SAT阅读部分考情回顾

　　总体来说，与10份的SAT考试相比，题材的顺序依然未变：文学、历史、科学、社会科学、科学。与10月份不同的是此次考试双篇出现在第二篇的历史题材中，而10月份的双篇出现在第五篇的科学篇中。童鞋们反映历史和文学依然是考试的难点。另外，细节类题目依然给考试造成了不小的困难。下面我们一起看看阅读考试的大概情况。

　　1、篇


　　题材：文学


　　A Room with a View

　　梗概
：

　　
篇文章节选自英国作家E·M·福斯特的长篇小说《看得见风景的房间》。该小说主要描述了露西和乔治的爱情故事，故事的场地发生在意大利。本次考试节选部分内容主要是关于文化生活的观念差异对比：意大利的自由与英格兰的虚伪的对比。

　　原文：

　　The society out of which Cecil proposedto rescue Lucy was perhaps no very splendid affair, yet it was more splendidthan her antecedents entitled her to. Her father, a prosperous local solicitor,had built Windy Corner, as a speculation at the time the district was openingup, and, falling in love with his own creation, had ended by living therehimself. Soon after his marriage the social atmosphere began to alter. Otherhouses were built on the brow of that steep southern slope and others, again,among the pine-trees behind, and northward on the chalk barrier of the downs.Most of these houses were larger than Windy Corner, and were filled by peoplewho came, not from the district, but from London, and who mistook theHoneychurches for the remnants of an indigenous aristocracy. He was inclined to befrightened, but his wife accepted the situation without either pride orhumility. "(此处出题，考察夫妻两人对何种问题的何种不同态度)Icannot think what people are doing," she would say, "but it isextremely fortunate for the children." She called everywhere; her callswere returned with enthusiasm, and by the time people found out that she wasnot exactly of their milieu, they liked her, and it did not seem to matter.When Mr. Honeychurch died, he had the satisfaction--which few honest solicitorsdespise--of leaving his family rooted in the best society obtainable(连同下一段的重复，考察该句在文中想表达的作用).

　　The best obtainable. Certainly many ofthe immigrants were rather dull, and Lucy realized this more vividly since herreturn from Italy. Hitherto she had accepted their ideals without questioning —their kindly affluence(此处考察该短语在文中想表达的含义),their inexplosive religion, their dislike of paper-bags, orange-peel, andbroken bottles. A Radical out and out, she learnt to speak with horror ofSuburbia. Life, so far as she troubled to conceive it, was a circle of rich,pleasant people, with identical interests and identical foes. In this circle,one thought, married, and died. Outside it were poverty and vulgarity forevertrying to enter, just as the London fog tries to enter the pine-woods pouringthrough the gaps in the northern hills. But, in Italy, where any one who chooses may warm himselfin equality(考察此处转折关系), as in the sun, thisconception of life vanished. Her senses expanded; she felt that there was noone whom she might not get to like, that social barriers were irremovable,doubtless, but not particularly high. You jump over them just as you jump intoa peasant's olive-yard in the Apennines, and he is glad to see you. Shereturned with new eyes.

　　So did Cecil; but Italy had quickenedCecil, not to tolerance, but to irritation. He saw that the local society wasnarrow, but, instead of saying, "Does that very much matter?" herebelled, and tried to substitute for it the society he called broad(考察改词在语境中的含义).He did not realize that Lucy had consecrated her environment by the thousandlittle civilities that create a tenderness in time, and that though her eyessaw its defects, her heart refused to despise it entirely. Nor did he realize amore important point—that if she was too great for this society, she was toogreat for all society, and had reached the stage where personal intercoursewould alone satisfy her. A rebel she was, but not of the kind he understood—arebel who desired, not a wider dwelling-room, but equality beside the man sheloved. For Italy was offering her the most priceless of all possessions—her ownsoul.

　　2、第二篇


　　题材：历史双篇

　　Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

　　梗概


　　历史双篇均选自美国第二任总统约翰·亚当斯写给妻子的信。此信写于独立宣言发布6个月后，信中探讨了美国独立宣言的意义所在，作者认为独立可能机遇与挑战并存，但美国必须获得独立。

　　原文：


　　Passage 1:

　　Yesterday the greatest Question wasdecided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was orwill be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissentingColony "that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free andindependent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have fullPower to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the otherActs and Things, which other States may rightfully do." You will see in afew days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impelled Us to thismighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of Godand Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days.

