正文精彩页<br>第二节 SAT 阅读考试误区<br>一、阅读理解可有可无<br>很多考生认为自己的数学和语法成绩都不错，所以只要写作上了700 分，数学争取800 分，阅读理解稍加复习就能使总分达到2 000 分左右。这是非常错误的想法。因为很多美国大学在录取新生时专门要求查看阅读理解部分的成绩，甚至还有很多大学（特别是某些文理学院）根本不查看写作部分的成绩，而主要查看考生阅读和数学部分的成绩（这也是为什么2005 年之前的老SAT 考试只考这两部分的原因）。另外，随着申请美国大学的中国学生与日俱增，美国高校越来越多地了解中国高中生的数学水平（考满分是家常便饭），因此阅读部分很有可能成为他们在招收中国考生时对SAT 考试的唯一衡量标准。<br>二、爱词就会赢<br>大多数考生将SAT 阅读成绩和词汇量之间画等号，这是一种错误的想法。虽然SAT考试中所涉及的学术词汇很多，但并不意味着只要考生掌握了20 000 的词汇量就可以取得高分。SAT 的阅读理解并不是简单的识别词汇的过程，而主要考查的是学生逻辑思考的紧密性和对较深文章的理解能力，单词虽然重要，但只是一个基础，花大部分复习时间去背单词是很不明智的。此外，在SAT 阅读考试中，经常会考查“熟词僻义”的情况。如“entertain”，“harbor”这些单词反复考查过，大多数考生认为是“娱乐”，“海港”的意思，而考试中的含义则是“持有（某种观点）”。对于这些高频考试词汇，考生需要格外注意。<br>三、过度重视背景知识<br>SAT 阅读文章的题材可谓五花八门，几乎无所不包。比如属于自然科学范畴的：有谈各种动植物的，有关于宇宙科学的，有阐述科学方法论的，还有讨论人体科学及人类心理的；属于人文范畴的：有艺术评论、考古、社会文化、哲学、人物评论、社会现象评论、个人情感与生活经历、移民问题等10 多种题材。如果要求考生把所有题材的背景知识都补充一下，显然是不现实的。阅读只是SAT 考试的一种形式，出题者的目的并不是考查考生的知识面有多宽，读的书有多少，而是对阅读能力的测验。当然，多读书可以提高能力，但这需要时间，想通过多读书在短时间内提高做题能力是不现实的，也不可能取得高分。<br>四、必须读懂全部内容<br>多数考生在阅读中不能让自己有任何的模糊存在，因此就会一味地追求逐字逐句的阅读和理解。一旦出现生词过多或者长难句过多的情况，就会很难适应甚至是选择放弃。我们一定要明确一点：SAT 阅读考试不可能没有生词，连土生土长的美国人都会有很多的内容无法读懂。很多考生喜欢对长难句进行语法结构分析，殊不知在有限的考试时间内根本不允许考生做这些荒唐的事情。考生需要根据文章后的题目进行精略结合的阅读，把握文章的大致方向，而不可以逐字逐句地阅读。<br>五、过分依赖考试技巧<br>考生掌握一定的考试技巧，有助于提高做题效率，比如有效的略读、跳读技能可以帮助考生节省大量的阅读时间，对各种题型的熟悉也可以在很大程度上提高考生的做题速度。但很多考生在备考阅读时，不是希望通过不断地练习提升自己的阅读速度和理解力，从而提升做题的准确率，而总是假定自己的词汇量不够、阅读理解能力不高，单纯依靠技巧而不背单词，不做练习，在这种情况下是无法考出高分的。<br><br><br><br><br><br>第三节 SAT 阅读正确选项特征<br>要在SAT 阅读考试的五个选项中选中正确的答案并不是一件容易的事，这不仅仅因为它混在其他四个干扰项中，而且还在于正确选项的形式是多种多样的。正确选项往往以与文章相关的内容不同的词、不同的结构、不同的语义关系表现出来，尽管意思一致，但语言形式有时候相差很大。根据正确答案的性质和特点，我们可把正确选项分成三大类。<br>一、正确选项与原文发生同义替换( 词性替换，同义词组替换)<br>【例1】<br>The whole of Africa lies before me and I have no plan, no itinerary. It might be better if I were searching for some three-legged zebra, for at least I would know when I found it. Without a plan, without a goal, a traveler is at the mercy of the road. Traveling overland is not like traveling on a river. The river has a beginning. It has an end. The path, though not straight, is defined. Not so traveling overland. The prospects, like the possibilities and promises of life, are endless and varied and arbitrary.<br>The most significant difference between traveling on a river and traveling overland<br>is that<br>(A) rivers follow an unambiguous path.<br>(B) rivers offer a faster means of traveling.<br>(C) river travel requires careful planning.<br>(D) overland travel requires no special equipment.<br>(E) overland travel can occur in a straight line.<br>选项A 中的unambiguous 与原文的defined 发生同义替换，正确选项为A。<br>【例2】<br>Laboratory research is at the heart of scientific life; scientists’ real work consists of testing out ideas that come to them as they ponder the mysteries of the world around them. A natural biologist walks through a city park or across a suburban lawn and is half-consciously wondering: Why two leave instead of three? Why pink flowers instead of white? Such rumination goes without end in a scientist’s mind, a continuous accompaniment to the rhythm of daily life. Whatever a scientist is doing—reading, cooking, talking, playing—science thoughts are always there at the edge of the mind. They are the way the world is taken in; all that is seen is filtered through an ever-present scientific musing.<br>The author indicates that the process of “rumination” is<br>(A) subjective.<br>(B) vexatious.<br>(C) incessant.<br>(D) innovative.