在雅思阅读考试中,有很多考生都有这样的体验,明明反应定位很准确,但是却找不到答案。这种情况是多方面原因造成的,但对代词的忽视是一个重要原因。很多考鸭没有注意到代词的指代作用,从而导致用时过多,答对率下降。本文通过剑桥雅思真题中活生生的案例,为大家支招一眼看见雅思阅读中的那些these。
首先,我们来看一下剑桥6P91的Q17。
As a result, factors such as 17_______ and attitudes to children have been eliminated...
文中出现了我们非常熟悉的and结构,找到attitudes基本上距离答案就不远了。另外,并列结构 such as 前的factors,以及部分考鸭不太熟悉的eliminated,也具有提示作用。回到原文定位。
Now a long-term study carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching reading to poor adult women, who would other wise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect on their children's health and survival.
我们找到了factors和eliminated, 但既没有找到and结构,也没找到attitudes。不少考鸭会习惯性继续向下寻找,进而距离答案越来越远。这里,我们忽视掉了非常重要的一个代词these。它用来指代前面的结构,也暗示前面出现了我们需要的factors。我们只需向前看一句,便轻松得到了答案。
Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an education may simply indicate her family's wealth or that it values its children more highly.
我们会发现两个并列结构 and和or, 而题目中and 后跟的‘attitudes to children ’与这句话中‘it values its children more highly ’做了同义转述,所以答案应为or前方的 family’s wealth,选项J即为答案。这里attitude 的同义转述无形中增加了难度,即使大家先于定位句看到这句话也不容易得到答案。但是,有了these的提示,并谨记‘代词向前看’这一原则,相信答案就会乖乖地到碗里来。
同样的案例也出现在了剑桥8的P29,请大家自行完成。
Positive results could be produced by factors such as 34 ………… or 35 ………….
原文: Just because chance had been ruled out as an explanation did not prove telepathy must exist; there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from 'sensory leakage' - where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver - to outright fraud. In response, the researchers issued a review of all the ganzfeld studies done up to 1985 to show that 80 per cent had found statistically significant evidence. However, they also agreed that there were still too many problems in the experiments which could lead to positive results, and they drew up a list demanding new standards for future research.
我们发现,上面的案例还仅仅局限于两句之间的代词指代作用,但如果大家的认识仅仅局限于此,就太小看代词these了。下面咱们再看一个例子,这个题目是来自剑桥9P21的Q14,为文章的B段选标题。
原文:
B
In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists don’t consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future. Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognize it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water.
我已经非常善良地为大家划出了体现此段结构的关键提示,但当你看到选项‘iv. Assumptions underlying the search for extra terrestrial intelligence ’时,不知是否有绝对把握选择它。在非常短的时间内选出这个答案还是需要实力的,而且不少考鸭即使选中此选项也不是特别确定,心理上的波动对下面的题目也会有一定影响。但是当我们看到C段首句‘Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited.’时,我们会非常自信地选出答案iv。这里,these assumptions 对上一段信息做了概括,可见these的强大。同样的案例在剑桥7P70的Q14也有所体现,只不过将B段首句中的techniques替换为了iv.选项中的methods罢了。
实际上,在代词家族中this、that、they、those等都有类似用法,有心的考鸭可以在平时的学习中做个有心人,留意观察,并谨记‘代词向前看’的原则,相信这些起到指代作用的代词会在大家夺取雅思阅读高分的路上助大家一臂之力。另外,在雅思写作中合理使用代词起到暗连接作用也是备受考官亲睐的,大家不妨试一下。