这篇文章围绕一个哲学名词“foundationalism”(基础论)展开,论述了两位哲学家的不同观点。其中第二题是一道非常典型的举例目的题,我们先来看一下题目:
Why does the professor mention a house?
1. To explain an idea about the organization of human knowledge
2. To illustrate the unreliability of ourperception of physical objects
3. To clarify the difference between two pointsof view about the basis of human knowledge
4. To remind students of a point he made about Descartes in a previous lecture
举例目的题的题干通常都是“Why does the professor mention/ talk about/discuss......” 后面的内容即为例子的主语。举例子这个出题点在托福听力中出现的非常频繁,通常是教授先介绍一个抽象的观点或理论,为了便于学生理解,后面紧跟一个具体的事例,有时在例子后面还会再总结一下这个观点。常见的提示词为“for example, for instance, like, say ”等,需要在笔记中注明,可简写为“eg”,
Foundationalism is the view that our knowledge claims, what we think we know, that is, they need to have a base. And think of knowledge as a house, you need a solid foundation on which you build a house. And if you have a strong foundation, your house is more likely to be solid. Well,foundationalists think the same thing is true of knowledge. If you have a solid base for your knowledge claims, then your knowledge structure is more likely to be strong, valid, true.
这里house虽然没提示词for example出现,确实是一个具体的事物,属于例子的范畴。例子前面讲的是foundationalism需要一个基础,例子后面讲的是有了这个基础,knowledge structure 就会更坚固。故而选择能够体现这个抽象理论的A选项,organization of human knowledge同意替换knowledge structure。