8月SAT考试小说题讲解
8月SAT亚太区考试对于很多同学来说并不顺利，无论是对于错过上半年考试的高二同学，还是希望再冲高分进而参加早申的高三同学来说，10月SAT考试都是至关重要的一场。本文，北京新东方SAT张老师将讲解8月考试中较难的小说题，欢迎各位家长转发给孩子阅读学习。
小说难读懂。
至少参加了8月份SAT亚太区考试的同学们是这么想的。
本次考试的小说选自哥伦比亚著名作家Juan Gabriel Vasquez的小说《声誉》，小说主角Mallarino是一位政治漫画家。
It tookjust an instant to spot three people reading the paper，his paper， and he thought that all three would soonpass or had already passed their eyes over the letters of his name in print andthen his signature， that clear uppercase letter thatsoon deteriorated into a chaos of curves and ended up disintegrating into acorner. Everyone knew the space where his cartoon had always been： in the very center of the first page of opinion columns， that mythic place where Colombians go to hate their public figuresor find out why they love them， that great collectivecouch of a persistently sick country. It was the first thing anyone’s eyes saw when they reached those pages. The black square， the slender strokes， the line of text orbrief dialogue beneath the frame： the scene that lefthis desk each day and was praised， admired， commented on， misinterpreted， later repudiated in a column of the same newspaper or another， in the irate letter of an irate reader， ina debate on some morning radio show. Yes， it was aterrible power. There was a time when Mallarino desired it more than anythingelse in the world； he worked hard to get it； he enjoyed it and exploited it conscientiously. And now that he wassixty-five years of age， the very political class he’d so attacked and hounded and scorned from his redoubt， mocked without consideration or respect for the ties of family orfriendship (and he’d lost quite a few friends as aresult； even a few relatives no longer spoke to him)， that very same political class had decided to put the giganticColombian machinery of sycophancy into action to create a public homage that， for the first time in history， and perhapsthe last， would celebrate a cartoonist.
（小说节选）
我们读不懂小说是因为我们陷入了以下三大误区。
误区一：孤立地翻译内容
比如，第一句里提到了三个人在读paper，此处paper指什么呢？指“报纸”，文章小字处本有提示，说主角工作于报社；后文也有提到newspaper。
解决方法：不要孤立地阅读，要联系上下文来理解内容。
再如，第一段很多同学没读明白作者的写作意图。读开头没有弄懂时，可以不求甚解，先放在那儿，带着疑问往下读。当读到“Yes， it was a terrible power” 这一句时会豁然开朗，本句意指主角Mallarino因为在报刊上画政治漫画具有了社会影响力。
有时，我们甚至要学会由题目倒推回原文理解。“Yes， it was a terrible power”这一句之后的内容较难理解，尤其有一个长难句成了很大障碍。这时候我们注意到4&5这一组寻证题目，寻证行数基本就围绕在这一句周围。4题题干问到主角Mallarino如何看待政府对他的认可（recognition by thegovernment）。所以我们就明白了“Yes， itwas a terrible power”这一句后面内容正是讲政府对其影响力的认可。
而这也正是第一段的内容梗概：Mallarino因为在报刊上画政治漫画具有了社会影响力，政府因为Mallarino的影响力而向其示好。
因此，一开始不理解时不要慌张，尝试用上下文语境甚至题目回推原文大意。
误区二：每个词都必须认识
有些同学阅读时会纠缠在某些生词上，更有甚者，会因完全无关的生词导致分散了注意力。
解决方法：学会猜测词意，学会抽象概括同类事物。
遇见生词，首先判断是否影响理解句意，一般非句子主干（主谓宾或主系表）都不会影响句意。
如果某个生词影响了句意，就要猜测词意。只要具备SAT所需的基本词汇量，出现生词就都可以猜测出词意。
但是注意，用词根词缀方法猜测很危险，轻易不要用词根词缀胡猜，比如unassuming一词，含义是“不出风头的，不起眼的”，很多同学会胡猜与“假设”有关。再如unseemliness一词含义是“不得体、不恰当”，跟“似乎”完全无关。
推荐用上下文逻辑关系来推测词意，而且很多单词只需推测出大概即可。
比如2018年12月亚太第一篇小说（节选）：
“Which job？”
“Carryingthat grinding wheel around and sharpening knives.”
