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经典之作:杨鹏GRE阅读难句解读

分类: GRE-GMAT英语 
由于本人长期接触GRE的阅读文章,亲身经历过艰苦的学习过程,而且体验过考场上的紧张气氛,现在又从事GRE阅读的教学工作,除了对GRE有比较多的感受之外,更有着对GRE阅读的一些规律性的认识。

GRE阅读,包括数学和逻辑中的一些题干的一大特点,也就是一大难点,就是充斥着一些或很长、或很怪异的句子,我们称之为GRE难救。句子,作为任何阅读文章最基本的阅读单位,其重要性不言而喻。换句话说,句子读不懂,想要读懂文章,有如痴人说梦。可使GRE阅读中的句子之繁难,超出其他所有的英语考试的范畴,其长度更立人瞠目,往往读到句末,已经忘了前面在说些什么,令很多初学者困惑不已,不得不放弃真正读懂文章的想法。

然而,GRE难句绝非不可攻克,只要训练方法得当,并且能更每天半小时左右进行练习,GRE难句完全可以在一个月甚至几周内被攻破,而做到这点,对我们GRE考生的意义是伟大的:第一,所有的长句子之读一遍就懂,避免了反复阅读赵成的时间浪费,可以大大的提高大家的阅读速度;第二,可以顺利地作出几考中的高分题,因为与难句对应的阅读题,包括数学和逻辑中毒起来较难的题目,一定对应较高的分值;第三,可以增加阅读文章时的理解力,提高对文章整体的把握能力;第四,可以增加我们的自信心,产生一种阅读中的顺畅的愉快感,使我们在学习GRE中不再沉浸在一种烦躁的情绪之中,真正的与文章的内容和作者的的思路打交道。

GRE难句的由来:我们知道,GRE文章都摘自美国的科学杂志或学术论文。我曾经到网上去看过那些东西,往往结构简单,句子流畅,绝不难读。然而经过ETS改编和压缩之后,GRE句子变得句子冗长、结构复杂、信息量大,赵成读者的困难;因此GRE的难句完全是人为的东西。

GRE难句与文章内容的对应关系:我经过长期观察发现,GRE的各种文章中,句子的难度与文章的内容右移种对应关系,也就是文章的内容越简单,句子就越难;如生命科学和自然科学题材的文章,由于其内容较难,细节较多,因此句子较短,较容易,以降低难度;而文学评论和社会科学的文章,引起内容较少,作者态度较为明确,因而难句既多有南;我们很多考生因为无法读懂这些句子,反而认为这两种文章比生物、吴立文章更难。因此,对文学评论性文章比较害怕的同学们下一番功夫攻克GRE难句,就显得更为重要了。

第一部分、GRE难句分析
分为四大类:
第一类:句子本不难,但是修饰成分多且长。1、从句(定语、状语、同位语从句等等);2、介词短语修饰;3、分词修饰。经常是在同一个句子里既有从句又有介词短语,且都不止一个。例:The methods that a community devises to perpetuate itself come into being to preserve aspects of the cultural legacy that that community perceives as essential.翻译:一个社会设计出来保存自己的方法得以形成来保持那个社会认为最重要的一些方面。读法:初级:读出主谓宾来。分析:主语:The methods; 谓语:com into being;不定式to引导表示目的状语。高级:直接读,见后。考查能力:考查考生的大脑容量。

第二类:大段的插入与或同位语,大段读者的思路,割裂前后之间的语义,造成理解的困难。我们称之为“打岔”。例:Moreover, I can feel strong emotions in response to objects of art that are interpretations, rather than representations, of reality.(LSAT)读法:初级:跳过插入语 高级:直接读查查能力:大脑容量+抗干扰能力

第三类:倒装:由于应该放在句首的成分太长,因此倒装到句末。也是一种人为现象。例:That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted.读法:需要经过训练后才能按正常语序读。正常语序:That sex ratio which maximizes the number of descendants that and individual will have and hence the sex retion which maximize the number of gene copies transmitted will be favered.高级读法:直接读,见后:考查能力:大脑的排序能力

第四类:省略:相对以上三种来讲比较简单,在短句中大家一般都可以看出。但是如果在场句中出现,特别是如果与以上三种之一甚至几种同时出现,也会给同学们带来很大的困难。如上例原句中的省略,在第二个the number of 前省略了"sex ration which maximizes"。

