(六)、考研閱讀理解文章的結(jié)構(gòu)特點(diǎn)
對于一篇完整的英文說明文或者議論文來說,不論其形式看上去有多么復(fù)雜多樣,但是套用一句老話:“萬變不離其宗!币话憧佳虚喿x的文章都是采取傳統(tǒng)的三段論形式:即提出問題(提出說明的事物或者現(xiàn)象)、分析問題(對事物或者現(xiàn)象進(jìn)行說明)、解決問題(對說明的事物或者現(xiàn)象進(jìn)行總結(jié))。當(dāng)然這里所說的“三段論”不是指所有的文章都分為三個段落,但是大部分文章基本上都是由這三個部分組成的。下面我們列舉幾種具體的情況來進(jìn)行簡單的分析,并在每種模式后面都舉出了一篇考研真題的文章以幫助具體考生理解這些模式的特點(diǎn),考生在平時的復(fù)習(xí)中也應(yīng)該自己注意訓(xùn)練相關(guān)的判斷力。
模式1、第一部分:提出問題,可以開門見山地提出問題或者先闡述他人的觀點(diǎn)然后揭示自己與之相左的觀點(diǎn);
第二部分:層層遞進(jìn)地進(jìn)行分析,段落之間的邏輯聯(lián)系非常強(qiáng),每一段的論述都之前一段為依據(jù),這些段落經(jīng)常以moreover, further, furthermore, besides, in addition 等詞語或者詞組開頭;
第三部分:在第二部分邏輯推理的基礎(chǔ)上得出結(jié)論。
例文:95年P(guān)assage 3
In such a changing, complex society formerly simple solutions to informational needs become complicated. Many of life’ s problems which were solved by asking family members, friends or colleagues are beyond the capability of the extended family to resolve. Where to turn for expert information and how to determine which expert advice to accept are questions facing many people today.
In addition to this, there is the growing mobility of people since World War Ⅱ. As families move away from their stable community, their friends of many years, their extended family relationships, the informal flow of information is cut off, and with it the confidence that information will be available when needed and will be trustworthy and reliable. The almost unconscious flow of information about the simplest aspects of living can be cut off. Thus, things once learned subconsciously through the casual communications of the extended family must be consciously learned.
Adding to societal changes today is an enormous stockpile of information. The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated , time-consuming and sometimes even overwhelming .
Coupled with the growing quantity of information is the development of technologies which enable the storage and delivery of more information with greater speed to more locations than has ever been possible before. Computer technology makes it possible to store vast amounts of data in machine-readable files, and to program computers to locate specific information. Telecommunications developments enable the sending of messages via television, radio, and very shortly, electronic mail to bombard people with multitudes of messages. Satellites have extended the power of communications to report events at the instant of occurrence. Expertise can be shared world wide through teleconferencing, and problems in dispute can be settled without the participants leaving their homes and/or jobs to travel to a distant conference site. Technology has facilitated the sharing of information and the storage and delivery of information, thus making more information available to more people.
In this world of change and complexity, the need for information is of greatest importance. Those people who have accurate, reliable up-to-date information to solve the day-to-day problems, the critical problems of their business, social and family life, will survive and succeed. "Knowledge is power" may well be the truest saying and access to information may be the most critical requirement of all people.
其中中間三段的第一句話都是對上文的承接并引出新的話題,分別為“In addition to this…”、“Adding to societal changes is an enormous stockpile of information”、“Coupled with the growing quantity of information is…”。
模式2、第一部分:開頭提出一個概念、一個中心思想或者一種現(xiàn)象;
第二部分:圍繞著這個概念、中心思想或者現(xiàn)象,從各個方面進(jìn)行分析和解釋說明,這種文章比較容易定位其主旨;
第三部分:對文章進(jìn)行總結(jié),并再一次對該概念、中心思想進(jìn)行闡述,或?qū)ο嚓P(guān)現(xiàn)象進(jìn)行說明。
例文:2000年P(guān)assage 5
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition health, distinction, control over one’s destiny must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, However, it is the educated who have claimed to have give up on have give up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition-if not always their own the that of their parents and grandparents. There is heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped with the educated themselves riding on them.
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs. The locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is," Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious."
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
這篇文章主要圍繞著地質(zhì)活動的熱點(diǎn)(hot pot)理論這個概念進(jìn)行討論。
模式3、第一部分:提出問題,該問題涵蓋了兩個方面(或者更多);
第二部分:分別對這兩(或更多)個方面進(jìn)行分析和論述;
第三部分:總結(jié)全文,其中包含了對以上所涉及的各個方面的概括。
例文:2001年P(guān)assage1
Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialisation was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.
