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1、GRE考试为何要考察词汇
作为北美研究生入学考试,GRE考试并非是一个语言考试,然而从这个考试诞生开始,就总是与词汇有着千丝万缕的关系,事实上,对于大部分中国学生而言,考GRE的过程就是一个背单词的过程,那GRE考试为何要考察词汇?
第一,在北美攻读硕士以上学位的时候,必然涉及大量学术文章的读写,这其中要使用大量的专业词汇,于是能否熟练掌握这些单词就成为判断能否在北美完成学术研究的一个重要标志,因此GRE考试总是很重视对词汇的考察。
第二,GRE考试的目的是考察学生的逻辑思维能力,然而逻辑思维必然要依附于一定的素材。如果选用各个专业内的素材,势必造成专业上的不公平,偏离了其作为一个general test的目标。因此,ETS选择了使用词汇作为考察逻辑思维的素材,并由此形成了具备GRE特色的词汇题。
2、老GRE中的词汇考察
在老GRE考试中,verbal reasoning 每个section的38道题中,有7道填空,9道类比,11道反义,11道阅读。而在ETS的归类中,填空、类比和反义均被归类为词汇题,也就是说词汇题占到70%以上,足以看出在老GRE中词汇的重要性。
在这三种词汇题中,类比和反义是直接考察词汇微妙含义构成的逻辑关系的题型,而填空则是披着语境的面纱,但最终决定能否顺利解题的,还是是否对词汇和词汇之间的逻辑关系能否有准确和快速的把握。因此,我们可以得出这样一个结论,老GRE对词汇的考察是直接的考察。
3、新GRE考试中的词汇考察
从2011年8月开始,GRE讲全面改革,其中变动最大的就是在Verbal Reasoning部分,类比和反义取消,填空题由现在的五选一,变为五选一,七选二,两空题,三空题,而阅读的难度也有所增加。随着填空和阅读难度的大幅上升,部分考生自我安慰道:至少不考类反了,不用背红宝书中那么多的单词了,然而,事实真的如此吗?
GRE考试改革后,确实背单词的任务减轻了一些,有一些单词确实不需要再背了,诸如pirouette,gargoyle 和 arabesque 这些比较生僻的专有名词就不需要背了,甚至可以说所有的专有名词,诸如 termite,firefly 也都不需要背了,但是在红宝书收录的七八千单词中,这些词也不过只有五六百,七八千个单词减去五六百,还是有七八千个单词需要背。
而这些专有名词在单词的记忆中并不是难点,并且在考试中也要么是作为陪考选项华丽丽的登场一次就转身而去消失于人海中,要么就是我们站在考法的角度对其记忆做了最大的简化,使得对他们的记忆从来就不是考生的一个负担。而对于考生来说,最头痛的抽象名词、动词和形容词的记忆,却并没有减弱,甚至,从目前的考试来看,难度还更有所上升。
而从老G到新G,随着类反题目的取消,另外一个问题也随之而来,在老G中,类反的单词,填空的单词,阅读的单词,ETS实际上是有一个心照不宣的各自的小词库的,也就是说大量在类反中出现的单词并没有进入到填空和阅读试题中。
而现在随着类反的取消,ETS会放弃自己钟爱的类反词库吗?显然不会,那么对于考生来说,就必须要注意,类反考试中曾经的主考词,将势必进入填空和阅读中。而由于填空和阅读本来就很难,再加上单词的难度,那么,无疑,新GRE对于词汇的考察就更上了一个台阶。
4、新
首先,新GRE阅读中出现了词汇题,即直接问你某个单词是什么意思
我们在看一道样题中公布的阅读题对于词汇是如何考查的:
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following reading passage.
Scholarship on political newspapers and their editors is dominated by the view that as the United States grew, the increasing influence of the press led, ultimately, to the neutral reporting from which we benefit today. Pasley considers this view oversimplified, because neutrality was not a goal of early national newspaper editing, even when editors disingenuously stated that they aimed to tell all sides of a story. Rather, the intensely partisan ideologies represented in newspapers of the early republic led to a clear demarcation between traditional and republican values. The editors responsible for the papers' content ―especially those with republican agendas ―began to see themselves as central figures in the development of political consciousness in the United States.
10. In the context in which it appears, "disingenuously" most nearly means
A. insincerely
B. guilelessly
C. obliquely
D. resolutely
E. pertinaciously
如果当年,我们在课堂是总结的天真纯朴类的单词把握的比较好,如下:
天真纯朴的
ingenuous=guileless=naive=simple=artless=unsophisticated
那么这道题,对于我们的同学来说就完全是送分题,对于阅读能力整体偏弱的中国学生来说,这样的题目必须拿下。而拿下这些题目的最好手段,无疑就是按照我们在老G词汇班同样的强度来把握词汇。
更为重要的是,从新老GRE的官方OG来看,阅读考察共有13项能力,首当其冲的就是“understanding the meaning of individual words.” 显然,词汇量,是阅读理解的基础。经过研究新GRE的官方OG中的阅读文章可以得出结论,新GRE阅读中的词汇难度有了明显的上升,这种上升是由于老G中的类反单词进入文章和题目引起的。以下例子中可以反映出该结论。
在新GRE的OG阅读中,有一篇2句话的文章。
“a person who agrees to serve as mediator between two warring factions at the request of both abandons by so agreeing the right to take sides later. To take sides at a later point would be to suggest that the earlier presumptive impartiality was a sham.”
若熟悉老GRE类反,马上可以联想到这些题:
类比:intercessor: mediate= translator: interpret
consensus: factionalism=expedition:foot-dragging
反义:faction <> unity
factional <> ecumenical
factious <> cooperative
debunk <> perpetuate to sham
sham <> genuine
同时我们注意到,下划线的词汇在阅读黄皮书中没有出现过。
另外有一篇文章
“Was Felix Mendelssohn(1809-1847) a great composer? On its face, the question seems absurd. One of the most gifted prodigies in the history of music, he produced his first masterpiece at sixteen. From then on, he was recognized as an artist of preternatural abilities, not only as a composer but also as a pianist and conductor. But Mendelssohn’s enduring popularity has often been at odds—sometimes quite sharply—with his critical standing. Despite general acknowledgement of his genius, there has been a noticeable reluctance to rank him with, say, Schumann or Brahms. As Haggin put it, Mendelssohn, as a composer, was a “minor master…working on a small scale of emotion and texture.”
同样,老GRE中考到下划加粗词汇的类比反义题:
类比:prodigy: person= miracle: occurrence
反义:preternatural <> ordinary/prosaic
五、总结
从本文对GRE词汇考察的解析来看,GRE考试进行改革之后,对词汇的考察要求并没有降低标准,反而提高了对GRE词汇掌握程度,所以参加新GRE考试的考生千万不可以放松对GRE词汇部分的复习。