GRE阅读 | 最害怕的#文学评论#类长文章,全篇其实就一句话?

  “

  GREVerbal中最具杀伤力的题目是什么?

  绝大部分同学脑海中会浮现出三个字

  长阅读

  长阅读以长达四五百字的篇幅,加上后面的四道题,对大部分同学来说是噩梦般的存在。

  一般课下同学们鼓起勇气读了一篇长文章,经常效果就是,花了半小时终于读完做完题(而半小时其实是整个Verbal section 20道题的考试时间……),然后发现能做对2道就谢天谢地了。而如果长文章的题材是——文学评论,天,那简直雪上加霜……据统计,中国同学最害怕的文章题材就是文学评论类(紧跟着的大概是天文和美国历史)。

  

  诶?不信?

  欢迎收看下面这篇在考试中出现过的长文章:(读到一半读不下去的话就直接看下面的讲解带着读吧)

  来自佛脚阅读part 2 机经部分的第92篇,如果没有下载佛脚阅读分册的同学可以在第二条推送里找链接。

  Despite winning several prestigious literary awards of the day, when it first appeared, Alice Walker’sThe Color Purple generated critical unease over puzzling aspects of its compositions. In what, as one reviewer put it, was “clearly intended to be a realistic novel,” many reviewers perceived violations of the conventions of the realistic novel form, pointing out variously that late in the book, the narrator-protagonist Celie and her friends are propelled toward a happy ending with more velocity than credibility, that the letters from Nettie to her sisterCelie intrude into the middle of the main action with little motivation or warrant, and that the device of Celie’s letters to God is especially unrealistic inasmuch as it forgoes the concretizing details that traditionally have given the epistolary novel (that is, a novel composed of letters) its peculiar verisimilitude: the ruses to enable mailing letters, the cache,and especially the letters received in return.

  Indeed, the violations of realistic convention are so flagrant that they might well call into question whether The Color of Purple is indeed intended to be a realistic novel, especially since there are indications that at least some of those aspects of the novel regarded by viewers as puzzling may constitute its links to modes of writing other than Anglo-European nineteenth-century realism. For example, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has recently located the letters to God within an African American tradition deriving from slave narrative, a tradition in which the act of writing is linked to a powerful deity who “speaks” through ure and bestows literacy as an act of grace. For Gates, the concern with finding a voice, which he sees as the defining feature of African American literature, links Celie’s letters with certain narrative aspects of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the acknowledged predecessor of The ColorPurple.

  Gates’s paradigm suggests how misleading it may be to assume that mainstream realist criteria are appropriate for evaluating The ColorPurple. But in his preoccupation with voice as a primary element unifying both the speaking subject and the text as a whole Gates does not elucidate many of the more conventional structural features of Walker’s novel. For instance, while the letters from Nettie clearly illustrate Nettie’s acquisition of her own voice, Gates’s focus on “voice” sheds little light on the placethat these letters occupy in the narrative or on why the plot takes this sudden jump into geographically and culturally removed surroundings. What is needed is an evaluative paradigm that, rather than obscuring such startling structural features (which may actually be explicitly intended to undermine traditional Anglo-European novelistic conventions), confronts them, thus illuminating the deliberately provocative ways in which The Color Purple departs from the traditional models to which it has been compared.

  Q

  A

  &

  The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the letters from Nettie to Celie?

  A.They mark an unintended shift to geographically and culturally removed surroundings

  B.They may represent a conscious attempt to undermine certain novelistic conventions

  C.They are more closely connected to the main action of the novel than is at first apparent

  D.They owe more to the tradition of the slave narrative than do Celie’s letters to God

  E.They illustrate the traditional concretizing details of the epistolary novel form

  Q

  A

  &

  In the second paragraph, the author of the passage is primarily concerned with

  A.examining the ways in which The ColorPurple echoes its acknowledged

  predecessor, Their Eyes Were Watching God

  B.providing an example of a critic who has adequately addressed the structural features of The Color Purple

  C.suggesting that literary models other than the nineteenth-century realistic novel may inform our understanding of The Color Purple

  D.demonstrating the ineffectiveness of a particularly scholarly attempt to suggest an alternative way of evaluating TheColor Purple

  E.disputing the perceived notion that TheColor Purple departs from conventions of the realistic novel form

  Q

  A

  &

  According to the passage, an evaluative paradigm that confronts the startling structural features ofThe Color Purple would accomplish which of the following?

