- 会議が終わる予定の時刻はいつですか。
Answer: 午後四時十五分
When a question asks for an ending time, you need to add the duration to the start time — this requires careful mental arithmetic with hours and minutes in a non-decimal system.
The conversation tells you the meeting starts at 午後2時30分 (2:30 PM) and lasts 1時間45分 (1 hour and 45 minutes). To find the end time, add these together step by step:
2:30+1:45=?
First, add the minutes: 30 + 45 = 75 minutes. Since 75 minutes = 1 hour + 15 minutes, carry the extra hour over. Then add the hours: 2 + 1 + 1 (carried) = 4. This gives you 午後4時15分, making B the correct answer.
As for the wrong choices, A (午後3時45分) results from simply adding 1 hour and 15 minutes instead of 1 hour and 45 minutes — a misreading of 四十五 as fifteen. C (午後4時5分) likely comes from adding 30 + 45 = 75, then mistakenly writing 75 as "4:05" rather than properly converting 75 minutes into 1 hour and 15 minutes. D (午後3時55分) seems to come from adding only 1 hour and 25 minutes, perhaps confusing 四十五分 (45 minutes) with 二十五分 (25 minutes).
A useful habit: whenever you add minutes and the total exceeds 60, immediately convert the excess into hours and minutes before writing your answer. This single step prevents most time-calculation errors on Japanese language exams. - お釣りはいくらですか。
Answer: 三百六十円
このような問題では、まずレシートの情報を整理して合計金額を計算し、それをお客様が出した金額から引いてお釣りを求める必要があります。
リンゴは一個120円で3個購入したので、120×3=360円。バナナは一房280円で一房購入したので、280円。合計は360+280=640円。お客様は千円札を一枚出したので、お釣りは1000−640=360円となり、正解はA（三百六十円）です。
間違いの選択肢を見てみましょう。B（三百八十円）は、リンゴの計算を間違えた場合に出る数字です。例えばリンゴを2個分（240円）として計算すると合計620円になり、お釣りが380円になってしまいます。3個という情報を見落とさないように注意しましょう。C（六百円）は、合計640円ではなく400円と誤計算した場合や、バナナ代だけを引いた場合に出る数字で、計算の一部を抜かしてしまうミスです。D（二百八十円）は、バナナの値段（280円）をそのまま選んでしまったもので、問題を最後まで解かずに部分的な数値を答えにしてしまう典型的なひっかけです。
音声読み上げ形式の問題では、数量と単価を混同しやすいです。聞きながら「品物・単価・個数」をメモする習慣をつけると正確に計算できます。 - 十一月の第三火曜日は十一月十九日です。来月（十二月）の第二月曜日は何日ですか。
Answer: 十二月九日
Calendar problems like this require you to carefully reconstruct a month's structure from scratch. The key skill is finding the correct weekday occurrences by first identifying what day the 1st falls on.
Since November 19 is the third Tuesday, you can work backwards: the second Tuesday was November 12, and the first Tuesday was November 5. That means November 1 was a Friday (5 days before Tuesday the 5th). November has 30 days, so November 30 is a Saturday. Therefore, December 1 is a Sunday.
From there, build December's calendar:
- December 1 = Sunday
- December 2 = Monday (1st Monday)
- December 9 = Monday (2nd Monday) ✓
So the second Monday in December is December 9, making D the correct answer.
Now let's examine the traps. B (December 2) is the first Monday, not the second — a classic off-by-one error that happens when you forget to count which occurrence you're on. A (December 10) would be a Tuesday, not a Monday at all — this comes from miscounting December 1 as a Monday instead of a Sunday. C (December 16) is the third Monday, so this error comes from counting one occurrence too many.
As a strategy, whenever you solve "nth weekday" problems, always anchor yourself by identifying what day the 1st of the month falls on first. Then simply count forward in 7-day intervals. Rushing to count without this anchor is exactly what leads to the off-by-one mistakes seen in the wrong choices here.
- 鈴木さんが今日支払う金額はいくらですか。
Answer: 一万二千円
This question tests your ability to extract numerical information from a conversation and perform a multi-step calculation — a common skill in Japanese reading comprehension.
Start by identifying the key facts from the receptionist's speech. The rate is 一万二千円 per person (お一人様一万二千円), and there are two guests (お二人様). This means the total cost for one night is 12,000×2=24,000 円. However, the receptionist says that today only a half-payment in advance is required (半額の前払い). So Suzuki pays 24,000÷2=12,000 円 today — making C (一万二千円) the correct answer.
As for the wrong answers: A (二万四千円) represents the full total for two people — a tempting choice if you forget the 半額 condition. B (六千円) is half the per-person rate only, ignoring that there are two guests. D (一万八千円) doesn't correspond to any logical step in the calculation — it may trip up students who miscombine numbers from the passage.
