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指代题
指代题型是几乎每篇托福阅读中一定会出现的一道题型,而且所考查代词的迷惑性越来越强,需要考生对文章更具有整体观念。
一般来说,最常考查到的指代词是“it, they, these, those, the one, the former, the latter...”等词。对于这类指代题型,题干中一般都清楚地给出了代词出现的位置。由于代词出现的特点是,一定要有其所代表的实义名词在同句或相邻的句子中出现,所以要找出代词所指代的词,一定要求考生将前后句子的关系理顺。
例如,最常见的it的指代关系题,以2000年1月第4题为例:
The High Street Market was continuously enlarged throughout the period until 1736, when it reached from Front Street to Third.
4. The word ″it″ in line 6 refers to
(A) the crowded city(B) a radius
(C) the High Street Market(D) the period
答案(C)
这道题本身对考生来说几乎没有很大的难度,因为it所出现的句子中,很明显it所指的就是句子主语The high Street Market。可以说,代词it,they,the one 类的指代题中,所指代的名词通常都不会超出两句以上的范围。所以集中理解所考查代词出现范围内的两三句话,注意逻辑关系、单复数问题,这类题目都可迎刃而解。
还有一类是本身就是实义名词,要求考生找到其具体含义,而并不一定出现与其对应的某一个名词。例如1999年10月的第31题。
The face of the largest planet in the solar system was changed before our very eyes. And for the very first time, most of humanity came to fully appreciate the fact that we ourselves live on a similar target, a world subject to catastrophe by random assaults from celestial bodies.
31. The ″target″ in line 20 most probably referred to
(A) Earth(B) Jupiter
(C) the solar system(D) a comet
答案(A)
这篇文章是讲到宇宙中的小星体撞击其他星球的问题。Target一词很容易理解是表示被撞击的目标。答案中的4个词都是文章中出现过的。但是如果考生用常识去理解的话,the fact that we ourselves live on a similar target,我们所居住的target就是the earth本身,意为地球也可以成为小星体撞击的目标。可以说,这道题的解决并不需要在文章中找到earth这个词,只需对句子正确理解即可。
但托福中有些指代问题解决起来并不像前两类那样简单。通常出现指代词的句子中,会有看上去性质非常相似的其他名词作为干扰项。例如1999年10月的考题:
Potash (the old name for potassium carbonate) is one of the two alkalis (the other being soda, sodium carbonate) that were used from remote antiquity in the making of glass, and from the early Middle Ages in the making of soap: the former being the product of heating a mixture of alkali and sand, the latter a product of alkali and vegetable oil. Their importance in the communities of colonial North America need hardly be stressed.
3.They phrase ″the latter″ in line 4 refers to
(A) alkali (B) glass (C) sand (D) soap
答案(A)
非常容易理解的是,出现the former, the latter的地方,上文一定提到过两个相应的事物。可是在短短的几行中,出现的成对的事物有:1.potash-soda, 2.glass-soap,3.alkali-sand. 其中alkali-sand是比较容易排除的,因为它是属于“the former”句中的,与“the latter”并不平行。接下来要解决的是句子主干的问题了。仔细观察一下,句子主干为: Potash is one of the two alkalis (the other being soda, sodium carbonate): the former being..., the latter... 其中的glass-soap出现之处是alkalis的定语从句,与the former, the latter 也不平行。由此可知,此处的the former指的是two alkalis之一potash,而the latter指的是另一种alkalis,soda。
像本题一样让考生读一遍几乎不可能准确找到指代词与名词关系的题目在现在的托福考试中越来越多,很多已经不是靠只读一句或两句就可以解决的了。像本题,就跨越了四句话才可以找到正确解答。所以考生在遇到指代题的时候,一定不可以掉以轻心,匆忙做答,一定要尽量多看几句才确定最后的指代关系。
练习二:
(1)
Line The geology of the Earth's surface is dominated by the particular properties of water. Present on Earth in solid, liquid, and gaseous states, water is exceptionally reactive. It dissolves, transports, and precipitates many chemical compounds and is constantly modifying the face of the Earth.
(5) Evaporated from the oceans, water vapor forms clouds, some of which are transported by wind over the continents. Condensation from the clouds provides the essential agent of continental erosion: rain. Precipitated onto the ground, the water trickles down to form brooks, streams, and rivers, constituting what is called the hydrographic network. This immense polarized network channels the water toward a
(10) single receptacle: an ocean. Gravity dominates this entire step in the cycle because
water tends to minimize its potential energy by running from high altitudes toward the reference point that is sea level. The rate at which a molecule of water passes though the cycle is not random but is a measure of the relative size of the various reservoirs. If we define residence time as
(15)the average time for a water molecule to pass through one of the three reservoirs-atmosphere, continent, and ocean-we see that the times are very different. A water molecule stays, on average, eleven days in the atmosphere, one hundred years on a continent and forty thousand years in the ocean. This last figure shows the importance of the ocean as the principal reservoir of the hydrosphere but also the rapidity of water
(20)transport on the continents.
