实例:新GRE考试并未放松对词汇的考察
通过实例我们来看新旧gre考试对单词考察的不同,这样更为直观。对于新gre考试,其对词汇的考查大大减弱。Verbal部分将会取消原有的类比与反义词题目的测试,只剩填空与阅读两个部分,而这两个部分的考察方式也做了一定程度的调整。
下面就针对新GRE考试中填空与阅读对词汇的考察做一些分析。
拿填空部分来讲,从样题上看,改革后的GRE考试在填空中包括了同义词的辨析、反义词的辨析、词汇搭配、词汇含义精确理解等考察方式,这就要求考生不仅要掌握词汇的意思,还需要进一步了解常考词汇的用法和内涵。其中样题的填空类题型direction和例题如下:
For the following questions, select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.
4 . International financial issues are typically by the United States media because they are too technical to make snappy headlines and too inaccessible to people who lack a background in economics.
A. neglected 被忽视的
B. slighted 被忽视的
C. overrated 被高估的
D. hidden 被隐藏的
E. criticized 被批评的
F. repudiated 被拒绝的
从direction和样题可以看出,填空题由以前的五选一变为了六选二,为什么会做这样的变化呢?其目的就是可以考察更多的词汇量。而所选的两个正确选项由于都要符合题干的意思,所以这两个词就必然是同义词或者近义词。所以在解题时大家可以先不读题干,先看选项中是否有同义词组,如果只有一对的话则答案必然是选这两个词,而如果有两对或者三对时再回到题干由句子意思来判断应该选哪一对同义词。在此题中我们先不读题干,直接扫视五个选项,发现只有A和B这两个选项是一组同义词,所以答案就可直接选择A和B选项,以此方法解题考生如果词汇量过关只要五秒种就可解出正确答案,而如果先看题干再读选项就会花更多的时间。因此掌握大量的同义词意群对解填空题可以收到事半功倍的效果,词汇的重要性也就不言而喻了。
下面再看一下样题中阅读题是如何对词汇进行考查的。
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
此类在阅读中直接考察词汇的题目在改革前的GRE阅读中从未出现过,可见在改革后的GRE考试中并未放松对词汇的考察。按部就班的解题方法应该是通过上下文逻辑关系推断出单词的含义,但是掌握了大量GRE单词后就完全可以脱离上下文而快速选出答案。由于disingenuously的意思是不真诚的,所以答案选A选项。可见此类题很类似于改革以前的反义词题型,无非是把它放在阅读题里对考生进行考察。