英語閱讀：找準“標桿詞” 快速定位

    考研英語閱讀文章一般在400～500字左右，如此短的文章中夾雜著生僻的單詞和疑難句，從而使得閱讀工作變得異常困難。那么在這其中，我們應當怎么做呢？在此跨考教育英語教研室張老師建議大家使用如下的方法：
　　1、掃讀文章，了解基本內(nèi)容、作者立場和文章結(jié)構(gòu)。一般而言，我們所要閱讀的內(nèi)容集中在文章首段、各段首尾句和轉(zhuǎn)折句處。
　　2、仔細讀題目，劃出"標桿詞"--最獨特的詞組、數(shù)字或符號（如生詞、拼寫較長或很短的詞、大寫的詞、斜體詞、百分比、年代或日期、貨幣代號等）。
　　3、掃視全文，一旦找到和題目相對應的信息，立馬放慢速度，直到所讀意群表達意思與題目無關(guān)為止。
　　4、對比選項，選出最適合的答案。
　　5、在定位的同時，要結(jié)合自然段定位的原則輔助定位。
　　下面我們結(jié)合真題來進行一下具體講解。

A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap，but，if properly handled，it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War，it had a market eight times larger than any competitor，giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world‘s best，its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.

It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably，the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries，such as consumer electronics，had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left，Zenith. （Now there is none：Zenith was bought by South Korea’s LG Electronics in July.）Foreign made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America‘s machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors，which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age，was going to be the next casualty.

All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing，and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America’s industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.

How things have changed！In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self doubt has yielded to blind pride. “American industry has changed its structure，has gone on a diet，has learnt to be more quick witted，”according to Richard Cavanagh，executive dean of Harvard‘s Kennedy School of Government. “It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity，”says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute，a think tank in Washington，DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as “a golden age of business management in the United States.”

51. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because ________.

［A］it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal

［B］its domestic market was eight times larger than before

［C］the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors

［D］the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy

52. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American ________.

［A］TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market

［B］semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises

［C］machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions

［D］auto industry had lost part of its domestic market

53. What can be inferred from the passage？

［A］It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pride.

［B］Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.

［C］The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.

［D］A long history of success may pave the way for further development.

54. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the ________.

［A］ turning of the business cycle

［B］restructuring of industry

［C］improved business management

［D］success in education

    第一步，掃讀文章，確定文章的寫作對象——美國的工商業(yè)在二戰(zhàn)后由興旺到衰退再到復興的過程。

    第二步，仔細審題，確定關(guān)鍵字。（見題目）

51題，詢問的是二戰(zhàn)后美國達到了主導地位，原因是什么？根據(jù)二戰(zhàn)的信息，我們定位在第一段。使用排除法，容易排出ABD選項，A選項中painstaking錯誤，因為文章是說的effortless，是一個“不費力的過程”，而此處是說“痛苦”顯然錯誤。B選項比較對象發(fā)生了錯誤，文章是說“和任何的競爭者相比，大八倍”，而選項是說“和自己以前相比，大八倍”。D選項中unparalleled，原文不是修飾workforce，而此處卻修飾workforce，故而錯誤。由于考研四選一，故而可以直接選C.C選項是文章第一段最后一句的同義詮釋。

52題，20 世紀80年代，美國在世界經(jīng)濟方面喪失了主導地位，主要表現(xiàn)在下面哪一事實。A選項，重疊原文不難發(fā)現(xiàn)，文中說，電視制造業(yè)已經(jīng)消失。但是選項卻說“退回了國內(nèi)市場”。B選項，文中中“半導體業(yè)將會成為下一個受害對象”。選項卻說，已經(jīng)被國外市場所吞并。C選項，望文生義，原文中的on the ropes是岌岌可危，但是選項卻當成了自殺性行為，故而錯誤，排除法，D選項正確。

53題，通過使用自然段定位法，不難定位在第三段。推理題型。根據(jù)凱程小技巧，我們正確答案定位于BD之間，D選項在文中首句出現(xiàn)，但是偷換了概念，首句使用的詞語是long and effortless 但是被替換成了long，故而錯誤，所以答案就是B了。

54題，作者將90年代美國經(jīng)濟的復蘇，歸因于——。這里再次使用凱程小技巧（眾人皆醉我獨醒）將答案定位于Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle.重疊選項，僅有A是符合題意的。
通過上述的分析，同學們不難發(fā)現(xiàn)，考研的文章有時也僅僅是“紙老虎”。只要我們從現(xiàn)在開始堅定地鍛煉基本功，扎扎實實地掌握考研必備的知識點，沖擊高分就不再是夢想。