阅读模拟

　　SAT阅读练习题 SAT Reading Comprehension Test 6

　　I have yet to meet a poetry-lover under thirty who was

　　not an introvert, or an introvert who was not unhappy in

　　adolescence. At school, particularly, maybe, if, as in my own

　　case, it is a boarding school, he sees the extrovert successful,

　　5 happy, and good and himself unpopular or neglected; and what is

　　hardest to bear is not unpopularity, but the consciousness that it

　　is deserved, that he is grubby and inferior and frightened and

　　dull. Knowing no other kind of society than the contingent, he

　　imagines that this arrangement is part of the eternal scheme of

　　10 things, that he is doomed to a life of failure and envy. It is not till

　　he grows up, till years later he runs across the heroes of his

　　school days and finds them grown commonplace and sterile, that

　　he realizes that the introvert is the lucky one, the best adapted to

　　an industrial civilization the collective values of which are so

　　15 infantile that he alone can grow, who has educated his fantasies

　　and learned how to draw upon the resources of his inner life. At

　　the time, however, his adolescence is unpleasant enough. Unable

　　to imagine a society in which he would feel at home, he turns

　　away from the human to the nonhuman: homesick he will seek,

　　20 not his mother, but mountains or autumn woods, and the

　　growing life within him will express itself in a devotion to music

　　and thoughts upon mutability and death. Art for him will be

　　something infinitely precious, pessimistic, and hostile to life. If it

　　speaks of love it must be love frustrated, for all success seems to

　　25 him noisy and vulgar; if it moralizes, it must counsel a stoic

　　resignation, for the world he knows is well content with itself and

　　will not change.

　　Deep as first love and wild with all regret,

　　O death in life, the days that are no more.

　　Now more than ever seems it sweet to die

　　To cease upon the midnight with no pain.

　　35 That to the adolescent is the authentic poetic note and whoever is

　　the first in his life to strike it, whether Tennyson, Keats,

　　Swinburne, Housman or another, awakens a passion of imitation

　　and an affectation which no subsequent refinement or

　　sophistication of his taste can entirely destroy. In my own case it

　　40 was Hardy in the summer of 1923; for more than a year I read no

　　one else and I do not think that I was ever without one volume or

　　another or the beautifully produced Wessex edition in my hands:

　　I smuggled them into class, carried them about on Sunday walks,

　　and took them up to the dormitory to read in the early morning,

　　45 though they were far too unwieldy to be read in bed with

　　comfort. In the autumn of 1924 there was a palace revolution

　　after which he had to share his kingdom with Edward Thomas,

　　until finally they were both defeated by Elliot at the battle of

　　Oxford in 1926.

　　50 Besides serving as the archetype of the Poetic, Hardy was

　　also an expression of the contemporary scene. He was both my

　　Keats and my Sandburg.

　　To begin with, he looked like my father: that broad

　　unpampered moustache, bald forehead, and deeply lined

　　55 sympathetic face belonged to that other world of feeling and

　　sensation. Here was a writer whose emotions, if sometimes

　　monotonous and sentimental in expression, would be deeper and

　　more faithful than my own, and whose attachment to the earth

　　would be more secure and observant.

