GRE阅读题目解析:英国工人的苦难

　　P47

　　1

　　Mary Barton, particularly in its early chapters, is a moving response to the suffering of the industrial worker in the England of the 1840s.

　　《 Mary Barton 》，尤其是它前面的章节，相当感人地反应了 1840 年代英国工人的苦难。

　　2

　　What is most impressive about the book is the intense and painstaking effort made by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, to convey the experience of everyday life in working class homes.

　　令人印象最深刻的，莫过于作者 E G 着力表现的工人阶级家庭的日常生活。

　　3

　　Her method is partly documentary in nature: the novel includes such features as a carefully annotate reproduction of dialect, the exact details of food prices in an account of a tea party, an itemized description of the furniture of the Bartons’ living room, and a transcription (again annotated) of the ballad “The Oldham Weaver”.

　　她的写法某种程度上带有纪实性质：小说包括这样的特点，如对方言作精细的注释，详尽记录某次茶会中出现的各种食物价格，逐一描述 B 客厅的家具摆件，全文抄写(也是通过注释)民谣 T O W 。

　　(tea party 供应茶和少量点心的下午社交聚会，这里并非指 “ 茶党 ” 。

　　itemize 详细登记，逐条记录)

　　4

　　The interest of this record is considerable, even though the method has a slightly distancing effect.

　　这种记录价值很大，尽管这种方法稍微拉开了距离。

　　(interest 在此解释为 好处，利益，福利，advantage / benefit

　　considerable 相当大、多的，值得注意的，重要的)

　　5

　　As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could hardly help approaching working-class life as an outside observer and a reporter, and the reader of the novel is always conscious of this fact.

　　读者也总意识到：G 出身中产阶级，难免以外来观察者和记者的方式接近工人阶级。

　　6

　　But there is genuine imaginative re-creation in her accounts of the walk in Green Heys Fields, of tea at the Bartons’ house, and of John Barton and his friend’s discovery of the starving family in the cellar in the chapter “Poverty and Death.”

　　但她写道在 G H F 散步，在 B 家饮茶，以及在 “ P a D ” 章写道 J B 和他朋友在地窖发现挨饿的一家人，这些想象的再创造中都蕴含着一种真切。

　　(genuine 真实的，非伪造(正品)的，真挚的，味道纯正的，正宗的。可以理解为 E G 对穷人生活有扎实的观察，写得真，味道对，令人信服。)

　　7

　　Indeed, for a similarly convincing re-creation of such families’ emotions and responses (which are more crucial than the material details on which the mere reporter is apt to concentrate), the English novel had to wait 60 years for the early writing of D. H. Lawrence.

　　实际上，另一位把这类家庭情感和反应写得令人信服(更为关键的是，纯粹的记者更倾向于注重事实细节(而 E G 更注重情感))的英语小说家 D H L，60 年后才登上文坛。

　　8

　　If Gaskell never quite conveys the sense of full participation that would completely authenticate this aspect of Mary Bartons, she still brings to these scenes an intuitive recognition of feelings that has its own sufficient conviction.

　　即便 G 从未充分地表现出塑造《 M B 》这种特点的全心投入，她仍然给这些情节带来一种感官的直觉承认，令其本身就具备充分的说服力。

　　(不太友善的句子，if 引导让步关系，相当于 even if

　　this aspect of Mary Bartons 即前文说到的 genuine / conviction

　　quite 完全地，整体地，十分地，充分地

　　convey 运载，运送，表达或传达(思想、感情、消息等)，转让(土地、财产等)

　　scene 事发现场，情景，事件，大吵大闹，片段，情节，场景，景象，景致

　　bring A to B 给 B 带来 A，本句中 A 过长了，所以这个搭配变形为 bring(s) to B(these scenes) A(an intuitive recognition of feelings that …))

　　9

　　The chapter “Old Aice’s History” brilliantly dramatizes the situation of that early generation of workers brought from the villages and the countryside to the urban industrial centers.

　　“ O A H ” 章节巧妙地夸张(戏剧化处理)了早期从乡村来到工业中心城市的工人的处境。

　　10

　　The account of Job Leigh, the weaver and naturalist who is devoted to the study of biology, vividly embodies one kind of response to an urban industrial environment: an affinity for living things that are hardened, by its very contrast with its environment, into a kind of crankiness.

　　关于 J L 的描写，纺织工人和博物学者，致力于生物学的研究，鲜活地体现了一种对城市工业环境的态度：正如活物，因与所处环境的极度反差，逐渐麻木，最终成了一种怪异。

　　(原文 hardens 改为 are hardened，harden 作 “ 令 … 变得麻木无情 ” 时，多用被动语态。

　　crankiness 易怒，不稳定，不正常，(路等)歪斜曲折，(想法)怪异，古怪)

　　11

　　The early chapters — about factory workers walking out in spring into Green Heys Fields, about Alice Wilson, remembering in her cellar the twig-gathering for brooms in the native village that she will never again see, about Job Leigh, intent on his impaled insects — capture the characteristic responses of a generation to the new and crushing experience of industrialism.

　　前面的章节 —— 关于工人在春天去 G H F 散步，关于 A W 想起她村里的地窖里的再也见不着的树枝扎成的扫帚，关于 J L 热衷他的昆虫标本 —— 捕捉到了一代人对新的扑面而来的工业化经验的独特反应。

　　(算是个长难句。

　　主干 chapters capture responses，章节捕捉反应，破折号夹引的三个 about 属于插入语，功能是 chapters 的后置定语。

　　intent on / upon 热衷于(做)某事。impale 穿刺，考虑到昆虫标本都是用针 pin 固定，所以意译为昆虫标本。

　　capture 作 “ 抓拍，定格，永久地保存(画面等)” 理解，原指拍照、录音、绘画等，在句中比喻一本书永久地记录了某时代的某种特征。

　　crushing 压倒性的)

　　12

　　The other early chapters eloquently portray the development of the instinctive cooperation with each other that was already becoming an important tradition among workers.