A vast chemical separation process takes places during the flow of water over the continents. Soluble ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and some magnesium are dissolved and transported. Insoluble ions such as aluminum, iron, and silicon stay where they are and form the thin, fertile skin of soil on which vegetation can grow.
(25) Sometimes soils are destroyed and transported mechanically during flooding. The erosion of the continents thus results from two closely linked and interdependent processes, chemical erosion and mechanical erosion. Their respective interactions and efficiency depend on different factors.
1. The word ″which″ in line 5 refers to
(A) clouds (B) oceans (C) continents (D) compounds
2. The word ″they″ in line 24 refers to
(A) insoluble ions (B)soluble ions (C)soils (D)continents
Key: A A
第一题的原句为:Evaporated from the oceans, water vapor forms clouds, some of which are transported by wind over the continents.根据定语从句知识,which所指代的是先行词some,那么some又是指代谁呢?阅读全句,前面刚刚提到的是clouds,故选A。
第二题的原句为:Insoluble ions such as aluminum, iron, and silicon stay where they are and form the thin, fertile skin of soil on which vegetation can grow. 根据原句,句子主题为Insoluble ions,such as之后的都是其举例。那么后面的stay where they are中的they指的是前面所有的Insoluble ions。
(2)
LineMatching the influx of foreign immigrants into the larger cities of the United States during the late nineteenth century was a domestic migration, from town and farm to city, within the United States. The country had been overwhelmingly rural at the beginning of the century, with less than 5 percent of Americans living in large towns
(5) or cities. The proportion of urban population began to grow remarkably after 1840, increasing from 11 percent that year to 28 percent by 1880 and to 46 percent by 1900. A country with only 6 cities boasting a population of more than 8,000 in 1800 had become one with 545 such cities in 1900. Of these, 26 had a population of more than 100,000 including 3 that held more than a million people. Much of the migration
(10) producing an urban society came from smaller towns within the United States, but the combination of new immigrants and old American ″settlers″ on America's ″urban frontier″ in the late nineteenth century proved extraordinary. The growth of cities and the process of industrialization fed on each other. The agricultural revolution stimulated many in the countryside to seek a new life in the city
(15) and made it possible for fewer farmers to feed the large concentrations of people
needed to provide a workforce for growing numbers of factories. Cities also provided ready and convenient markets for the products of industry, and huge contracts in transportation and construction-as well as the expanded market in consumer goods-allowed continued growth of the urban sector of the overall economy of the
(20) Untied States.
Technological developments further stimulated the process of urbanization. One example is the Bessemer converter (an industrial process for manufacturing steel), which provided steel girders for the construction of skyscrapers. The refining of crudeoil into kerosene, and later the development of electric lighting as well as of the
(25)telephone, brought additional comforts to urban areas that were unavailable to ruralAmericans and helped attract many of them from the farms into the cities. In every era the lure of the city included a major psychological element for country people the bustle and social interaction of urban life seemed particularly intriguing to those raised in rural isolation.
1. The phrase ″each other″ in line 13 refers to
(A) foreign immigrants and domestic migrants
(B) farms and small towns
(C) growth of cities and industrialization
(D) industry and transportation
2. The word ″them″ in line 26 refers to
(A) urban areas(B) rural Americans
(C) farms(D) cities
Key: C B
第一题的原句是:The growth of cities and the process of industrialization fed on each other.非常明显,each other是两者间的关系,而前句提到的两者是The growth of cities和the process of industrialization。
第二题原句为:...brought additional comforts to urban areas that were unavailable to rural
Americans and helped attract many of them from the farms into the cities. 一般来说,代词所指代的词都会离该词不远。在这道题中,由句子意思可知,“帮助将他们从农村吸引到城市”,这里的“他们”最有可能是人,阅读全句,不难发现rural Americans是them所指代的。
除指代题以外,托福阅读题型还包括文章主旨题、细节题、定义题、排除题、类比题,这几种题型的解析及练习请参见中国宇航出版社推出的《寄托托福实战教程·阅读卷》。
(作者王益奋是寄托天下托福频道专栏作者,留英硕士,有多年托福教学经验)