历年的考研英语一大纲中针对阅读的语言技能部分都会提到“区分论点和论据”,2020考研英语一大纲中针对阅读部分的这点要求依然没有改变。“区分论点和论据”会涉及到根据论据来找到作者想支持的论点,对应的也就是我们常说的英语阅读六大题型中的例证题。今天就带着同学们以最新发布的2020考研英语一大纲中的示例题Text 2作为样本给大家讲解下例证题。
26.What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars ?
A.A kind of overlooked inequality.
B.A type of conspicuous bias.
C.A type of personal prejudice.
D.A kind of brand discrimination.
例证题这类题型的题干中经常会出现以下标志词:to show,to illustrate,to indicate,case,example等。解此类题有一个最为重要的点就是——找例子所支持的观点而不是例子本身。根绝26题题干中的 “the author intend to illustratewith”可以判断出这是一个根据论据找论点的例证题,而with后的AAAA cars and Zodiac cars 正是论据。根据题干中的这个论据定位到原文,可以发现对应原文的第二段部分。
Ithas long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars and Zodiac cars has a bigadvantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phonedirectories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life overZoe Zysman. English names fairly evenly spread between the halves of thealphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginningwith letters between A and K.
前面已经提到例证题的一大特点是,比起例子或论据本身,例子支持的观点即论点更重要。所以我们并不需要把第二段整个段落逐字逐句精读。通常来说,例证题的论点大概率会在论据之前,少数情况下是在论据之后。因此我们在找到含有”AAAA cars and Zodiac cars”的第二段首句之后,往句子前面看,可以追溯到挨着第二段首句的第一段最后一句:
This,forthose as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination againstthose whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
我们再返回26题的4个选项,可以发现4个选项中前半部分的a kind of 和 a type of 基本属于同义词组,没有什么区别;而4个选项的后半部分inequality,bias,prejudice,discrimination要么在第一段中出现了原词,要么互为近义词。那么4个选项最大的区别点就是中间的定语部分了,ABCD四个选项分别对应的是overlooked,conspicuous, personal和brand。而在第一段最后一句中我们发现refer to之后的部分也是对前半句的具体解释说明,因此锁定前半句发现了”unawareof such a disadvantage”,从这句开始明确本句后半句以及整个第二段都在说“没有意识到这样一种不利的弊端”,四个选项中overlooked正好对unaware of 进行了同义替换,因此选项选A。