SAT阅读词汇理解的标准（下）-延伸阅读

　　在备考SAT阅读 考试的过程中，很多同学都遇到了类似词汇、语法等等巨大的阻碍，那么怎样才能快速的提高自己的阅读技巧呢?

　　(延伸阅读内容来自于作者李现伟在2009年上海新东方工作期间的教研文章《五个单词看SAT考试词汇要求》的修改版本，虽然新SAT取消了填空部分，但是重要的单词依然是重要的单词。)

　　一、PRAGMATIC/ PRACTICAL

　　(1) 2008.01-S2-5

　　Because all members of this organization are idealists, they___ any assertion that political enterprises should be purely_____。

　　A. ignore, universal

　　B. criticize, visionary

　　C. condemn, benevolent

　　D. denounce, pragmatic

　　E. condone, indulgent

　　(2) 2008.01-S5-15

　　“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out die useful ones.”

　　“But the solar system!” I protested.

　　“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently. “You say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”

　　Q：The friend’s attitude toward the acquisition of knowledge as described above is best characterized as

　　A. open-minded

　　B. pragmatic

　　C. delighted

　　D. disillusioned

　　E. apathetic

　　(3) During the late nineteenth century in the United States, many people thought it improper for a woman to be a professional artist. Alice Barber Stephens got around this prejudice: she succeeded as a book and magazine illustrator by creating art and conducting business with publishers and authors from borne. She sold engravings to national magazines and illustrated the books of many novelists, including Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a young woman, Stephens studied at the Pennsylvania School of the Fine Arts, a member of the first class to admit women. She petitioned for nude drawing classes for women, later instituting such a class at an art school for women. She also founded an organization that fought prejudice against women artists.

　　Q：Which of the following best characterizes Alice Barber Stephens?

　　A. materialist and aesthete

　　B. perfectionist and egotist

　　C. pragmatist and activist

　　D. dreamer and revolutionary

　　E. celebrity and philanthropist

　　(4) The painting couldn’t glow, as it wanted to—it needed a vast, empty room and a great distance in front of it. One day, I hoped, I’d take it back to Cumberland and find a house there where it could settle happily. But when, after thirty years, we found that house, the painting was failed again. The walls were no bigger and neither were the rooms. So I sold the painting and bought another, smaller Sheila Fell.

　　It was a terrible mistake. The moment the painting had been taken away I realized how stupid I’d been. So it had been overwhelming, too large, too dramatic to contain in either house but I shouldn’t have let that matter, I should have found a way to keep it.

　　Q: “It was a terrible mistake” because the narrator:

　　A. had no other souvenirs of Cumberland

　　B. allowed pragmatic concerns to override her fondness for the painting

　　C. did not realize how valuable the painting would become to collectors

　　D. felt that she had betrayed Sheila Fell’s trust

　　E. was unable to appreciate the smaller Sheila Fell painting

　　(5)2006.01-S7-23

　　"High-speed interstellar travel is so demanding of resources and so hazardous that intelligent civilizations don't attempt it.” And why should they attempt it, when radio communication can supply all the information they might want?

　　Q: “radio communication” is cited as a

　　A. complex interaction

　　B. technological relic

　　C. common occurrence

　　D. practical alternative

　　E. dramatic advance

　　答案：DBCBD

　　讲评：Pragmatic是表示“从实际出发的，实用主义的”，正好和idealistic(理想主义的，从主观出发的)是反义词，通过这些考题请考生们自己总结哪些情况下才是“pragmatic“?哪些又不是。而且pragmatic和practical意思是一样的，那么这两个单词是什么关系呢?在这里我们引出在词根中“ct与g互变”(我的单词体系中“形变体”的一种，其他如t,d,s互变，f,v互变，u,v,w互变等)，下面再举一些“ct与g互变”的例子：

　　prac-prag(实践)：practical-pragmatic;

　　fract-frag(折)：fracture、fraction-fragile、fragmentary;