“Not onlyknives， but also scythes，clippers and every kind of peeler and cutter in your kitchen， also bread knives， even butcher’s hatchets in those days when I carried the big grindstone； in those days I could even sharpen a maharaja’s sword.”
我们无需知道scythes， clippers， peeler， cutter， hatchets， sword具体是什么，只需概括出这些都属于knives即可。然后，grinding wheel（grindstone）我们能猜测出是“磨刀用具”即可。
误区三：阅读的节奏是一样的
很多同学误以为分配给每个段落的阅读时间是一样的，再分配给每个句子的时间也是一样的，其实并非如此。比如上例中，scythes， clippers，peeler， cutter， hatchets， sword这些快速浏览即可，浏览时即刻反应出词意最好，但是不知道也并不影响，更不要停留，否则会浪费掉时间。
解决方法：遇重点时才要花时间详读，其他快速浏览。
比如这篇小说中第一句话后半句“that clear uppercase letter that soon deteriorated into a chaos ofcurves and ended up disintegrating into a corner”只需快速浏览即可。这个半句对很多同学造成了困扰，但我们只要理解这是在形容“his signature”（主角的签名）就可以跳过了。
而文章中“Yes， it was a terrible power”这句才是重点，这时候就要停顿下，仔细琢磨下这句话信息里的内涵：it指什么，terrible是一种什么样的评价。
当然，这时候就要修炼自己抓住重点的能力。平时大量分析题目，由题干回推文章重点，这种平时的修炼能形成我们对考点的敏感度——这是一种特殊的语感。
比如，文章里出现的长难句通常都是出题考点。
再看“Yes， it was a terrible power”后面的这个长难句：
And nowthat he was sixty-five， the very political class he’d so attacked and hounded and scorned from his redoubt， mocked without consideration or respect for the ties of family orfriendship (and he’s lost quite a few friends as aresult， and even a few relatives)， that very same political class had decided to put the giganticColombian machinery of sycophancy into action to create a public homage， which for the first time in history， andperhaps for the last， would celebrate a cartoonist.
homage就是一个必须认识的关键词。不过还好，homage的定语（which would celebrate a cartoonist），以及4题题干提到的recognition by government，5题题干提到的the Ministry's honor，都能推出homage（敬意）是政府对主角Mallarino的认可。
本句结构解析：
And 【3 now that he was sixty-five】， the verypolitical class 【1 he’d soattacked and hounded and scorned from his redoubt，mocked without consideration or respect for the ties of family or friendship(and he’s lost quite a few friends as a result， and even a few relatives)】， {5 that verysame political class had decided to put 【4 the giganticColombian machinery of sycophancy】 into action tocreate a public homage } ， 【2 which for the first timein history， and perhaps for the last， would celebrate a cartoonist】.
1. 做political class（政治阶级，代指政府）的定语，他抨击（attack）、纠缠（hound）、嘲讽（scorn），甚至不惜牺牲亲友关系去嘲弄（mock）政府。
2. 做homage（敬意）的定语，历史上第一次也可能是最后一次，政府向一个政治漫画家示好。
3. 时间状语。
4. 不易理解，但是与put ... into action构成一个短语，跟“敬意”应该是表面相似但是事实相反。
5. 红色字部分是句子主干，大意：政府终于付诸实践，真的公开（向这位政治漫画家）表达敬意了。
以上就是我们在阅读小说时的误区以及应对方法。我们平时在刷题时，注意由题干回推原文出题位置，多如此分析我们会逐渐感知到出题者喜欢在哪里出题，然后我们再汇总这些出题点的共性。这就能指导我们以后的阅读方向。