此次的考情分析中,一共统计了2023年上半年35场托福考试,共整理考生回忆的阅读考试文章186篇。通过整理分析发现,阅读部分对于不同学科话题考察的广度是不变的,从宇宙万物生命的起源到人类社会工业经济文化艺术的发展,包罗万象。
江湖传闻,托福考试中阅读还是比较容易提分的,很多考生们从备考就开始背单词、刷题,但是过了一段时间发现,长句子是真的难搞:读了前一半忘了后一半,要么读完也不知道自己读了什么,之前我们已经讨论了长难句的解决办法,同学们可以去复习哦~
今天就跟大家分享另一个思路:利用语段的逻辑关系来理解和分析。我们在语言表达的过程中,常常会用到并列、转折、因果、否定等逻辑关系来将信息组织起来,使得表达更加清晰明了。在阅读中,我们同样可以利用作者的逻辑关系词来分析,甚至推测其表达的含义。而在托福阅读做题的过程中,我们则可以逻辑关系进一步提高做题效率。
首先,我们来看一个事实信息题:
例题
According to paragraph 2, how did technological advances contribute to the economic decline of artisans?
A. Artisans had no place to store or use the new machines.
B. Goods produced by the new technology were cheaper than those produced by artisans.
C. The fixed costs of remaining in business became very high.
D.Artisans did not know how to use the new machines.
从题干contribute to“导致;造成”可知题目问technological advances如何造成了the economic decline of artisans这个结果,我们先要定位到题干的出题句再分析“如何造成”。
原文
• In a few industries there appeared technological innovations that cost more to instal and operate than artisans - even associations of artisans - could afford. For example, in iron production, such specialized equipment as blast furnaces, tilt hammers, wire-drawing machines, and stamping, rolling, and slitting mills became more familiar components of the industry. Thus the need for fixed capital (equipment and buildings used in production) soared. Besides these items, expensive in their own right, facilities for water, storage, and deliveries were needed. In addition, pig (raw) iron turned out by blast furnaces could not be forged until refined further in a new intermediate stage. In late sixteenth-century Antwerp, where a skilled worker earned 125 to 250 guilders a year, a large blast furnace alone cost 3,000 guilders, and other industrial equipment was equally or more expensive.
很幸运,句就看到了题干里面的几个关键词 technological innovations cost more than artisans could afford,但是似乎没有看到怎么造成这一结果的。于是,往下开读,开始讲iron production,facilities,pig iron,blast furnaces,甚至后还说到了具体的钱数,难道考官这是让我自己概括吗?
其实大可不必,首句里面说了to instal and operate的花费超过了artisans承受范围,就是这个花费太多了呗,但是吧,选项没有直接同义替换这句话,而是概括了这一点,你看出来了吗——先卖个关子。
读了后半段的同学们不知道有没有发现划线的这些词语:for example表示举例,大家都懂,那么后面的besides,in addition呢?它们是并列逻辑关系词,看到这几个信息就知道还是在继续举例子,尤其是后的具体年代、地点、钱数更是细节举例,所以都是在为句主旨句服务咯(主旨句和结构分析请看前面的推文哦)
所以这道题可以直接从句中得出答案C,实在看不出,你就要阅读分析后面的信息,从thus后面的语义得出答案C,也行~但是这个做题时间成本大大增加,相信我不说你也会更愿意用前一个方法吧。
我们再来看一个句子简化题:
题干
For example, some early societies ceased to consider certain rites essential to their well-being and abandoned them, nevertheless, (前面是并列的否定关系,那么转折之后将会表达肯定的意思啦,你想到了吗?)they retained as parts of their oral tradition the myths that had grown up around the rites and admired them for their artistic qualities rather than(这个短语表示“而不是”,也是否定关系) for their religious usefulness.
(注:标红为逻辑关系)
我们能看到,整个句子用nevertheless分成两个意群:前一半是两个否定的谓语动词ceased and abandoned,而后面retained and admired则表示肯定含义,即使在你没有开始读后半句的时候,看到nevertheless也可以感受到后面要讲肯定的啦,admire后面的原因一肯一否,否定由rather than引导。
分析完了原文句子的语法和逻辑关系,再来确定答案就容易多了吧!
选项
A. A society’s rites were more likely to be retained in the oral tradition if its myths were admired for artistic qualities.
B. The artistic quality of a myth was sometimes an essential reason for a society to abandon it from the oral tradition.
C. Some early societies stopped using myths in their religious practices when rite ceased to be seen as useful for social well-being.
D. Myths sometimes survived in a society’s tradition because of their artistic qualities even after they were no longer deemed religiously beneficial.
A选项谓语出现了were more likely to be retained比较逻辑,原文并没有的,可以排除。
(注意:如果选项出现了你没有分析出来的逻辑关系,请去原文重新确认是否存在暗藏的逻辑关系哦~)
B选项前面主系表结构没有问题,The artistic quality was a reason. 但是,再看细节,你会发现后面说的是to abandon的原因,这是将原文信息混搭了啊——陷阱!大陷阱!
C选项主句Societies stopped using myths. 这个搭配里面的逻辑关系就与原文相悖了:原文myths是在肯定逻辑里面出现的,排除!
D选项整体表达没有问题,全部都是原文nevertheless后面的同义替换,符合句子简化题的要求,所以就是正确答案咯~
选择D,你选对了吗?
总结一下:
1. 基础能力很重要,词汇短语和语法都是语言学习和考试的基石,持续积累和提升;
2. 除此之外,也要利用逻辑关系,这类关系是我们平时表达时候非常常用的,也是在托福阅读文章里面非常常见的,接下来备考中多关注多分析,解题时候有意识地利用逻辑关系解题,一方面提升理解的效率和答题的效率,同时也可以提升自己在口语、写作方面的表现哦~
关于从2023年1-6月托福考情 看托福阅读新思路就分享就到这里啦!更多备考干货我们下期再会啦!