JLPT N1 reading practice

～により · Formal, written ～によって for a cause or means: “as a result of the spread of the internet”. Common in essays and academic prose.

～かと思いきや · Says that reality goes against an expectation. The whole long clause, that a utopia has arrived, is the expectation, and 事態はそう単純ではない immediately denies it.

誰もが · “Everyone, without exception”. Unlike 誰も with a negative (“no one”), 誰もが with a positive verb includes everybody.

～ことができる · “Can, be able to”, here inside a clause that describes ユートピア: “a utopia where everyone can learn equally”.

かえって · “On the contrary, instead”. It marks an ironic reversal: the internet was supposed to free people but has made them more obedient.

～ようになっている / ～のだ · ～ようになる describes a gradual change into a new state (“have come to blindly follow”), and the closing のだ presents it as the writer's explanation of what is really going on.

～ばかりを重んじる · ばかり means “nothing but, only” and criticizes a one-sided focus. 重んじる is a literary verb meaning “to value highly”; its opposite is 軽んじる.

Long modifier + noun · Everything from 作品の形態的特質を軽視し to 批評界の describes one noun, 風潮 (“trend”). Seeing where a long modifier like this ends is a core N1 reading skill.

～し、 (linking clauses) · 軽視し is the stem form used to join clauses in formal writing, a more literary 軽視して. It links 軽視する and 重んじる as two sides of the same trend.

～かどうかは～次第だ · かどうか embeds a yes-or-no question (“whether or not”), and 次第だ means “depends on”: whether you agree is up to the reader.

いずれにせよ · A formal “in any case, either way”. It sets the question of agreement aside and moves on to the writer's overall verdict.

～させる + noun · 再考させる is the causative of 再考する, “to make someone reconsider”. Before 一冊 it describes the book: “a book that makes you rethink the essence of art”.