赵洪波,北京新东方学校国外考试北美项目讲师,主讲GMAT阅读/逻辑,TOEFL iBT口语。曾获“比较新东方学校优秀教师”称号,并获得美国哥伦比亚大学颁发的Teacher-Leader Professional Development专业教师培训证书。北京航空航天大学外国语言学及应用语言学(翻译)硕士。已出版《GMAT高频核心词汇》一书,一经上市便热卖,受到老师和学生的一致追捧。
机考时在阅读部分考生一定要注意以下方面:
(1)计算机屏幕左边的阅读文章一直出现在屏幕上,右边每次只出现一道题目,直到 考生将阅读理解最后一道题目的答案提交后,阅读文章才会从屏幕上消失。
(2)考试的题目是根据难易程度出题的,也就是说第一题答对了,第二题的难度 会加大,当然题目的分数也会增加。反之亦然。具体规则考生可以参考考试中心公布 的 出 题 方 针:Give you questions that are neither too easy nor too hard for you. When you answer questions correctly, the computer tends to give you harder questions. When you answer incorrectly, it tends to give you easier questions. 所以,考试时考生的分数不是简单地答对一 题得多少分,而是与考生所答题目的难易程度密切相关。考生答对题目个数越多,题目难 度会越大,最后的得分也就越高。
(3)阅读理解的文章和题目的定位没有顺序对应关系。因为考试时根据难易程度出 题,所以第一题的定位不一定在文章第一段,第二题的定位也不一定在第一题的定位 后面。
(4)选择答案确认后,考生才能继续回答下一个问题。
(5)答案提交之后,不可以查看,也不可以更改。
(6)如果阅读文章出现有黄色底纹,此处一定出题。
GMAT 阅读考查考生理解文章中的术语的能力和对英语语言的整体理解能力。虽然 考试不测试考生的词汇量,但要求考生掌握一定的术语,测试考生解释文章中特定术语 的能力。题目也测试考生理解英语的能力,这些问题要求考生要对文章具有整体理解的 能力。 例如下面的文章 : It was once believed that the brain was independent of metabolic processes occurring elsewhere in the body. In recent studies, however, we have discovered that the production and release in brain neurons of the neurotransmitter serotonin (neurotransmitters are compounds that neurons use to transmit signals to other cells) depend directly on the food that the body processes.
上面的文字中出现了大量的专业术语,比如 metabolic, neurons, neurotransmitter, serotonin。对于中国考生而言,当看到文章生词较多时会有一种恐惧感,顿时会有一种心 理暗示,即文章读不懂题目一定做不对。其实,在考试中这种情况是很常见的,在此提醒 考生注意,GMAT 阅读是逻辑的考试,而不是英文和中文翻译的考试,所以在出现大量的 专业词汇读不懂时,一定要注意提炼文章的逻辑结构。
请看下面的题目 : Which of the following titles best summarizes the contents of the passage? (A) Neurotransmitters: Their Crucial Function in Cellular Communication (B) Diet and Survival: An Old Relationship Reexamined (C) The Blood Supply and the Brain: A Reciprocal Dependence (D) Amino Acids and Neurotransmitters: The Connection Between Serotonin Levels and
Tyrosine (E) The Effects of Food Intake on the Production and Release of Serotonin: Some Recent Findings 【解析】根据新老观点文章的特征,新观点可以看作文章的主题句 TS(Topic Sentence)。因此,在做主旨题时,将 TS 同义改写即可。正确答案是 E。 GMAT 阅读强调的是新观点,而非老观点,所以考生在看到老观点时可以采取快速浏 览或跳读的方法,这样可以避免阅读过多的细节内容而导致对文章有过多的主观判断。对 于大量名词,如果不认识,可以利用首字母提炼的方式进行处理,这样更有利于对文章整 体的理解,即提炼文章的逻辑结构。
阅读思维 考试时每篇文章后面有 3 ~ 4 道题,文章通常有 2 ~ 4 段。因为题目是按照难易程度 考查,所以一篇文章应该有一个小题库。通过对大量的阅读文章的观察,发现一篇文章的 题库一般有 6 ~ 8 题。所以,如果在读完文章做题前,能预测出这 6 ~ 8 个考点,那么在 考试中定位的准确性就会极大地提高。应试技巧:考点的位置经常是段首句和段尾句,考 点特征是强转折、强对比、强因果的句子以及有正负评价的句子。所以,只需将这些句子 读懂即可,段落中其他看不懂的句子暂时先跳读,这就是整体理解能力的应用。
GMAT 阅读考查考生理解观点逻辑关系的能力,即要求考生评价文中某一观点的优点 和缺点,或者评价文中观点的重要性。
例如,在美国历史上,女性经常从事低工资、低技能的工作这种社会现象,经济学 家提出了三种理论来解释。先提出 A 解释,说不能有效解释这种现象;然后提出 B 解释, 将 B 解释也否定了;最后提出 C 解释,认为是合理的解释,可以有效解释女性经常从事 低工资、低技能的工作这种社会现象。
考试时要求考生对 A、B、C 三种解释进行评价:A 解释是负评价;B 解释是大负小 正评价,整体是将 B 否定的,所以是大负的评价。那为什么 B 解释会有小正评价呢?因 为相对于 A 解释作者后提出 B 解释,说明 B 有优于 A 解释的地方,所以 B 解释有小正评 价。C 解释是正评价。
