Part B: 7-out-of-5 (2015)
Directions:
In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
How does your reading proceed? Clearly you try to comprehend, in the sense of identifying meanings for individual words and working out relationships between them, drawing on your implicit knowledge of English grammar. [ 41 ] You begin to infer a context for the text, for instance, by making decisions about what kind of speech event is involved: who is making the utterance, to whom, when and where.
The ways of reading indicated here are without doubt kinds of comprehension. But they show comprehension to consist not just of passive assimilation but of active engagement in inference and problem-solving. You infer information you feel the writer has invited you to grasp by presenting you with specific evidence and clues. [ 42 ]
Conceived in this way, comprehension will not follow exactly the same track for each reader. What is in question is not the retrieval of an absolute, fixed or true meaning that can be read off and checked for accuracy, or some timeless relation of the text to the world. [ 43 ]
Such background material inevitably reflects who we are. [ 44 ] This doesnt, however, make interpretation merely relative or even pointless. Precisely because readers from different historical periods, places and social experiences produce different but overlapping readings of the same words on the page - including for texts that engage with fundamental human concerns - debates about texts can play an important role in social discussion of beliefs and values.
How we read a given text also depends to some extent on our particular interest in reading it. [ 45 ] Such dimensions of reading suggest - as others introduced later in the book will also do - that we bring an implicit (often unacknowledged) agenda to any act of reading. It doesnt then necessarily follow that one kind of reading is fuller, more advanced or more worthwhile than another. Ideally, different kinds of reading inform each other, and act as useful reference points for and counterbalances to one another. Together, they make up the reading component of your overall literacy, or relationship to your surrounding textual environment.
Options
[A]
Are we studying that text and trying to respond in a way that fulfils the requirement of a given course? Reading it simply for pleasure? Skimming it for information? Ways of reading on a train or in bed are likely to differ considerably from reading in a seminar room.
[B]
Factors such as the place and period in which we are reading, our gender, ethnicity, age and social class will encourage us towards certain interpretations but at the same time obscure or even close off others.
[C]
If you are unfamiliar with words or idioms, you guess at their meaning, using clues presented in the context. On the assumption that they will become relevant later, you make a mental note of discourse entities as well as possible links between them.
[D]
In effect, you try to reconstruct the likely meanings or effects that any given sentence, image or reference might have had: These might be the ones the author intended.
[E]
You make further inferences, for instance, about how the text may be significant to you, or about its validity - inferences that form the basis of a personal response for which the author will inevitably be far less responsible.
[F]
In plays, novels and narrative poems, characters speak as constructs created by the author, not necessarily as mouthpieces for the authors own thoughts.
[G]
Rather, we ascribe meanings to texts on the basis of interaction between what we might call textual and contextual material: between kinds of organization or patterning we perceive in a texts formal structures (so especially its language structures) and various kinds of background, social knowledge, belief and attitude that we bring to the text.