　　When I look back to the Year 1761, andrecollect the Argument concerning Writs of Assistance, in the Superiour Court,which I have hitherto considered as the Commencement of the Controversy,between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole Period from thatTime to this, and recollect the series of political Events, the Chain of Causesand Effects, I am surprized at the Suddenness, as well as Greatness of thisRevolution. Britain has been filled with Folly, and America with Wisdom, atleast this is my judgment. Time must determine. It is the Will of Heaven, that the two Countries shouldbe sundered forever(考察该句中作者表达的对英美两国关系的理解).It may be the Will of Heaven that America shall suffer Calamities still morewasting and Distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the Case, it willhave this good Effect, at least: it will inspire Us with many Virtues, which Wehave not, and correct many Errors, Follies, and Vices, which threaten todisturb, dishonor, and destroy Us. The Furnace of Affliction producesRefinement, in States as well as Individuals. And the new Governments we areassuming, in every Part, will require a Purification from our Vices, and anAugmentation of our Virtues or they will be no Blessings. The People will have unboundedPower. And the People are extremely addicted to Corruption and Venality, aswell as the Great(对比题目中考察该句中the people的与篇章二中people的对比).But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, inwhich, unfashionable the Faith may be, I firmly believe.

　　Passage 2:

　　Had a Declaration of Independency beenmade seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and gloriousEffects. We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States.We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada. You willperhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, inCanada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that itwould, and explain to you the manner how.

　　But on the other Hand, the Delay ofthis Declaration to this Time has many great Advantages attending(考察该词在语境中的含义)it. The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes ofhonest and well meaning those weak and mistaken People, have been gradually andat last totally extinguished. Time has been given for the whole People,maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen theirjudgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it inNews Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions,Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as inprivate Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, havenow adopted it, as their own Act. This will cement the Union(考察该句，即本段所表达的delay的advantage),and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned,by such a Declaration Six Months ago.

　　But the Day is past. The Second Day ofJuly 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.

　　3、第三篇


　　题材：科学

　　Madness of crowds, single ants beat colonies at easy choices

　　
梗概


　　个科学题材文章是Ed Yong2013年7月30日发表在《国家地理》杂志上的一篇文章。作者认为以前人们几乎都认为蚁群的力量要大于单个蚂蚁的战斗力量，尤其是在处理比较困难的问题时，比如建造救生筏，攻击大型猎物，吓退大象。但是，作者在文章中支持了一个新的观点：如果蚂蚁筑巢地址选择得好，单兵作战能力实际上优于群体作战能力。

　　原文：

　　Virtually every article or documentaryabout ants takes a moment to fawn over their incredible collectiveachievements. Together, ant colonies can raise gardens and livestock, buildliving rafts, run vaccination programmes, overpower huge prey, deter elephants,and invade continents. No individual could do any of this; it takes a colony topull off such feats.

　　But ants can also screw up. Like allanimal collectives, theyface situations when the crowd’s wisdom turns into foolishness(本文主旨句，基本本句可直接排除很多选项).

　　Takao Sasaki and Stephen Pratt from Arizona State University found onesuch example among house-hunting Temnothorax ants. When they need to find a new nest, workers spread outfrom their colony to search for good real estate(考察本句中选取该蚂蚁的原因).In earlier work, Sasaki and Pratt have shown that, as a group, the ants arebetter at picking the best of two closely matched locations, even if most ofthe workers have only seen one of the options. It’s a classic example of swarmintelligence, where a colony collectively computes the best solution to a task.

　　But Sasaki showed that this only happens if their choice is difficult.If one nest site is clearly better than the other, individual ants actuallyoutperform colonies. When a worker finds a new potential home, it judges thesite’s quality for itself. Temnothoraxants love dark nests, in particular; with fewer holes, it’s easier to controltheir temperature or defend them(考察本句中表述的该蚂蚁的习性).If the worker decides that it likes the spot, it returns to the colony andleads a single follower to the new location. If the follower agrees, it doesthe same. Through these “tandem-runs”(考察该短语所表达的效果),sites build up support, and better ones do so more quickly than poorer ones.When enough ants have been convinced of the worth of a site, their migrationgathers pace. Workers just start picking up their nestmates and carrying themto the new site.

　　As the light difference between the nests got bigger and the task becameeasier, the ants, whether as individuals or colonies, made more accuratechoices. The team expected as much. But to their surprise(重点实验结果，理解该句可直接定位答案，排除选项若干),the single workers showed the greatest improvements and eventually outperformedtheir collective peers. In the easiest tasks, they chose the darker nest 90percent of the time, while the colonies peaked at 80 percent accuracy.

