托福阅读句子插入题:ETS套路深

2017-08-23 09:23

来源：新东方在线

作者：

　　今天我们来扒一扒托福阅读中句子插入题的“套路”。

　　不过在谈句子插入题之前，我们先聊一聊拼图游戏，因为这两者实在是太像了。相信大家小时候都玩过拼图游戏。它已经有250多年的历史。早在1760，英法两国就出现了最早的拼图。商人把图片粘在硬纸板上，然后把它剪成不规则的小碎片，取得了不错的销售业绩。最初这些图片都是有教育意义的，要么附有适于年轻人阅读的短文，要么向新兴资产阶级传授历史或地理知识(有没有想到托福阅读文章...)。想要很好地完成游戏，拼图人需要充分考虑每一块图片在整幅画面中的位置以及与周围图片的关系。与之相似，想要做好句子插入题，同学们同样需要充分考虑句子在段落中的地位以及与前后句之间的关系，这就比句子简化题那样通过句子内部信息就能够解决的题目要求高了一些。

　　不过也不用担心，因为句子插入题的解题线索通常就在出题老太太在给我们的句子里。

　　学习过托福课程的同学应该有印象，这些线索主要包括以下几种：指代词、总分结构、逻辑关系词。然而，线索只是线索，最终确定正确的位置还需要充足的证据，正如拼图需要与周边图片在“形状”和“画面”上都要“吻合”一样。所以，董老师觉得，在指代词、总分结构、逻辑关系词等“形状”线索大致“吻合”后，还必须检验“画面”是否“吻合”，也就是前后句内容是否“语义连贯”。良好地实现“语义连贯”的前后句中，往往都存在着某种“同义复现”。这些东西空说有些抽象，我们来举些chestnuts。

　　EX.1

　　...Since the raising of most crops necessitates the prior removal of the natural vegetation, crop failures leave extensive tracts of land devoid of a plant cover and susceptible to wind and water erosion.

　　■The raising of livestock is a major economic activity in semiarid lands, where grasses are

　　generally the dominant type of natural vegetation. ■The consequences of an excessive number of livestock grazing in an area are the reduction of the vegetation cover and the trampling and pulverization of the soil. ■This is usually followed by the drying of the soil and accelerated erosion. ■

　　This economic reliance on livestock in certain regions makes large tracts of land susceptible to overgrazing.

　　这一题是指代词提供线索的典型。常见的指代词有：this, those, other, another, such, they 等等。当这些指代词后面有名词性成分的时候，这个名词性成分就是我们进一步解题的关键，因为它告诉我们，待插入句(the last piece of the jigsaw)前一句定是有相当于这个名词成分所表达的内容的。本题This后面紧跟一个名词词组“economic reliance on livestock”，也就是说前一句得谈到“对畜牧的经济依赖”。观察四个黑块前面的句子，B前面一句中“The raising of livestock is a major economic activity in semiarid lands”正是对“economic reliance on livestock”的复现。再看待插入句整句内容，发现它在表达“某些地区的这种对畜牧的经济依赖使得大片土地容易受到过度放牧的危害”，同时B后面一句在说“后果就是植被的减少...”，恰好是对“危害”的复现。至此，本题已经可以确定，答案是B无疑了。

　　EX.2

　　New types of ships were needed, new methods of finding one's way, new techniques for

　　financing so vast a scheme. The sheer scale of the investment it took to begin commercial

　　expansion at sea reflects the immensity of the profits that such East-West trade could create. ■

　　Spices were the most sought-after commodities. ■ Spices not only dramatically improved the taste of the European diet but also were used to manufacture perfumes and certain medicines. ■ But even high-priced commodities like spices had to be transported in large bulk in order to justify the expense and trouble of sailing around the African continent all the way to India and China. ■

　　They were highly valued for a couple of reasons.