　　fact-fag(做)：faction-fag(吃力工作);

　　tact-tag(接触)：contact, tactile, intact-contagious;

　　tect-teg(接触)：detect，protect-integrity, integral;

　　tinct-ting(保持)：distinct-distinguish extinct-extinguish;

　　flect-flex(弯曲)：deflect，reflect-flexibility;

　　flick-flig(轻弹)：flick-profligate;

　　tract-trag(拉)：tractable, subtract, detract-trager

　　pict-pig: picture, depict-pigment

　　lect-leg(选择，读)：elect，select，lecture，collect，collective, neglect，dialect，eclectic(-legitimize，legitimate，legible，elegant，allege，privilege, elegant;negligent, negligible(lect-lig音变体+形变体的结果)

　　lict-lig(选择)：elicit，eligible，intelligen

　　nect-nex(捆)：connect，annex

　　lust-lux(光，豪华)：lustrous，lacklustrous-luxurious

　　luct-lug (悲伤)，reluctant-lugubrious

　　tact-tag(接触)：tactile，intact-contagious

　　doct-dog(形变体)-dox(音变体)理论：doctor/doctrinaire—dogma, paradox, orthodox, heterodox

　　sanct-sang(神)： sanctity, sanctuary—sanguine

　　point-punct(音变体)-pung(形变体)点，用针尖刺： punctual, punctilious, compunction— expunge, pungent

　　二、CONDESCENDING

　　(1) 2005版OG3-S3-23:

　　If the new art is not accessible to everyone, which certainly seems to be the case, this implies that its impulses are not of a generically human kind. It is an art not for people in general but for a special class who may not be better but who are evidently different.

　　Before we go further, one point must be clarified. What is it that the majority of people call aesthetic pleasure? What happens in their minds when they “like” a work of art; for example, a play? The answer is easy. They like a play when they become interested in the human destinies that are represented, when the love and hatred, the joys and sorrows of the dramatic personages so move them that they participate in it all as though it were happening in real life.

　　And they call a work “good” if it succeeds in creating the illusion necessary to make the imaginary personages appear like living persons. In poetry the majority of people seek the passion and pain of the human being behind the poet.

　　Paintings attract them if they find in them figures of men or women it would be interesting to meet.

　　It thus appears that to the majority of people aesthetic pleasure means a state of mind that is essentially indistinguishable from their ordinary behavior. It differs merely in accidental qualities, being perhaps less utilitarian, more intense, and free from painful consequences. But the object toward which their attention and, consequently, all their other mental activities are directed is the same as in daily life: people and passions. When forced to consider artistic forms proper—for example, in some surrealistic or abstract art—most people will only tolerate them if they do not interfere with their perception of human forms and fates. As soon as purely aesthetic elements predominate and the story of John and Susie grows elusive, most people feel out of their depth and are at a loss as to what to make of the scene, the book, or the painting. A work of art vanishes from sight for a beholder who seeks in that work of art nothing but the moving fate of John and Susie or

　　Tristan and Isolde.

　　Unaccustomed to behaving in any mode except the practical one in which feelings are aroused and emotional involvement ensues, most people are unsure how to respond to a work that does not invite sentimental intervention.

　　Now this is a point that has to be made perfectly clear. Neither grieving nor rejoicing at such human destinies as those presented by a work of art begins to define true artistic pleasure; indeed, preoccupation with the human content of the work is in principle incompatible with aesthetic enjoyment proper.

　　Q: The author’s attitude toward the majority of people can best be described as

　　A. genuinely puzzled

　　B. aggressively hostile

　　C. solemnly respectful

　　D. generally indifferent

　　E. condescendingly tolerant

　　(2) (2005版本OG-P677-S8-Q11) A condolatory smile, capping this enumeration, materialized on his lips; the letter was so inconsonant with the simplest precepts of strategy that it elicited a kind of pity, mingled with contempt and dry amusement.

