GRE Reading Comprehension

简介 + 主旨题
SEBASTIAN
类型简介
按文章长短：

短文章 120-200 words ，

长文章 600-700 words ，

每篇 2-4 题

按内容类型：

1 ）人文科学类：文学，艺术，人文综合；

2 ）社会科学类：民族，女权；

3 ）生命科学类

4 ）其他自然科学类
几种典型的研究型写作方式
典型科学研究过程 A 类：研究 - 发现 - 结论 （ argue for...)
Although social learning (the acquisition of specific behaviors by observing other individuals exhibiting
those behaviors ) is well documented among fish, few studies have investigated social learning within a
developmental context in these taxa. Rather than investigating the development of a particular skill,
Chapman, Ward, and Krause investigated the role of group density during development in later foraging
success in laboratory-housed guppies. When raised with a small number of conspecifics (members of the
same species), guppies were quicker to locate food by following a trained adult guppy than were guppies
raised in large groups. This counterintuitive finding is explained by the fact that guppies reared in the
high density condition were less likely to shoal (swim in a group ) with others and, therefore, were less
likely to learn the benefits of social learning. Instead, fish reared in high-density situations may learn that
conspecifics are to be viewed as competitors, rather than as potential sources of adaptive information.
This finding suggests that at least for guppies, the early social environment may have an effect on the
capacity for social learning, if not on the socially learned behaviors themselves.
2) 典型科学研究 B 类：现象 - 归因（ hypothesis ） - 支撑 （ argue for...)

As it was published in 1935, Mules and Men, Zora Neale Hurston's landmark collection of folktales, may not have been the
book that its author first had in mind. In this anthropological study, Hurston describes in detail the people who tell the stories,
often even inserting herself into the storytelling scene. Evidently, however, Hurston had prepared another version, a manuscript
that was recently discovered and published after having been forgotten since 1929. This version differs from Mules and Men in
that it simply records stories, with no descriptive or interpretive information.
While we cannot know for certain why Hurston’s original manuscript went unpublished during her lifetime, it may have been
because publishers wanted something more than a transcription of tales. Contemporary novelist and critic John Edgar Wide man
has described Black literature as the history of a writing that sought to escape its frame, in other words, as the effort of Black
writers to present the stories of Black people without having to have a mediating voice to explain the stories to a non-Black
audience. In this, Hurston may have been ahead of her time.
3) 典型科学研究 B-2 型：现象 - 归因（多项归因： Hypotheses ） -argue for...

Astronomers have had difficulty accounting for certain planets discovered outside our solar system. They are called hot Jupiters because
each is similar in mass to Jupiter, the largest solar-system planet, but orbits its parent star at a fraction of the distance at which Earth, let
alone Jupiter, orbits the Sun. In the standard, solar-system-based theory of planetary formation, such as a massive planet could not form
so close to a star. So most attempts to explain a hot Jupiter’s existence envision it forming farther away, then migrating inward.
According to one hypothesis, the planet’s gravitational field tugs on the protoplanetary disk of dust and gas from which it formed. The
disk exerts its own gravitational tug, and this interplay of forces robs the planet of momentum in its orbital path, forcing it to spiral in
toward the star. According to another hypothesis, the planet’s gravitational field is so strong that it creates a groove in the disk,
partitioning it into inner and outer regions; the resulting gravitational interactions between the planet and these regions cause the planet to
lose orbital momentum and spiral inward. Another question remains: what prevents the planet from continuing its spiral until it collides
with the star?
4) 典型科学研究 C 类型 - 旧认知 -T- 新认知（与旧认知的对立） argue against...
Among many historians a belief persists that Cotton Mather’s biographies of some of the settlers of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony (published 1702) are exercises in hagiography, endowing their subjects with
saintly piety at the expense of historical accuracy. Yet modern studies have profited both from the
breadth of information that Mather provides in, for example, his discussions of colonial medicine and
from his critical observations of such leading figures as Governor John Winthrop. Mather’s wry
humorous demonstrated by his detailed descriptions of events such as Winthrop’s efforts to prevent
wood-stealing is overlooked by those charging Mather with presenting his subjects as extremely pious.
The charge also obscures Mather’s concern with the settlers material, not just spiritual, prosperity.
Further, this pejorative view underrates the biographies value as chronicles: Mather amassed all sorts of
published and unpublished documents as sources, and his selection of key events shows a marked
sensitivity to the nature of the colony’s development.
5) 典型科学研究 D 类型：对立的观点 V1-T-V2 discussion of contrasting views

