托福阅读加试之苏美尔文明

　　首先，这篇文章是属于介绍型的文章，也就是在整个阅读过程中并没有要求过高的分析性阅读。虽然文章的话题领域相对学术，但是作为托福考试的考察目标——检测学术背景下的阅读理解能力，并不会要求考生对文章所涉及话题的专业知识有所涉猎。而从这篇讲解人类文明史的文章来看，即使不能够理解文章内出现的“学术概念”也能通过阅读的技巧和手段来解题。现在就从这篇被ETS青睐有加的阅读加试文章来看，我们会发现试题的以下几个特点，现举例如下：

　　词汇题熟词熟义本篇阅读的词汇题为#1/#4/#7/#11四题，试题的形式是给出高亮词汇，进行词义理解。这样的题型属于常考题，在网考的界面中具体词汇出现的段落会在题目上方再次出现，很多学生担心的是否要全文理解或是全文跳读扫读才能解该类题，从实际的网考页面可以得知利用这段文字的上下文来解题是可行、有效的。当然从题目本身的角度出发，此类题目可能是属于(1)熟词熟义，(2)熟词生义，(3)生词猜义等这样几个常见类型。

　　例如#1就属于“熟词熟义”的类型，原题为：The word astonishing in the passage is closest in meaning to_______(A) important(B) unknown(C) amazing(D) interesting从备选项就可以直接判出答案，当然作为整场考试的“热身”题目，本题属于比较容易的。

　　然后看#4题。原题为：The word obscure in the passage is closest in meaning to____(A) unclear(B) unique(C) controversial(D) important如果我们的考生原本就在备考过程中多次接触过obscure这个单词的话，那么本题仍然属于熟词，因为这个词汇是属于托福词汇范围内的，但是为了防止出现是熟词生义的可能，我们现在还原试题原文如下：

　　The origin of the Sumerians remains¹ obscure. Their language is unrelated to any other known tongue. Sometimes before 4,000 B.C. they came to southern Mesopotamia, from Persia, and there, within the next thousand years, they founded a number of city-states and developed their distinctive² form of writing in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters on clay tablets. ￠Unfortunately, the tangible³ remains of Sumerian civilization are extremely scanty⁴ compared to those of ancient Egypt. ￠Building stone being unavailable in Mesopotamia, the Sumerians used mud brick and wood, so that almost nothing is left of their architecture except the foundation. ￠Nor did they share the Egyptians’ concern with the hereafter, although some richly endowed tombs in the shape of vaulted⁵ chambers⁶ below ground from the early dynastic period have been found in the city of Ur. ￠Our knowledge of Sumerian Civilization thus depends very largely on chance fragments brought to light by excavation⁷, including vast numbers of inscribed⁸ clay tablets. Yet we have learned enough to form a general picture of this vigorous, inventive, and disciplined people.

　　根据该词出现的那句话就可以得知这里讲述的是“苏美尔人的起源仍然不清。他们的语言和其他任何已知语言无关。他们大约在公元前4000年从波斯来到美索不达米亚平原南部，从此在那里以后的数千年中，他们建立了许多城邦并且形成了他们与众不同的梭形文字。如果对于该词不认识的也可以从后文的unrelated to any other known tongue的否定表达知道，前面的词应该是负向的，后面的unfortunately一段我们可以再次印证这里的表达是负向的，因为文章说我们对苏美尔文明的了解只能靠考古发掘，从而我们也可放心这个单词的理解是正确的。由此可见，本题仍是熟词熟义。

　　第7题：The word vast in the passage is closest in meaning to_________(A) random(B) very large(C) surprising(D) relatively⁹ small这题就是很容易的“熟词熟义”，根据上下文就可以判断选B。

　　第11题仍然是熟词熟义，所以很容易选出答案A。原文：The temple controlled the pooling of labor¹⁰ and resources for communal¹¹ enterprises, such as the building of dikes or irrigation ditches, and it collected and distributed a considerable part of the harvest. All this required the keeping of detailed¹² written records. Hence, we need not be surprised to find that the texts of early Sumerian inscriptions¹³ deal very largely with economic and administrative¹⁴ rather than religious matters, although writing was a priestly privilege.

　　#11 The word considerable in the passage is closest in meaning to_________(A) substantial(B) fixed(C) valuable(D) limitedmda.com解析：从以上四个词汇题看出，我们在解答这类题目时，有以下几个环节需要注意:首先，尽量在高亮词汇出现的地方阅读，利用上下文线索推敲快速找到该词对应意思，这样可以节省时间。其次是如果发现该词汇是熟词就要注意区分是熟义还是生义，而上下文的解释会很快帮助你正确判断。最后，这样的题目也可以按照阅读课中我们已经归纳的方法来解题。

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