阅读理解第二页

　　1. According to the author, poetry lovers under thirty generally

　　A. have a strong sense of their own inferiority during school years

　　B. are always products of boarding schools

　　C. have an unhappy home life

　　D. are outgoing as adolescents

　　E. long to return to early childhood

　　2. The author’s main purpose is apparently to

　　A. describe what lead to his being an introvert

　　B. explore the reasons for his early taste in poetry

　　C. explain what lead to his becoming a poet

　　D. account for the unhappy adolescent’s aesthetic sense

　　E. criticize a system that makes young people feel unhappy and neglected

　　3. The word ‘contingent’ (line 8) most nearly means

　　A. juvenile

　　B. scholarly

　　C. competitive

　　D. immediate

　　E. intelligent

　　4. The author regards the introverted adolescent as ultimately lucky because he has

　　A. become financially successful in an industrialized society

　　B. ceased to envy others

　　C. cultivated inner resources that he will need in modern society

　　D. a better general education than those who were envied in school

　　E. learned to appreciate nature

　　5. To the adolescent the ‘authentic poetic note’ is one of

　　A. pain and affirmation

　　B. hostility and vulgarity

　　C. contentment and peace

　　D. purity and love

　　E. melancholy and acceptance

　　6. It can be inferred that, for the author, the poetry of Hardy is

　　A. something with which he is not entirely comfortable

　　B. a temporary interest soon supplanted by other poetry

　　C. a secret obsession that he is reluctant to confess

　　D. his first poetic love that time has not entirely erased

　　E. a childlike passion

　　7. The author uses all of the following to make his point except

　　A. metaphor

　　B. personal experience

　　C. generalization

　　D. classical allusions

　　E. comparison

　　8. The poetry quoted (lines 28-34) is most likely included as

　　A. extracts from the author’s own poetry

　　B. extracts from Hardy’s poetry

　　C. examples of poetry that appeals to the unhappy adolescent

　　D. the type of poetry much admired by all poetry lovers

　　E. examples of schoolboy poetry

　　9. It can be inferred that Edward Thomas

　　A. was once held in high esteem by the author

　　B. was a better poet than Hardy

　　C. was writing in 1924

　　D. had views opposed to Eliot

　　E. wrote poetry similar to that of Hardy

　　10. The author mentions Carl Sandburg (line 52) as

　　A. an example of a modern poet

　　B. an example of a traditional figure

　　C. having a poetic appearance

　　D. a poet to appeal to young people

　　E. resembling his father

　　11. The author qualifies his appreciation of Hardy by pointing out that Hardy’s poetic techniques were

　　A. sometimes unmoving

　　B. not always deeply felt

　　C. occasionally lacking in variety

　　D. always emotional

　　E. irrelevant to certain readers

　　12. The author feels that Hardy’s physical appearance suggested

　　A. deep and lasting feelings

　　B. paternal values

　　C. careworn old age

　　D. a contemporary writer

　　E. fatherly concern

　　SAT阅读参考答案与详细解答在下一页

答案及解析

　　SAT阅读:Reading Comprehension Test3 参考答案

　　1.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　Re-read lines 1-10, where you will find that the poetry lover under thirty is an introvert, unhappy, and unpopular at school. Lines 6-7 tell us that while he is at school he is conscious that he is inferior. This answer A is best.

　　2.Correct Answer: B

　　Explanation:

　　The main purpose is found from an overview of the whole passage. Here he is clearly talking about his early attachment to the poetry of Hardy. Hence, answer B.

　　3.Correct Answer: D

　　Explanation:

　　Re-read the relevant sentence and choose a word or phrase to replace ‘contingent’. Here, in "knowing no other society than the contingent", we can substitute ‘that he finds himself in at the present’ for ‘the contingent’. Hence, ‘immediate’ will fit.

　　4.Correct Answer: C

　　Explanation:

　　The introvert is ultimately lucky because he is ‘the best adapted to an industrial civilization..... and learned how to draw upon the resources of his inner life.’ (Lines 13-16). Therefore, ‘cultivated inner resources’ in answer C makes this the best answer.

　　5.Correct Answer: E

　　Explanation:

　　The ‘authentic poetic note’ is mentioned in line 35. This ‘note’ is defined before the extracts (lines 22-27). ‘Art for him will be something infinitely precious, pessimistic, and hostile to life.’ This indicates a gloomy, negative feeling, which suggests ‘melancholy’ might be appropriate. Also it must ‘counsel stoic resignation’. From the ‘resignation’ we obtain the idea of ‘acceptance’ in answer E.

　　6.Correct Answer: D

　　Explanation:

　　It is clear that Hardy was the first poet to whom the author responded strongly (lines 39-46). He also tells us that these first feelings cannot be entirely destroyed (line 39). Hence, answer D.

　　7.Correct Answer: D

　　Explanation:

　　The author uses metaphor (lines 46-49). The latter part of the extract is about personal experience. He generalizes about poetry lovers and adolescents in the first part of the excerpt. He compares his father and Hardy. But he does not make classical allusions. (An allusion is an indirect reference). Since this is an ‘except’ question, we are looking for something he does not do. Hence Answer D.

　　8.Correct Answer: C

　　Explanation:

　　He quotes the extracts to illustrate what he means by the ‘authentic poetic note’ that strikes an adolescent. Hence, answer C.

　　9.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　Edward Thomas is mentioned as a poet whom the autjor admired along with Hardy after 1924. (Hardy had to ‘share his kingdom’ with Thomas.) And so we can safely say that the author admired him.

　　10.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　Sandburg is mentioned as an example of the ‘contemporary scene’ (line 51). This indicates that ‘modern poet’ in A is correct.

　　11.Correct Answer: C

　　Explanation:

　　The author mentions that Hardy was ‘sometimes monotonous and sentimental in expression’(line 57). The word ‘monotonous’ is paraphrased in ‘lacking in variety’ in answer C. This is, therefore, the correct answer. (Note that when you qualify your position, you moderate your argument or introduce a ‘but’ or ‘however’ into the argument. The author is overall very positive about Hardy, but here qualifies his position by mentioning a fault.)

　　12.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　In the last sentence the author indicates that Hardy’s appearance suggested ‘ emotion.... deeper and more faithful .... ". Hence, answer A (deep and lasting feelings.)