首先我们来看一下新sat中的文学性小说题目：
This passageis adapted from Edith Wharton, EthanFrome, originallypublished in 1911. Mattie Silver is Ethan’s household employee.
Mattie Silver had lived under Ethan’s rooffor a year, and from early morning till they met at supper he had frequentchances of seeing her; but no moments in her company were comparable to thosewhen, her arm in his, and her light step flying to keep time with his long stride, they walked back through the night tothe farm. He had taken to the girlfrom the first day, when hehad driven over to the Flats to meet her, and she had smiled and waved to himfrom the train, crying out, “You must be Ethan!” as she jumped down with herbundles, housework while he reflected, looking over her slightperson: “Shedon’t look much on housework, butshe ain’t afretter, anyhow.” But it was notonly that the coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was like the lighting of afire on a cold hearth. The girl was more than the brightserviceable creature he had thought her. She had an eyeto see and an ear to hear: he could show her things and tell her things, andtaste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations andechoes he could wake at will.
It was during their night walks backto the farm that he felt most intensely the sweetness of this communion. He hadalways been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of naturalbeauty. His unfinished studies had given form to this sensibility and even inhis unhappiest moments field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerfulpersuasion. But hitherto the emotion had remained in him as a silent ache,veiling with sadness the beauty that evoked it. He did not even know whetherany one else in the world felt as he did, or whether he was the sole victim ofthis mournfulprivilege. Then he learned that one other spirit hadtrembled with the same touch of wonder: thatat his side, living under his roof and eating his bread, was a creature to whomhe could say: “That’s Orion down yonder; the big fellow to the right isAldebaran, and the bunch of little ones—like bees swarming—they’re thePleiades...” or whom he could hold entranced before a ledge of granitethrusting up through the fern while he unrolled the huge panorama of the iceage, and the long dim stretches of succeeding time. The fact that admirationfor his learning mingled with Mattie’s wonder at what he taught was not theleast part of his pleasure. And therewere other sensations, less definable but more exquisite, which drew them together with a shockof silent joy: the cold red of sunset behindwinter hills, the flight of cloud-flocks over slopes of golden stubble, or theintensely blue shadows of hemlocks on sunlit snow.When shesaid to him once: “It looks just as if it was painted!” it seemed to Ethan thatthe art of definition could go no farther, and that words had at last beenfound to utter his secret soul
As he stood in the darkness outsidethe church these memories came back with the poignancy of vanished things.Watching Mattie whirl down the floor from hand to hand he wondered how he could ever havethought that his dull talk interested her. To him, who was never gay but in herpresence, her gaiety seemed plain proof of indifference. Theface she lifted to her dancers was the same which, when she saw him, alwayslooked like a window that has caught the sunset. He even noticed two or three gestureswhich, in his fatuity, he had thought she kept for him: a way of throwing her head back whenshe was amused, as if to taste her laugh before she let it out, and a trick ofsinking her lids slowly when anything charmed or moved her.
这篇文章选择美国女作家Edith Wharton(伊迪丝·华顿)的Ethan Frome。Ethan Frome锋锐刻画了19世纪单纯的新英格兰村居民的生活。主人公Ethan Frome是一个三十多岁的用现代话讲的闷骚男，有一个成天抱怨的、有些病态的年仅二十八岁的妻子。平淡的生活被女主人公的表妹mattie的到来而打破。来帮工做些家务她像一股新鲜的血液注进他的生活。于是小说开始描述Ethan对于这位年轻姑娘的各种臆想。这一段节选描述了Ethan和女主人公的表妹mattie的情感纠葛。
1.Over thecourse of the passage, the main focus of the narrative shifts from the
(a) reservations a character has about a person he has just met to a growingappreciation that character has of the person’s worth.
(b)ambivalence a character feels about his sensitive nature to thecharacter’s recognition of the advantages of having profound emotions.
(c)intensity of feeling a character has for another person to thecharacter’s concern that that intensity is not reciprocated.
(d)value a character attaches to the wonders of the natural world to arejection of that sort of beauty in favor of human artistry.
2. Inthe context of the passage, the author’s use of the phrase “ her light stepflying to keep time with his long stride (line 4) is primarily meant to conveythe idea that
(a) Ethan and Mattie share a powerful enthusiasm.
(b) Mattie strives to match the speed at which Ethan works.
(c) Mattie and Ethan playfully compete with each other.
(d) Ethan walks at a pace that frustrates Mattie.
3. The description in the first paragraph indicates that what Ethan valuesmost about Mattie is her
(a) fitness for farm labor.
(b) vivacious youth.
(c) receptive nature.
(d) freedom from worry.
4.Whichchoice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
(a) Lines 1–5 (“Mattie...farm”)
(b) Lines 5–10 (“He had...anyhow”)
(c) Lines 10–11 (“But it...hearth”)
(d) Lines 12–15 (“She had...will”)
5.theauthor includes the descriptions of the sunset, the clouds, and the hemlockshadows(line 34-36) primarily to
(a) suggest the peacefulness of the natural world.
(b) emphasize the acuteness of two characters’ sensations.
(c) foreshadow the declining fortunes of two characters.
(d) offer a sense of how fleeting time can be.
对于这类的Literature Fiction(文学性小说)文章阅读，我们应该怎样备考呢？
保留的 literature 部分放在了新 SAT 阅读的第一篇。考查范围仍然是小说，短故事 , 还有人物传记(非重点)。其篇章来源主要为近 40 年的 minority fiction(少数族裔小说)和 19th and early 20th century classic novels(经典小说)，以及新 SAT 将增加考查的近几十年的美国本土作家的小说作品等。
小说部分整体难度稍有增加，不排除选材方面会继续增加难度，出现意识流等作品。基本保留了主旨题、词汇题、目的题、细节题等。行号定位较现行 SAT 减少，全文篇章相关题型等中国学生不太擅长的题型增多。更加大了对文章快速理解、把握与做题的难度。
建议：考试需加强作品主旨、态度、功能、写作目的、写作意图以及结构上的理解与训练，并加大阅读量、提高词汇储备。小说阅读是美国语文教学的重点。小说讲述的是错综复杂的人们之间的情感交隔，小说中有丰富的生活场景、故事情节和人物关系，小说中还有意境和思想内涵，需要能够挖掘出来。短短的十几分钟读一篇文章，还要把题目做对，需要语言功底，这种功底是平时多阅读训练出来的，对小说的表达方式、思维习惯是学生们长时间积累起来的。
