五月的sat考试越来越近了，在最后的半个月里，我们还能做点什么，才能把阅读分数再往上拔一拔呢？可以重点训练以下三个方面。
01历史话题文章：
熟悉考察频率比较高的，和美国历史相关的话题。记住历史话题最重要的两个考点：话题+方向性。另外，记住高频历史事件的年份，可以帮助我们通过引言快速的判断历史话题的方向。常考的美国历史相关话题有：
01Indepence War（1775-1783）
正：Britain—mother country
负：Independence — （Founding Fathers：Thomas Jefferson）
02constitutional convention（1787）
正：confederation（state rights > federal rights)
负：federation (federal rights > state rights)
03Civil War (1861-1865）
正：anti- slavery （Lincoln— House Divided Speech）
负：support slavery （Stephen Douglas）
- 问答时间 -
看到一篇文章之后，如何快速地确定话题和方向性呢？
主要通过introduction和topic sentence，两个地方。
例如下面这个双篇文章的introduction；
1.Passage 1 is adapted from a speech delivered in 1854 by Stephen Douglas, "Defense of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill." In 1854, Douglas, a senator from Illinois, proposed a bill allowing voters in the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether slavery should be permitted there. When enacted, the bill would effectively repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery in these territories. Passage 2 is adapted from a speech delivered in 1856 by Charles Sumner, "The Crime against Kansas." Sumner was a senator from Massachusetts.
01、在passage 1的introduction中提到了两个重要的历史文件，Missouri Compromise —是反对奴隶制的，另外一个是Kansas-Nebraska Bill，repeal了Missouri Compromise，所以应该是支持奴隶制的。而本文作者，defense了Kansas-Nebraska Bill，所以第一篇文章的作者是支持奴隶制的。根据双篇对比文章的规律，第二篇文章大概率就是反对奴隶制了。
除了可以通过introduction看出文章的话题和方向，还可以通过寻找文章中的topic sentence，作为一篇议论文，历史话题文章的topic sentence，比较有可能出现在：
1.第一段最后一句
2.第二段开头句
3.最后一段首句
4.转折之后
这几个位置。
例如刚才那个例子，对应的passage 1正文第一段内容：
The argument of [my opponents] is predicated upon the assumption that the policy of the fathers of the republic was to prohibit slavery in all the territory ceded by the old states to the Union and made United States territory for the purpose of being organized into new states. I take issue upon that statement.
第一段第一句，先提出了opponent，反方的观点，觉得应该prohibit slavery，又在第一段最后用了一个明显的转折，所以可以看出作者仍然是支持slavery的。
02、小说话题文章：
重点训练对于人物关系和转折逻辑的理解
2.1人物关系
想看清楚人物关系，要注意introduction的介绍，以及文章中的代词指代。例如：
This passage is adapted from Amit Chaudhuri, A Strange and Sublime Address. ©1991 by Amit Chaudhuri. A ten-year-old boy named Sandeep travels with his mother, his aunt (Mamima), and his uncle (Chhotomama) to visit family in Calcutta, India.
这篇文章的introduction就提到了四个人物，主人公Sandeep，他的妈妈，他的婶婶Mamima和他的叔叔Chhotomama
Two boys were playing carrom on the steps of a small, painted shed which had the following words on its wall in large, black letters: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORTSMEN. A single table-tennis table inside the shed could be glimpsed through the window. The boys interrupted their game to give Chhotomama directions to the house in a series of sporadic, enthusiastic gestures. Oh yes, they knew the old couple. And yes, their son and daughter-in-law had arrived last night with their first child.
“Is it a girl or a boy?” asked Mamima, rolling down the window.
“A girl,” said the boy.
在正文中又先后出现了two boys（old couple的邻居），the old couple，their son and daughter-in-law（注意这里的their指代的是old couple）以及their first child（注意这里的their指代的是old couple的儿子和媳妇），短短的几行文章就提到了11个人，还涉及了同一个代词不同的指代关系，只有理清楚这些人物的关系，才能更好的理解文章。
2.2转折逻辑
除了人物关系，小说文章中还有一个重要的信息，就是情节上的转折逻辑，尤其要注意段首句表示的段间的转折关系。例如：
From the start, I told Frankie she was in charge, and the arrangement seemed to please her. She got to work at once, methodically making her way throughCal's files, hunting down marketing and sales people--and even my father-when I was of no help.If she noticed the way her new colleagues whispered about her American assertiveness, she didn't let it bother her.
In contrast, I treated the work like a college class: doing the minimum it took to get by. I tried to coerce Frankie into taking breaks by showing her hilarious pictures I'd found on the Internet and bombarding her computer with inane instant messages. She'd s indulge me for a minute or two before returning to work, but after I emailed her a third cat picture, she spun around to face me and said, "Look, I realize your uncle hired me mostly as a favor to you, but really think I can make a difference around here."
