So I'm working my way through the Kanzen Master N1 book, having used it for all the other levels and, generally, it's a great textbook. It's one flaw is that it never has any explanations for the test questions, unlike the Reading textbook, where it explains why the other answers are incorrect.
So I'm struggling with this question:
渡辺氏はある団体に多額の寄付をしたが、これは特に評価する（ ）と思う。彼には何か政治的意図があるのだ。
１．ほどのことではない ２．ほどには当たらない ３．までのことではない ４．までには当たらない
I answered 2. I answered it pretty quickly and was fairly sure it fit. It's one of those questions where I read the whole thing, understood it fairly easily and had a sense of what was needed. This makes it more annoying than a question where you read it and have no idea. As far as I am aware, the sentence should read something like:
"Although Mr. Watanabe has donated huge amounts to various groups, I think it's not particularly worthy of praise. He has some political intentions."
The answer is obviously 1. Yet the Kanzen Master textbook describes には当たらない as:
それほど大したことではないから～するのは適当ではない
感情的反応や評価が過度にならないように相手を抑制する言い方、感情・評価を表す動詞「驚く・悲観する・避難するなど」につく
I took that to mean:
"It's not a big deal (to that degree)~ so X is not appropriate/unsuitable.
It's way of speaking to restrain\calm\suppress others so they don't have an excessive emotional response or evaluation of something"
Now, it's easier to understand it's use when it's with emotional verbs like 驚く ("there's no need to be surprised") but doesn't they explanation also cover 評価する in terms of "there's no need to admire/praise/evaluate (something to that degree)"?
I asked a Japanese person and she immediately ruled out には当たらない and said it was easy to discount those two answers, but when asked to explain, she said it was difficult and that grammar just didn't feel right.
So I'm at a bit of a loss! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