<br>(E) futile.<br>选项C 中的incessant 与原文的without end, continuous 发生同义替换，正确选项为C。<br>二、正确选项与原文发生句式和表达方式的替换<br>【例】<br>Laboratory research is at the heart of scientific life: scientists’ real work consists of testing out ideas that come to them as they ponder the mysteries of the world around them. …<br>In line 1, the author characterizes “Laboratory research” as something that is<br>(A) fundamental.<br>(B) ambitious.<br>(C) challenging.<br>(D) time-consuming.<br>(E) well regarded.<br>选项A 中的fundamental 与原文的at the heart of scientific life 发生表达方式的替换，正确选项为A。<br>三、正确选项与原文发生“取反”关系的替换<br>【例1】<br>By journey’s end, I will not be the man I am today. Africa will have changed me in ways I cannot predict, perhaps in ways profound, perhaps only superficial. Perhaps I will lose a few pounds, perhaps the arrogance in my walk. Perhaps my walk, even my way of looking at things, will be a little more African. But for now, I am different. I am not one of these: Africans. Not yet, and may not ever be. The color of my skin says that I could be Algerian or Senegalese or from Chad. But the Tunisian eyes that watch me can see that I at least am not from Tunisia. They know I am not one of them, but they do not know where I come from.<br>In Lines 1~4 (“By...different”), the author implies that, compared to himself, Africans typically<br>(A) are less conscious of people’s nationalities.<br>(B) travel with less advance planning.<br>(C) walks more modestly.<br>(D) dress more colorfully.<br>(E) speak more effusively.<br>原文画线部分表明“非洲旅行结束后，我可能会失去高傲的走路方式”，可以推出“非洲人走路方式比较谦卑”，因此正确选项为C，选项与原文是“取反”关系。<br>【例2】<br>It is now established that the Milky Way is far more extended and of much greater mass than was hitherto thought. However, all that is visible of the constituents of the Milky Way’s corona (outer edge), where much of the galaxy’s mass must be located, is a tiny fraction of the corona’s mass. Thus, most of the Milky Way’s outlying matter must be dark.<br>It can be inferred from the passage that, compared with what they now think, until fairly recently astronomers believed that the Milky Way<br>(A) was much darker.<br>(B) was much smaller.<br>(C) was moving much more slowly.<br>(D) had a much larger corona.<br>(E) had much less gaseous matter.<br>原文画线部分表明“银河系比我们之前想象的要更大”，可以推出“之前我们认为银河系不是很大”，因此正确选项为B，选项与原文是“取反”关系。<br>四、选项类似原则<br>在5 个备选项中，如果其中两个选项的开头部分相同，正确答案通常在这两个选项中挑选。<br>【例1】<br>In line 26, the quotation marks around the word “normal” serve to<br>(A) emphasize the individuality of the author’s writing.<br>(B) criticize the human obsession with time.<br>(C) emphasize the limitation of a point of view.<br>(D) demonstrate the author’s agreement with the common use of the word.<br>(E) indicate that this word would be stressed if it were spoken out loud.<br>上面的例子选自The Official SAT Study Guide 592 页的19 题，A 选项和C 选项的开头都是emphasize，正确答案应在A 和C 中选择。<br>【例2】<br>Which of the following assertions detracts LEAST from the author’s argument in the second paragraph (lines 25~42)?<br>(A) Many people work at night and sleep during the day.<br>(B) Owls, which hunt at night, do not arouse our fear.<br>(C) Most dangerous predators hunt during the day.<br>(D) Some cultures associate bats with positive qualities.<br>(E) Some dream imagery has its source in the dreamer’s personal life.<br>上面的例子选自The Official SAT Study Guide 592 页的20 题，D 选项和E 选项的开头都是some，正确答案应在D 和E 中选择。