SSAT阅读考试常见概念和题目解析 (下)

　　SSAT阅读

　　Poetry

　　He That Loves a Rosy Cheek

　　by Thomas Carew

　　He that loves a rosy cheek

　　Or a coral lip admires,

　　Or from starlike eyes doth seek

　　Fuel to maintain his fires;

　　As old Time makes these decay,

　　So his flames must waste away.

　　But a smooth and steadfast mind,

　　Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,

　　Hearts with equal love combined,

　　Kindle never-dying fires;

　　Where these are not, I despise

　　Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

　　解析并分析题目：

　　Both of these passages require more than technical proficiency inEnglish to understand. They require the student to be attuned to the rhetoricaland emotional nuances in writing. Authors use well-known and well-definedtechniques called rhetorical devices to engage the reader’s emotions and thus his interest. With this in mind let’s look at the following passages:

　　He that loves a rosy cheek

　　(Explain: the description “rosy cheek” creates an image in the reader’s mind, a rhetorical device known as imagery.)

　　Or a coral lip admires,

　　(“corallip” is another use of imagery)

　　Or from starlike eyes doth seek

　　(“starlike eyes”—imagery)

　　(the first 3 lines all contain imagery; we need to ask ourselves, what do these 3 images have in common; the answer is: they are all aspects of female physical beauty.)

　　Fuel to maintain his fires;

　　(we need to understand what “fires” represents; this is an instance of the device of comparison, more specifically of metaphor.)

　　As old Time makes these decay,

　　(“these” referring to the 3 images in the first 3 lines; “old Time” is an instance ofthe device of personification, where something non-human is given human or human-like qualities.)

　　So his flames must waste away.

　　(“flames”and “fires” two lines previously represent the same thing; from the context it should be clear they represent love.)

　　But a smooth and steadfastmind,

　　(notice the “But” at the beginning, an instance of the rhetorical device of contrast; since the contrast is created between the two stanzas of the poem we can understand that this contrast is central.)

　　Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,

　　Hearts with equal love combined,

　　(notice that the structure is identical to the structure of the previous stanza; 3 aspects of something in 3 lines—in this case the aspects are clearly inner qualities as a contrast with physical beauty; imagery is not used because inner qualities cannot be seen; these identical structures are an instance of the device of repetition.)

　　Kindle never-dying fires;

　　(notice the contrast between“never-dying fires” and the fleeting love in the previous stanza.)

　　Where these are not, I despise

　　(“despise” is a strongly emotional word which is always worth paying attention to. In this case it is used to emphasize the contrast between the author’s reaction to physical beauty and the reaction of the man in the first stanza.)

　　Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

　　(“cheeks” as in“rosy cheeks” in line 1, “lips” as in “coral lip” in line 2, “eyes” as in“starlike eyes” in line 3, another instance of repetition.)

　　1. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of this poem? (since the two stanzas of the poem are contrasted, it is safe to say that the poem is built around their contrast—that leads us to answer choice C.)

　　A. If you get to know them, you will often find that beautiful people have unpleasant personalities. (迷惑选项：有对比关系，但细节错误)

　　B. People who have a calm and gentle disposition are usually physically beautiful.

　　C. Physical beauty is temporary, but inner qualities can be more permanently attractive.

　　D. It’s better to dislike beautiful people until they prove that they also have pleasant personalities.

　　E. If you are beautiful on the inside then your physical beauty will also last longer.

　　2. When the speaker refers to “old Time” in lines 5-6 he is (recall that it is an instance of personification; answer choice E is best, since entities are human-like.)

　　A. talking about the past

　　B. having a conversation with time

　　C. referring to the specific time in a person’s life when they areold

　　D. talking about old-fashioned things

　　E. suggesting that time is an old, powerful entity(词汇题)

　　3. When the speaker discusses “never-dying fires” (line 10) he is mostlikely referring to (recall that “fires” represents love) 简单题目

　　A. long-lasting love

　　B. love that diminishes quickly

　　C. physical beauty

　　D. anger and hatred

　　E. lips and cheeks

　　4. When the speaker states that “flames must waste away” (line 6) hemost nearly means that (recall that “flames” represents love)

　　A. in time, even the subject of the poem will die

　　B. love always fades when people get older (迷惑选项)

　　C. it is impossible to maintain a fire without logs for kindling

　　D. if love is based on physical beauty it will diminish when beauty fades

　　E. some people will never be satisfied for very long

 

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