例4、Americans today don‘t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education——not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,”says education writer Diane Ravitch.“Schools could be a counterbalance.”Razitch‘s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris,“We will become a second-rate country.
We will have a less civil society.“”Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,“writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism.
Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children:“We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.”Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized——going to school and learning to read——so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country‘s educational system is in the grips of people who“joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise.”
The views of Ravish and Emerson on schooling are(2004)
(A) identical. (B) similar. (C) complementary. (D) opposite.
「解析」:
第一步:根据局部对象或者局部对象的主体找出本题的出题句;我们发现本题根本就没有对应的出题句。我们发现文章中没有一句话是即包括Ravish有包括Emerson的,但是我们能很轻易的找到Ravish在第二段的第一句话中,Emerson在第五段的第一句话中,因此这个题目的得分句是这个两句。
第二步:在出题句(或称得分句)中寻找含有感情色彩的词语或句子;我们发现这个两句话的意思正好是相反的;
第三步:比较该感情色彩的词语或句子和四个选项,我们只能选择D;另外因为这个题目中A、B、C的意思是相近的,所以同时排除,我们也可以知道这个题目选D.
四、中心思想题
中心思想题的概述:考研英语阅读中是否有中心思想题?传统的阅读理论中是有的,这一点是没有疑问的。但是在考研中准确的说是没有中心思想题的。因为大家应该还记得我们只有在小学的时候老师在讲语文课本时才会问我们一篇文章的中心思想的,但是到了初三以后老师就不再问我们文章的中心思想了,而是改问一篇文章的论点是什么?究其原因,因为从初三起我们学习的全部是议论文,对于议论文而言,我们只说它的论点是什么而不说它的中心思想是什么;小学学习的全是记叙文,只有记叙文才有中心思想。又因为上篇我们已经说过,所有考研的阅读理解的文章都是来源于美国国内发表的议论文,因此我们说在考研英语阅读中实际上是没有什么中心思想题的,只有论点题。但是我们的“大家”们一直认为有中心思想题,所以为了便于大家接受,我们在这里依旧把这样的论点题称为中心思想题。
中心思想题解题方法:我们的民族的历史文学里是没有议论文这样的文体的,或者说议论文是一个在近现代随着西方的炮火进入我们的文明的文学体裁。既然我们写议论文的模式是模仿西方的,那就是说我们在课堂上学到的写议论文的方法是完全和美国人写议论文的方法相吻合的。换句话说,就是,我们的论点写在什么地方那么美国人的论点也是写在那个位置。而我们在写议论文的时候论点有两种写法:一写在第一段第一句;二写在第一段最后一句。而且我们在文章结束的时候会在最后一段开头和结尾句写一些对第一段论点相呼应的句子。所以我们坚信,考研英语阅读的文章的论点必然在文章的第一段的首、末句中产生,而且最后一段首、末句对此论点予以呼应。也就是说,要找一篇文章的论点就看文章的首、末段的首、末句,它们共同指向的内容就是我们的论点。
因此,在考研英语中,要找一篇文章的中心思想就是找这个文章的论点,要找论点就看这个文章的首、末段的首、末句。答案必然在这个4句话中产生。在很多时候我们在读完这个4句话后发现,我们即使把这个4句话翻译为中文我们还是不知道文章的论点,这个时候不是说我们就没有办法找到答案了。事实上,在历年的真题里几乎所有的中心思想题我们都是不知道论点的,但是这个并不影响我们解题的。
这个时候我们应该进入第2个解题的思维:选择最佳答案,而不是正确答案。如果一个选项是文章讲到的内容,但是却不是这个4句话讲到的内容,我们依旧不能选这个选项,因为该选项不是论点,最多是个论据而已。如果一个选项这个4句话没有讲到,而且文章根本就没有在任何段落提到,那么也不选,属于和文章无关的选项,但是在考试中我们发现有很多人选择无关选项,究其原因,是因为其实考研英语阅读是没有正确答案的,只有最佳答案,有的时候4个选项都是正确或错误的,但你必须选择一个最为接近原文意思的选项,而在有3个错误1个无关的时候就有人会选择无关的,其实无关选项是永远不能做正确答案的。如果一个选项和原文的意思相反那么也不选。如果有2个选项和原文4句话的意思相符合,那么还要比较哪个选项的意思最为符合原文4句话的意思,选择最全面概括这个4句话的选项。