Duly chastised, I began to read the files she deemed most relevant, and the more I learned, the more I had to admit that some of this stuff was actually interesting. Who knew that specialty food producers from bastions of Americana as Gainesville, Florida, and Louisville, Kentucky, had begun to experiment with artisanal soy sauce? According toa prominent food magazine
第一段段首句可以明显看出，Frankie对于她的工作的态度是很正面的。第二段开头的in contrast，是一个明显的转折关系，我的态度和她截然相反，doing the minimum。最后一段，当我开始认真翻阅材料的时候，又发现这项工作还是很interesting，后前一段又是一个态度上的转折关系。
所以后面出了一个narrator态度转变的题目：
Over the course of the passage, the narrator's attitude toward her job gradually changes from one of
A) moderate anxiety to calm contentment.
B) casual unconcern to eager engagement.
C) obstinate apathy to reluctant cooperation.
D) pronounced pessimism to unreserved optimism.
就应该选择B答案，一开始是漫不经心，然后积极参与
2.3双篇对比文章
阅读中的双篇对比文章，是很多考生很头疼的一篇文章，这一篇文章，最重要的是抓好每个单篇文章的作者观点，以及其中的转折逻辑关系。例如：
passage 1
At the 2007 American Geophysical Union's meeting in Acapulco, Mexico, some two dozen scientists presented multiple studies arguing that a comet or asteroid exploded above or on the northern ice cap almost 13,000 years ago—showering debris across the North American continent and causing temperatures to plunge for the next millennium.
The team argues that its idea explains multiple observations: not only the climate cooling and the disappearance of the Clovis hunters, but also the near-simultaneous extinction of the continent's large mammals.
Not all will be convinced. Several leading hypotheses already explain each of these three events. A change in ocean circulation is generally thought to have brought about the onset of the millennium-long cooling, which is known as the Younger Dryas. This cooling might, in turn, have caused the Clovis hunters to disappear. And, if they had not previously been killed by disease or hunted to extinction, the big prehistoric beasts may also have been doomed by this change in climate.
The new evidence comes in the form of geochemical analysis of sedimentary layers at archaeological sites across North America-9 of them Clovis. Certain features of the layers, say the team, suggest that they contain debris formed by an extraterrestrial impact. These include spherules of glass and carbon, and amounts of the element iridium said to be too high to have originated on Earth. In addition, the rocks contain black layers of carbonized material, which the team says are the remains of wildfires that swept across the continent after the impact.
第一段先给出了一个理论，comet和asteroid爆炸，导致地球温度降低。第二段进一步解释了这个理论。第三段段首句Not all will be convinced 有一个明显的段间转折关系，提出了反方观点，最后一段首句又给出的新证据，证明了撞击理论，和第三段又是转折关系。整篇文章来看，作者更倾向于支持撞击理论。
passage 2
Proponents of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis have claimed various kinds of evidence for the hypothesis, including deposits of the element iridium (rare on Earth but abundant in meteorites), microscopic diamonds (called nanodiamonds), and magnetic particles in deposits at sites supposedly dated to about 12,800 years ago. These claims were sharply contested by some specialists in the relevant fields, however, who either did not detect such evidence or argued that the deposits had other causes than a cosmic impact. For example, some say that nanodiamonds are common in ordinary geological formations, and that magnetic particles could come from ordinary fires.
Now comes what some researchers consider the strongest attack yet on the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. In a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, in Texas, looks at the dating of 29 different sites in the Americas….
The supposed Younger Dryas impact fails on both theoretical and empirical grounds," says Meltzer, who adds that the popular appeal of the hypothesis is probably due to the way that it provides" simple explanations for complex problems." Thus, "giant chunks of space debris clobbering the planet and wiping out life on Earth has undeniably broad appeal," Meltzer says, whereas" no one in Hollywood makes movies" about more nuanced explanations, such as Clovis points disappearing because early Americans turned to other forms of stone tool technology as the large mammals they were hunting went extinct as a result of the changing climate or hunting pressure.
But impact proponents appear unmoved by the new study." We still stand fully behind the [impact hypothesis], which is based on more than a confluence of dates," says Richard Firestone, a nuclear chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California." Radiocarbon dating is a…
第一段的开头先给出撞击理论的proponent，支持者的观点。中间一个however来到了反方。第二段段首句attack继续反驳。第三段段首句继续提到了fail，反驳撞击理论。最后一段一个转折关系，提到支持撞击理论的人不为所动。整篇文章来看，反方观点为主。
所以当双篇文章对比出题的时候，问到双篇文章的关系：
Which statement best describes the relationship between the two passages?
A. Passage 2 presents a critique of the central hypothesis described in Passage 1.
B. Passage 2 explains the scientific question addressed by the central hypothesis developed in Passage 1.
C. Passage 2 discusses possible implications of the central hypothesis summarized in Passage 1.
D. Passage 2 identifies evidence in favor of the central hypothesis advanced in Passage 1.
应该选择A答案，critique，相互反驳。
【竞赛报名/项目咨询+微信：mollywei007】
