GRE考试阅读部分各项技能分析

学生必须首先认清，GRE的阅读考试不同于我们过去所经历的各种阅读考试，无论是中文或英文在K12阶段的语言考试，还是大学之后可能经历的4、6级阅读考试，抑或是TOEFL以及IELTS当中的阅读考试。GRE阅读所测试的能力决定了我们必须以不同的阅读策略切入，抛弃我们所固有的，已经习以为常的阅读习惯。那么，要做到这一点，我们就必须首先弄清楚GRE阅读考试所考察的能力重点。

以下摘自GRE官方指南： 我要在线咨询

Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test a wide range of abilities required to read and understand the kinds of prose commonly encountered in graduate school. Those abilities include:

understanding the meaning of individual words

understanding the meaning of individual sentences

understanding the meaning of paragraphs and larger bodies of text

distinguishing between minor and major points

summarizing a passage

drawing conclusions from the information provided

reasoning from incomplete data, inferring missing information

understanding the structure of a text, how the parts relate to one another

identifying the author’s perspective

identifying the author’s assumptions

analyzing a text and reaching conclusions about it

identifying strengths and weaknesses

developing and considering alternative explanations

简单复述一下能力列表，各项能力分别包含：

1. 理解词义

2. 理解句意

3. 理解段落及篇章的意义

4. 区分细节与主旨

5. 概括段落

6. 从已有信息当中推出结论

7. 从已有信息当中推出缺失信息

8. 理解文章结构和各部分之间关系

9. 判断作者的视角

10. 判断作者的假设

11. 从文本中得出结论

12. 判断论证的优点与缺陷

13. 寻找可能的解释  我要在线咨询

那么，我们逐条考察一下各能力在GRE阅读考试当中的呈现方式，希望能够帮助读者迅速理解这项考试的策略，并寻找合适的应对方案。

能力1显然会出现在词汇题当中。与很多同学可能熟悉的TOEFL词汇题不同，我们都知道TOEFL词汇题的做法是不带回原文直接选词义，更多考察的是词汇量本身，而不是词汇在语境中的含义;GRE的词汇题更需要大家能够根据上下文推断词义。比如：

A critical consensus has emerged that Mary McCarthy will be remembered primarily as an essayist rather than as a novelist. But despite her formidable gifts as a polemical and discursive writer, and for all her reputation as an intellectual who sacrificed feeling to intelligence, what powers McCarthy’s best essays are her fictional rather than strictly intellectual gifts. She makes her points by telling stories or by way of vivid description, arresting images and subtle characterization. And for all her exacting sense of fact, McCarthy’s greatest contribution was to blur the distinctions between different kinds of prose writing: to show how fiction could be opened up to the thinking mind and how essays could profit from the techniques of fiction.

In the context in which it appears, “discursive” most nearly means

A. Prolific

B. Sophistic

C. Rambling

D. Analytical

E. Circuitous

答案：D

这道题目如果同学们查字典，很容易选出C这个答案，因为discursive和rambling这两个词就是同义词，是“离题的”的意思。然而，在本文背景下，discursive一定是essay的特点，是用来表达intelligence而不是feeling的，在这种上下文背景下，它的意思应该是“推论的，论证的：通过推理而非直觉来得出结论的”，所以选择的答案是analytical。很显然，GRE的词汇题要求的并不简简单单是词汇量本身，而是上下文语义关系判断的能力。

能力2同样看似考察的是句子本身的字面意思，如果在TOEFL考试当中，只要看懂一个句子的语义，一道句子改写题基本就不成问题了。但是GRE考试当中，即便考察的是语句本身的语义，选项对原文的改写不仅仅是句型的改写，而很可能是不同逻辑形式对等效语义的表达。比如：

Astronomers studying a certain kind of supernova (exploding star) were surprised to find the supernovas were fainter than expected. Seeking explanations, they discounted the possibility that cosmic dust might be screening out some of the light, because it would filter out blue light more than red, causing the supernovas to appear redder than they really are. Also, unless spread very smoothly throughout space, the dust would introduce large variations in the measurements. Another possibility is gravitational lensing, the bending of light rays as they skirt galaxies en route. Such lensing occasionally causes brightening, but most often it contributes to the dimness of distant supernovas. Calculations show, however, that this effect becomes important only for sources more distant than the supernovas studied.

According to the passage, the astronomers rejected gravitational lensing as an explanation for their findings because

A. gravitational lensing can cause supernovas to appear brighter than they really are

B. their calculations showed a negligible effect of gravitational lensing for light rays from distant sources.

C. light rays traveling from the supernovas studied did not have to skirt galaxies.

D. the effect of gravitational lensing on the appearance of supernovas is unpredictable.

E. the supernovas studied were too near for gravitational lensing to have the observed dimming effect.

答案：E

这道题很明显考察的就是最后一句话“this effect becomes important only for sources more distant than the supernovas studied”的意思。而X becomes important for Y这句话，等效于X is not important for non-Y，而题干相当于在问X为什么not important，则答案就应该是non-Y。根据这个形式，鉴于原文的Y相当于distant，则正确选项就应该是以not distant为关键信息，所以选择了E，核心词是near。其实这个题反映了一个更普遍的常考察的语言现象，即以“only”为逻辑信息的句型其表面语义和实际语义之间的关系。当我在说“only when I work hard can I get high score”时，我并没有表达努力工作能够带来高分的意思，相反，我所表达是不努力工作没法带来高分的意思。而这种现象又代表的是一大类现象，即某种逻辑句型的表面语义和实际语义之间的关系，它要求同学们在阅读时能够在逻辑等效的句型之间进行语义的灵活切换。

• 上一篇：GMAT阅读长难句备考的三个方法
• 下一篇：ACT阅读高分的做题步骤

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