初談閱讀時(shí)，總有一些家長和學(xué)生是抱著這樣的一種心理看待英語閱讀：”閱讀，就是要背單詞啊。每句話的單詞都會(huì)了，文章自然就看懂了。”

確實(shí)，不背單詞，考英語就會(huì)是下面這種下場(chǎng)：

我們知道賢鏛是在生活中很重要的。比如在鼙蠻和贎鬍里，有彃燊在罅鷄那里蘩墝，之前他們鏈鴊恆閎嘑傡彚槩滼鞷蕻賤鬡艐倏雫寬褲灣。

1.鞷在文中的意思?

2.這篇文章的最佳標(biāo)題?

3.作者沒有告訴我們什么?

4.作者為什么說“恆閎嘑傡彚槩”?

所以可以百分之百確信的是，沒有哪位教閱讀的老師會(huì)否認(rèn)扎實(shí)單詞基礎(chǔ)的重要性。

但是，SAT閱讀的難點(diǎn)往往并不僅在單詞部分。難點(diǎn)是什么?凌駕于單詞之上的閱讀理解。

1經(jīng)典長難句解析：

Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than anyother cause, produced despotism.

(---The passage is excerpted from aspeech delivered by James Madison. He believed that the Articles of Confederation, the current form of government at that time, should be replaced by the U.S. Constitution.)

陌生詞匯：

abridgement 刪節(jié);

encroachment 侵占(相關(guān)詞匯補(bǔ)充：infringe v.侵犯);

usurpation 篡權(quán)、侵占;

candid 率直的;

turbulence 動(dòng)蕩;

abuseof power 濫用權(quán)力;

trample 踩/踐踏、侵犯;

faction 派系派別(相關(guān)詞匯補(bǔ)充：講到宗教方面的派系用的比較多的是：sect);

commotion 喧囂、騷亂;

despotism 專制主義;

despot 專制君主

(相關(guān)的詞匯補(bǔ)充：tyranny暴政、專制國家tyrant 暴君)

剖析句子結(jié)構(gòu)：

Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there aremore instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism.

對(duì)單詞和句子結(jié)構(gòu)都有了把握之后就不難看出，理解作者看法的關(guān)鍵在于把握這句話中的兩個(gè)“more”：

1)侵犯公民自由的過程往往不是violent and sudden，更多的是gradual and silent。

2)abuse of power by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority 導(dǎo)致專制的情況，遠(yuǎn)勝于其他任何原因。

總結(jié)一下，即 the author claims that pubic liberty is threatened by the majority’s abuse of power。

上面這個(gè)句子的風(fēng)格是新SAT閱讀(History類)文章中的典型代表。歷史類文章不是考察學(xué)生世界歷史，說白了基本都是 founding document(建國文獻(xiàn))，比如聯(lián)邦黨人文集，女權(quán)類文章中的節(jié)選。這些文章往往有高階單詞和復(fù)雜的句型。

但讓很多同學(xué)在備考過程中頭疼的問題卻往往是：這句話我單詞都(查)認(rèn)識(shí)了，為什么還是不知道作者要說什么?

2再來一句：

Those who have quitted the world, and those who are not yet arrived at it, are as remote from each other, as the utmost stretch of mortal imagination can conceive.

這句話首先是比較短，其實(shí)是基本沒有什么難詞生詞。但是大家真的讀明白了嗎?

Quit the world的人是哪樣的人? Recluse? Not yet arrived at it的人呢?

句子解析：

SAT的閱讀并非是對(duì)文本字面意思的考察，而是對(duì)于文本的深度理解。美國高中生的英文閱讀量是中國學(xué)生的10倍，而正是這些平時(shí)的閱讀量決定了閱讀的理解深度。

所以，我們重新回到上面的句子來分析(當(dāng)然，大家也不妨聯(lián)系閱讀上下文來幫助理解)：

文章一開始就說到了：Every age and generation mustbe as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generationswhich preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, isthe most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.

粗糙版譯本：在任何情況下，每一代人都理應(yīng)如他們的前人一樣，擁有自由行事的權(quán)利。目空一切地推定自己在死后也可以治理(后人的)事務(wù)是最荒謬蠻橫的暴政。

Back to our question: quit the world 的人和 not yet arrived at it 的人指的就是已經(jīng)死去和未出生的兩類人。

最后重申一下，詞典和谷歌翻譯能幫大家搞定的文本字面意思，那都不是英語學(xué)習(xí)的難點(diǎn)。要從容應(yīng)對(duì)SAT考試，學(xué)會(huì)剖析文本并深入理解才是關(guān)鍵。

回家作業(yè)：

People object to the demands of those whom they choose to call the strong-minded, because they say “the right of suffrage will make the women masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few women in the best sense; we have simply so many reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine gender. The strong, natural characteristics of womanhood are repressed and ignored independence, for so long as man feeds woman she will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas, opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She must respect his statutes, though they strip her of every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher law written by the finger of God on her own soul.

Question：

As used in line 36, “best” most nearly means:

A) superior.

B) excellent.

C) genuine.

D) rarest.

請(qǐng)閱讀段落文本后，根據(jù)語境選出詞匯題的答案。

本題答案選：C. best 在語境中是 genuine 的意思。

你做對(duì)了嗎?