　　Q: In context, Mulcahy’s “Condolatory smile” is most probably an expression of both

　　A. cynical skepticism and comical self-pity

　　B. sincere compassion and whimsical delight

　　C. profound surprise and delighted appreciation

　　D. bitter disappointment and sly criticism

　　E. condescending sympathy and amused scorn

　　(3) (2005版OG-P873): (Lines12-14) They treat it condescendingly as a harmless but amusing example of American vulgarity—a kind of patriotic Disneyland。

　　他们屈尊的认为W城堡只是一种有害但同时又有娱乐性的美国粗鄙现实的一个例子——一种爱国主义情调的迪斯尼而已。

　　答案：E E

　　解析：Condescending如果只是机械的背单词书，你会发现是“屈尊的”意思，所以像这种单词我们一定要通过一个语境来支撑：比如说乒乓球世界马琳过来和我打乒乓球，我肯定是不愿意的，但他说他用左手而且不用球拍和我比赛，那么那时候马琳对我的态度，在我看来就是condescending，即表面上在帮我，但是其实是在蔑视我。

　　三 、FASTIDIOUS

　　Fastidious也是老SAT填空题考试中常考的单词，我们先看一下与它有关的考题：

　　(1) The actor was noted for his___ behavior: he quickly became irritated if his every whim was not immediately satisfied.

　　(A) fastidious

　　(B) sedulous

　　(C) vindictive

　　(D) petulant

　　(E) mercenary

　　(2) Mac Dougall’s former editors remember him as a__ man whose__ and exhaustive reporting was worth the trouble.

　　A. domineering, wearisome

　　B. congenial, pretentious

　　C. popular, supercilious

　　D. fastidious, garbled

　　E. cantankerous, meticulous

　　答案：D E

　　解析：这两道题错选为A，D的特别多，之所以错选，是因为很多同学在背词汇书时，用的是意群来背诵，于是careful, painstaking, scrupulous, meticulous, fastidious, punctilious都放到一个意群里, 但是这些单词之间是有微妙差别的，其中比较特殊的一个是fastidious：fastidious implies concern, often excessive, for the requirements of taste，表示对品位要求很高，通常是过分的关心，而且因为要求高而难以取悦。

　　那么如何记忆这个单词?我们先看一下breakfast(break+fast，fast表示绝食，打破绝食的状态，吃的顿饭所以是早饭)，fastidious是fast(绝食)+ous(多…的)，一直绝食，所以单词本义是“挑食的”，而“要求苛刻的;难以取悦的”则都是其比喻义。这样在我们通过词根和词缀了解到单词的比喻义来源之后，我们可以清晰的了解单词的细微意义是什么。

　　四、SPONTANEOUS

　　接着我们再通过spontaneous来看一下单词的本义，比喻义直接的关系，因为SAT单词侧重于单词的比喻义或者引申义的考察：

　　2005版OG3-P525-S3-6：

　　The critic Edmund Wilson was not a self-conscious letter writer or one who tried to sustain studied manner- isms. Nor did he resort to artifice or entangle himself in circumlocutions. The young, middle-aged, and old Wilson speaks directly through his letters, which are informal for the most part and which undisguisedly reflect his changing moods. On occasion—in response, perhaps, to the misery of a friend or a public outrage or a personal challenge—he can become eloquent, even passionate, but that is not his prevailing tone.

　　Q: Based on the information in the passage, Wilson’s letters can best be described as

　　A. cynical

　　B. spontaneous

　　C. critical

　　D. preachy

　　E. witty

　　答案：B

　　解析：spontaneous词汇书上给出的释义是“自发的，自动的;自燃的”，在这里用的是其比喻义，这里的意思是“随性的”。

 

　　十多年来，百万学员

　　在这里，放飞梦想，成功留学

　　新航道SAT培训班 收到奖学金申请数量

　　业内的其他机构望尘莫及

　　英语，就上新航道