新東方名師：從ETS的角度看GRE閱讀文章來源 @ 郭易英文企管科學院GuoYi BA English Akademia

新東方名師：從ETS的角度看GRE閱讀文章來源

中華網教育 http://edu.china.com 2006-04-27 14:05:47

大家也來挑戰一下最高難度的GRE (G阿姨) 閱讀喔！

資料來源：http://big5.china.com/gate/big5/edu.china.com/zh_cn/elearn/exam/greexp/10000383/20060427/13280850.html

　　一直以來，新東方老師在深入研究ETS的各種考試過程中，形成了很多獨到深刻的認識和系統的解題技巧。從某種意義說，新東方老師和ETS中的高層出題者變成了counterpart的辨證統一關係。一方面ETS出題者極盡所能把考試變得複雜煩難，另一方面，新東方力求“撥雲見日”，揭示了種種試題背後隱藏的秘密。

　　近日，筆者從網上搜索發現了GRE Research的一份研究論文，其中主要內容涉及了對一個名叫Source Finder的軟體實際使用效果的評估。論文發表於2002年，核心軟體Source Finder的開發是為了幫助ETS在Internet上自動檢索數字論文庫EBSCO中的文獻，從中提煉出符合ETS各種考試風格要求（比如GRE、GMAT和TOEFL等）的樣本文章。根據開發的初衷，軟體主要希望1）減少ETS尋找合適文章的時間；2）擴大現有合適備用文章儲備；3）正規化從筆考到機考的轉變過程；4）提供管理層對item writer（負責審查文章是否符合GRE風格的工作人員）評估文章重新考察的機會；5）為新item writer提供合適以及不合適文章的實例。

　　該項目從1999年開始投入，由哥倫比亞大學教授Rebecca Passonneau負責，該教授曾著力研究時態和語法規範的語義學計算模型。項目資金由GRE委員會和ETS方面提供，最後也由他們負責驗收。可見該軟體開發的相對重要性，以及在ETS整體考試發展規劃中的地位。

　　報告中透露出很多關於GRE閱讀考試的秘密和背景，筆者認為這些內容不僅對教學研究的深入，以及對考試的多角度認識，都是有一定幫助作用的。除去了關於該軟體評測機理，實際使用效果評估等無關內容後，對論文重要內容做一定介紹和分析。

　　一、套路結構分析的合理性

　　報告中摘錄了GRE內部培訓手則中的一段內容，可謂對GRE文章風格和特點最官方權威的詮釋了。原文為：

　　“Reading comprehension passages generally rely on some kind of tension to give them difficulty. A discussion or argument that develops in a linear fashion toward a conclusion is usually too simple to support challenging items. The requisite tension can take various forms: a conflict between different or opposing arguments about something, an unexpected finding that challenges previously established ways of understanding something, a disagreement about what evidence is relevant to the solution of a particular problem, etc. But disagreement or contrast or opposition is not in itself enough to provide the tension: a passage that merely states or describes opposing positions, without discussing in much detail the reasoning behind them, will not support very many or very complex items. For example, instead of saying that Brown believed X and Smith believed Y, a passage might tell us that Brown, heavily influenced by such-and-such school of thought, tended to assume A, and therefore believed X. Smith, on the other hand, had access to information that Brown did not have, namely B and C, and this information led Smith to conclude Y. However, Smith interpreted B in such a way that it seemed logical to conclude Y, when in fact this interpretation was ill founded. The more interdependent details, the more logical twists and turns, the better. Naturally, a passage containing this kind of density can only be created from a source that provides the requisite information, and such sources are not easy to find. ”

　　該段內容可以給我們如下幾點思考和啟示：

　　1)選段核心概念是tension一詞。即使復習到了中後期的GRE考生，很少有人能夠做到substantial understanding，完全理解通原文並借此來回答好之後的題目。這個一方面是考試對閱讀水準要求太高，另一方面，ETS處心積慮地設置種種障礙破壞了理解全文的可能性。所以考生讀了文章，產生“黑雲壓頭頭欲催的”壓抑感是完全正常的。