An Irish newspaper editorial encouraging women to participate in the non-importation movement launched in Ireland in 1779 appears
consistent with a perception that the political use of the consumer boycott originated in North America and spread eastwards across
the Atlantic to Ireland. This is a view that most historians have concurred with. For example, T.H.Breen argued that the consumer
boycott was a brilliantly original American invention. Breen did acknowledge that a few isolated boycotts may have taken place in
other countries.
However, Mary ODowd argues that from the late seventeenth century, Irish political discourse advocated for the non-consumption of
imported goods and support for home manufactures by women in ways that were strikingly similar to those used later in North
America.
 6) 典型科学研究 D-2 类型： discussion of benefits and drawbacks

Current feminist theory, in validating women’s own stories of their experience, has encouraged scholars of women’s history to view the use of women’s oral narratives as
the methodology, next to the use of women’s written autobiography, that brings historians closest to the “reality” of women’s lives. Such narratives, unlike most standard
histories, represent experience from the perspective of women, affirm the importance of women’s contributions, and furnish present day women with historical continuity
that is essential to their identity, individually and collectively. Scholars of women’s history should, however, be as cautious about accepting oral narratives at face
value as they already are about written memories. Oral narratives are no more likely than are written narratives to provide a disinterested commentary on events or
people. Moreover, the stories people tell to explain themselves are shaped by narrative devices and storytelling conventions, as well as by other cultural and historical
factors, in ways that the storytellers may be unaware of. The political rhetoric of a particular era, for example, may influence women’s interpretations of the significance
of their experience. Thus a woman who views the Second World War as pivotal in increasing the social acceptance of women’s paid work outside the home may reach
that conclusion partly and unwittingly because of wartime rhetoric encouraging a positive view of women’s participation in such work.
7) problem-solving: problem-causes-remedy

The argument for “monetizing”—or putting a monetary value on—ecosystem functions may be stated thus: Concern about
the depletion of natural resources is widespread, but this concern, in the absence of an economic argument for
conservation, has not translated into significant conservational progress. Some critics blame this impasse on
environmentalists, whom they believe fail to address the economic issues of environmental degradation. Conservation can
appear unprofitable when compared with the economic returns derived from converting natural assets (pristine coastlines,
for example) into explicitly commercial ones (such as resort hotels). But according to David Pearce, that illusion stems
from the fact that “services” provided by ecological systems are not traded on the commodities market, and thus have no
readily quantifiable value.
To remedy this, says Pearce, one has to show that all ecosystems have economic value—indeed, that all ecological
services are economic services. Tourists visiting wildlife preserves, for example, create jobs and generate income for
national economies; undisturbed forests and wetlands regulate water runoff and act as water-purifying systems, saving
millions of dollars worth of damage to property and to marine ecosystems. In Gretchen Daily’s view, monetization, while
unpopular with many environmentalists, reflects the dominant role that economic considerations play in human behavior,
and the expression of economic value in a common currency helps inform environmental decision-making processes.
Question types
主旨题： the primary purpose / central idea /
primarily concerned with...
不定项选题： consider each choices separately and
select all that apply (ABC)
选句题： select the sentence that suggest...

高亮题 : In the context of passage, the highlighted

sentence (phrase) serves to ...
排除题： the passage mentioned following
EXCEPT...
推断题： It can be inferred that..

词汇题： In the context in which it appears, “...” most

nearly means__/serves to__, in order to__
类比题： how information given in a passage can be
applied to a context outside the passage itself
其余细节题
阅读要领
文章中起承转合的连接 signpost words ：

转折词（副词类最重要） however, nevertheless, nonetheless ；连词 but, yet,

although, though 可能不会构成转折，需要观察； in fact, in reality, practically,
actually, in practice, virtually 这类不起眼的词反而常常会引起意思的转折
列举词 one/another; also, besides, further(more), moreover; 反而 first, second 用得
少
对比关系词： 1 ） instead of..., instead, rather than 2) unlike..., in contrast to...,
different from..., conversely, ...; 3) 强对比变体 : -est (most), utmost, always, never,
all, only, unique, sole (solely)...etc.
其他重要的 signpost words:

1. 人名的记录： L 15–X, L28–Y, L44–Z...

2. 观点词的记录： suggest, argue, believe, advocate,
claim, contend, ...+ that + opinions
3. 引号： 1 ）强化（ focus ） 2 ）弱化 “所谓的 ...”
4. 类别词： view, opinion, hypothesis, evidence,
theory, explanation, finding, suggestion, flaw, etc.
主旨题
主旨题出题形式

1. 具体型
2. 抽象型
3. 态度型
4. 出处型
Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?
A. African American drama has been primarily influenced by naturalisms emphasis on the materialistic.
B. African American drama has traditionally acknowledged the relationship between the individual and
the environment.
C. African American drama, traditionally naturalistic, has been little influenced by dramatist Kennedy’s
spiritual and psychological approach to drama.
D. The work of Kennedy suggests a shift away from a commitment to strict naturalism in African
American drama.
E. The work of Kennedy best exemplifies the current interest of African American artists in the spiritual
and psychological worlds.

