留园文化新SAT测试题.docx

SAT Practice Test 17 Passage1
Reading Test
Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.
This passage is adapted from MacDonald Harris,
The Balloonist. ©2011 by The Estate of Donald Heiney.
During the summer of 1897, the narrator of this story, a
fictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole
in a hydrogen-powered balloon.

My emotions are complicated and not
readily verifiable. I feel a vast yearning that is
simultaneously a pleasure and a pain. I am certain
of the consummation of this yearning, but I don’t
know yet what form it will take, since I do not
understand quite what that yearning desires.
For the first time there is borne in upon me the full
truth of what I myself said to the doctor only an hour
ago: that my motives in this undertaking are not
entirely clear. For years, for a lifetime, the machinery
of my destiny has worked in secret to prepare for this
moment; its clockwork has moved exactly toward
this time and place and no other. Rising slowly from
the earth that bore me and gave me sustenance, I am
carried helplessly toward an uninhabited and hostile,
or at best indifferent, part of the earth, littered with
the bones of explorers and the wrecks of ships, frozen
supply caches, messages scrawled with chilled fingers
and hidden in cairns that no eye will ever see.
Nobody has succeeded in this thing, and many have
died. Yet in freely willing this enterprise, in choosing
this moment and no other when the south wind
will carry me exactly northward at a velocity of
eight knots, I have converted the machinery of my
will. What I don’t understand is why I
am so intent on going to this particular place. Who
wants the North Pole! What good is it! Can you eat
it? Will it carry you from Gothenburg to Malmö like
a railway? The Danish ministers have declared from
their pulpits that participation in polar expeditions is
beneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being, or so I read
in a newspaper. It isn’t clear how this doctrine is to
be interpreted, except that the Pole is something
difficult or impossible to attain which must
nevertheless be sought for, because man is
condemned to seek out and know everything
whether or not the knowledge gives him pleasure. In
short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledge
that drove our First Parents out of the garden.
And suppose you were to find it in spite of all, this
wonderful place that everybody is so anxious to stand
on! What would you find? Exactly nothing.
A point precisely identical to all the others in a
completely featureless wasteland stretching around it
for hundreds of miles. It is an abstraction, a
mathematical fiction. No one but a Swedish madman
could take the slightest interest in it. Here I am. The
wind is still from the south, bearing us steadily
northward at the speed of a trotting dog. Behind us,
perhaps forever, lie the Cities of Men with their
teacups and their brass bedsteads. I am going forth of
my own volition to join the ghosts of Bering and
poor Franklin, of frozen De Long and his men.
What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is not
an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. The
doctor was right, even though I dislike him.
Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what
I do is both a challenge to my egotism and a
surrender to it.

1．Over the course of the passage, the narrator’s attitude shifts from
A) fear about the expedition to excitement about it.
B) doubt about his abilities to confidence in them.
C) uncertainty of his motives to recognition of them.
D) disdain for the North Pole to appreciation of it.

答案：C，情感态度题（需要用瞬时记忆解题或是查看下一题是否为Command of Evidence题）。原文25-27行(“What …Pole!”)对应uncertainty；原文54-55行(What …myself.”)对应recognition

disdain vt. 蔑视（新SAT核心词）
appreciation n. 欣赏（托福核心词）

2．Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
A) Lines 10-12 (“For . . . moment”)
B) Lines 21-25 (“Yet . . . will”)
C) Lines 40-42 (“And . . . stand on”)
D) Lines 54-55 (“What . . . myself”)

答案：D，Command of Evidence题

3．As used in lines 1-2, “not readily verifiable” most nearly means
A) unable to be authenticated.
B) likely to be contradicted.
C) without empirical support.
D) not completely understood.

答案：D，词汇题

authenticate vt. 证实（新SAT核心词）
contradict vt. 否定（新SAT核心词）
empirical adj. 经验的（新SAT核心词）

4．The sentence in lines 10-13 (“For years . . . other”) mainly serves to
A) expose a side of the narrator that he prefers to keep hidden.
B) demonstrate that the narrator thinks in a methodical and scientific manner.
C) show that the narrator feels himself to be influenced by powerful and independent forces.
D) emphasize the length of time during which the narrator has prepared for his expedition.

答案：C，修辞目的题，本题表面是推理题，本质却是一道细节题。10-13的文章清晰的表达出了一个观点---作者到北极去，是受到一股力量（命运destiny）的指引

5．The narrator indicates that many previous explorers seeking the North Pole have
A) perished in the attempt.
B) made surprising discoveries.
C) failed to determine its exact location.
D) had different motivations than his own.

答案：A，细节题（需要靠瞬时记忆解答或是查看下一题是否为Command of Evidence题），对应原文16-17行(“littered … explorers”)，20-21行(“Nobody…died.”)

perish vi. 死亡（新SAT核心词汇）

6．Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
A) Lines 20-21 (“Nobody . . . died”)
B) Lines 25-27 (“All . . . out”)
C) Lines 31-34 (“The . . . newspaper”)
D) Lines 51-53 (“Behind . . . bedsteads”)

答案：A，Command of Evidence题

7．Which choice best describes the narrator’s view of his expedition to the North Pole?
A) Immoral but inevitable
B) Absurd but necessary
C) Socially beneficial but misunderstood
D) Scientifically important but hazardous

答案：B，情感态度题（需要靠瞬时记忆解题），原文25-27行对应“absurd”，原文54-55行和29-32行对应“necessary”

immoral adj. 不道德的（托福核心词汇）
inevitable adj. 不可避免的（托福核心词汇）
absurd adj. 荒唐的（托福核心词汇）
hazardous adj. 危险的（托福核心词汇）

8．The question the narrator asks in lines 28-29(“Will it . . . railway”) most nearly implies that
A) balloons will never replace other modes of transportation.
B) the North Pole is farther away than the cities usually reached by train.
C) people often travel from one city to another without considering the implications.
D) reaching the North Pole has no foreseeable benefit to humanity.