　　2)這種讓考生或讀者預期獲得的感覺是通過什麼方式得來的？文章必須有針鋒相對觀點產生的矛盾，有新發現對已有觀點和認識的挑戰，有對一個問題解決方案的分歧等。不僅如此，必須還要有充分的細節和邏輯論證推理支援這些分歧和對比。細節越獨立，邏輯越糾纏，文章帶給讀者這種tension的感覺就越強。引文中提到的簡單例子幾乎是很多GRE閱讀文章發展的基本結構，可謂經典的範例之一。作為強對比的，簡單線性發展的文章不能成為GRE閱讀文章。高級口譯中的閱讀文章長度很長，時間壓力也很大，但是和GRE文章的風格是完全不同的。一般推薦是快速掃每段的幾句話來力爭把握全文，這樣的處理手法是基於文章套路線性話而產生的。

　　3)這段文字的思想幾乎在所有GRE閱讀文章中都得到了驗證。所有GRE文章都是議論文，哪怕對於部分說明性，敘述性特點比較重的文章，同樣也能成功帶給讀者壓力之感。例子幾乎到處都是。比如大家談之色變的伊斯蘭法的“著名”文章，全文就是介紹伊斯蘭法，猶太法和羅馬天主法三種宗教法不同。但是單純談不同不是一篇合格的GRE閱讀，全文用了很多比重談I,J,R三法兩者間相似性，何種程度相同，差別細微在哪，誰比誰更統一。通過交織在一起的“求同存異，大同小異”，全文難度徒然飚升，幾乎現場難以理解。其他例如龍蝦左螯右螯，比目魚左眼右眼，蝸牛殼左旋右旋，厄爾尼諾k波r波，蝙蝠FM,CM波……幾乎所有文章都必然出現了相對的“矛盾衝突”。可見這一特點是根本的。再進一步看，這種特點可以歸納為GRE文章中都有主線和副線，明線和暗線。分辨出這種聯繫區別應當成為閱讀文章後基本理解佐證的標誌之一。

4)東方閱讀課堂上總結的套路結構分成：新老觀點對比型，問題回答型，現象解釋型，結論說明型，對照分析起來，是對ETS手則內容準確的，幾乎完全一致的總結。可見，對套路感和文章結構的強調是必要的，而且它是作為ETS判斷一篇文章是否符合GRE閱讀文章這個身份的重要評價標準。根本上，Source Finder軟體的職責就是用演算法找到這些符合要求的文章。從套路結構入手分析文章，以不變應萬變，是為教學，考試中基本的出發點。

　　二、字數枷鎖和文章題材
　　報告中同時驗證了一些教學理論中的重要背景：

　　“The text features implemented in the Source Finder prototype were intended to allow users to screen source text for length, content, clarity, density, and level of argumentation. Length filtering is extremely important, since copyright constraints dictate that the number of words in a reading comprehension passage must be less than 10% of the total number of words in the source document from which the passage was extracted. For example, the source document for a 450-word GRE passage must include at least 4,500 words.”

　　一方面，Source Finder 軟體判斷基於文章長度，內容，清晰性，密度，論證程度等，更重要的是，其中揭示文章長度永遠是架在ETS身上的枷鎖，出於版許可權制，ETS用於實際考試的文章長度最多只能引用10％的原文長度。這種“帶著鐐銬跳舞”的結果是大量文章的改寫，重寫和刪節。

　　難句子理論的提出正是針對這種背景的深刻理論分析。在傳統的四六級閱讀中難句的感受可能還不明顯和突出，但是在GRE閱讀中，這些恐怖的難句不僅是難點更是很多題目產生的溫床。出於字數限制，ETS在GRE考試中自願或是被迫使用了大量改寫，把單位句子的長度和難度大大提高。有的GRE難句長度甚至直接堪比一段；很多句子中大量插入修飾補充說明內容，把整個句子主幹分割得支離破碎；有的句子修改後各部分比例嚴重失衡，所有引入了很多特殊的倒裝結構……後文中還有其他關於難句之難的ETS版例證。