具体型：有文章中具体谈论的事物
The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. note a flaw in a scientific finding
B. describe a particular scientific study
C. present an interpretation of a finding
D. note a difference between two scientific findings
E. contrast two conditions in which a particular phenomenon has been
observed

抽象型：无文章中具体谈论的事物
The author’s attitude toward the prospect for the economic utilization
of glassy metals is one of
A) disinterest
B) pessimism
C) optimism
D) apprehension
E) skepticism

态度型 : 考察 author 的基本态度和立场

The passage is most relevant to which of the following areas of study?
A. Aesthetics and logic
B. History and literature
C. Theology and sociology
D. Anthropology and political science
E. Linguistics and art

出处型：推断文章所属属性
措辞集锦

SEBASTIAN
Empirical success of a theory
Consistent theoretical account of a phenomenon
A theoretical impasse
Deduce testable predictions
Document a historical era
Research on a specific historical figure
Controversial historical reports
Resolve a dispute
Advocate a course of action
Trace the evolution of a practice
Chronicle a series of events
Tracing changes
Enumerate conditions
Outline difficulties
A particular occurrence
Challenge a common misconception
Criticize adherents of...
Reconcile two different explanations/conflicting evidences
A reformulation of a traditional interpretation
A faulty assumption
Defend hypotheses
Two sides of an ongoing debate
A long-standing belief
Inherent drawbacks of a particular methodology
The fluctuating patterns of ...
Call into question ...
Suggest various alternatives to ...
Initiate a debate about
Allay concern about ...
Assess the validity of a certain view
The prevalent perspective
Establish a link between ...
Discuss implications for...
An orthodox position concerning...
Rely on empirical investigation
Refute scientific theories
A philosophy reflection
Revisions to a popular theory
Trace the root of...
实战举例

SEBASTIAN
Biologists have advanced two theories to explain why schooling of fish occurs in so many fish species. Because schooling is particularly
widespread among species of small fish, both theories assume that schooling offers the advantage of some protection from predators.
Proponents of theory A dispute the assumption that a school of thousands of fish is highly visible. Experiments have shown that any fish
can be seen, even in very clear water, only within a sphere of 200 meters in diameter. When fish are in a compact group, the spheres of
visibility overlap. Thus the chance of a predator finding the school is only slightly greater than the chance of the predator finding a single
fish swimming alone. Schooling is advantageous to the individual fish because a predator’s chance of finding any particular fish
swimming in the school is much smaller than its chance of finding at least one of the same group of fish if the fish were dispersed
throughout an area.
However, critics of theory A point out that some fish form schools even in areas where predators are abundant and thus little possibility
of escaping detection exists. They argue that the school continues to be of value to its members even after detection.
They advocate theory B, the “confusion effect,” which can be explained in two different ways. Sometimes, proponents argue, predators
simply cannot decide which fish to attack. This indecision supposedly results from a predator’s preference for striking prey that is
distinct from the rest of the school in appearance. In many schools the fish are almost identical in appearance, making it difficult for a
predator to select one. The second explanation for the “confusion effect” has to do with the sensory confusion caused by a large number
of prey moving around the predator. Even if the predator makes the decision to attack a particular fish, the movement of other prey in the
school can be distracting. The predator’s difficulty can be compared to that of a tennis player trying to hit a tennis ball when two are
approaching simultaneously.
The author is primarily concerned with
A. discussing different theories
B. analyzing different techniques
C. defending two hypotheses
D. refuting established beliefs
E. revealing new evidence
Current feminist theory, in validating women’s own stories of their experience, has encouraged scholars of women’s history
to view the use of women’s oral narratives as the methodology, next to the use of women’s written autobiography, that
brings historians closest to the “reality” of women’s lives. Such narratives, unlike most standard histories, represent
experience from the perspective of women, affirm the importance of women’s contributions, and furnish present day
women with historical continuity that is essential to their identity, individually and collectively. Scholars of women’s
history should, however, be as cautious about accepting oral narratives at face value as they already are about written
memories. Oral narratives are no more likely than are written narratives to provide a disinterested commentary on events or
people. Moreover, the stories people tell to explain themselves are shaped by narrative devices and storytelling conventions,
as well as by other cultural and historical factors, in ways that the storytellers may be unaware of. The political rhetoric of a
particular era, for example, may influence women’s interpretations of the significance of their experience. Thus a woman
who views the Second World War as pivotal in increasing the social acceptance of women’s paid work outside the home
may reach that conclusion partly and unwittingly because of wartime rhetoric encouraging a positive view of women’s
participation in such work.

