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短篇阅读
While the influence of British magazines in shaping public opinion predates the nineteenth century, it was during the 1800s that mass distribution became possible and an explosion in periodical readership occurred, vastly increasing magazines’ opinion-shaping powers. The role of magazines as arbiters of nineteenth-century taste is seen in their depictions of the London Theater. The magazines accorded some legitimacy to East End working-class theaters that mirrored the format of the fashionable West End theaters serving middle- and upper-class audiences. However, the magazines also depicted music halls—which competed for patronage with all theaters—as places where crass entertainment corrupted spectators’ taste and morals. Finally, they suggested that popular demand for substandard fare created a market unfriendly to higher expressions of dramatic art.
The author of the passage mentions East End working-class theaters primarily in order to
A. illustrate a point about the ability of magazines to sway public opinion
B. contrast the kinds of entertainment presented in East End and West End theaters
C. make a point about how spectators’ tastes influenced the offerings at different kinds of theaters
D. explain how magazines chose which kinds of entertainment to cover
E. identify factors that helped make certain theaters fashionable
答案： A
解析：首先简化题干。题干问的是：提到“某件事”的目的是什么?那么，“某件事”的具体内容是什么，立刻想到应该是不太重要的，重点是举例的目的。对应到文章中第二句：“The role of magazines as arbiters of nineteenth-century taste is seen in their depictions of the London Theater. The magazines accorded…”很明显“The role of …”这句话表明了目的 “杂志是19世纪品位的仲裁者”，即杂志体现了19世纪的品味。所以具体例子内容即便看不懂，也可知道，举例是为了论证杂志对19世纪群众的影响力。即选项A。
逻辑阅读
Many shipwrecks dating from the period between A.D. 300 and 600 have been discovered in the Ramian Sea. Well over half of those ships were carrying cargo stored in large ceramic jars, many of which were preserved largely intact on the ocean floor. During that period, such jars carried only liquid. Therefore, liquid cargo was probably carried by a majority of the cargo ships that navigated the Ramian Sea during that period.
The force of the evidence cites in the passage is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?
A. For ships on the Ramian Sea during the period, a full load of liquid cargo stored in large ceramic jars was not likely to be significantly heavier than a full load of other kinds of cargo that were typical of the period.
B. There are no surviving records dating from the period that detail specific cargoes shipped across the Ramian Sea.
C. The ratio of liquid to solid cargo shipped across the Ramian Sea did not vary significantly over the period.
D. The presence of a sizable quantity of large ceramic jars on the ocean floor is so visually striking that a shipwreck of a ship carrying such jars is more likely to be noticed and reported than are shipwrecks of ships carrying other cargoes.
E. During the period, grain and other solid cargo was shipped across the Ramian Sea in containers made from material other than clay.
答案：D
解析：文章大意是很多公元前300至600年的遇难船只在Ramian 海域被发现。一半以上的船运载的是装在陶瓷罐里的货品。这些大部分在海底保存完好。在那个时期，这种罐子只装液体。因此，当时航行在Ramian海域的大部分货船运送的是液体货物。载有陶瓷罐的遇难船只比装有其他货品的遇难船只更容易被人发现。由此会弱化大部分船只装在液体的结论。
长篇阅读
By far the most popular United States literature of its time was a body of now-neglected novels written between 1820 and 1870 by, for, and about women. According to Nina Baym, who has termed this genre “woman’s fiction,” the massive popularity of these novels claimed a place for women in the writing profession. The novels chronicle the experiences of women who, beset with hardships, find within themselves qualities of intelligence, will, resourcefulness, and courage sufficient to overcome their obstacles. According to Baym, the genre began with Catharine Sedgwick’s New-England Tale (1822), manifested itself as the best-selling reading matter of the American public in the unprecedented sales of Susan Warner’s Wide, Wide World (1850), and remained a dominant fictional type until after 1870. The critical, as opposed to popular, reception of these novels in their own time was mixed. Theoretical opposition by those who saw fiction as a demoralizing and corrupting influence was by no means dead in mid-nineteenth-century America, and popular successes naturally bore a significant proportion of the attack. The moralistic tone of much woman’s fiction did not placate these antagonists; on the contrary, many clerical opponents of the novel thought that women were trying to take over the clergy’s functions and hence attacked all the more fiercely. Similarly, some male authors, disgruntled by the emergence of great numbers of women writers, expressed contempt for the genre.
On the other hand, the women had a powerfully ally--their publishers, who not only put these works into print but advertised them widely and enthusiastically. Some few reviewers wrote about these works with attention and respect, distinguishing between the works of the different authors and identifying individual strengths and weaknesses. These approving contemporary critics were particularly alert to each writer’s contribution to the depiction of American social life, especially to regional differences in manners and character types. On the whole, however, even these laudatory critics showed themselves uninterested in the stories that this fiction told, or in their significance.
Baym acknowledges that these novels are tell--with variations--a single familiar tale, and correctly notes that this apparent lack of artistic innovation has been partly responsible for their authors’ exclusion from the canon of classic American writers traditionally studied in university literature courses. Baym points out, however, that unlike such male contemporaries as Nathaniel Hawthorne, these women did not conceive of themselves as “artists,” but rather as professional writers with work to do and a living to be made from fulfilling an obligation to their audience. This obligation included both entertainment and instruction, which are not, says Baym, at odds with one another in these books, nor is entertainment the sweet coating on a didactic pill. Rather, the lesson itself is an entertainment: the central character’s triumph over adversity is profoundly pleasurable to those readers who identify with her.
1. The passage is primarily concerned with
A. Summarizing the major contributions of two influential writers
B. Describing and commenting on a group of literary works
C. Summarizing the major events of a period of literary history
D. Contrasting two types of literary works from the same era
E. Arguing for the adopting of several neglected literary works into university curriculums
答案：B
解析：文章第一段有描述1820到1870年间的女性作家群体。第一，二，三段都有向我们展示了对他们作品的评论。
2. The author of the passage cites Susan Warner’s Wide, Wide World most probably as an example of a woman’s novel that
A. Had more advanced artistic elements than many of its type
B. Attracted an excessive amount of critical attention
C. Was found to be inappropriately moralistic by many members of the clergy
D. Was significant as an indicator of the genre’s popularity
E. Signaled the gradual decline of the size of the genre’s audience
答案：D
解析：原句中Susan Warner的Wide, Wide World是best-selling reading matter解释论证该类型小说的流行程度。
3. The author of the passage implies which of the following about the members of the clergy mentioned in the first paragraph?
A. They also opposed works of fiction that were outside the genre of woman’s fiction.
B. They opposed journalism as well as imaginative writing.
C. Their influence reached its pinnacle in the mid-nineteenth century.
D. They were unable to obtain the support of other critics for their views.
E. Their attacks on the genre of the novel did not extend to novels written by male writers.
答案：E
解析：“women were trying to…”表明只是对女性作家作品的抨击。
4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage concerning the majority of the nineteenth-century reviewers of woman’s fiction?
A. They considered the position taken by the clergy in regard to woman’s fiction self-serving.
B. They did not make fine distinctions between different authors.
C. They placed a higher value on plot than on social significance.
D. They subscribed to the view of writers as purveyors of popular entertainment rather than as artists.
E. They felt that the literary market was saturated with novels by and about women.
答案：C
解析：解该题关键在于第二段最后一句。
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