of related predecessors and outstanding cultural heritage", so it centers on people and heritage. The junior high history field aims to "understand the major flow of our country's history against the background of world history, based on the features of each period". Ancient world civilizations are taught in junior high, and junior high is not limited to local history. No reverse-chronological order is prescribed. Japanese history is taught in grade 6 of elementary school.

In 645 Prince Naka no Ōe and Nakatomi no Kamatari overthrew the Soga clan and began the Taika Reform. 710 is the move to Heijō-kyō; the move to Heian-kyō was in 794, and Prince Shōtoku lived before the Taika Reform. The Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji was ordered by Emperor Shōmu; Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyō. The Taihō Code dates from 701, while Fujiwara no Michinaga was the central figure of regency politics in the mid-Heian period.

The Golden Pavilion was built in Kitayama by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun. The Silver Pavilion was built in Higashiyama by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun. Ashikaga Takauji founded the Muromachi shogunate as its first shogun and did not build the Silver Pavilion. Swapping the two shoguns between the pavilions is a common mix-up.

Alternate attendance required daimyō to travel between their domains and Edo, in principle every other year, while their wives and children lived in Edo; it was formalized in the Laws for the Military Houses (武家諸法度) under the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. It was not a system of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's time. It applied to daimyō, not farmers. The Meiji government's abolition of domains (廃藩置県, 1871) belongs to a different era.

The Constitution of the Empire of Japan was promulgated in 1889. It was granted by the emperor to the people (欽定憲法), sovereignty lay with the emperor, and the Imperial Diet had two houses, the House of Peers and the House of Representatives. It did not place sovereignty with the people, and the Diet was not unicameral. The constitution promulgated in 1946 that makes the emperor a symbol and provides for renouncing war and respecting fundamental human rights is the Constitution of Japan.

Treaty revision happened in two stages. In 1894, under Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, consular jurisdiction (extraterritoriality) was abolished; in 1911, under Foreign Minister Komura Jutarō, tariff autonomy was fully restored. Swapping the people and the achievements is wrong. The abolition of domains was a domestic reform, separate from treaty revision. The peace treaty after the Russo-Japanese War was with Russia and did not revise the unequal treaties with Western countries all at once.

The Constitution of Japan took effect in 1947, the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed in 1951, Japan joined the United Nations in 1956, and the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were held in 1964. The peace treaty came after the constitution took effect, so orders starting with the treaty are wrong. Japan joined the UN in 1956, after regaining independence through the peace treaty, so orders that put UN membership before the treaty are also wrong.

Every 15 degrees of longitude makes a one-hour difference, so the gap is 135 ÷ 15 = 9 hours. Japan lies east of London and is ahead, so London is 9 hours behind Tokyo. Going back 9 hours from 10:00 a.m. gives 1:00 a.m. on the same day. 7:00 p.m. comes from adding 9 hours by mistake. The options that shift the date change the day even though the calculation does not cross midnight.

Japan's northernmost point is Etorofu Island, the easternmost is Minamitorishima, the southernmost is Okinotorishima and the westernmost is Yonaguni Island. Swapping Yonaguni and Minamitorishima between east and west is wrong. Hateruma is close to Japan's southern edge among inhabited islands, but the southernmost island is Okinotorishima. Okinotorishima and Minamitorishima both belong to Tokyo, but Minamitorishima is the easternmost and Okinotorishima the southernmost, so swapping them is wrong.

Actual distance = map distance × scale denominator, so 3 cm × 50,000 = 150,000 cm = 1,500 m = 1.5 km. 15 km is off by one decimal place. 150 m is off by one place in the other direction. 0.6 km results from dividing instead of multiplying, such as dividing 3 by 5.

Where a river leaves the mountains its flow slows and sediment piles up in a fan shape, forming an alluvial fan; its good drainage makes it suitable for orchards. A delta is low land formed by fine sediment near a river mouth, a different location. A ria coast is an indented coastline formed when mountains sink and the sea floods the valleys. A plateau or terrace is flat land standing higher than its surroundings, not a fan of river sediment.

