题干关键词：purpose, effect, or impact (of certain words, phrases, or sentences);tone (of the particular lines or the whole passage)
材料：The Official SAT Study Guide
试卷：2
页数：453
题号：4
Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.This passage is from Charlotte Brontë, The Professor,originally published in 1857.
No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, “I am baffled!” and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X—felt my occupation irksome. The thing itself—the work of copying and translating business-letters— was a dry and tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke, monotony, and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes; I should have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. King’s lodgings, and they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherished-in-secret, Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But this was not all; the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root andspreading denser shade daily, excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.
4. The references to “shade” and “darkness” at the end of the first paragraph mainly have which effect?
A) They evoke the narrator’s sense of dismay.
B) They reflect the narrator’s sinister thoughts.
C) They capture the narrator’s fear of confinement.
D) They reveal the narrator’s longing for rest.
答案: A
答案解析: 本题问的是文章第一段结尾使用 “shade” 和 “darkness” 有什么作用。文章措辞肯定是为文章主旨服务的，因此在分析措辞时，要注意结合文章整体的基调，并考虑作者的写作意图。这段作者主要阐述了自己对工作现状的厌恶和不满。定位到 “shade” 和 “darkness” 具体位置Lines 27-33，作者说自己和雇主之间产生的憎恶越来越深，像密集的 “shade” 每天蔓延，让自己不见天日，觉得自己像长在潮湿的 “darkness” 的井壁上的植物。这里作者使用了比喻的修辞手法，显然是为了营造某种感觉，并将这种感觉更为形象的传达给读者。
A选项说是唤起叙述者的沮丧感。这和这一段表达的情绪一致，也能支撑作者的写作意图，为最佳选项。
B选项说是反应了叙述者险恶的思想。本段没有任何措辞表现出作者的险恶用心，与全文基调不符，排除。
C选项说是抓住了叙述者对这种监禁的恐惧。结合本段的其它措辞，如：irksome, tedious, borne with, nuisance, antipathy等，表达的都是类似“厌倦”或“绝望”的情绪，并没有表现出恐惧，因此排除。
D选项说是揭示了叙述者对休息的渴望。作者用了很多 “I should have…” 来传达自己的行为或想法，例如： “I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties” (Lines 14-15)，由此可见作者厌恶工作的原因之一是不愿埋没自己的才能，并不是想要休息，因此该选项排除。
重点词汇：
baffle: ['bæf(ə)l] vt. 使…困惑;使…受挫折 | n. 挡板;困惑
irksome: ['ɜːks(ə)m] adj. 令人厌烦的，讨厌的;令人厌恶的
tedious: ['tiːdɪəs] adj. 沉闷的;冗长乏味的
nuisance: ['njuːs(ə)ns] n. 讨厌的人;损害;麻烦事;讨厌的东西
antipathy: [æn'tɪpəθɪ] n. 反感;厌恶;憎恶;不相容
glimpse: [glɪm(p)s] n. 一瞥，一看 | v. 瞥见
slimy: ['slaɪmɪ] adj. 黏滑的;泥泞的;谄媚的，虚伪的
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