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, the primary economic development strategy of local governments in Europe was to attract manufacturing industries. Unfortunately, this strategy was usually implemented at another community’s expense... In the 1970’s the strategy shifted from this zero-sum game (A situation in which a gain by one person or side must be matched by a loss by another person or side) to one called “high-technology development”. Although this approach was preferable to victimizing other geographical areas by taking their jobs, it also had its shortcomings... Recently, local governments have increasingly come to recognize the advantages of yet a third strategy: the promotion of homegrown small businesses...
上面的文章对于第一段谈到的经济发展战略 manufacturing industries 是负评价,由 unfortunately 可以看出来;对于第二段谈到的经济发展战略 high-technology development 是 大负小正评价,由 Although...preferable(+), shortcoming(-) 可以看出来;对于第三段谈到的 经济发展战略 homegrown small businesses 是正评价,由 advantages 可以看出来。了解逻辑 关系对于了解阅读出题重点和快速阅读法有重要意义。
请看下面的题目 : The author of the passage mentions which of the following as an advantage of hightechnology development? (A) It encourages the modernization of existing manufacturing facilities (B) It promotes healthy competition between rival industries (C) It encourages the growth of related industries (D) It takes full advantage of the existing workforce (E) It does not advantage one local workforce at the expense of another 【解析】根据题干 high-technology development 定位到文章第二段,根据题干 advantage 定位到文中 Although this approach was preferable to victimizing other geographical areas(尽 管这种方法优于牺牲其他地理区域),即高科技是不牺牲其他地理区域的,故,答案选(E)。
阅读思维 GMAT 阅读文章的作者的倾向越向后越强,若一个自然段出现两个观点,即使是并列 关系,从出题逻辑和考试的角度出发,考生应将阅读重心向后转移,第一个观点可以快速 浏览或跳读。
请看下面的文章 :
Conventional wisdom has it that large deficits in the United States budget cause interest rates to rise. Two main arguments are given for this claim. According to the first, as the deficit increases, the government will borrow more to make up for the ensuing shortage of funds. Consequently, it is argued, if both the total supply of credit (money available for borrowing) and the amount of credit sought by nongovernment borrowers remain relatively stable, as is often supposed, then the price of credit (the interest rate) will increase. so that,this is suggested by the basic economic principle that if supplies of a commodity (here, credit) remain fixed and demand for that commodity increases, its price will also increase. The second argument supposes that 10 GMAT官方指南阅读解析——图解逻辑法 the government will tend to finance its deficits by increasing the money supply with insufficient regard for whether there is enough room for economic growth to enable such an increase to occur without causing inflation. It is then argued that financiers will expect the deficit to cause inflation and will raise interest rates, anticipating that because of inflation the money they lend will be worth less when paid back.
文中前面谈到老观点的第一个观点,后面谈到老观点的第二个观点,根据上面的方 法,According to the first...its price will also increase的文字可以简单浏览或直接跳读。另外, 从 The second argument... 这个长难句也可以看出后面是考查的重点。