Answer Sheet
| Number | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer | C | E | G | B | A |
答案解析 (Answers & Analysis)
41. [C] 逻辑线索：阅读的过程与生词处理
【定位】第一段空前讲“尝试去理解，即识别单个单词的意义并理清语法关系”。空后讲“开始推断语境（infer a context）”。[C]选项讲“如果不熟悉单词或习语（unfamiliar with words or idioms），就根据语境猜测并做心理笔记”，完美衔接了“单词识别”与“推断语境”这一连贯的阅读动作。
42. [E] 逻辑线索：推断（infer）的递进
【定位】第二段空前最后一句为：“你推断（You infer）作者希望你掌握的信息”。[E]选项首句为“你做出进一步的推断（You make further inferences）”，通过词汇的字面复现和逻辑上的递进（further），构成了严丝合缝的衔接。
43. [G] 逻辑线索：转折反差（not... Rather...）
【定位】第三段空前说“我们获取的不是（not）绝对的、固定的、真实的意义”。[G]选项以转折词 Rather（相反/而是） 开头，指出“我们是基于文本材料（textual）和语境材料（contextual/background）的互动来赋予意义”，与前文的否定表达形成了经典的“不是...而是...”的论证结构。
44. [B] 逻辑线索：背景材料的具体化（who we are）
【定位】第四段首句提到“这种背景材料（background material）不可避免地反映了我们是谁（who we are）”。[B]选项详细列举了构成“我们是谁”的具体因素：地点、时代、性别（gender）、种族（ethnicity）、年龄（age）等，并指出这些因素会促使我们产生特定的解释（interpretations），与后文段落中的 interpretation 完美呼应。
45. [A] 逻辑线索：阅读兴趣（interest）的举例说明
【定位】第五段首句提到，我们如何阅读取决于“阅读它的特定兴趣（particular interest in reading it）”。[A]选项连续使用几个疑问句（为了完成课程要求？为了娱乐 pleasure？为了略读获取信息 skimming for information？），生动且具体地举例说明了不同的“阅读兴趣/目的”，契合总分结构。
全文翻译
你的阅读是如何进行的？显然，你试图理解，其意义在于识别个别词语的含义并找出它们之间的关系，同时运用你隐含的英语语法知识。你开始推断文本的语境，例如，通过判断涉及哪种言语事件：谁在说话，对谁说，何时何地。
这里所指的阅读方式无疑是各种理解方式。但它们表明理解不仅包括被动的吸收，还包括推理和问题解决中的积极参与。你推断出你感觉作者通过向你呈现特定证据和线索邀请你掌握的信息。
如此构想的话，理解对每个读者来说不会沿着完全相同的轨迹进行。问题不在于检索一个可以读出来并检查准确性的绝对、固定或真实的意义，或者文本与世界之间的某种永恒关系。
这种背景材料不可避免地反映了我们是谁。然而，这并不会使解读变得仅仅相对化甚至毫无意义。正是因为来自不同历史时期、地点和社会经历的读者对同一页上的相同文字产生不同但重叠的阅读——包括那些涉及基本人类关切的文本——关于文本的辩论才能在信仰和价值观的社会讨论中发挥重要作用。
我们如何阅读一个特定的文本在某种程度上也取决于我们对阅读它的特定兴趣。这些阅读维度表明——正如本书后面介绍的其他人也将表明的那样——我们为任何阅读行为带来了一个隐含的（通常未被承认的）议程。因此，不一定就能推断出一种阅读方式比另一种更充分、更高级或更有价值。理想情况下，不同类型的阅读相互启迪，并作为彼此有用的参照点和平衡。它们共同构成了你整体素养中的阅读组成部分，或你与周围文本环境的关系。
[选项] 我们是在研究那个文本，并试图以符合特定课程要求的方式回应吗？纯粹为了乐趣而读？快速浏览以获取信息？在火车上或床上的阅读方式可能与在研讨室里的阅读方式有很大不同。
[选项] 诸如我们阅读的地点和时期、我们的性别、种族、年龄和社会阶层等因素，会鼓励我们走向某些解读，但同时也会遮蔽甚至关闭其他解读。
[选项] 如果你不熟悉某些词或习语，你会利用语境中提供的线索猜测它们的意思。假设它们以后会变得相关，你会在心里记下话语实体以及它们之间可能的联系。
[选项] 实际上，你试图重构任何特定句子、图像或引用可能具有的含义或效果：这些可能是作者所意图的。
[选项] 你做出进一步的推断，例如，关于文本对你可能有何意义，或者关于其有效性——这些推断形成了个人回应基础，对于这些回应，作者不可避免地承担的责任要少得多。
[选项] 在戏剧、小说和叙事诗中，角色是作为作者创造的构造来说话的，不一定作为作者自己思想的代言人。
[选项] 相反，我们基于我们所谓的文本材料与语境材料之间的互动赋予文本意义：即我们在文本的形式结构中（尤其是其语言结构）感知到的各种组织或模式，与我们带给文本的各种背景、社会知识、信仰和态度之间的互动。