  A.It would adequately explain why many reviewers of this novel have discerned its connections to the realistic novel tradition

  B.It would show the ways in which this novel differs from its reputedAnglo-European nineteenth-century models

  C.It would explicate the overarching role of voice in this novel

  D.It would address the ways in which this novel echoes the central themes of Hurston’sTheir Eyes Are Watching God

  E.It would reveal ways in which these structural features serve to parody novelistic conventions

  Q

  A

  &

  The author of the passage suggests that Gates is most like the reviewers mentioned in the first paragraph in which of the following ways?

  A.He points out discrepancies between TheColor Purple and other traditional epistolary novels

  B.He sees the concern with finding a voice as central to both The Color Purple and Their Eyes Are Watching God

  C.He assumes that The Color Purple is intended to be a novel primarily in the tradition of Anglo-American nineteenth-century realism

  D.He does not address many of the unsettling structural features of The Color Purple

  E.He recognizes the departure of The Color Purple from traditional Anglo-European realistic novel conventions.

  好的,看完了。相信你应该已经信了(微笑)。

  而且,你造吗,这样一篇文章在考试中只有8分钟来读。(此处应有心碎的声音)

  

  好了,如果你尝试了做题,会发现,即使你回去找到了文章中具体讲这个东西的位置,你也很难选出来一个选项。因为GRE阅读考察的并不是你能读懂某一句话或者它附近的几句,然后识别出选项中它的同义改写的能力——这是托福阅读考的事。我们要考点复杂的。

  哦不,确切来说,我们是考一些——更本质的。同学们朋友吗,还记得我们的标题吗?这样可怕的文学评论类长文章,其实就只有一句话。

  不信?怎么又不信,年轻人啊…

  我们来看:

  第一段

  Despite winning several prestigious literary awards of the day, when it first appeared, Alice Walker’sThe Color Purple generated critical unease over puzzling aspects of its compositions.

  第一句说,Walker的这本书让人困惑。

  In what, as one reviewer put it, was “clearly intended to be a realistic novel,” many reviewers perceived violations of the conventions of the realistic novel form,

  第二句,怎么困惑呢?大家发现它违反了现实主义啊。

  pointing out variously that late in the book, the narrator-protagonist Celie and her friends are propelled toward a happy ending with more velocity than credibility, that the letters from Nettie to her sister Celie intrude into the middle of the main action with little motivation or warrant, and that the device of Celie’s letters toGod is especiallyunrealistic inasmuch as it forgoes the concretizing details that traditionally have given the epistolary novel (that is, a novel composed of letters) its peculiar verisimilitude: the ruses to enable mailing letters, the cache, and especially the letters received in return. 然后pointing out后面一堆例子,说你看哪哪哪就违反了现实主义。

  哪1:我去,这么快就强行HE了,也太假了吧?(propelled toward a happy ending with more velocity than credibility)哪2:怎么忽然她姐给她写信了,完全没道理啊?(with little motivation or warrant)哪3:怎么还给上帝写信了!!太不现实了!(especially unrealistic)

  嗯戏有点多…

  总之一句话,就是说Walker这本书很多地方都不现实主义。

  ok,一句话。

  第二段

  Indeed, the violations of realistic convention are so flagrant that they might well call into questionwhether The Color of Purple is indeed intended to be a realistic novel, especially since there are indications that at least some of those aspects of the novel regarded by viewers as puzzling may constitute its links to modes of writing other than Anglo-European nineteenth-century realism. Indeed开头,和上一段方向一致啊。那我们觉得估计还说的是这个事(不现实主义)。第一句果然继续说违反现实主义特别明显(flagrant),以至于(so……that)让人觉得它可能根本就没打算现实主义啊,而是和现实主义之外的(other than Anglo-European nineteenth-century realism)写作方式联系。