　　另外關於文章題材分類，報告中也明確寫出了ETS的五種分類 “Source Finder’s content filter assigns each retrieved document to one of five different content categories: humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences or .none of the above.”與文學評論，社會現象，自然原理，生命科學的課堂分類是幾乎完全吻合的。

　　在軟體實際測試中，文學評論類文章只有24％的比例被Source Finder判為可能合格，相比另外三類題材的文章，通過率分別為45%、47%和43％。可見單純從題材出發，文學評論類是“最艱辛”成為GRE閱讀文章的題材，即使錄用的材料，也必須經過嚴格修改和加工。而且，根據ETS有經驗的考試開發者觀點，區分一篇文學評論是否適合作為GRE文章的尺度也是最難以把握的。這兩點理由可能部分解釋了近年筆考中文學評論題材文章數量逐漸減少的趨勢。

　　三、 “名落孫山”文章的“六宗罪”

　　從軟體現有缺陷的環節中，我們可以粗率讀出一些GRE閱讀文章必然不能有的特點。

　　Category Description

　　Problematic reasoning The source contains argumentative reasoning, but it might be difficult to translate into a passage as a result of one or more of the following problems: too many interconnected argument threads to extract a single clear argument; argument is too dispersed throughout the text to be worth the effort; argument lacks clarity, density, or substance.

　　Wrong genre The source does not provide a scholarly analysis. Includes documents that are primarily descriptive or expository, as well as first-person narratives, memoirs, interviews, biographies, and guidebooks.

　　Inaccessible The source is too specialized, too full of jargon, too technical, too abstract, or too dependent on a close reading of another work, such as a novel, poem, or film. Would not be accessible to the entire GRE population.

　　Inappropriate tone or style Tone is too casual or too flip, or author is too strongly opinionated.

　　Topicality or datedness issues Contains material that would quickly become dated.

　　Sensitivity issues Contains sensitive or inflammatory content.

　　On target The source provides the desired mix of analysis/explanation at the desired tone with the desired level of accessibility and with the desired frequency (i.e., length).

　　基本缺陷為“Problematic reasoning, Wrong genre, Inaccessible, Inappropriate tone or style, Topicality or datedness issue, Sensitivity issues”六個方面。論證錯誤包括邏輯主線不清楚，論據太分散，論證風格不符等；錯誤種類比如：第一人稱敘述，回憶錄，訪談，傳記和指導書籍等問題；所謂inaccessible是指文章充滿過於專業的內容，過多術語和技術名詞，太抽象或者需要課外的背景，對不具有該背景同學有理解上嚴重障礙等。考生一直覺得GRE文章風格很抽象枯燥，其實ETS在這方面還是有嚴格限制和標準的，尤其是在公平化原則的貫徹上，真正儘量做到“General面前，人人平等”；關於topical和dated的提出，可以對考生在課外補充閱讀材料時有一點指引作用。大量閱讀流行的報紙和普通雜誌難以符合GRE閱讀的口味，和當下有關的內容不可能出現在考場文章中，關於補充閱讀材料的推薦，後文中將給出參考；敏感的問題例如煽動性文字，素食主義者對動物目前權利的置疑，涉及Playboy攝影人物或是特殊教派問題等。總的來看，GRE選文學術化，正規性，議論性的特點顯露無疑。這些特點歸納一方面可以為我們更好理解GRE文章風格提供幫助，還可以給同學課外閱讀材料相關合適性提供尺規，應該選取和NCE4難度形式相倣的文章。

　　四、學術化單詞關鍵字列表

　　所有GRE閱讀文章文體既然都是議論文，那麼一篇議論文在Source Finder檢索時滿足什麼量化參數和指標？論文中明確給出了一份詳細的關鍵詞表。這樣一份ETS和電腦軟體專家測試後得出的關鍵詞表，其實是閱讀老師分析後引入的抽象詞理論最好的參考材料之一。以往對於抽象詞短期突破，主要是考生自己總結積累為主，這樣權威的統計可以更好的幫助考生對議論文學術化詞彙給予最基本的把握。部分詞彙，也應該成為課堂上詳細解釋的重點，因為這部分基礎詞彙重現的概率是最高的。舉例說對於paradox, plausible, controversial這些重要詞彙的誤解已經成為考試中很多題目做錯的元兄。對於approach, hypothesis, theory, fact, evidence, confirm, refute, evaluate等詞彙概念上準確得把握成為了做好Organization題,寫作手法主題題和一些其他相關題型的基本保障。所以考生值得花時間把這份詞表詳細研究一遍，對一些“思通見慣”的詞彙仔細思考深層含義。