A useful strategy here is to underline or mentally note every number and condition as you read: price per unit, number of units, and any modifiers like 半額 (half), 全額 (full), or 割引 (discount). Japanese hotel or reservation dialogues frequently test whether you can chain multiple numerical conditions together rather than simply copy one number from the text. - 六人分を作るとき、砂糖は大さじ何杯と小さじ何杯必要ですか。（大さじ一杯は小さじ三杯分です）
Answer: 大さじ三杯と小さじ一杯半
このような問題では、レシピのスケールアップを正確に計算し、さらに単位を変換する必要があります。大さじと小さじの関係（大さじ1杯＝小さじ3杯）を使いこなすことがポイントです。
まず、4人分の砂糖をすべて小さじに統一します。大さじ2杯は小さじ6杯分なので、合計は小さじ 6 + 1 = 7杯 です。
次に、6人分に増やす倍率を計算します：
46=1.5
小さじ7杯 × 1.5 = 小さじ10.5杯 が6人分に必要な量です。
最後に、これを大さじと小さじに戻します。大さじ1杯＝小さじ3杯なので：
10.5÷3=3 余り 1.5
つまり、大さじ3杯と小さじ1.5杯となり、これが選択肢Dです。
各誤答を確認しましょう。Aの「大さじ4杯と小さじ1杯」は倍率を1.5ではなく2倍（8人分）で計算してしまった誤りです。Bの「大さじ3杯と小さじ2杯」は小さじの余りを1.5ではなく2と誤って丸めています。Cの「大さじ2杯と小さじ2杯」は元の4人分の量とほぼ同じで、スケールアップの計算自体を忘れています。
このタイプの問題では、まずすべての単位を小さじに統一してから計算し、最後に元の単位に戻すという手順を守ることで、変換ミスを防げます。 - 第二部が始まる時刻はいつですか。
Answer: 午後七時四十五分
This question tests your ability to track time calculations across multiple conditions in a Japanese listening/reading passage — a common challenge in language exams where numbers and sequence words stack up quickly.
Start by finding the actual start time. The concert was scheduled for 7:00 PM (七時), but it was moved 30 minutes earlier (三十分繰り上げ). 「繰り上げ」means to advance or move up, so the new start time is 6:30 PM (午後六時三十分).
Now calculate the intermission (休憩). It begins one hour after opening (開演から一時間後), so: 6:30 + 1:00 = 7:30 PM. The intermission lasts 15 minutes (十五分間), ending at 7:45 PM. The passage then says 第二部 begins immediately after (すぐに) the intermission ends — making 7:45 PM (午後七時四十五分) the correct answer. That confirms A.
As for the wrong choices: B (8:00 PM) is what you'd get if you forgot the 30-minute advance and calculated from the original 7:00 PM start. C (7:30 PM) is the moment the intermission begins, not when Part 2 starts — a classic confusion between two sequential events. D (8:15 PM) likely results from starting at 7:00 PM and adding the full 1 hour 15 minutes without accounting for the schedule change.
When a passage contains schedule changes, always update your baseline time first before doing any further calculations. Draw a small timeline on scratch paper to avoid mixing up sequential events.
- 客は合計いくら払いますか。
Answer: 一万千九百円
When you see a shopping or pricing question in Japanese, the key skill is combining discount vocabulary with multiplication. Here, 三割引き means a 30% discount — 割 (わり) represents units of 10%, so 三割 = 30%. That means the customer pays 70% of the original price.
Let's work through it step by step. The 定価 (list price) is ¥8,500. After a 30% discount, each sweater costs:
8500×0.7=5950 円
The customer says 二枚買います — they're buying two sweaters, so the total is:
5950×2=11900 円=一万千九百円
That confirms B is correct.
As for the wrong answers: A (五千九百五十円) is the price of just one sweater after the discount — a classic trap if you forget the customer said 二枚. C (一万七千円) comes from doubling the original full price (¥8,500 × 2 = ¥17,000) and ignoring the discount entirely. D (一万二千五百円) appears to come from taking ¥8,500 × 1.5, confusing a discount with a markup, or misreading 三割引き as something else.
For your strategy: always parse discount problems in two stages — first calculate the discounted unit price, then apply the quantity. Also, drill the 割 system: 一割 = 10%, 二割 = 20%, 三割 = 30%, and so on. It appears frequently in everyday Japanese commerce contexts. - 急行電車と各駅停車、どちらが先に発車しますか。また、その電車は何時何分に発車しますか。
Answer: 急行電車が先で、十五時五分に発車する
This question tests your ability to extract and calculate time information from a real-life announcement, a common listening/reading skill on Japanese exams. When you see announcements involving delays, always identify the original scheduled time and the delay amount separately before drawing conclusions.
The announcement tells you two things: the 急行電車 (express train) was scheduled to depart at 14:45, but is running 20 minutes late — meaning its new departure time is 14:45 + 20 minutes = 15:05. The 各駅停車 (local train) departs as scheduled at 15:10. Since 15:05 comes before 15:10, the express train departs first. This makes C the correct answer: 急行電車が先で、十五時五分に発車する。
Choice A says the express departs at 14:55, which would only be correct if the delay were 10 minutes rather than 20 — a careless arithmetic error. Choice B claims the local train departs first at 15:10, which ignores the fact that the delayed express (15:05) still arrives before that time. Choice D says both trains depart simultaneously at 15:05, misreading the local train's scheduled time of 15:10 as 15:05.
A useful strategy: in Japanese announcements, watch for the phrase 〜遅れております (running late by ~). Always add the delay to the original time explicitly — don't try to calculate it mentally on the fly. Writing out the new time prevents the small arithmetic mistakes that traps like choice A are designed to catch.
