阅读方法论七Question Patterns (3)

II. General Understanding Questions

1. Main Idea

(1) GRE、GMAT考试

对于GRE、GMAT考试中的短文章，我们主要是学会从文章找到观点，然后根据观点的关系确定谁是最重要的观点从而确定main idea。这里我们非常重视因果关系和由demonstrative pronouns or adjectives承上启下的关系。我们来看下面这个例子（例子参看上期文章《阅读方法论七Question Patterns (1)》）

    而对于GRE、GMAT的长文章，我们主要是重视文章首段和二段的阅读。GRE、GMAT的长文章一般在结构可以分为两个大类：评论型文章（Evaluative）和说明型文章（Expository）。根据文章的写作目的，我们又可以细分为四个大类，六个小类，参看下表：

Example 1: Different Viewpoints

Example 2: Opposing Arguments

Traditionally, pollination by wind has been viewed as a reproductive process marked by random events in which the vagaries of the wind are compensated for by the generation of vast quantities of pollen, so that the ultimate production of new seeds is assured at the expense of producing much more pollen than is actually used. Because the potential hazards pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances   are enormous, wind-pollinated plants have, in the view above, compensated for the ensuing loss of pollen through happenstance by virtue of producing an amount of pollen that is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the amount produced by species pollinated by insects.

However, a number of features that are characteristics of wind-pollinated plants reduce pollen waste. For example, many wind-pollinated species fail to release pollen when wind speeds are low or when humid conditions prevail. Recent studies suggest another way in which species compensate for the inefficiency of wind-pollination.

通过上面文章首段、二段我们已经标记好的重点内容（Traditionally和viewed as表明了传统观点的提出，而because的出现标志着对老观点的因果解释和说明，however和for example的出现都表明二段首句是一个重要的观点，而another的出现表明转折后的观点的表现可以包括两个方面），我们可以清楚地知道，这篇文章出现了两个观点：一个观点认为风媒植物为了确保授粉的成功一定要通过大量的浪费来实现；而另一个观点认为风媒植物为了确保授粉的成功其实可以通过一些特点来实现并减少浪费。所以这两个观点是一种补充关系。而下面的主旨题目要正确一定要出现focus: wind-pollinated and pollen waste。另外一定要强调转折后的观点，即减少浪费。

The author of the passage is primarily concerned with discussing

(A) the current debate on whether the morphological attributes of wind-pollinated plants are evolutionary adaptations

(B) the kinds of airflow patterns that permit wind-pollinated plants to capture pollen most efficiently

(C) the ways in which the reproductive processes of wind-pollinated plants are controlled by random events

(D) a recently proposed explanation of a way in which wind-pollinated plants reduce pollen        waste

(E) a specific morphological attribute that permits one species of wind-pollinated plant to        capture pollen

选项A的内容与前两段内容没有关联，不可能是中心，因为学术化文章的中心一定会在前面的段落中出现；选项B过于具体而且还出现了most efficiently这样莫须有的最高级，错；选项C是属于老看法，错；选项E 从specific morphological attribute看出是细节不是观点句，也错；只有选项D符合减少浪费这一中心，所以选D。

Example 3: Establishment

Thomas Hardy’s impulses as a writer, all of which he indulged in his novels, were numerous and divergent, and they did not always work together in harmony. Hardy was to some degree interested in exploring his characters’ psychologies, though impelled less by curiosity than by sympathy. Occasionally he felt the impulse to comedy (in all its detached coldness) as well as the impulse to farce, but he was more often inclined to see tragedy and record it. He was also inclined to literary realism in the several senses of that phrase. He wanted to describe ordinary human beings; he wanted to speculate on their dilemmas rationally (and, unfortunately, even schematically); and he wanted to record precisely the material universe. Finally, he wanted to be more than a realist. He wanted to transcend what he considered to be the banality of solely recording things exactly and to express as well his awareness of the occult and the strange.

In his novels these various impulses were sacrificed to each other inevitably and often.

通过上面文章首段我们已经标记好的重点内容（were numerous and divergent的判断，always限定词也伴随着观点的提出not work together in harmony），所以我们判定这篇文章应该是立论型的文章，再通过首段首句之后的内容的阅读我们发现，occasionally, also, finally等词引导的内容其实就是为了体现Thomas Hardy’s impulses的多而杂乱这一特征。接着我们发现二段首句的内容sacrificed to each other inevitably and often与not work together in harmony是相互呼应的，由此映证了我们前面的判定。所以这篇文章的中心是围绕着Hardy’ Novelistic Impulses的特点多而杂，没有很好协调这两个特征来阐述的。由此下面的题目我们可以轻松地判定答案选D。需要注意的是，命题题型关键是看下面选项的主干是不是和文章的focus吻合，而不是通过自己的思考来判断。

Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the passage, based on its content?

A. Under the Greenwood Tree: Hardy’s Ambiguous Triumph

B. The Real and the Strange: The Novelist’s Shifting Realms

C. Energy Versus Repose: The Role of ordinary people in Hardy’ fiction

D. Hardy’ Novelistic Impulses: The problems of control

E. Divergent Impulses: The Issue of Unity in the Novel       

需要注意的是，命题题型关键是看下面选项的主干是不是和文章的focus吻合，而不是通过自己的思考来判断。既然我们这篇文章的中心是Hardy’ Novelistic Impulses，所以答案就只有可能选D。

（未完待续）吴鹏