實例分析：英語考研閱讀做題方法

　　摘要：考研er已經(jīng)進(jìn)入全面?zhèn)淇嫉臓顟B(tài)，所謂“得閱讀者得英語”，閱讀必須多讀多練，下面我們?yōu)楦魑粚W(xué)子精細(xì)分析一篇文章。

　　Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price,thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labor, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television licence would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 percent more.

　　And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven Acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value. Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of.

　　There is one more point I feel I ought to touch on. Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.If its message were confined merely to information—and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive—advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants.

　　1、By the first sentence of the passage the author means that _______.
　　[A] he is fairly familiar with the cost of advertising
　　[B] everybody knows well that advertising is money consuming
　　[C] advertising costs money like everything else
　　[D] it is worthwhile to spend money on advertising

　　2、In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages
　　of advertising?
　　[A] Securing greater fame. [B] Providing more jobs.
　　[C] Enhancing living standards. [D] Reducing newspaper cost.

　　3、The author deems that the well-known TV personality is _______.
　　[A] very precise in passing his judgment on advertising
　　[B] interested in nothing but the buyers’ attention
　　[C] correct in telling the difference between persuasion and
　　information
　　[D] obviously partial in his views on advertising

　　4、In the author’s opinion, _______.
　　[A] advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing
　　information
　　[B] advertising informs people of new ideas rather than wins them over
　　[C] there is nothing wrong with advertising in persuading the buyer
　　[D] the buyer is not interested in getting information from an advertisement

　　一、迅速瀏覽選項，把握文章主題
　　根據(jù)題干中，考生可以提煉出“advertising”和“TV personality”,由此很難判斷文章主題。但是考生讀完第一段后，就可確認(rèn)本文的主題應(yīng)該是“廣告”。

　　二、精讀各段落，攻克詞匯和語法長難句
　　1、詞匯精解
　　(1) distribution (n.) 銷售，分配，分發(fā);配給物;分布狀態(tài)，分區(qū)，分類;發(fā)送，發(fā)行

　　(2) tube (n.) [英口]地鐵;顯像管，電子管

　　(3) live up to (v.) 做到，不辜負(fù)。如：He didn’t live up to his reputation.他的生活與他的名聲不符。

　　(4) mercifully (adv.)幸運(yùn)地是;寬厚地，仁慈地;merciful (a.)

　　(5) have the good sense 很明智。

　　(6) touch on 涉及，關(guān)系到，簡略地論述

　　(7) distinction (n.)差別，區(qū)分，draw ~ between A and B

　　(8) confine (v.) (與to, within搭配)局限，限制(于);管制，禁閉

　　(9) subtly (adv.) 細(xì)致地，精巧地;subtle (a.) 細(xì)微的，微妙的;精巧的，巧妙的

　　2、長難句精解
　?、買t serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices.

　　本句的主干是It serves to assist…, thereby establishing… and so making…, thereby
后是兩個并列分詞短語做結(jié)果狀語。make it +形容詞+to do sth.意思是：使……成為可能。

　　譯本：它直接有利于商品以合理的價格快速地銷售，從而建立穩(wěn)固的國內(nèi)市場，并且有可能以有競爭力的價格提供出口商品。

　?、贏part from the fact that twenty-seven acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements.

　　句子中的主干是no regular advertiser dare promote a product。前面apart from引導(dǎo)介詞結(jié)構(gòu)做狀語，其中fact后是that引導(dǎo)的同位語從句;主句的賓語product后是由that 引導(dǎo)的定語從句做后置定語。

　　譯文：除了國會制定的27項法案對廣告詞加以約束之外，也沒有哪個正規(guī)的廣告商膽敢推銷與廣告承諾不符的產(chǎn)品。

　?、跧f you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it , and that it represents good value.