第二部分、GRE难句训练法
训练方法:凡读过的GRE文章,凡有读一两遍不懂的句子,摘下或输入电脑:每天花半小时来读,读懂读顺为止;开始越窄越多,翟导20句以后,越窄越少,一个月后几乎没有了。这是可以达到高级读法:因为大脑已经熟悉了这4种难句的结构,因此可以预判和自动整理语序,除了太长的插入语之外(3行以上),均可以直接读下来。这里面的道理在于,人的大脑对于语言的处理方式是高度自动化的,一旦大脑熟悉了某种语言的结构,他就会对以这样的结构出现的语句进行自动的处理,哪怕句子是语序到的,你也能在瞬间知道其意思, 绝无混乱之感。

最令人头疼的倒装为例,举一个中文的例子,比如“如之奈何”依据,学过古文的同学都知道这实际上是“奈何如之”的倒装,意思是“如何来对付他?”然而读完“如之奈何”再把它恢复成正常语序“奈何如之”,才能理解其含义。这是初学古文的人的做法,真正看古文书的人不会这么读的。因为他天天都读这种语言,早已熟悉了这种结构,不管怎么看,他都知道这是在问怎么办的问题。你要问它为什么是这个意思,语法结构是怎么回事,它还可能真说不明白。 其实语言本身就是为了云在含义的,只要你明白句子的意思,其语法结构不提也罢。我们训练GRE难救,就是要达到上面所谈的这种高级读法的境界,直接读下来(除了3行以上的插入语),就知道句子的意思。当然,这种读法必须以反复的、针对难句的训练为前提。而已弹训练成功,ETS所考察你的种种大脑的能力也就通通无效了。

GRE学习的一大秘诀,就在于把考场上考察你的难点和需要你花大量时间思考的东西兑换成考场下你的时间和努力。注意:贵在坚持。GRE学习,当然也包括GRE难句的训练,都好比逆水行舟,不进则退。想要读懂GRE难句,必须坚持每天读,把每一个你再出来的句子彻底读通,读到这些句子就像是应该这样写、如果是你来写这些句子,你也要写一样。特别提一下,经过我的调查,凡是能够真正坚持用这种方法训练的同学,无一例外的都在数周之内,阅读能力和阅读速度都得到了大幅度的提高,兴奋地来找我,告诉我再没有完全读不懂的文章了。而大多数同学只练了几天就放弃了,实在可惜。其实如果真的能够每天都能认真地读上半小时,一个月之内,必有突破。而克服GRE难句,对于提高大家的逻辑单体、填空能力也至关重要。可以毫不夸张地说,只有克服了GRE难句,你的GRE学习才算真正入了门。

为了节省同学们宝贵的学习时间,我在俞敏洪校长之鼓励下,将GRE NO4-No9 21套题84篇文章及GRE国内题(90-94)14套56篇文章中的所有难句进行了摘录和分类,尽裂于此。由于绝大多数同学对需要留下最新体10套模考,过句子没有收录,且由于最新题阅读难度下降,其句子收录价值也十分有限。余日夜兼程,与完工只是,惊觉凡所录难句,恰100整。此数暗合Tofel语法之100难句,此天意也?[fwoods:难句摘抄如下:配上了翻译,但是分类就费事加上去了,反正大家看了都知道属于哪种难句子,加上去无意义。录入和整理,我花了一晚上,好多错别字,大家海涵。

That sex ratio will be
favored which maximizes the number of
descendants an individual will have and
hence the number of gene copies
transmitted.

那种性别比例能在最大程度上增加一个个体所能拥有的后代数量,并因此能在最大程度上增加所传递到后代身上去的基因复制品的数量。

Hardy's weakness derived from his
apparent inability to control the
(55) comings and goings of these divergent
impulses and from his unwillingness to
cultivate and sustain the energetic and
risky ones.

