2000年3月 section2 6－10
Questions 6～10
Reading Objectives: 进一步理解时间强对比的写法，理解example的功能

You saw the stories of the embarrassment at Encyclopedia Britannica last week as the company's highly advertised free Web site was jammed into nonfunctioning.

Encyclopedia Britannica：大英百科全书
jam：堵塞，拥挤
nonfunctioning.：瘫痪
句子的主体：the stories of the embarrassment

The stories were of some 10 million hits a day clogging the site, www. britannica. com; of three separate apologies given to would be users of the free reference service; of promises to get the thing up and running, perhaps as early as this week.
考点：
分号引出并列（细节）
三个细节用;连接，细节非常具体，不是重点部分，可以略看，

More striking, though, is what the stories didn't say: What an extraordinary thing it is that people around the world suddenly have access—free access—to knowledge that would have been the envy of a university professor earlier in my own lifetime.

考点：although, though, even though, in spite of，despite, albeit后面的内容鄙视
What an extraordinary：感叹句，这种奇怪的事情非常值得报道。
have access to=have=be accessible to
第一段典型结构：anecdote/story（轶事）引出主题，目的是讲道理，跳过故事不看。若在文章出现例子，则看其上下文

相关题目解析：

6. The author cites the example of Encyclopedia Britannica at the beginning of the passage mainly to show that ________.
(A) its Web site is the target of millions of hackers
(B) the Web site can be repaired soon
(C) it is one of the major signs of knowledge explosion
(D) it is the symbol of the arrival of encyclopedic age

Example题分两种：考example的function或者content，section 2考前者较多，遇到这种题目不要留恋细节内容，要看上下文比较抽象和概括的内容。

小帖士：如果文章是一个小故事，我们应该关注隐藏在故事背后的深层抽象道理。

As for ordinary people, I remember how the encyclopedia salesmen would come around with their sample volumes, their memorized spiels and their offers of “easy” terms if you'd only sign up for Compton's or World Book.

本句也是细节描写，可以略读。
另外，本句是对过去的描写，隐藏了时间强对比的信息。

spiel 喋喋不休
“easy” terms：优惠条款

Owning an encyclopedia—or “a set of encyclopedias”, as we used to say—was a pretty big deal for families of modest means, an unaffordable luxury for many of the folk in my hometown. And now it's all free—or will be as soon as Britannica works out the bugs.

Bug：错误
Now宣告了主体内容的出现

The reason it's free is the Britannica, whose hard-copy sales are down some 80 percent since 1990, is forced to compete with Microsoft-s dominant Encarta Encyclopedia.

本句比较细节，因此不太可能是主题句。

But the encyclopedia is just one small illustration of the explosion both in knowledge and in our access to it since Thomas Jefferson's modest book collection formed the nucleus of the Library of Congress.Not only does my own house now contain more books than Jefferson ever owned, but my access to public libraries, bookstores and, of course, the Web, gives my family information resources beyond the imagination of world-class scholars a short time ago.

不要留恋细节内容，要看上下文比较抽象和概括的内容

I've just had a phone call from a friend who tells me that, in preparation for an upcoming trip to Benin, she's downloaded 75 to 100 pages of information, from a score of sites, on that West African country—information on everything from the local currency, political situation and weather to the latest local news and the street address of the American embassy.

本段又出现了一个故事，具体的故事可以略看，关键是隐藏在故事后的道理。

“I'm starting to feel almost like I know the place, even though I've never been there,” she said. Marco Polo, eat your heart out.

对应题目讲解

7. Which of the following best expresses the meaning of the sentence “Marco Polo, eat your heart out.” (Para.4)?
(A) Marco polo would be sad to know about the easy access to information about the world.
(B) Marco polo would sincerely welcome the information age.
(C) Marco polo would be happy to learn to use the Web.
(D) Marco polo would never believe the story from the author's friend.

考点：围绕主题找到句子在上下文中的作用、意义

Nor is it just information that is so profusely available.
Nor：否定
Profusely：丰盛

Think of the difficulties confronting a 19th-century music lover. He could, of course, hear local folk artists.
19th-century ：时间强对比

But if he had a fondness for, say, Bach or Beethoven, he'd have to hire an orchestra and a place for it to perform—which means he'd have to be wealthy. Today, any teenager with a CD player (or even an FM radio) can hear almost any music of his of her choosing, performed by top musicians, virtually at will. The same youngster could, at a whim, look at tens of thousands of paintings from the National Gallery of Art.

Today：时间强对比

Think of laws forbidding anyone to teach slaves to read. Think of Hitler's book burnings. Think of all the attempts over the years to enforce either orthodoxy or the status quo by putting learning off-limits, and you begin to sense the power of what is happening. The walls of caste and class have not been razed, but they are suddenly, irrevocably, more porous.

Think of… Think of… Think of：并列的内容不太可能成为主题
Orthodoxy：正统观念
status：拉丁词，现状
caste：这里指严格分化的社会阶层
raze：夷为平地
irrevocably：不可撤销的
porous：多孔的

And yet not completely porous.
Yet：强对比

The pertinence of the “digital divide” is a reminder that some Americans remain cut off from the power of the knowledge revolution.

Pertinence：恰当、适当
digital divide：数字鸿沟
cut off from：被……排除在外

注意：上下文逻辑出现跳跃，可能就是出题的位置所在

We have to get serious not merely about the technology but also the psychology of bridging that divide. We have to infect our turned-off adults and our uninspired children with the desire to know more of what is within their grasp already and the oceans more that shortly will be.

We have to…We have to　并列句，不太可能是主题句
Uninspired：无灵感的
Ocean：差距

If that's true of end-of-the-century America, it is immeasurably worse for much of the rest of the world. As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan remarked in a recent speech, “Half the worlds population has never even made, or received, a telephone call.”

我们要关注隐藏在名人引言后的含义，而不是具体引言本身。

9. The author quotes U.N. Secretary General?s remark in the last paragraph mainly to demonstrate that _________.
(A) telephone is more important to the Web than the poor
(B) digital revolution will be welcomed by the poor
(C) the gap between the rich and the poor can be wider in the information age
(D) half the world's population will benefit from knowledge explosion

10. The last two paragraphs of the passage can be perceived as __________.
(A) the summary of the whole passage
(B) the introduction of the concept “digital divide”
(C) the prediction about America in the new century
(D) the warning of issues behind technological progress

本题是结构功能题

8. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
(A) Both Compton's and World Book are encyclopedias.
(B) Encarta Encyclopedia is giving way to Encyclopedia Britannica.
(C) The sales of Encyclopedia Britannica have been going down dramatically over the past decade.
(D) Encyclopedia Britannica opens its Web site to attract more readers.

本题是“杀手”题型，可以放到最后来做

Other Reading Skills:

一．主题原则
二．句义理解题要和主题挂钩
三．抓住强对比
四. 最后两段深化主题