A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.
Although the process of professionalisation and specialisation was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
文章開頭就提出了問題的兩個方面,即科學(xué)發(fā)展的specialization(專業(yè)化)和professionalization(職業(yè)化)。
模式4、第一部分:提出一個現(xiàn)存的需要解決問題;
第二部分:分析問題產(chǎn)生的原因,存在的因素以及可能的解決方案,作者可能提到幾個不同的解決方案,但是之后作者自己認(rèn)可的那種方案才是文章的重點(diǎn)和主題
第三部分:對問題進(jìn)行總結(jié)說明并進(jìn)一步強(qiáng)調(diào)作者支持的那種解決辦法。
例文:1999年P(guān)assage 2
In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they’re looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company’ s private internet .
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers’ computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company’s Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That’s a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
模式5、第一部分:把開頭分為兩段,第一段不直接進(jìn)入要論述的問題和作者的觀點(diǎn),而是通過一個引子展開,或講述一個有趣的故事、或交待一些背景知識,到了第二段才正式提出問題,因此在這種情況下考生要避免直接去第一段找主旨,而是要通過閱讀全文正確地定位主題所在段落;
第二部分:對提出的問題進(jìn)行論述;
第三部分:得出結(jié)論,總結(jié)全文。
例文:1994年P(guān)assage 2
One hundred and thirteen million Americans have at least one bank-issued credit card. They give their owners automatic credit in stores, restaurants, and hotels, at home, across the country, and even abroad, and they make many banking services available as well. More and more of these credit cards can be read automatically, making it possible to withdraw or deposit money in scattered locations, whether or not the local branch bank is open. For many of us the "cashless society" is not on the horizon—it’s already here.
While computers offer these conveniences to consumers, they have many advantages for sellers too. Electronic cash registers can do much more than simply ring up sales. They can keep a wide range of records, including who sold what, when, and to whom. This information allows businessmen to keep track of their list of goods by showing which items are being sold and how fast they are moving. Decisions to reorder or return goods to suppliers can then be made. At the same time these computers record which hours are busiest and which employees are the most efficient, allowing personnel and staffing assignments to be made accordingly. And they also identify preferred customers for promotional campaigns. Computers are relied on by manufacturers for similar reasons. Computer-analyzed marketing reports can help to decide which products to emphasize now, which to develop for the future, and which to drop. Computers keep track of goods in stock, of raw materials on hand, and even of the production process itself.
Numerous other commercial enterprise, from theaters to magazine publishers, from gas and electric utilities to milk processors, bring better and more efficient services to consumers through the use of computers.
文章第一段通篇在談?wù)撔庞每ǚ⻊?wù)的優(yōu)點(diǎn),而第二段的第一句話才是主題句,指出了使用計算機(jī)的便利,因為信用卡的便利正式由于計算機(jī)技術(shù)的發(fā)展和普及帶來的。
模式6、第一部分:提出問題,作者將要對該問題的存在進(jìn)行指責(zé)和批判;
第二部分:從各個方面或者各個層次對問題進(jìn)行反駁;
第三部分:指出問題存在根本原因、可能帶來的后果、相應(yīng)的改進(jìn)措施、或者正確的看法和觀點(diǎn)等。
例文:這類反證類的文章至今還沒有在考研真題中出現(xiàn)過,但是考生應(yīng)該對這種模式有所了解。
此外,考研閱讀理解的文章一般都會有比較清晰的行文脈絡(luò),掌握這些規(guī)律也會有助于對文章整體的把握,甚至還可以幫助考生預(yù)見文章中可能會出現(xiàn)的觀點(diǎn)和發(fā)展方向。
常見的行文脈絡(luò)有以下幾種:
一般——具體:文章開頭先提出一個總的抽象的概念或者觀點(diǎn),接下來的各個段落具體說明第一段的觀點(diǎn),把抽象的概念具體化到一些事件上。
具體——一般:文章開頭提出一個具體的問題或者事件,接下來幾段從各個方面分別說明,最后一點(diǎn)進(jìn)行總結(jié)并把觀點(diǎn)抽象到一般的層面。
時間順序:這種行文脈絡(luò)出現(xiàn)在自然科學(xué)類的文章中比較多,一般通過時間先后順序來說明某一種理論的發(fā)展或者某一項研究的進(jìn)展程度。
對比:這類文章的主要目的目的在于對比兩種觀點(diǎn)、兩個事物的共同點(diǎn)或者差異等。
特別推薦:考研專家陳文燈、任汝芬等指導(dǎo)2009考研復(fù)習(xí)
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