| 考试日期： | 2012年5月19日 |
| Reading Passage 1 | |
| Title: | 一种耕地机械（新题） |
| Question types: | 填空；简答题；True/False/Not Given |
| 文章内容回顾 | 关于某个英国人发明的犁地机，改进了农业播种。 |
| 英文原文阅读 |
Legend has it that sometime toward the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) a government train carrying oxen traveling through the northern plains of eastern Wyoming was caught in a snowstorm and had to be abandoned. The driver returned the next spring to see what had become of his cargo. Instead of the skeletons he had expected to find, he saw his oxen, living, fat, and healthy. How had they survived? The answer lay in a resource that unknowing Americans lands trampled underfoot in their haste to cross the "Great American Desert" to reach lands that sometimes proved barren. In the eastern parts of the United States, the preferred grass for forage was a cultivated plant. It grew well with enough rain, then when cut and stored it would cure and become nourishing hay for winter feed. But in the dry grazing lands of the West that familiar bluejoint grass was often killed by drought. To raise cattle out there seemed risky or even hopeless. Who could imagine a fairy-tale grass that required no rain and somehow made it possible for cattle to feed themselves all winter? But the surprising western wild grasses did just that. They had wonderfully convenient features that made them superior to the cultivated eastern grasses. Variously known as buffalo grass, grama grass, or mesquite grass, not only were they immune to drought; but they were actually preserved by the lack of summer and autumn rains. They were not juicy like the cultivated eastern grasses, but had short, hard stems. And they did not need to be cured in a barn, but dried right where they grew on the ground. When they dried in this way, they remained naturally sweet and nourishing through the winter. Cattle left outdoors to fend for themselves thrived on this hay. And the cattle themselves helped plant the fresh grass year after year for they trampled the natural seeds firmly into the soil to be watered by the melting snows of winter and the occasional rains of spring. The dry summer air cured them much as storing in a barn cured the cultivated grasses. |
| 题型难度分析 | 文章非常简单，主要注意个别和农业有关的专有名词，但是实际解题过程中对专有名词没有要求。 |
| 题型技巧分析 | 填空题和简答题一般按照行文顺序出题，所以根据定位在原文章找到出题点还是不难的。对于填空题要注意对空格词性和数量做出判断，这样更加有利于做题。对于简答题要注意推断答案类型。 |
| Reading Passage 2 | |
| Title: | violin （新题） |
| Question types: | True/False/Not Given; headings |
| 文章内容回顾 | 小提琴的发展历史 |
| 英文原文阅读 |
The development of jazz can be seen as part of the larger continuum of American popular music, especially dance music. In the twenties, jazz became the hottest new thing in dancemusic, much as ragtime had at the turn of the century, and as wouldrhythm and blues in the fifties, rock in the fifties, and disco in the seventies. But two characteristics distinguish jazz from other dance music. The first is improvisation, the changing of a musical phrase according to the player's inspiration. Like all artists, jazz musicians strive for an individual style, and the improvise or paraphrased is a jazz musician's main opportunity to display his or her individuality. In early jazz, musicians often improvised melodies collectively, thus creating a kind of polyphony. There was little soloing as such, although some New Orleans players, particularly cornet player Buddy Bolden, achieved local fame for their ability to improvise a solo. Later the idea of the chorus-long or multichorus solo took hold. Louis Armstrong's instrumental brilliance, demonstrated through extended solos, was a major influence in this development. Even in the early twenties, however, some jazz bands had featured soloists. Similarly, show orchestras and carnival bands often included one or two such "get-off" musicians. Unimproved, completely structured jazz does exist, but the ability of the best jazz musicians to create music of great cohesion and beauty during performance has been a hallmark of the music and its major source of inspiration and change. The second distinguishing characteristic of jazz is a rhythmic drive that was initially called "hot" and later "swing". In playing hot , a musician consciously departs from strict meter to create a relaxed sense of phrasing that also emphasizes the underlying rhythms.("Rough" tone and use of moderate vibrato also contributed to a hot sound.) Not all jazz is hot, however, many early bands played unadorned published arrangements of popular songs. Still, the proclivity to play hot distinguished the jazz musician from other instrumentalists. |
| 题型难度分析 | 这篇文章难度一般，题目分布比较规律。可以先把每个段落的细节题搞定之后再去做相关段落的heading. |
| 题型技巧分析 |
heading题考查学生对段落大致含义的把握能力，虽然出题人可能希望我们好好的读懂全段，但是考生未必有这样的能力。我们可以根据一些特定的词语在段落中寻找主题句的出现位置： 1，在段落开头有举例结构的地方往往说明该段的主题句在举例结构之前。 2，在段落中间有比较明显的转折结构，那么转折后的内容有可能是段落的重点内容。 3，在段末有表示结果的词语，那么该句句子有可能是段落的主题句。 常见的段落结构有：总分结构；对比结构；并列结构；分总结构。总分结构还是占大多数的。 |
| Reading Passage 3 | |
| Title: | Voynich Manuscript （09年6月27日的老题） |
| Question types: | True/False/Not Given; 人名观点配对；summary; 主旨选择题 |
| 文章内容回顾 | 关于一本放在耶鲁大学图书馆的神秘的书，里面有一堆神秘的符号，整个文章说了很多人对于写符号的不同看法。 |
| 题型难度分析 | 本篇文章题材比较难，属于人文类文章，对学生挑战比较大。而且，文章中有大量生词，会给考生阅读带来很多不便，至少在阅读流畅度方面会大打折扣，进而降低考生的信心。但是后面的题目难度一般，也没有考题直接考在生词方面。这个比较符合 |
| 题型技巧分析 |
人名观点配对难度一般，大写字母在文章中比较明显，这种题型就是出题人想来消耗考生时间的题型，没什么技术含量。 判断题么，主要关注出题点的判断： 1. 谓语动词和宾语 2. be动词和表语 3. 绝对化词 4. 比较关系 5. 因果关系 6. 数字关系 只要明确具体考题中涉及到哪一类，然后去文章中根据定位词比对就行了。 Summary, 请注意空格词性的推断，这样能帮助我们缩小寻找范围。 |
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考试趋势分析和备考指导： 对于前短时间让考生哭爹喊娘的“段落—细节”配对题而言，这次考试没有出现，这无疑是对广大考生的利好！但是我们注意到，判断题在三篇文章中的都出现了，这仍旧是雅思阅读的主力题型。判断题即考察考生的搜索能力，又考察一定的分析判断能力，还考察同意替换能力，是雅思阅读中对综合能力考察最到位的题型。建议考生对剑7、8中的判断题做仔细的研究，把握判断题的出题规律，时刻迎战考试中出现的大量判断题。 我们也注意到，“段落—细节”竟然没出现，简直令人发指！这意味着后面的考生又要哭了。 |