<br><br><br><br>第四节 SAT 阅读错误选项特征<br>如果考生无法寻找出正确选项，可以通过排除错误选项解题。错误选项通常具有以下特征。<br>一、含有极端词汇的选项通常为错误选项常见的极端词汇如下：<br>most<br>all, anyone, anything, any<br>everything, everyone<br>only, exclusively, solely<br>few, little, seldom, rarely, hardly<br>never, by all means, by no means, on no account, under no circumstances<br>totally, utterly, completely, entirely, absolutely<br>overly, excessively, extremely<br>二、含有极端态度词的选项通常为错误选项常见的极端态度词如下：<br>迷惑：baffle, bewilder, confuse, puzzle<br>嫉妒：begrudge, cynicism, envious<br>傲慢：arrogant, haughty, insolent<br>古怪：capricious, whimsical<br>贪婪：greedy, grasping, ravenous<br>冷漠：apathetic, indifferent, nonchalant, unsympathetic<br>发怒：indignation, outrage, rage, wrath<br>其他：attack, hostile, resigned, resentment<br>三、 含有随意比较的选项通常为错误选项<br>若备选项中A 与B 发生比较关系，原文中虽提及A 和B，但是没有比较，该选项通常为错误选项。<br>A is superior to B<br>A is as … as B<br>A is more/better/adj.+er than B<br>【例】<br>From the earliest times, the complications inherent in deciphering the movements of planets in the night sky must have seemed a curse to baffled astronomers. In the long run, though, they proved a blessing to the development of cosmology, the study of the physical universe. Had the celestial motions been simple, it might have been possible to explain them solely in terms of the simple, poetic tales that had characterized the early cosmologies. Instead, these motions proved to be so intricate and subtle that astronomers could not predict them accurately without eventually coming to terms with the physical reality of how and where the Sun, Moon, and the planets actually move in real, three-dimensional space.<br>The passage indicates that ancient astronomers were “baffled” (line 2) because<br>(A) their observations disproved the poetic tales of early cosmologies.<br>(B) they lacked the mathematical sophistication needed to calculate astronomical distances.<br>(C) they did not properly distinguish between astronomy and cosmology.<br>(D) their theories of planetary movements were more complicated than the movements themselves.<br>(E) they could not reliably predict observable celestial phenomena.<br>选项D 中theories of planetary movements 和movements themselves 是比较关系，而原文没有提到这种比较关系，因此D 选项错误。正确选项为E。<br>四、含有原文没有提及的内容的选项通常为错误选项<br>【例】<br>In speaking of “animal happiness,” we often tend to mean something like “creature comforts.” The emblems of this are the golden retriever rolling in the grass, the horse with his nose deep in the oats, kitty by the fire. Creature comforts are important to animals: “Grub first, then ethics” is a motto that would describe many a wise Labrador retriever, and I have a bull terrier named Annie whose continual quest for the perfect pillow inspires her to awesome feats.<br>The motto in the passage indicates that animals<br>(A) are much more intelligent than many people believe.<br>(B) have been forced to develop keen survival skills.<br>(C) desire consistency in their daily lives.<br>(D) enjoy close relationships with human beings.<br>(E) are concerned primarily with immediate physical gratification.<br>B 选项中的survival skills，C 选项中的desire consistency 和D 选项中的close relationships with human beings 在原文中均没有提到，因此B、C、D 均为错误选项。A选项中提出“动物比人想象的更加聪明(more intelligent)”，根据前面所讲的第三条原则，原文没有提到的比较关系为错误选项。正确选项为E，该选项中的gratification 与原文的comforts 发生同义词替换。<br><br>
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