  For example, Henry LouisGates, Jr., has recently located the letters to God within an African American tradition deriving from slave narrative, a tradition in which the act of writing is linked to a powerful deity who “speaks” through ure and bestows literacy as an act of grace. For Gates, the concern with finding a voice, which he sees as the defining feature of African American literature,links Celie’s letters with certain narrative aspects of Zora Neale Hurston’s1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the acknowledged predecessor of The ColorPurple. 然后后面例子就说了,它和非洲文学联系了,非洲文学果然就神神叨叨的/不现实(a powerful deity who“speaks” through ure and bestows literacy as an act of grace)。

  所以第二段,还是说Walker的这本书不现实主义,可能人家就没打算现实主义。

  Ok,还是一句话。

  第三段

  Gates’s paradigm suggests how misleading it may be to assume that mainstream realist criteria are appropriate for evaluating The Color Purple. 第一句继续说Gates证明了这本书不现实主义。But in his preoccupation with voice as a primary element unifying both the speaking subject and the text as a whole Gates does not elucidate many of the more conventional structural features of Walker's novel.但是Gates没能说清楚一些结构特征。

  For instance, while the letters from Nettie clearly illustrate Nettie’s acquisition of her own voice,Gates’s focus on “voice” sheds little light on the place that these letters occupy in the narrative or on why the plot takes this sudden jump into geographically and culturally removed surroundings.例子。What is needed is an evaluative paradigm that, rather than obscuring such startling structural features (which may actually be explicitly intended to undermine traditionalAnglo-European novelistic conventions), confronts them, thus illuminating the deliberately provocative ways in which TheColor Purple departs from the traditional models to which it has been compared.最后说我们需要的是(What is needed)是直面这些结构特征(confronts them),这样就说明了:这本书和现实主义不一样(departs from the traditional models to which it has been compared)。

  诶,是不是又说回来了这本书不现实主义?

  所以这篇文章467个字,就说了一句话,Walker的这本书不现实主义。

  什么?其他的那些都不重要吗?我们用题来证明,那些细节真的,不重要。

  The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the letters from Nettie to Celie?

  作者认为N给C写的信怎么样?这不是一个例子吗,不就是说这些信不现实主义。B. They may represent a conscious attempt to undermine certain novelistic conventions

  这些信就是故意违反现实主义,这本书就没打算现实主义。

  In the second paragraph, the author of the passage is primarily concerned with

  第二段,作者主要是写什么。第二段也是说这本书就不现实主义。所以选C. suggesting that literary models other than the nineteenth-century realistic novel may inform our understanding of The Color Purple 说明现实主义之外的写作方式会帮助我们理解这本书。不就是说这本书不是现实主义?

  According to the passage, an evaluative paradigm that confronts the startling structural features ofThe Color Purple would accomplish which of the following?

  直面这些写作特点会怎么样?那就是证明这本书不现实主义啊。B. It would show the ways in which this novel differs from its reputed Anglo-European nineteenth-century models 文章中Anglo-European nineteenth-century models就是Anglo-Europeannineteenth-century realism,现实主义啊。

  The author of the passage suggests that Gates is most like the reviewers mentioned in the first paragraph in which of the following ways?

  作者说Gates和第一段的reviewers的共同点是什么,就是他们都发现这本书不现实主义啊。

  E.He recognizes the departure of The Color Purple from traditional Anglo-European realistic novel conventions. 完美。

  所以,一篇文学评论的长文章,其实你要读的就是这一句话——主线。

声明:本文由入驻搜狐公众平台的作者撰写,除搜狐官方账号外,观点仅代表作者本人,不代表搜狐立场。
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