GRE考試閱讀部分各項技能分析

學(xué)生必須首先認清，GRE的閱讀考試不同于我們過去所經(jīng)歷的各種閱讀考試，無論是中文或英文在K12階段的語言考試，還是大學(xué)之后可能經(jīng)歷的4、6級閱讀考試，抑或是TOEFL以及IELTS當中的閱讀考試。GRE閱讀所測試的能力決定了我們必須以不同的閱讀策略切入，拋棄我們所固有的，已經(jīng)習(xí)以為常的閱讀習(xí)慣。那么，要做到這一點，我們就必須首先弄清楚GRE閱讀考試所考察的能力重點。

以下摘自GRE官方指南： 我要在線咨詢

Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test a wide range of abilities required to read and understand the kinds of prose commonly encountered in graduate school. Those abilities include:

understanding the meaning of individual words

understanding the meaning of individual sentences

understanding the meaning of paragraphs and larger bodies of text

distinguishing between minor and major points

summarizing a passage

drawing conclusions from the information provided

reasoning from incomplete data, inferring missing information

understanding the structure of a text, how the parts relate to one another

identifying the author’s perspective

identifying the author’s assumptions

analyzing a text and reaching conclusions about it

identifying strengths and weaknesses

developing and considering alternative explanations

簡單復(fù)述一下能力列表，各項能力分別包含：

1. 理解詞義

2. 理解句意

3. 理解段落及篇章的意義

4. 區(qū)分細節(jié)與主旨

5. 概括段落

6. 從已有信息當中推出結(jié)論

7. 從已有信息當中推出缺失信息

8. 理解文章結(jié)構(gòu)和各部分之間關(guān)系

9. 判斷作者的視角

10. 判斷作者的假設(shè)

11. 從文本中得出結(jié)論

12. 判斷論證的優(yōu)點與缺陷

13. 尋找可能的解釋  我要在線咨詢

那么，我們逐條考察一下各能力在GRE閱讀考試當中的呈現(xiàn)方式，希望能夠幫助讀者迅速理解這項考試的策略，并尋找合適的應(yīng)對方案。

能力1顯然會出現(xiàn)在詞匯題當中。與很多同學(xué)可能熟悉的TOEFL詞匯題不同，我們都知道TOEFL詞匯題的做法是不帶回原文直接選詞義，更多考察的是詞匯量本身，而不是詞匯在語境中的含義;GRE的詞匯題更需要大家能夠根據(jù)上下文推斷詞義。比如：

A critical consensus has emerged that Mary McCarthy will be remembered primarily as an essayist rather than as a novelist. But despite her formidable gifts as a polemical and discursive writer, and for all her reputation as an intellectual who sacrificed feeling to intelligence, what powers McCarthy’s best essays are her fictional rather than strictly intellectual gifts. She makes her points by telling stories or by way of vivid description, arresting images and subtle characterization. And for all her exacting sense of fact, McCarthy’s greatest contribution was to blur the distinctions between different kinds of prose writing: to show how fiction could be opened up to the thinking mind and how essays could profit from the techniques of fiction.

In the context in which it appears, “discursive” most nearly means

A. Prolific

B. Sophistic

C. Rambling

D. Analytical

E. Circuitous

答案：D

這道題目如果同學(xué)們查字典，很容易選出C這個答案，因為discursive和rambling這兩個詞就是同義詞，是“離題的”的意思。然而，在本文背景下，discursive一定是essay的特點，是用來表達intelligence而不是feeling的，在這種上下文背景下，它的意思應(yīng)該是“推論的，論證的：通過推理而非直覺來得出結(jié)論的”，所以選擇的答案是analytical。很顯然，GRE的詞匯題要求的并不簡簡單單是詞匯量本身，而是上下文語義關(guān)系判斷的能力。

能力2同樣看似考察的是句子本身的字面意思，如果在TOEFL考試當中，只要看懂一個句子的語義，一道句子改寫題基本就不成問題了。但是GRE考試當中，即便考察的是語句本身的語義，選項對原文的改寫不僅僅是句型的改寫，而很可能是不同邏輯形式對等效語義的表達。比如：

Astronomers studying a certain kind of supernova (exploding star) were surprised to find the supernovas were fainter than expected. Seeking explanations, they discounted the possibility that cosmic dust might be screening out some of the light, because it would filter out blue light more than red, causing the supernovas to appear redder than they really are. Also, unless spread very smoothly throughout space, the dust would introduce large variations in the measurements. Another possibility is gravitational lensing, the bending of light rays as they skirt galaxies en route. Such lensing occasionally causes brightening, but most often it contributes to the dimness of distant supernovas. Calculations show, however, that this effect becomes important only for sources more distant than the supernovas studied.

According to the passage, the astronomers rejected gravitational lensing as an explanation for their findings because

A. gravitational lensing can cause supernovas to appear brighter than they really are

B. their calculations showed a negligible effect of gravitational lensing for light rays from distant sources.

C. light rays traveling from the supernovas studied did not have to skirt galaxies.

D. the effect of gravitational lensing on the appearance of supernovas is unpredictable.

E. the supernovas studied were too near for gravitational lensing to have the observed dimming effect.

答案：E

這道題很明顯考察的就是最后一句話“this effect becomes important only for sources more distant than the supernovas studied”的意思。而X becomes important for Y這句話，等效于X is not important for non-Y，而題干相當于在問X為什么not important，則答案就應(yīng)該是non-Y。根據(jù)這個形式，鑒于原文的Y相當于distant，則正確選項就應(yīng)該是以not distant為關(guān)鍵信息，所以選擇了E，核心詞是near。其實這個題反映了一個更普遍的常考察的語言現(xiàn)象，即以“only”為邏輯信息的句型其表面語義和實際語義之間的關(guān)系。當我在說“only when I work hard can I get high score”時，我并沒有表達努力工作能夠帶來高分的意思，相反，我所表達是不努力工作沒法帶來高分的意思。而這種現(xiàn)象又代表的是一大類現(xiàn)象，即某種邏輯句型的表面語義和實際語義之間的關(guān)系，它要求同學(xué)們在閱讀時能夠在邏輯等效的句型之間進行語義的靈活切換。

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