01Why this question type matters
Questions such as 筆者の考えに合うものはどれか, 筆者が最も言いたいことは何か, and 筆者はどう考えているか appear in nearly every N2 reading block, and they are usually the last question of a medium or long passage. They are also the questions where distractors are most convincing, because each wrong option is typically a sentence that appears in the passage but is not the writer's own position: it is an example, a common view being rejected, or a supporting detail. Finding the opinion is therefore a matter of separating the writer's claim from everything the writer says on the way to it.
02Look at position: the ends of paragraphs and of the text
Japanese expository writing tends to put the main claim late. A typical structure is: introduce a topic or a widely-held view, present a contrasting observation or personal experience, and then state the writer's own conclusion in the final paragraph, frequently in its last one or two sentences. Read the last paragraph carefully even when you are short of time. Within a paragraph, the concluding sentence often restates the point of the paragraph. If the question is about the whole text, the final paragraph outranks everything else; if it is about a particular idea, the end of the paragraph where that idea is developed is the place to look.
03Look at sentence endings: the writer's voice
The writer's own opinion is almost always carried by particular endings. Statements of fact use plain だ・である; opinions use forms that express judgement, necessity or tentative assertion. Learn to notice these as you read and mark the sentences that carry them.
- Judgement and necessity: 〜べきだ, 〜なければならない, 〜必要がある, 〜ことが大切だ, 〜ことが求められる.
- Tentative assertion, very common in essays: 〜のではないだろうか, 〜のではないか, 〜と思われる, 〜と言えるだろう, 〜に違いない.
- Direct statements of thought: 〜と思う, 〜と考える, 私は〜, 筆者は〜.
- Wishes and appeals to the reader: 〜てほしい, 〜たいものだ, 〜ではないか (as an invitation).
- Evaluations: 〜にすぎない, 〜とは限らない, 〜わけではない, which often reject a common view and precede the writer's real claim.
04Look at contrast: what comes after しかし is the point
Writers introduce views they disagree with in order to knock them down. The pattern 一般に〜と言われている。しかし〜 or 確かに〜。だが〜 is a signpost: the first part is the view being rejected, the second part is the writer's own. Similar markers are ところが, とはいえ, それでも, むしろ, and 実は. When a question option quotes the first half of such a contrast, it is a distractor built from the rejected view, and it is wrong even though the words appear in the text.
Watch for concessive clauses too. 〜のは事実だが、〜 grants a point before making the real one. And be careful with 〜という人もいる or 〜と考える人も多い: these attribute a view to other people, which is the writer's way of distancing themselves from it.
05Checking an option against the text
Once you have located the sentences that carry the opinion, compare each option to them, not to the passage as a whole. A correct option paraphrases the writer's claim, often using different words; do not reject it just because the vocabulary differs. A wrong option typically does one of four things: states an example or detail rather than the conclusion; states the rejected view; goes further than the writer did (the writer says 〜ことが多い, the option says 必ず); or reverses a condition or cause. If two options both seem right, the one that is more general and closer to the last paragraph is usually the answer, because the question is asking for the point of the whole piece.
- Find the final paragraph and the ends of key paragraphs.
- Mark sentences with opinion endings such as 〜べきだ and 〜のではないだろうか.
- The clause after しかし, だが, ところが carries the writer's view.
- Reject options built from examples, from rejected views, or from stronger claims than the text makes.
These techniques describe how the test is built and how to use your time and knowledge efficiently. They do not replace study and do not guarantee a particular score.