　　其他前面的章节生动地描绘了工人之间本能的彼此合作的发展，这种合作已经成为工人阶层的重要传统。

　　1. It can be inferred from examples given in the last paragraph(句 9 - 12) of the passage that which of the following was part of “the new and crushing experience of industrialism” for many members of the English working class in the nineteenth century.

　　A. Extortionate food prices

　　B. Geographical displacement

　　C. Hazardous working conditions

　　D. Alienation from fellow workers

　　E. Dissolution of family ties

　　选 B

　　句 9 明确告知我们这一代工人 from the villages and the countryside to the urban industrial centers，可以被认为是一种地理上的迁移，所以 B 正确。

　　A 过高的食物价格。错，句 3 的确提到了茶会的食物价格，但那是为了说明 G 的小说有纪实特点，不是为了说明食物卖得贵，而且它也不属于文章最后一段。

　　C 危险的工作条件。可能符合事实，但无法 be inferred from examples given by the author 。

　　D 错。句 12 告诉我们工人之间是互相帮助的。

　　E 疏离的家庭关系。可能符合事实，但无法 be inferred from examples given by the author 。

　　2. It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that Mary Barton might have been an even better novel if Gaskell

　　A. concentrated on the emotions of a single character

　　B. made no attempt to re-create experiences of which she had no firsthand knowledge

　　C. made no attempt to reproduce working-class dialects

　　D. grown up in an industrial city

　　E. managed to transcend her position as an outsider

　　选 E

　　难题，烂题。

　　ABCD 不讲了，排除 ABCD 应该不难，主要难点在于 E 为什么对。

　　先看句 5：

　　As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could hardly help approaching working-class life as an outside observer and a reporter, and the reader of the novel is always conscious of this fact.

　　could hardly help doing something 一般用来表示某种不理想的，权宜的，次优的选择，“ 难免 … ”

　　也就是说，作者认为 G 作为 an outsider observer and a reporter 的身份，并非最理想的选择。

　　再看句 8：

　　If Gaskell never quite conveys the sense of full participation that would completely authenticate this aspect of Mary Bartons, she still brings to these scenes an intuitive recognition of feelings that has its own sufficient conviction.

　　翻译中提示过，if 在此引导让步关系，相当于 even if / enven though，就算 / 即使 / 纵然 G 从来没能做到 full participation，她也如何如何，至此能不能看出作者对于 outside reporter 和 full participation 两者的态度?

　　显然作者更倾向于 full participation 。

　　以上就是 E 为什么对。

　　现在说说为什么我觉得这题烂。

　　无论什么评论，一般都遵循这样的原则，只评论作者出于创作目的所作的各种选择。G 作为一个中产阶级，要写无产阶级故事，写一种她成长经验以外的经验，她能做到的上限，难道不就是以外来者的身份仔细观察并忠实记录么?况且评论作者也承认 G 写得很好 genuine imaginative re-creation 。这种情况下还要求 G 超越外来观察者的身份 transcend her position as an outsider，生在哪种家庭难道是 G 能选择的吗?我们难道要批评 G 投胎投的不准(错生在中产阶级家庭)?推演下去，我们是不是应该批评姚明，如果他也能踢足球就更好了?是不是应该批评曾志伟，如果他长高 30 厘米，就能演好高个儿角色多拿几个影帝了?

　　这什么狗屁评论角度啊。

　　回到题目，我们假定评论作者的观点混蛋，没关系，GRE 考的是我们能不能读懂学术文章，你混蛋我们能看懂也 OK 。但文章先说这种有纪实特点的写法有很大价值，the interest of this record is considerable (句 4)，又说 G 写得 genunine 且举世罕见，下一个 similarly convincing 的 D H 劳伦斯要 60 年后才震动英伦文坛，如此多的正面评价，实在是放了过多的烟雾弹。令人感觉文章作者行文虚伪造作，前后矛盾。

　　3. Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward Gaskell’s use of the method of documentary record in Mary Barton?

　　A. uncritical enthusiasm

　　B. Unresolved ambivalence

　　C. Qualified approval

　　D. Resigned acceptance

　　E. Mild irritation

　　选 C

　　经过修饰的，有节制的认同。

　　根据句 4：

　　The interest of this record is considerable, even though the method has a slightly distancing effect.

　　qualify 以前讲过了，阅读重点词汇，不懂要误事的。

　　4. Which of the following is most closely analogous to Job Leigh in Mary Barton, as that character is described in the passage?

　　A. An entomologist who collected butterflies as a child

　　B. A small-town attorney whose hobby is nature photography

　　C. A young man who leaves his family’s dairy farm to start his own business

　　D. A city dweller who raises exotic plants on the roof of his apartment building

　　E. A union organizer who works in a textile mill under dangerous conditions

　　选 D

　　类比题，让我们找一种和 J L 感觉相似的，J L 出现在句 10 - 11，主要参考句 10：

　　The account of Job Leigh, the weaver and naturalist who is devoted to the study of biology, vividly embodies one kind of response to an urban industrial environment: an affinity for living things that are hardened, by its very contrast with its environment, into a kind of crankiness.

　　A 像小孩一样收集蝴蝶的昆虫学家。

　　B 小镇律师爱好自然摄影。

　　C 离开自家奶牛场创业的年轻人。

　　D 城市居民在公寓楼顶养外国植物。

　　E 工会组织者在条件危险的纺织厂工作。

　　找一种跟环境反差大的、以至于看起来有点怪异的，D 勉强符合。

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