　　刪去部分很常見的詞彙後，以下給出簡化版的關鍵詞表。其中部分關鍵詞也可以成為大家準備GRE Analytical Writing時參考的語言。

　　Source Finder Key Word List

　　according to, accurate, adapt, adaptability, adaptable, adaptation, adequate, admittedly, aggregate, alternative, analogous, analogously, analysis, analyze, approach, approximate, arbitrarily, arbitrary, arguably, argue, argument, assume, assumption.,, balanced, basis, behavior, belief, cascading, categorize, cause, characteristic, commensurately, compare, comparison, compatible, competing, complex, complexity, concede, conceive, conceivably, conclude, conclusion, condition, conditional, conditionally, consequence, consequently, consider, consideration, consistent, consistently, contrary, in contrast, controversy, controversial, converse, conversely, convincing, convincingly, corollary, corrective, correspondingly, counteract, counterproductive, critical, criticism, criticize, cumulative, decidedly, deduce, deduction, define, definition, demonstrably, demonstrate, design, despite, determination, determine, detrimental, discernible, discover, discuss, discussion, disputable, dispute, distinct, distinguish, domain, due to, eliminate, entail, entity, environment, equally, equivalence, equivalent, establish, estimate, evaluate, evaluation, event, evidence, examination, examine, except, exception, exhibit, exhibition, exist, existential, experience, experiment, explain, explanation, explicit, exponential, failure, familiar, feasible, footnote, granted, guarantee, hence, hypothesis, hypothesize, hypothetical, idea, identical, illogical, impact, implication, implicit, implies, imply, incompatible., inconsistent, increase, in addition to, in fact, in order to, in particular, in response to, in the guise of, indeed, indicates, indisputable, indisputably, induce, induction, inextricably, infeasible, infer, inform, insight, insightful, instability, instead, intangible, intensify, intensified, interpret, interpretation, intractable, investigate, investigation., justification, justify, knowledge, likelihood, likely, limitation, limited, logical, magnitude, matched, maximize, maximum, measure, measurement, method, minimize, minimum, mitigate, model, moreover, multiple, nearly, necessary, negative, negatively, negligible, nevertheless, numerical, notable, notwithstanding, novel, observation, observe, offset, on the other hand, optimum, otherwise, ostensibly, outweigh, overestimate, paradigm, particular, particularly, parameter, pattern, penultimate, percent, percentage, permanently, pertinent, phase, phenomenon, positive, positively, possibility, possible, possibly, potentially, predict, previously, primarily, primary, probability, probable, probably, problem, problematic, process, propensity, proves, rationale, reason, reasoning, recently, redesign, reduce, redundant, regardless of, relation, relative, relatively, reliability, require, requirement, requires, research, respective, respectively, result, reveal, rigorous, rigorously, riskier, salient, science, severe, severity, significantly, similarly, simultaneous, since, specific, specifically, specified, specify, speculate, speculative, stable, stability, still, stipulate, strengthen, strictly, structure, structured, study, subsequent, subsequently, substantially, success, successive, sufficient, sufficiently, suggest, summarize, suppose, supposition, susceptibility, susceptible, systemic, tangible, technique, temporarily, theoretical, theories, theory, therefore, thus, tractable, tradeoff, traditional, truth, ultimately, unconditional, undeniably, underestimate, understand, understanding, undoubtedly, unfamiliar, uniformly, unique, unless, unmatched, unquestionably, unstable, unusual, valid, validate, validity, variance, variation, weaken, weigh, yield.

