考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析--1996年part4

1、考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析 -1996 年 part4Part FourWhat accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early Americabreakthroughs such as the telegraph , the steamboat and the weavingmachine?Amongthe manyshaping factors, I would single out the country ' s excellent elementary schools; a labor force th

2、at welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors ; and above all the American genius for nonverbal , "spatial "thinking about things technological .Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics ,especially in the NewEngl

3、and and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported

4、, "With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman. "A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. "this approach, originated

5、 abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs inmajor cities. Americansflocked to these fairsto admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the be

6、neficence oftechnological advance.Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out , " A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be

7、reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process . . . The designer and the inventor . . . are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist. "This nonverbal "spatial" thinking can be just as c

8、reative as painting and writing.Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down amonglevers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc. , like a poet among the letters of the alphabet , considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea. "Whenall t

9、hese shaping forces-schools,open attitudes, the premium system, a geniusfor spatial thinking-interacted with one another on the rich U. S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic , emulation . Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competiti

10、ve striving for fame and excellence.13. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to_A elementary schools Benthusiastic workersC the attractive premium systemDa special way of thinking14 .It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness

11、 of the early American mechanics_A benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledgeB shed light on disciplined school managementC was brought about by privileged home trainingD owed a lot to the technological development15. A technologist can be compared to an artist because _A they are both winner

12、s of awards B they are both experts in spatial thinkingC they both abandon verbal description Dthey both use various instruments16. The best title for this passage might be_A Inventive MindB Effective Schooling C Ways of Thinking D Outpouring of InventionsUnit 3 1996Part 4 重点词汇：breakthrough ?n.突破J b

13、reak+through。premium 奖金看作 pre+mi+um, pre-在前，mi拼音米即money, -um后缀表物，在前面 放着的钱"T奖金。non verbal 不用语言的即 non+verb+al , non-否认前缀，verb词根言语，-al形容词后 缀。 Gestures are a nonverbal means of expression.打手势是一种非言语的表达方式。spatial 空间的即 spacial Jspac e +ial 。stimulus n.刺激；刺激物Jstimul刺激+us名词后缀。参stimulant刺激物；兴奋剂，1997 年 Pa

14、ssage 3 。incentive 动机； 鼓励 a. 鼓励的 Jin+cent+ive ， in- 前缀， cent 单词"分币"引申为 "钱"，-tive 后缀， "用钱去鼓励 " 。 incentive - the possibility of getting more money than you can earn 奖励 - 得到比你挣的钱更多的可能性。ben efice nee恩惠J ben efic+e nee , ben efic 看作 ben efit , -ence 名词后缀。emulation 竞争；仿效难句解析

15、： Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country's excellentelementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal,"spatial" thinking about things technological.句首

16、是介词词组 among the many shaping factors 作状语，谓语动词 would single out 后 面用分号隔开的各个局部都是名词性的词组， 这些词组都是 single out 的宾语。 a labor force that welcomed the new technology 中 that 引导定语从句，修饰前面的 labor force 。最后 的形容词 technological 是后置定语，修饰前面的 things 。single out 后面列举的各种因素都属于 shaping factors ，但是是作者认为比较重要的因素， 其中要注意在最后一个因素

17、前面加的修饰词组 above all 用来强调 American genius for nonverbal, "spatial" thinking about things technological其实是要比其它因素更重要的，在阅读中一定要注意这一点。 Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage.这句话是比较容易理解的简单句。句子主干结构是 observers related A to B 。关键是理解 relat

18、e. to 的用法：把 和 联系起来。 A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it.这是一个主从复合句，句子的主干结构是. stimulus came from.，其中逗号后的 which引导了一个非限定性定语从句， 修饰前面的 "premium" system 。句末的 it 指代前面的 patent system 。定语从句中， an

19、d 连接了两个并列的谓语动词： preceded 和 ran。关键要明白，定语从句中 which 指代前面的 "premium" system ，是谓语动词 preceded 和 ran 的动作发出者。 parallel ：平行的，这里 ran parallel with 意思是两种制度都在运作。 Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.句子的主干结

20、构是 Americans flocked to these fairs.，后面的动词不定式 to admire andthus to renew 都是说明 flocked 的目的的，作状语。句子的结构比较简单，关键是理解几个动词的层次关系： . flocked to admire. andrenew.。 thus是副词，因而的意思。另外，renew their faith 应该理解为进一步加深其信仰 " 。 As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, "A technologist thinks about objects that cannot

21、 be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process The designer and the inventor. are able toassemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist."句子的主体局部是直接引语局部。直接引语中有两个句子。第一个句子中是分号连接的两个 并列句。第一个分句的主体结构是 A technologi

22、st thinks about objects.，其中 that引导了定语从句： that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions，修饰前面的 objects 。第二个分句中使用了被动语态，主语 they 指代前面的 objects 。第二个句子 中， that 引导定语 that as yet do not exist修饰前面的 devices 。注意reduce. to的用法：reduce to这里的意思是简化为，归纳为；另外应该注意 as yet 的用法： as yet 的意思是 "指导此时，指导目前为止 &qu

23、ot;，用在否认句和疑问句当中。 Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down amonglevers, screws, wedges,wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea."句子的结构是 Robert Fulton wrote+ 直接引语。 直接引语中， 句子的主干局部是 The mechanic should sit down.。 like 在这里是连词，意思是 "in the same way as ，如同，同样 " ，这里是构成比较。 like a poet后面省略了和前面句子一样的谓语局部： s