　　To understand why this happens, consider how the ants choose theirnests. If an individual is working by herself, she might visit a few sites in arow and gauge the difference between them. If they’re very similar, there’s agood chance she’ll make the wrong decision. But the colony doesn’t work off therecommendations of any individual; it relies on a quorum, just like the up- anddown-voting system of social websites like Reddit. Together, the colony can amplify small differences(解释神奇结果的原因，然而木有考)between closely-matched sites and smooth out bad choices from errantindividuals.

　　Still, this system(考察该词在语境中的含义)isn’t perfect. If many ants happen to find a bad site very quickly, they mightreach a quorum before other workers have time to rouse support for a betteralternative. “A bad choice can happen even if one site is much better than theother, because the ants at the bad site will have no information at all aboutthe existence of the much better alternative,” says Sasaki.

　　

4.第四篇


　　题材：社会科学


　　The best lie detectors in the workplace

　　梗概


　　12月考试的社会科学题材文章选在于《华盛顿邮报》，文章发表于2013年4月5日。作者Adam Grunt是沃顿商学院的一名教授。这是一篇关于领导力的文章，作者认为的领导不必是任何时候都对他人持以信任态度，而是大多数时候相信大多数人，对别人持有信念的人才能够走得更远。

　　原文：

　　Lie detection is a notoriouslydifficult skill to master. In fact, even most so-called lie detection experts —experienced detectives, psychiatrists, job interviewers, judges, polygraphadministrators, intelligence agents and auditors — hardly do better thanchance. In a massive analysis of studies with more than 24,000 people,psychologists Charles Bond Jr. and Bella DePaulo found that even the expertsare right less than 55 percent of the time.

　　Still, some people are better judges of character than others. So whenwe need to count on people to assess honesty, we tend to turn to the skepticsamong us, expecting that they’ll be thorough and discerning.

　　Consider a clever study by psychologists Nancy Carter and Mark Weber,who presented business professionals with a scenario about an organizationstruggling with dishonesty in its hiring interviews. They had the chance tochoose one of two highly competent senior managers to be the company’s jobinterviewer. The majordifference(该句表述的差异是该实验开展的基础，重点考察)between the two managers wasn’t experience or skill, it was a matter ofpersonality: One manager was skeptical and suspicious, whereas the othermanager had a habit of trusting others. Eighty-five percent chose the skepticalmanager to make the hiring decisions, expecting the trusting manager to be naïve and easilyduped(结合该句考察人们对trusting others 的manager的看法).

　　But are we rightthat skeptics are better lie detectors? To find out, Carter and Webercreated videotapes of eight business students interviewing for a job. Half ofthe interviewees told the truth throughout the interview, while the other halfwas instructed to tell three significant lies apiece.

　　The results were surprising. The more trusting evaluators betteridentified the liars among the group than the skeptics did, and were also lesslikely to hire those liars. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s the skepticswho are easiest to fool. Why would this be? One possibility, according to Carter and Weber, isthat lie-detection skills cause people to become more trusting. If you’re goodat spotting lies, you need to worry less about being deceived by others,because you can often catch them in the act.

　　The otherpossibility(结合上段中的种解释，对两种解释进行对比，答案要总结该段中第二种解释的特点)is that by trusting others, we sharpen our skills in reading people. Skepticsassume that most people are hiding or misrepresenting something. This makesthem interpersonally risk-averse, whereas people who habitually trust othersget to see a wider range of actions — from honesty to deception and generosityto selfishness. Over time, this creates more opportunities to learn about thesignals that distinguish liars from truth tellers. It’s this latterexplanation, that trust improves our lie detection skills, that I find moreplausible. Children develop beliefs about the integrity and benevolence ofothers early in life, often years before they can master the art of spottingcon artists.

　　So what signals dotrusters use to spot lies? (考察该句以及第四段首句都是问句所起到的作用)Oneof the study’s findings is that they pay more attention to vocal cues thanskeptics do. This lines up beautifully with a breakthrough review led by thepsychologist Alder Vrij. His team examined several decades of research andconcluded that most of us rely heavily on nonverbal cues, such as nervousnessor confidence, even though they can be misleading.