The civics field says students should understand "that the Constitution of Japan takes respect for fundamental human rights, popular sovereignty and pacifism as its basic principles". Separation of powers, local autonomy, the parliamentary cabinet system and the rule of law are all important ideas in the constitution and democratic politics, but they are not the three basic principles presented there. The emperor's status is handled as a separate item.

Under Article 45, members of the House of Representatives serve 4 years, ending early if the house is dissolved. Under Article 46, members of the House of Councillors serve 6 years, and half are elected every 3 years. Swapping the two houses is wrong. The House of Councillors cannot be dissolved, so options giving both houses 4 years or allowing the House of Councillors to be dissolved are wrong.

Under Article 59, a bill passed by the House of Representatives on which the House of Councillors makes a different decision becomes law when the House of Representatives passes it again by two-thirds or more of the members present. A simple majority of all members is not enough. Making laws is the Diet's role (Article 41), so a Cabinet decision alone cannot create a law. A national referendum is the procedure for amending the constitution (Article 96), not for bills.

Under Article 96, an amendment is initiated by the Diet with the approval of two-thirds or more of all members of each house and must win a majority in a national referendum. The initiation threshold is not a majority of members present, and the referendum threshold is a majority, not two-thirds. The Diet, not the Cabinet, initiates amendments. The emperor promulgates an approved amendment in the name of the people, but the referendum cannot be skipped.

Under Article 9 of the Public Offices Election Act, Japanese nationals aged 18 or over may vote for members of both houses (the age was lowered from 20 in June 2016). Age 20 is the pre-reform standard. Under Article 10, candidates must be at least 25 for the House of Representatives and at least 30 for the House of Councillors, so 18-year-olds cannot run. Voting rights in national elections are limited to Japanese nationals.

The yen needed to buy one dollar fell from 150 to 120, so the yen's value rose: a strong yen (円高). With a strong yen, imports and overseas travel become cheaper in yen terms, while Japanese products become more expensive in dollars, which tends to hurt exporters. Reading the smaller number as a weak yen is a common mistake. The option saying a strong yen helps exporters and makes travel expensive has the effects reversed.

Under Article 23 of the UN Charter, the Security Council has 15 members, with five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia (which took over the Soviet Union's seat) and China. Under Article 27, decisions on substantive matters require the concurring votes of the permanent members, which is called the veto. The body made up of all member states is the General Assembly. Only permanent members have a veto; non-permanent members (two-year terms) do not. Japan is not a permanent member.

The SDGs were set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the UN summit in September 2015; they consist of 17 goals and 169 targets with a 2030 deadline. The 8 goals adopted in 2000 with a 2015 deadline were the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). The SDGs are universal and apply to all countries, including developed ones. The option that swaps the numbers of goals and targets and sets 2050 as the deadline is wrong.

The Refugee Convention defines a refugee as a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside their country of nationality and cannot or does not wish to receive its protection. People who migrate solely for economic reasons are not refugees under the Convention. People who stay within their own country are called internally displaced persons and are distinguished from Convention refugees. Permanent residence is a matter of residence status, unrelated to the refugee definition. Japan acceded to the Convention in 1981.

"Up X% year on year" describes a rate of change; without the original numbers, you cannot compare how many people were added. For example, if Town A went from 100 to 150 (an increase of 50) and City B from 10,000 to 11,000 (an increase of 1,000), City B gained more people. A higher growth rate does not mean a larger number. The share of the total population cannot be calculated without total population data, and the ratio of growth rates does not make it five times larger.

By Ohm's law, voltage = resistance × current = 20 × 0.3 = 6 V. Power = voltage × current = 6 × 0.3 = 1.8 W. 18 W misplaces the decimal point. 60 V misplaces the digit in the voltage calculation. 0.015 V comes from dividing current by resistance (I ÷ R), a mix-up of the formula.

