Day 23

英文重现

Sandro listened to me with ironical attention,always ready to deflate me with a couple of civil and terse words when I trespassed into rhetoric.He took an interest in my education and made it clear to me that it had gaps.I might even be right:it might be that Matter is our teacher;but he had another form of matter to lead me to,another teacher:not the powders of the Analytical Lab but the true,authentic,timeless,primary matter:the rocks and ice of the nearby mountains.He proved to me without too much difficulty that I didn't have the proper credentials to talk about matter.

——SAT 2009年5月题，Section 7

解析

1.第一个句子中，“when I trespassed into rhetoric”是由“when”引导的时间状语从句，“when”从句的谓语动词可以在主句谓语动作之前、之后或同时发生。

2.第三个句子中，“that Matter is our teacher是由“that”引导的表语从句；“another teacher”是“another form of matter”的同位语，解释说明“another form of matter”是什么。

3.“He proved to me without too much difficulty that I didn't have the proper credentials to talk about matter”这句话中，“without too much difficulty”为介词短语作状语，“that I didn't have the proper credentials to talk about matter”是由“that”引导的宾语从句，作“proved”的宾语。

4.注意两个冒号的用法，都是在进一步解释说明前面的内容。第一个冒号引出“我的观点是正确的”所针对的详细内容，第二个冒号后的内容对“另一位老师”进行了说明。

词意辨析

参考翻译

Sandro略带鄙夷地听我说话，每当我使用修辞性语言时，他就会用一些礼貌又简洁的话来打击我的热情。他对我受到的教育很感兴趣，并明确指出我受到的教育是有缺陷的。我甚至可能是对的：很可能物质的确是我们的老师；但是他认为有另一种物体形式在指引我，即另一位老师：不是分析化学实验室中的各种粉末，而是那些真实可信的、永恒且重要的物体——附近山体上的岩石和冰块。他毫不费力地就证明了我根本没有资格探讨物质。

实战演练

We began studying chemistry together,and Sandro was surprised when I tried to explain to him some of the ideas that at the time I was cultivating.That the nobility of Humankind,acquired in a hundred centuries of trial and error,lay in making ourselves the conqueror of matter,and that I had enrolled in chemistry because I wanted to remain faithful to this nobility.That conquering matter is understanding it,and understanding matter is necessary to understand the universe and ourselves;and that therefore the periodic table of elements,which just during those weeks we were laboriously learning to unravel,was poetry,loftier and more solemn than all the poetry we had swallowed down in high school.That if one looked for the bridge,the missing link between the world of words and the world of things,one did not have to look far:it was there,in our textbook,in our smoke-filled labs,and in our future trade.

Sandro listened to me with ironical attention,always ready to deflate me with a couple of civil and terse words when I trespassed into rhetoric.He took an interest in my education and made it clear to me that it had gaps.I might even be right:it might be that Matter is our teacher;but he had another form of matter to lead me to,another teacher:not the powders of the Analytical Lab but the true,authentic,timeless,primary matter:the rocks and ice of the nearby mountains.He proved to me without too much difficulty that I didn't have the proper credentials to talk about matter.What commerce had I had,until then,with Empedocles four elements?* Did you know how to light a stove?Wade across a torrent?Was I familiar with a storm high up in the mountains?The sprouting of seeds?NO,so he too had something vital to teach me.

*According to Empedocles,an ancient Greek philosopher,statesman,poet,and physiologist,matter was composed of four essential ingredients:fire,air,water,and earth.

Which statement best describes the way Sandro reacted to the author's ideas?

(A)He saw them as a challenge to his own beliefs.

(B)He was awed by the author's intelligence.

(C)He thought the author was overly rigid in his beliefs.

(D)He felt the author lacked knowledge of much that was important in life.

(E)He shared the author's assumptions and respected his methods.

答案：D

答案解析

Sandro对作者的观点总是嘲讽（ironical）和贬低（deflate），还对作者所接受的教育感兴趣（interest），因为他觉得作者受到的教育是有缺陷的，而从Sandro提到的另一种形式的老师可以得知，他觉得作者没有真正亲身试验过生活中的问题，仅仅是被学校强行灌输了思想。因此，选项D“Sandro认为作者缺少生活中必要的知识”符合Sandro的反应。选项A“他把作者的观点视为对自己信仰的挑衅”，Sandro并没有提出自己的信仰；选项B“他敬畏作者的机智”；选项C“他认为作者对自己的思想过于苛刻”和选项E“他和作者有共同的设想并尊重作者的方式”与“嘲讽、贬低”的感情色彩明显不符。