哈代的缺陷一方面缘起于他的某种明显的无能,无法控制好那结不尽相同的创作冲动的穿梭往来;另一方面缘起于他不愿意去培养和维持那些富于生机活力和风险性强的创作冲动。

As my own studies have
advanced, I have been increasingly
impressed with the functional
similarities between insect and
(10) vertebrate societies and less so with
the structural differences that seem,
at first glance, to constitute such an
immense gulf between them.
随着我的研究不断深入,我对昆虫和脊椎动物群落之间的功能类似性印象愈来愈深刻,而对结构上的差异印象愈发淡漠,虽然这些结构上的差异初看上去似乎构成了二者间一条无法愈越的鸿沟。
Although fiction assuredly springs from
(15) political circumstances, its authors react
to those circumstances in ways other than
ideological, and talking about novels
and stories primarily as instruments of
ideology circumvents much of the fictional
(20) enterprise.
虽然小说无疑起源于政治情状,但其作者则是以非意识形态的方式对这些政治情状 作出反应的,而将小说和故事主要地当作意识形态的工具来探讨,会在相当程度上阻碍小说事业。
Is
this a defect, or are the authors working
out of, or trying to forge, a different
(60) kind of aesthetic?
这究竟是一种缺陷呢,或者是否表明,这些作者是在按照一种与众不同的美学体系进行创作,抑或是在试图创立一种与众不同的美学体系?
Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of
novels, bringing to our attention in the
process some fascinating and
(75) little-known works like James Weldon
Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-
Colored Man.
《黑人小说》考察了极为广泛的一系列小说,在此过程中让我们注意到了某些引人入胜但却鲜为人知的作品,如詹姆斯·韦尔登·约翰逊(Jameseldon Johnson)的《一个曾经是有色人的自传》(Autobiography of an Ex-ColoredMan)。
Although these molecules
(5) allow radiation at visible wavelengths,
where most of the energy of sunlight is
concentrated, to pass through, they
absorb some of the longer-wavelength,
infrared emissions radiated from the
(10) Earth's surface, radiation that would
otherwise be transmitted back into
space.
虽然这些分子允许可见波长(visible wavelength)的辐射——阳光的绝大部分能量就汇集于此——不受阻挡地穿透,但它们却会吸收某些较长波长(longer-wavelength),亦即从地球表面辐射出的红外发射(infrared cmission),这种辐射若不是二氧化碳的缘故就会被重新输送回太空。
The role those anthropologists
(5) ascribe to evolution is not of dictating
the details of human behavior but one
of imposing constraints—ways of
feeling, thinking, and acting that
"come naturally" in archetypal situations
(10) in any culture.
这些人类学家所归诸于生物进化的作用,不是规定人类行为的种种细节,而是将各种限制强加于人类——即在任何文化的典型情景中都会“自然表露”的情感、思维、以及行动方式。
A low
number of algal cells in the presence
(10) of a high number of grazers suggested,
but did not prove, that the grazers
had removed most of the algae.
在存在大量食草动物的同时却只有少量的水藻花粉囊,这暗示出——但没能证明——食草动物已吞噬了大部分水藻。
Studies by Hargrave and
Geen estimated natural community graz-
ing rates by measuring feeding rates of
individual zooplankton species in the
laboratory and then computing community
(55) grazing rates for field conditions
using the known population density
of grazers.
由哈格雷夫(Hargrave)和吉恩(Geen)所进行的研究,对自然条件下的群落食草比例进行了估计,其手段是通过测量出实验室内单独的浮游动物种类的结食比例,然后利用已知的食草动物种群密度,计算出实地状况下的群落食草比例。
In the periods
of peak zooplankton abundance, that is,
in the late spring and in the summer,
Haney recorded maximum daily com-
(70) munity grazing rates, for nutrient-poor
lakes and bog lakes, respectively,
of 6.6 percent and 114 percent of daily
phytoplankton production.
在浮游动物数量激增的高峰期,亦即在春季后期以及夏季,哈尼记录了最大程度上的每日群落食草比率,对于营养物不充足的湖和沼泽湖而言,分别为每日浮游植物繁殖量的6.6%和114%。
The
hydrologic cycle, a major topic in this
science, is the complete cycle of
phenomena through which water passes,
beginning as atmospheric water vapor,
(10) passing into liquid and solid form as
precipitation, thence along and into
the ground surface, and finally again
returning to the form of atmospheric
water vapor by means of evaporation and
(15) transpiration.
水文循环(hydrologic cycle),作为该学科中的一个主要课题,指的是水所经过的诸现象的整个循环过程,开始时是作 为大气中的水蒸气,转而作为雨、雪、露、雹一类的降水量经过液体和固体形态,由此而沿着地层表面分布或进入地层表面,最终通过蒸发和散发作用再度回复到大气水蒸气的形态。
Only when a system possesses natural
or artificial boundaries that associate
the water within it with the hydrologic
cycle may the entire system properly be
(30) termed hydrogeologic.
只有当某一地质系统拥有自然的或人工的界限,将该系统内的水与水文循环起来,这整个系统方能被恰当地称为与水文地质学相关。
The historian Frederick J. Turner
wrote in the 1890's that the agrarian
discontent that had been developing
steadily in the United States since
(5) about 1870 had been precipitated by the
closing of the internal frontier--that
is, the depletion of available new land
needed for further expansion of the
American farming system.
史学家弗雷德里克·杰·特纳(Frederick J.Turner)于十九世纪九十年代著述道,美国约自18世纪70年代以来一直在持续不断发展的农民不满,由于国内边远地区(internal frontier)的封闭而更趋加剧——亦即是说,美国农业系统进一步扩展所必需的可资利用的新土地几近耗竭。
In the early 1950's, historians who
studied preindustrial Europe (which we
may define here as Europe in the period
from roughly 1300 to 1800) began, for
(5) the first time in large numbers, to
investigate more of the preindustrial
European population than the 2 or 3
percent who comprised the political
and social elite: the kings, generals,
(10) judges, nobles, bishops, and local
magnates who had hitherto usually
filled history books.
二十世纪五十年代早期,研究前工业化时代欧洲(此处我们可将其界定为约自1300年至1800年这一时期的欧洲)的史学家,首次以众多的人数,开始调查前工业化时代欧洲人口中的大多数,而非那些构成了政治与社会精英阶层的百分之二或三的人口,即国王、将军、法官、贵族、主教、以及地方上的达官显贵,而正是这部分人一直到那时为止普遍充斥于史学著作。


Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie
have used the documents to extract case
histories, which have illuminated the
attitudes of different social groups
(40) (these attitudes include, but are not
confined to, attitudes toward crime and
the law) and have revealed how the
authorities administered justice.
象勒罗伊·拉迪里(Le Roy Ladurie)一类的史学家利用这些文献史料从中挖掘出某些个案史(case history)来,阐明了不同社会群体的态度(这些态度包括,但并非局限于,对犯罪和法律的态度),并揭示出当局是如何执行审判的。
My point is that its central
consciousness—its profound
(20) understanding of class and gender
as shaping influences on people's
lives—owes much to that earlier
literary heritage, a heritage that,
in general, has not been sufficiently
(25) valued by most contemporary literary
critics.
我的论点是,其作品的中心意识——它将阶级和性别作为人们生活的决定性影响而作出的深邃理解——在很大程度上借鉴了那个早期的文学遗产,而这一遗产就总体而言还尚未获得大多数当代文学评论家的足够重视。

But achieving
necessary matches in physical properties
across interfaces between living and
nonliving matter requires knowledge of
(20) which molecules control the bonding of
cells to each other—an area that we
have not yet explored thoroughly.

但是,要想沿着原生和非原生物质之间的界面获取生理特性的必要匹配,需要某种知识,即什么样的分子控制着细胞彼此间的结合——而对这一领域,我们尚未进行充分的探索。

Islamic law is a phenomenon so
different from all other forms of
(5) law—notwithstanding, of course, a
considerable and inevitable number of
coincidences with one or the other
of them as far as subject matter and
positive enactments are concerned—that
(10) its study is indispensable in order to
appreciate adequately the full range of
possible legal phenomena.

伊斯兰法是一种如此不同于所有其它法律形式的现象——毋庸置疑,尽管就其主要内容和有积极意义的法规而言,与其它法律形式中的这种或那种形式存在着相当数量的且不可避免的巧合相似之处——以致于对它进行研究便显得不可或缺,以便充分理解有可能存在的法律现象的全部范围。

Though
(20) historically there is a discernible
break between Jewish law of the
sovereign state of ancient Israel and
of the Diaspora (the dispersion of Jewish
people after the conquest of Israel),
(25) the spirit of the legal matter in later
parts of the Old Testament is very close
to that of the Talmud, one of the
primary codifications of Jewish law in
the Diaspora.