五、難句子的“罪狀”
　　GRE中的難句子不是閱讀老師渲染出來的，是考生實踐檢驗體會出來的。這些煩難的長句，複合句，複雜修飾句又很容易成為考試題目集中的重點。對於難句概念，論文中給予了統計學上的支援佐證。

　　“As the data indicate, there is a wide disparity between the feature values calculated in the 33 original sources and in the passages that were eventually developed from those sources. For example, the average sentence length of the five original sources is 23.2 words, compared with 35.0 words for the corresponding GRE passages. Similarly, the average type-token ratio for the five sources is .26, compared with .56 for the corresponding GRE passages.”

　　“As noted earlier, the SourceFinder feature labeled UniqWordPerWord is a measure of the size of the vocabulary used in a given document. This feature is also called type-token ratio because it is a ratio of the total number of word types (or unique words) in a document to the total number of word tokens in the document (Youmans, 31 1991). The type-token ratio calculated for a particular document can range from 1, in the case of all unique words, to 1/N where N is the total number of words in the document. Certain word types, (e.g., words known to the information retrieval community as stop words, including .the. and .of.) occur relatively more frequently than so-called content words.”

　　其中句子長度差異比較容易理解，而第二個參數type-token ratio是指全文中獨特單詞佔總文字字數的比例。根據語言學專家研究結論，句子以及文章中獨特單詞越是多，專業術語和複雜內容一般就更多，最後導致全文理解困難度就提高。可見GRE文章經過原材料的加工和改寫後基本特點就是：句子更長，更難理解。由此可見，難句能力往往是征服GRE閱讀的基本功之一，而強調提煉句子主體詞的工作則有效地針對了type-token ratio參數提示的必要能力，考生必須能具有再充滿了學術專業名詞的長句子中提出一個理論的關鍵詞，一派觀點的區別性特點等。

　　六、課外閱讀材料推薦

　　勤奮的考生一直關心課下閱讀什麼文字材料來提高GRE考試的能力。簡單的讀普通報紙雜誌比如Shanghai Star, China Daily，收穫是比較有限的，最根本原因是你從這些文字中讀不出最關鍵的tension感，相反只是一種放鬆的閱讀。除了課堂上推薦的GMAT，LSAT等同類型風格的全真試題之外，參考論文中給出的部分研究時採用的原材料來源，推薦一下材料。這部分期刊對GRE閱讀理解的提高是比較“專業對口”的，適合作為一般的泛讀材料。

　　African American Review —— social sciences (some humanities)

　　American Journal of Economics and Sociology——social sciences

　　American Scholar —— humanities

　　Art Journal —— humanities

　　Astronomy —— physical sciences

　　BioScience —— biological sciences

　　Black American Literature Forum —— humanities

　　business Horizons —— business

　　Commentary —— social sciences

　　Discover —— biological sciences and physical sciences

　　Feminist Studies —— social sciences (some humanities)

　　Journal of American Ethnic History —— social sciences

　　Journal of Black Studies —— social sciences (some humanities)

　　Journal of Social History —— social sciences

　　The Nation—— social sciences

　　Science News —— biological sciences and physical sciences

　　Scientific American—— biological sciences and physical sciences

　　Sloan Management Review —— business

　　Smithsonian —— social sciences, biological sciences, and physical sciences

　　Technology Review —— biological sciences and physical sciences

　　Wilson Quarterly —— social sciences

　　Women.s Review of Books —— humanities

　　其中很多期刊可以在學校圖書館中找到，考生可以課外泛讀，作為長期積累，提高閱讀根本能力的途徑之一。

　　七、結論

　　縱觀整個論文，不僅有大量內容對很多新東方現有閱讀中研究的理論做了充分的佐證，也對以後教學工作中的探索方向做出了一定的指引作用。主要是集中在文章套路和風格，議論文特色關鍵詞把握，閱讀基本能力和課外參考資料等多方面。

　　博弈的基本概念就是根據對手的行為做出最合適的反映。其實考試和培訓某種程度上就是一種博弈。所以能有資料幫助我們站在ETS的立場，了解一些“對手”的詳細資訊和約束，無疑是對考試進一步深入研究是大有裨益的。相信新東方的老師一定可以揮灑智慧和汗水，將探索進行到底！