【跟着沪江走，高分在招手】·【SAT备考·阅读篇】
在前几篇文章中，我们介绍了SAT阅读部分的常见题型，以及答题技巧，今天我们俩回顾一下阅读中最重要的题型。
先来看下面一段话：
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1 Interviewing candidates for a job can be a 2 painfully difficult process. Can you imagine 3 any other situation where you would be forced 4 to make a character judgement on a person who 5 you have only known for a handful of minutes? 6 To make things worse, candidates tend to 7 dress themselves up by taking classes on how 8 to handle interviewers and respond to questions 9 with cookie-cutter answers and half-witted, 10 long-winded responses to simple questions. 11 All we really want is a little honesty - is 12 that so much to ask for? Apparently so. Just 13 to illustrate this point, I have interviewed 14 over fifteen candidates in the past two months 15 for a single position, and only one of them 16 lasted more than two weeks. Two weeks! Maybe 17 I'm just a poor judge of character, but 18 maybe there is something to this problem of 19 assessing a person in forty-five short minutes. |
在SAT考试中，这篇文章算是较短或中等长度的文章。
读文章之前，大家先思考一下这篇文章讲了什么。作者支持哪种观点？作者的态度是什么？作者是什么样的人？这些问题都会在读文章时起到引导作用。
先来看一下第一个问题，第一题通常是理解题，会比其他题目简单。在SAT考试中，问题通常是按照难度以及文章的顺序排列。因此经常根据文章的前几句话出理解题。
1. Based on lines 1-5, what is the author's attitude toward the process of interviews and job applications?
A. He believes it is an integral component of the employment process
B. He believes it is needless and a waste of time
C. He commends it for its accuracy in determining a worker's value
D. He questions its usefulness as a tool for assessment
E. He feels that it is too short in length
这是基本的理解题。问题给出了行号，要求大家在理解文章的基础上得出结论。大家要做的就是仔细阅读文章，并选出答案。
A项：不正确，因为作者开头就对面试进行了抨击。
B项：太绝对，尽管作者并不赞同面试过程，但也没有全盘否定。
C项：文中并没有提到。
D项：正确， 文中"...painfully difficult process... character judgment on a handful..."这句话表明，作者质疑面试过程是否是一个有效评价面试者的方式。
E项：过于极端而且没有根据，作者并不是希望延长面试时间，只是觉得时间太短，这两者不一样。
我们来看下一题，这一题是根据上下文理解词语意思：
2. On line 7, the phrase "dress themselves up" is most similar in meaning to:
A. put clothes on
B. understate
C. procreate
D. misinterpret
E. embellish
我们用前面讲过的方法做这一题：
第一步：确定上下文："candidates tend to dress themselves up..."
第二步：这句话的意思是面试者over-state their credentials。
第三步：从选项中找出 "over-stating credentials"的同义词：embellish。
因此正确答案是E。
分析性问题通常位于中间位置，因为他们的难度中等。
3. Which of the following is most similar to the "long-winded responses" on line 10?
A. Repeated political campaign speech
B. Emotional love letter
C. Legal document
D. Sports Magazine
E. Candid interview
第一步：先问自己，问题真正想问什么？这一题是找出选项中与 "long-winded response"意义相近的词。
第二步：理解long-winded response的意思。他的意思是，啰嗦的回答，不简洁，说不到重点。
第三步：只有政党的竞选演讲符合这个意思。答案是A。
下面我们来看推断性问题。
4. How would the author likely respond to the idea that simple body language reveals much about a person's inner thoughts and emotions?
A. It is further evidence to avoid interviews
B. It is an example of why interviews should always be part of the application process
C. Body language alone cannot determine a person's psyche
D. Body language is too complex for most people to understand
E. It should decrease the overall time required for assessment
这个问题比较难。答案是C。我们来看一下问什么C是最佳选项。
选项 A, B, D, E都不正确，因为文中没有相关描述。"Forty-five minutes"表示面试的局限性，以及作者对面试的态度。
希望今天的文章可以帮助大家更好地理解SAT的阅读部分。大家要坚持练习，阅读英文文章，这样才能做好SAT阅读。
1. His one vice was gluttony and so it is not surprising that as he aged he became increasingly ____ .
A. emaciated B. despondent C. corpulent
D. carping E. lithe
2. Our once thriving High School Nature Club is now ____ ; the progams have had to be cancelled due to lack of support.
A. defunct B. extant C. resurgent
D. burgeoning E. renovated
3. Having been chief accountant for so many years, Ms. George felt herself to be ____ and was unwilling to ____ control of the department after the merger.
A. slighted - truncate B. irreplaceable - assume C. insubordinate - retain
D. decisive - continue E. indispensable - relinquish
4. Because Elaine's father was a field entomologist who trekked over the continent studying insect infestations, and insisted on taking his young family with him, Elaine and her brother had a(n) ____ childhood.
A. idyllic B. itinerant C. sedentary
D. propitious E. equable
5. Frederica was ____ when her supervisor took only a ___ look at her essay over which she had taken so much care.
A. exultant - superficial B. vexed - studious C. disappointed - cursory
D. pleased - patronizing E. relieved - perfunctory
6. When he was young he ____ ideas of becoming a doctor; however, he was ____ by his father who wanted him to join the family business.
A. harbored - backed B. entertained - dissuaded C. produced - critical
D. repudiated - deterred E. eschewed - encouraged
7. Literary criticism has in recent years become increasingly ____ ; it is almost impossible for the non-literary person to understand its analyses.
A. abstruse B. accessible C. colloquial
D. wide-ranging E. professional
8. The alchemists, though they are often supposed to have been ____ or confidence tricksters, were actually skilful technologists.
A. empiricists B. polemicists C. pragmatists
D. theorists E. charlatans
9. Bullock carts and hand pumps seem ____ in a village whose skyline is dominated by telephone cables and satellite dishes.
A. anachronisms B. exigencies C. diversions
D. provocations E. portents
10. A ____ child, she was soon bored in class; she already knew more mathematics than her junior school teachers.
A. obdurate B. querulous C. precocious
D. recalcitrant E. contemporary