尽管从历史角度来看,在古代以色列作为独立主权国家的犹太教法与大流散时期(Diaspora,即以色列被征服后古代犹太人被巴比伦人逐出故土)的犹太教法之间存在着一个明晰可辨的断裂,然则,《旧约全书》(Old Testament)后半部分中法律内容的精神与《犹太教法典》(Talmud)极为一脉相承,而所谓的《犹太教法典》,是指大流散时期犹太教法的主要典籍辑录之一。

Islam, on the other hand,
(30) represented a radical breakaway from the
Arab paganism that preceded it; Islamic
law is the result of an examination
from a religious angle, of legal subject
matter that was far from uniform,
(35) comprising as it did the various
components of the laws of pre-Islamic
Arabia and numerous legal elements
taken over from the non-Arab peoples
of the conquered territories.

另一方面,伊斯兰教则代表着与此前存在的阿拉伯异教(Arab paganism)的一种根本上的决裂;伊斯兰法是从宗教的角度,对各种杂乱无章、绝无共同点的法律内容进行考察所致的结果,而这些法律内容实际上是由前伊斯兰阿拉伯国家(Pre-Islamic Arabia)法律的不尽相同的组成部分以及由从被征服的土地上非阿拉伯民族借鉴过来的无数法律因素所构成。

One such novel idea is
that of inserting into the chromosomes
(25) of plants discrete genes that are not
a part of the plants' natural constitution:
specifically, the idea of inserting into
nonleguminous plants the genes, if they
can be identified and isolated, that fit
(30) the leguminous plants to be hosts for
nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Hence, the
intensified research on legumes.

这其中的一个新颖思想就是,在植物的染色体(chromosome)内注入并非是该植物自然构造一个部分的那些不相关联的因基:具体而言,这一思想是,在非豆科植物内注入这样一些基因,倘若这些基因可被辨识出来并被分离开来,而这些基因业已使豆科植物宜于充当那些具备固氮作用的细菌的寄主。由此,对豆科植物的研究日趋深入。

It is
one of nature's great ironies that the
availability of nitrogen in the soil
(40) frequently sets an upper limit on plant
growth even though the plants' leaves
are bathed in a sea of nitrogen gas.

下述情形真可谓是自然界的一个莫大讽刺:土壤中所能获得的氮肥量往往对植物的生长构成了一个上限,虽然植物的叶子被沐浴在一片氮气的海洋中。

Unless they succeed, the
yield gains of the Green Revolution will
(70) be largely lost even if the genes in
legumes that equip those plants to enter
into a symbiosis with nitrogen fixers
are identified and isolated, and even if
the transfer of those gene complexes,
(75) once they are found, becomes possible.

除非他们能取得成功,不然的话,绿色革命的产量收益将在很大程度上损失殆尽,即使豆科植物中使这些植物有条件进入到与固氮细菌共生关系的基因可被辨识出来和分离开来的话,且即使这些基因综合体(gene complex),一旦被发现之后,其移植得以成为可能的话。

Its subject
(to use Maynard Mack's categories) is
"life-as-spectacle," for readers,
diverted by its various incidents,
observe its hero Odysseus primarily
(10) from without; the tragic Iliad, however,
presents "life-as-experience": readers
are asked to identify with the mind of
Achilles, whose motivations render him
a not particularly likable hero.

其主题〔若借鉴梅纳德·迈克(Maynard Mack)的两个分类范畴的话〕是“人生作为外部景象”,因为读者的注意力被作品那形形色色的事件所分散,主要是从外部来观察其主人公奥德修斯(Odyssus)的;然而,富于悲剧色彩的《伊利亚特》所表现的则是“人生作为内心体验”:读者被要求与阿基琉斯(Achilles)的心灵产生共鸣,而其行为动机却致使他变作一个并非特别惹人喜爱的主人公。

Most striking among the
many asymmetries evident in an adult
flatfish is eye placement: before
maturity one eye migrates, so that in
(10) an adult flatfish both eyes are on the
same side of the head.

在一条成年比目鱼身上显著存在的诸多不对称(asymmetry)特征中,最为吸人注目的是眼睛的摆位:在成年之前,一只眼睛发生移动,因此在成年比目鱼身上,两只眼睛均位于头部的同一侧面

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