　　这一题是总分结构提供线索的典型。常见的总分结构主要是“举例”和“详述”。具体来说就是，待插入句没有代词或者虽然有代词，但是此句中暂时看不出指代什么时，考虑：若是概扩性语句，后方必有具体阐述;若是细节句，前方必有概括性陈述。本题They后面没有跟名词性成分，看不出they是什么，但是不难看出，这是一个概述性句子，后方必有对“a couple of reasons”的展开，谈某物被“highly valued”的原因或者优点之类。可以发现，B位置后一句中“not only dramatically improved the taste of the European diet but also were used to manufacture perfumes and certain medicines”就是谈“好处”，正可以作为“highly valued”的原因，而且B前面一句中“the most sought-after”恰好是“highly valued”的复现，所以本题选B无疑。将待插入句放在B的位置我们还可以发现，这时“They”指代“Spices”，恰好也可以使得前后内容连贯。

　　一直看典型题是不是有点单调?这一题我们看看逻辑关系词提供线索中的“非典型”。

　　EX.3

　　Phytoplankton are minute, free-floating aquatic plants. In addition to the marked changes in abundance observed in phytoplankton over the course of a year, there is also a marked change in species composition. ■ This change in the dominant species from season to season is called seasonal succession, and it occurs in a wide variety of locations. ■Under seasonal succession, one or more species dominate the phytoplankton for a shorter or longer period of time and then are replaced by another set of species. ■ This pattern is repeated yearly. ■ This succession is different from typical terrestrial ecological succession in which various plants replace one another until finally a so-called climax community develops, which persists for many years.

　　In fact, seasonal succession has been observed all over the globe, from the Arctic to the Tropics.

　　同学们可能已经对诸如表示因果的thus, therefore, accordingly, 表示转折的however, but, yet，表示举例的for example, for instance，还有表示解释的 that is to say, in other words, to put it in another way 等等习以为常，但是in fact究竟表示什么鬼?

　　小白：“ETS是世界最大的私立非盈利性教育考试和评估机构，实际上每年它帮助很多来自普通家庭的优秀学生通过公平竞争进入梦想的学府。”

　　小黑：“ETS是世界最大的私立非盈利性教育考试和评估机构，实际上每年它靠收报名费赚得盆满钵满。”

　　小灰：“ETS是世界最大的私立非盈利性教育考试和评估机构，实际上...实际上...我搞不懂它是什么，我要晕了。”

　　其实，in fact的完全形式是in actual fact。根据朗文当代英语词典，它有两个意思：

　　a) used when you are adding something, especially something surprising, to emphasize what you have just said

　　e.g. I know the mayor really well. In fact, I had dinner with her last week.

　　b) used to emphasize that the truth about a situation is the opposite of what has been mentioned

　　e.g. They told me it would be cheap but in fact it cost me nearly $500.

　　Her teachers said she was a slow learner, whereas in actual fact she was partially deaf.

　　细心的同学可能已经发现了，英文中in fact后面句子表达的意思与前面相反时，是要搭配but, whereas之类的表示转折的逻辑词的，如果只是in fact，则是表示补充信息。这也很好地体现了英语的“形合”特点，即通过“形式”的差别(加转折逻辑词)体现意思的差别。而中文是偏“意合”的，意思的差别往往隐含在前后句内容中，所以小黑的话里“实际上”前面不加“但”我们听着也很顺耳。也正因为这个差别，中国的学生在读着英文in fact的时候，底层思维还是Chinese在运行，就容易用与中文一样去处理。

　　关于in fact铺垫了这么多，回到那道题目。现在我们知道了，这个待插入句子与前句不是转折关系，而是要补充信息。看看它补充了什么呢?“seasonal succession has been observed all over the globe, from the Arctic to the Tropics”显然是位置或者范围信息。我们看看四个黑块的位置发现，只有B前面是在谈位置或者范围，同时“all over the globe”是对“in a wide variety of locations”的复现，而且B后面一句“Under seasonal succession”跟插入句语意连贯。于是就这么愉快地决定选B啦。

　　三道题目看下来，同学们是不是更加觉得句子插入题与拼图游戏十分相似呢?通过指代词、总分结构、逻辑关系词找到“形状”的线索，再通过“语意连贯”、“同意复现”检验“画面”是否吻合，破出题老太太的套路也就很easy了，而同学们在ETS这家世界最大的私立非盈利性教育考试和评估机构的帮助下，通过公平竞争进入梦想学府的把握自然也更高啦。

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