　　
5.第五篇


　　题材：科学


　　New Look at Ancient Mineral Could Scrap a Test for Early Oxygen

　　梗概


　　最后一篇文章选自《科学》杂志，发表于2014年2月28日。文章主要是对早期氧气出现时间的研究提出了质疑，认为氧气出现的时间可能要晚于之前研究所提出的时间。

　　原文

　　Geologists trying to sniff out signs of oxygen in Earth’s early air have long struggled with a major obstacle: eons-oldrocks that provide only a ragged, fragmentary record of the gas. Even so, somehave for decades taken the presence of the mineral hematite in a so-calledbanded iron formation (BIF) in northwestern Australia as a sign that 2.5billion years ago, Earth’s atmosphere had at least a trace(考察该词汇的语境含义)of oxygen. The ruddy mineral was thought to record the moment whenphotosynthesis first pushed oxygen to levels high enough to fully oxidize iron.

　　Now,a new study of that BIF, using the latest analytical techniques, suggests thatthis rock record has been misread. If true, oxygen actually may have appearedin the atmosphere hundreds of millions of years later than this BIFsuggested. Geologists say the study raises serious questions about a supposedlyreliable test. “People are recognizing that we have to be more careful,” says geochemist Timothy Lyons ofthe University of California, Riverside. “We need to increasingly focus ondoing just what [these authors] did, a more careful characterization of samples.”(通过该句考察询证的对应)

　　In apaper in the Geological Society of America Bulletin published online on3 February, geologists Birger Rasmussen, Bryan Krapež, and Daniela Meier ofCurtin University, Bentley, Australia, reanalyze the mineral makeup of theDales Gorge BIF, an ancient ocean bottom now in western Australia. Theiroriginal intent was to explain how run-of-the-mill BIFs like Dales Gorge turn into the iron-rich ores(考察该句中turn into后的细节)so heavily minedworldwide.

　　Theteam took 400 translucent slivers of Dales Gorge rock from four deep-drillcores and studied them with several kinds of modern optical microscopes, aswell as with a scanning electron microscope equipped with an x-ray spectrometerfor elemental analysis. That let the researchers see where each microscopicmineral in the rock formed and get a sense of the order of their creation.Knowing the conditions under which each mineral could form, the researcherscould tell a tale about conditions in the ocean beneath which the BIF was firstlaid down—a time when oxygen gas may have been making its first, tentativeappearance on Earth.

　　Theirmore detailed look at the rocks focused on hematite, which consists of ironcombined with as much oxygen as iron’s bonds can hold. Because the Dales GorgeBIF has plenty of oxygen-rich hematite, earlier researchers concluded thatoxygen gas from the atmosphere must have already been dissolved in the oceanand in the underlying sediments 2.5 billion years ago, when the makings of thisBIF first settled to the ocean bottom.

　　Butthe Australian researchers see signs that the BIF’s hematite was aJohnny-come-lately. Otheriron-rich minerals(该句中对other iron的描述是研究者产生疑问的本源，重点考察)—onesthat, unlike hematite, form in the absence of oxygen gas—were there in theoriginal seafloor sediments, the group argues. But they conclude that this ironwas probably not oxidized, producing the hematite, until about 300 millionyears later, after tectonicforces(细节题考察)crumpledthe sea floor into mountains and drove oxygen-laden water down into the rock.Given that western Australia hosts the archetypal examples of BIFs in thatearly time, Rasmussen says, the Dales Gorge formation “probably records fundamentalprocesses that also affected other BIFs at some time in their history.”

　　Othersare not ready to go quite that far. BIF geologist Bruce Simonson of OberlinCollege in Ohio praises the team’s “careful study and reasonable conclusions”but adds that “it would bepremature to extrapolate their conclusions to all BIFs everywhere.”(考察该句中对本文中理论的批判，考察该句的同义改写)Even so, both he and Lyons see the new work as a warning shot. “Big stories [ofoxygen’s history] have been told by small amounts of data,” Lyons says. Lately,“by being more careful, we’re seeing a more nuanced, more coherent picture.”

　　SAT写作部分考情回顾

　　最后我们再来看看12月的写作部分考了啥：

　　Americans’ Future Has to Be Multilingual

　　本文于2012年8月31日发表于《华府外交官》(Washington Diplomat)杂志，作者Linda Moore是Freedom Public Charter School的创始人和执行董事。作者在文中大力提倡美国的初等教育实行双语和多语种教育。文章理解不难，可以分析的写作手法也是非常多的，比如文章开篇的数据对比，权威机构观点的引用，中间段落以及最后都给出了双语和多语种教育的意义。整篇文章晓之以理，动之以情，颇具说服力。写起来还是比较容易的。

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