The passage is primarily concerned with

A. contrasting the benefits of one methodology with the benefits of another
B. describing the historical origins and inherent drawbacks of a particular methodology
C. discussing the appeal of a particular methodology and some concerns about its use
D. showing that some historians’ adoption of a particular methodology has led to criticism of recent historical scholarship
E. analyzing the influence of current feminist views on women’s interpretations of their experience
Despite their many differences of temperament and of literary perspective, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman shared
certain beliefs. Common to all these writers is their humanistic perspective. Its basic premises are that humans are the spiritual center of the
universe and that in them alone is the clue to nature, history, and ultimately the cosmos. Without denying outright the existence of a deity, this
perspective explains humans and the world in terms of humanity.
This common perspective is almost always universalized. It emphasizes the human as universal, freed from the accidents of time, space, birth,
and talent. Thus, for Emerson, the “American Scholar” turns out to be simply “Man Thinking,” while, for Whitman, the “Song of Myself”
merges imperceptibly into a song of all the “children of Adam,” where “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
Also common to all five writers is the belief that self-realization depends on the harmonious reconciliation of two universal psychological
tendencies: first, the self-asserting impulse of the individual to be responsible only to himself or herself, and second, the self-transcending
impulse of the individual to know and become one with that world. These conflicting impulses can be seen in the democratic ethic. Democracy
advocates individualism, the preservation of the individual's freedom and self-expression. But the democratic self is torn between the duty to
self, which is implied by the concept of liberty, and the duty to society, which is implied by the concepts of equality and fraternity.
A third assumption common to the five writers is that intuition and imagination offer a surer road to truth than does abstract logic or scientific
method. It is illustrated by their emphasis upon introspection—their belief that the clue to external nature is to be found in the inner world of
individual psychology—and by their interpretation of experience as, in essence, symbolic. Both these stresses presume an organic relationship
between the self and the cosmos of which only intuition and imagination can properly take account. These writers’ faith in the imagination and
in themselves led them to conceive of the writer as a seer.

The passage is most relevant to which of the following areas of study?

A. Aesthetics and logic
B. History and literature
C. Theology and sociology
D. Anthropology and political science
E. Linguistics and art
Early life insurers in the United States found themselves facing the problem of obtaining reliable
information, as they needed to rely on applicants themselves to provide truthful, complete answers to a
standard set of questions. In an attempt to personalize the relationship between insurers and their
individual applicants, firms selected highly respected local citizens to act as their agents. These agents
were expected to evaluate the appearance of candidates, unearth evidence of unhealthy family histories
or questionable habits, and attest to the respectability of the people writing testimonial letters on an
applicant's behalf, In short, the initial purpose of the agency system was not to actively solicit customers,
but, rather, to recreate the glass-bowl mentality associated with small towns or city neighborhoods.
The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. explain the original function of life insurance agents
B. evaluate the effectiveness of early life insurance agents
C. describe how life insurance was first introduced
D. illustrate how the life insurance agency system changed over time
E. compare the strategies used by life insurance in cities and in small towns
 “Yearning” is the word that best describes a common psychological state shared by many of us, cutting across
boundaries of race, class, gender, and sexual practice. Specifically in relation to the postmodernist deconstruction
of “master" narratives, the yearning that wells in the hearts and minds of those whom such narratives have silenced
is the longing for critical voice. It is no accident that"rap" has usurped the primary position of R&B music among
young black folks as the most desired sound, or that it began as a form of “testimony" for the underclass. It has
enabled under-class black youth to develop a critical voice, as a group of young black men told me, a"common
literacy." Rap projects a critical voice, explaining, demanding, urging. Working with this insight in his essay
"Putting the Pop Back into Postmodernism” Lawrence Grossberg comments: The postmodern sensibility
appropriates practices as boasts that announce their own-and consequently our own-existence, like a rap song
boasting of the imaginary (or real-it makes no difference) accomplishments of the rapper. They offer forms of
empowerment not only in the face of nihilism but precisely through the forms of nihilism itself: an empowering
nihilism, a moment of positivity through the production and structuring of affective relations.
Considering that it is as a subject that one comes to voice, then the postmodernist focus on the critique of identity
appears, at first glance, to threaten and close down the possibility that this discourse and practice will allow those
who have suffered the crippling effects of colonization and domination to gain or regain a hearing. Even if this
sense of threat and the fear it evokes are based on a misunderstanding of the postmodernist political project, they
nevertheless shape responses. It never surprises me when black folk respond to the critique of essentialism,
especially when it denies the validity of identity politics, by saying"yeah, it's easy to give up identity, when you got
one. ”Though an apt and oftentimes appropriate comeback, this does not really intervene in the discourse in a way
that alters and transforms. We should indeed be suspicious of postmodern critiques of the "subject" when they
surface at a historical moment when many subjugated people feel themselves coming to voice for the first time.

The author's attitude toward postmodernism can most accurately be described as

A) wholly critical B)patronizing C) largely approving D) unreservedly approving E) skeptical