　　該句是一個主從復(fù)合句，if引導(dǎo)條件狀語從句，主句是it is the surest proof…，I know 做proof的后置定語，兩個that 引導(dǎo)的并列從句都是proof的同位語從句。

　　譯文：如果你看到一種商品不斷地做廣告，我認(rèn)為這是最可靠的證明，即此商品一定與其宣傳名副其實，一定體現(xiàn)良好的價值。

　?、躀f its message were confined merely to information—and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive—advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention.

　　該句主干是If its message were confined merely to information…advertising would be so boring that…，其中if引導(dǎo)虛擬條件句，表示與事實相反，主句是so…that…句型表示因果關(guān)系。破折號中間為插入成分，由一個主從復(fù)合句組成，主句為that would be difficult，這里that指代If虛擬條件句if its message…;緊接著的是條件從句if (that is) not impossible to achieve，后面是for 引導(dǎo)的原因狀語從句。

　　譯文：如果廣告僅僅限于提供信息——這一點本身也難以做到，如果不是不可能的話，因為即使選擇一件補(bǔ)襯衫顏色這樣的細(xì)節(jié)也多少隱含勸說之意——它就會變得枯燥乏味，無人關(guān)注了。

　　三、作答題目，理解文章含義
　　1、【答案】D

　　【解析】詞義句意題。首先看句子語法，第一句的重點是對as well as的理解。as well as 有兩種意思：1)相當(dāng)于in addition (to)，意為“除……外，同，和，也”，如：He gave me money as well as advice.

　　2)用作連詞引出比較對象，意為“和……一樣好”。第2)種含義放在本文中才講得通，這里as well as any相當(dāng)于as well as any(money spent), I know of 是定語從句，修飾any。其次，看下文內(nèi)容。從文章第二句“它直接有助于……”可以推出作者對廣告的作用持肯定態(tài)度。因此第一句應(yīng)該被理解為“花在廣告上的錢和任何別處花的錢一樣值得”。D項正是這個含義的概括，因此為正確項。

　　B、C選項僅停留在“廣告花費(fèi)錢”的含義上，體現(xiàn)不出對廣告的肯定態(tài)度;選項A是對從句“I know of”的錯誤理解。

　　2、【答案】A

　　【解析】事實細(xì)節(jié)題。第一段作者對廣告給予肯定并且列舉廣告帶來的諸多益處：(1)它直接有助于商品以合理價格迅速銷出;(2)在穩(wěn)定國內(nèi)市場的同時，使產(chǎn)品能夠以有競爭力的價格進(jìn)入國際市場;(3)它給人以新的消費(fèi)觀，從而大大提高人們的生活水準(zhǔn);(4)它有助于增加市場需求，擴(kuò)大勞動力市場，有效地擴(kuò)大就業(yè);(5)它使日報等公共事業(yè)的服務(wù)價格低廉。由此可見，B、C和D選項都在文中直接涉及，可以排除。第二段首句雖然談到廣告為人們購買的產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)的合理價格提供了保障，但是未提及A選項“保障更高的知名度”的內(nèi)容，因而為正確答案。

　　注意：這種“which is not included”題型相當(dāng)于except題型，一般要在大范圍內(nèi)搜索，排除原文中已經(jīng)提到的選項或直接找出與原文不符的選項。潛在命題點：依據(jù)此內(nèi)容可另出一題：What is the biggest advantage of advertising?

　　A、Providing more jobs.

　　B、Enhancing living standards.

　　C、Reducing the costs of many services.

　　D、Ensuring the quality of the products and services.