答案：D，推理题，原文27-29行，作者都是在表达一个观点---到北极没有意义

9．As used in line 47, “take the slightest interest in” most nearly means
A) accept responsibility for.
B) possess little regard for.
C) pay no attention to.
D) have curiosity about.

答案：D，词汇题

10. As used in line 48, “bearing” most nearly means
A) carrying.
B) affecting.
C) yielding.
D) enduring.

答案：A，词汇题

yielding adj. 屈服的（新SAT核心词汇）

配套词汇：
verifiable adj. 可证实的 （托福核心词汇）
yearning n. 渴望 （新SAT核心词汇）
simultaneously adv. 同时地（新SAT核心词汇）
consummation n. 圆满完成（新SAT核心词汇）
be borne in upon 确信（识别词组）
machinery n. 体制 （识别单词）The machinery of a government or organization is the system and all the procedures that it uses to deal with things.
destiny n. 命运（新SAT核心词汇）
bore vt. 承担（bear的过去式）（托福核心词汇）
sustenance n. 食物（托福核心词汇）
hostile adj. 有敌意的（托福核心词汇）
litter vt. 乱丢（识别词汇）
wreck n. 残骸（识别词汇）
scrawl vt. 潦草的写（新SAT核心词汇）
enterprise n. 事业（托福核心词汇）
convert vt. 皈依；改变信仰（托福核心词汇）
minister n. 牧师；部长（识别词汇）
pulpit n. 讲道台（识别词汇）
expedition n. 探险（托福核心词汇）
beneficial adj. 有益的（托福核心词汇）
eternal adj. 永恒的（托福核心词汇）
attain vt. 实现（托福核心词汇）
sought for 追求（seek for的过去分词）（托福核心词组）
condemn vt. 谴责（新SAT核心词汇）
lust n. 强烈的欲望（新SAT核心词汇）
in spite of all 尽管（识别词组）
identical adj. 相同的（托福核心词汇）
stretch vt. 伸展（托福核心词汇）
bear vt. 承受（托福核心词汇）
trot vi. 小跑（识别词汇）
brass n. 青铜（识别词汇）
bedstead n. 床架（识别词汇）
volition n. 意志力（新SAT核心词汇）
Bering n. 白令海峡（识别词汇）
brink n. 边缘（托福核心词汇）
ephemeral adj. 短暂的（新SAT核心词汇）
egotism n. 自我中心（新SAT核心词汇）
surrender n. 投降（新SAT核心词汇）

文章解读：
本文是从内心情感分析的角度，来展开作者参与北极（North Pole）探险的事情。属于散文类文章。文章25-27行（“What I don’t understand is why I am so intent on going to this particular place. Who wants the North Pole!”）才写明作者要做的事情。但是，标题里面，（“the narrator of this story, a fictional Swedish scientist, has set out for the North Pole in a hydrogen-powered balloon.”）写明了作者是要到北极去。因此，本文的阅读，标题是非常重要的。

本文的情感表达是在文章最后，54-59行，（“What I am on the brink of knowing, I now see, is not an ephemeral mathematical spot but myself. The doctor was right, even though I dislike him.
Fundamentally I am a dangerous madman, and what I do is both a challenge to my egotism and a surrender to it.”），符合一般散文化文章的写法。

文中使用到的修辞：
1. 矛盾修辞法（paradox）：文章前半部分一直讲“到北极去探险意义不大”，文章后半部分转变为“到北极去是有意义的---可以找寻自我。这样的修辞手段，非常像我们中文中讲到的“欲扬先抑”。Paradox这个修辞手段，在老SAT中就经常考到，有很多学生，直到考完了，也都没有从修辞学的角度彻底明白什么叫paradox。Paradox，是把看似矛盾的事情，结合到一起来写的一种修辞手法，可以起到突出强调的效果
2. 矛盾修辞法（oxymoron）：原文2-3行，“I feel a vast yearning that is simultaneously a pleasure and a pain.”“pleasure”和“pain”是一对“对立词”，但是“统一”用来修饰“yearning”，这样的对立统一修辞手段，就是矛盾修辞法中的浓缩型修辞。如，bitter-sweet，又苦又甜的；a wise fool，聪明的傻瓜等。（oxymoron浓缩型修辞，与paradox，舒展型修辞相对应，在SAT这个难度级别的文章学习中，同学们不需要区分paradox和oxymoron，我们统一成paradox，矛盾修辞法即可）
3. 比较修辞法（comparison）：原文37-39行“In short, it is the same unthinking lust for knowledge that drove our First Parents out of the garden.”比较了现代的人类和祖先们有相同的对知识的欲望
4. 夸张修辞法（exaggeration）：原文46-47行“No one but a Swedish madman could take the slightest interest in it.”只有瑞典人会有兴趣，通过夸张的手法，加强了表达观点的强度