【新SAT阅读】英文原版书籍阅读、提高阅读领悟能力
- 2016年03月23日13:48 来源：互联网
- 参与（1） 阅读（5413）
阅读是王道。在英语的四项基本能力中，最本质的是阅读。阅读领悟能力决定一个学生的英语水平高低。这次SAT改革，也体现了阅读的重要性。我们先来看看新SAT考什么。以下文章摘自新SAT官方指南：
‘The founding documents of the United States, including the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers, continue to influence discussions and debates about the nature of civic life and of individual and collective rights and responsibilities. …… Thesefounding documents often do present some challenges for the reader. The vocabulary is often elevated, thesentences can be long and involved, and the ideas discussed are often moreabstract than we're used to dealing with on a daily basis. The rewards of aclose reading of these texts, though, are significant, as we exercise theprivilege of engaging with some of the most important and influential worksever written.
The SAT Reading Test includes a passage from a U.S.founding document. The questions will askyou to think about such things as the author's main points, word choice, andpersuasive techniques. ’
上述文字给我们预示了新SAT的三个方面：
1)以往纯文学内容的考察比例将会减少，取而代之的是更加晦涩(The vocabulary is often elevated)，复杂(the sentences can be long and involved)，和抽象(the ideas discussed are often more abstract)的枯燥建国文献(U.S. founding document)
2)由于美国历史太短，所以建国文献不外乎就是这些内容：独立宣言(the Declaration of Independence)，人权法案(the Bill of Rights)和联邦党人文集(the Federalist Papers)
3)考察学生是否真正读懂这些建国文献的方面有：作者的主要观点(the author's main points)，语句措辞(word choice)以及这些观点的论证说明(persuasive techniques)。
今天我们不妨从《A Tale of Two Cities》一书中摘选精读解析来看看和新SAT考察的关系。
Hunger.It was prevalent everywhere. Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in thewretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into themwith straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment ofthe small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared down fromthe smokeless chimneys, and started up from the filthy street that had nooffal, among its refuse, of anything to eat. Hunger was the inscription on thebaker's shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread;at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale. Hungerrattled its dry bones among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder;Hunger was shred into atomics in every farthing porringer of husky chips ofpotato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.
以上是《双城记》第一部第五章的经典段落，写的是潜伏在法国大革命之前剧烈的社会矛盾。寥寥数语，就把底层百姓的穷苦生活刻画得入木三分。整段的观点是‘It was prevalent everywhere’(饥荒不出不在)，作者用了大量的排比来论述观点。
从修辞上看，大量的排比不仅使得文章内容更加丰满，也让作者论述更有气势。
从词汇上看的话，patched, inscription，shred等等都是SAT的重要词汇。平时只要注重积累，这些词汇都不会是问题。
从句型上看的话，Hunger was the inscriptionon the baker's shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread;at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that wasoffered for sale. 这句话是省略句，是SAT非常喜爱的一个语法考点。介词at和in都省略了部分内容，还原过来应该是Hunger was the inscription atthe sausage-shop, written in everydead-dog preparation。学生平时阅读如果不注重这些细节，走马观花，囫囵吞枣，必然会在以后的阅读测试中失分。
从理解上看的话，Hunger was the inscriptionon the baker's shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread;at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale. ‘dead-dog preparation’是SAT阅读必考点。虽然学生认识每一个字，但就是不容易通过上下文推测出短语的具体含义。