　　答案為D。關(guān)鍵是第二段首句 “most important of all”表明下面所述為最重要的優(yōu)勢，因此在列舉題中，要注意關(guān)聯(lián)詞的作用。此外，也可用排除法，A、B、C在文中并列，作用相仿，成為答案幾率均等，故都應(yīng)該排除。

　　3、【答案】D

　　【解析】態(tài)度題。題干要求考生回答作者對文中提到的知名人士的看法。文章第四段談到該知名人士對廣告持否定態(tài)度，即他批評廣告更多的是在勸誘觀眾，而不是提供信息。這顯然與作者前面第三段用大篇幅對廣告贊揚(yáng)的態(tài)度大相徑庭，所以作者馬上對這種觀點進(jìn)行駁斥，以維護(hù)自己的觀點。作者認(rèn)為“他把兩者區(qū)分得過于細(xì)微。因為廣告不可避免地要勸說消費(fèi)者，如果廣告的內(nèi)容僅僅限于提供信息，那將會乏味之極”。由引可以推論作者對知名人士看法持否定態(tài)度。因此D選項為正確選項。

　　A選項和C選項都持肯定態(tài)度，可以排除。而B選項也不對，因為在文中并未討論知名人士的興趣和關(guān)心對象問題。nothing but意為：只有，除了……之外都不。

　　4、【答案】C

　　【解析】態(tài)度題。讀完全文后，我們已經(jīng)很清楚作者對廣告的態(tài)度和觀點。先是在前三段肯定廣告給社會帶來的諸多好處，然后在第四段和第五段又指出廣告勸說消費(fèi)者不僅是不可避免的也是必要的，否則便失去了吸引力，不能把廣告的勸誘性作為批評它的論據(jù)。C選項恰恰符合這一觀點，為正確答案。

　　A選項與第三段的內(nèi)容相悖。B選項與第四段作者提出的“廣告不可避免地要勸說消費(fèi)者，內(nèi)容不僅僅限于提供信息”的看法不一致。D選項不正確，作者在末段提到，只提供信息的廣告不會引起觀眾的興趣，不能由此推出，消費(fèi)者對廣告信息毫無興趣。

　　win sb. over(to sth.)=win sb. to do sth. 意思是“說服某人做某事”。

　　四、翻譯全文，再次鞏固復(fù)習(xí)詞匯和語法長難句

　　花在廣告上的錢和我所知花在任何別的方面的錢一樣是值得的。它直接有利于商品以合理的價格快速地銷售，從而建立穩(wěn)固的國內(nèi)市場，并且有可能以有競爭力的價格提供出口商品。通過向公眾推出新思想，它極大地促進(jìn)生活水準(zhǔn)的提高。通過幫助增加商品需求，它確保對勞動力的更大需求，因此成為對抗失業(yè)的一項有效措施。它降低了許多服務(wù)費(fèi)用：沒有廣告，日報的價格將是現(xiàn)在的四倍，電視許可證價格會翻一番，乘汽車或地鐵出行也將貴出百分之二十。

　　也許最重要的是，廣告對你所購買的產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)的合理價值提供了一種保障。除了國會制定的27項法案對廣告加以約束之外，也沒有哪個正規(guī)的廣告商膽敢推銷與廣告承諾不符的產(chǎn)品。他也許會通過誤導(dǎo)人的廣告暫時愚弄一些人。但他這樣做長不了，因為所幸的是，公眾很明智，不會再次購買劣質(zhì)商品。如果你看見一種商品不斷地做廣告，我認(rèn)為這就是最可靠的證明，商品一定與其宣傳名副其實，一定體現(xiàn)良好的價值。廣告對社會的物質(zhì)利益所作的貢獻(xiàn)比我能想到的任何其他力量都要大。

　　有一點我覺得應(yīng)該在此提及。最近我聽到一位電視知名人士宣稱，他反對廣告，因為廣告是勸誘性的，而不是客觀地提供信息。他在此劃了一條過于清晰的界線。當(dāng)然廣告總是試圖勸服。

　　如果廣告僅僅限于提供信息——這一點本身如果不是不可能的話，至少也難以做到，因為即使選擇一件襯衫的顏色這樣的細(xì)節(jié)也多少隱含勸說之意——那么廣告將變得味同嚼蠟、無人理會了。但也許這就是那位電視名人所希望的結(jié)果。