Density = mass ÷ volume = 54 ÷ 20 = 2.7 g/cm³. This is greater than water's density (about 1 g/cm³), so it sinks. Saying it floats at 2.7 g/cm³ reverses the relationship between density and floating. 0.37 g/cm³ comes from dividing volume by mass. 1080 is mass multiplied by volume, which is not how density is calculated.

Neutralization is a reaction in which an acid and an alkali cancel each other's properties, forming water and a salt; hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide solution form sodium chloride and water. Even when neutralization occurs, the solution stays acidic or alkaline if one side is in excess, so "always neutral" is wrong. BTB is yellow in acid, green when neutral and blue in alkali, so the colors are reversed. Neutralization produces water and a salt; oxygen and hydrogen are produced by the electrolysis of water.

The total mass of the substances involved does not change before and after a chemical change (the law of conservation of mass). In a sealed container, the carbon dioxide produced stays inside, so the total mass stays the same. Producing a gas does not add any new matter from outside, so the mass does not increase. Opening the lid lets the gas escape and makes it lighter, but while sealed it does not decrease. The law holds for every chemical change.

Organic matter contains carbon and produces carbon dioxide when burned; plastics are organic substances (polymers) made artificially, mainly from petroleum. Plastics are not metals, and most conduct electricity poorly. "Containing no carbon" is closer to describing inorganic matter, not organic matter. Plastics differ in density by type, and some, such as polypropylene, float, so "all sink" is wrong.

Photosynthesis uses light energy in chloroplasts to make nutrients such as starch from carbon dioxide and water, releasing oxygen. It needs light, so it does not happen at night, and it takes in rather than releases carbon dioxide. Plants respire day and night; in daytime photosynthesis is more active, so overall they appear to release oxygen. Photosynthesis takes place mainly in chloroplasts in leaves, and root cells normally have no chloroplasts.

Amylase in saliva breaks down starch. Pepsin in gastric juice breaks down protein, not fat. Lipase is an enzyme that breaks down fat, and pancreatic juice also contains amylase and trypsin. Bile is made in the liver and contains no digestive enzymes, but it helps fat digestion.

By the law of segregation, each Aa parent produces reproductive cells carrying either A or a. Crossing them gives offspring genotypes AA : Aa : aa = 1 : 2 : 1. AA and Aa are round and aa is wrinkled, so round : wrinkled = 3 : 1. 1 : 1 is the ratio for an Aa × aa cross. 1 : 2 : 1 is the genotype ratio, not the shape ratio. All round results from crossing AA with aa.

Granite is a plutonic rock that cooled slowly deep underground, letting crystals grow large into an equigranular texture. Calling granite volcanic is wrong. Basalt is a volcanic rock that cooled quickly near the surface and has a porphyritic texture of phenocrysts and groundmass. The difference in texture between volcanic and plutonic rocks comes from how fast they cool, so "the same regardless of cooling" is wrong.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (気象庁) intensity scale has 10 levels: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-lower, 5-upper, 6-lower, 6-upper and 7. Magnitude expresses the size (energy) of an earthquake; each increase of 1 means about 32 times more energy, and an increase of 2 means 1,000 times. The intensity scale does not run from 1 to 10. Intensity is the strength of shaking at each location, so a single earthquake has different intensities in different places. Magnitude expresses the size of the earthquake; it is intensity that varies by location.

At a cold front, cold air pushes under the warm air and lifts it sharply, forming cumulonimbus clouds and bringing heavy rain for a short time. Afterward the area is covered by cold air, so the wind shifts to the north and the temperature drops. Gentle, long-lasting rain over a wide area followed by warming is the pattern of a warm front. Temperature and wind direction normally change when a front passes. A southerly wind and rising temperature after passage is the opposite of a cold front.

Venus orbits inside Earth's orbit and, seen from Earth, never strays far from the Sun, so it is not visible at midnight. It appears in the eastern sky before dawn (the "morning star") or the western sky in the evening (the "evening star"). Calling it an outer planet is wrong. Venus is not a star but a planet that shines by reflecting sunlight, and through a telescope it shows phases. It orbits the Sun, not Earth, so it does not cycle through phases in about a month like the Moon.