新SAT官方指南阅读第六篇全解析

新SAT官方指南阅读第六篇全解析

This passage is from Charlotte Bront?,The Professor,originally published in1857.

No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession,and every man,worthy of the name,will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out,“I am baffled!”and submits to be floated passively back to land.From the first week of my residence in X—felt my occupation irksome.The thing itself—the work of copying and

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translating business-letters—was a dry and tedious task enough,but had that been all,I should

long have borne with the nuisance;I am not of an impatient nature,and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to

become a tradesman,I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties;I should not have whispered,even inwardly,that I longed for liberty;I should have pent in every 10

sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness,smoke, monotony,and joyless tumult of Bigben Close,and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes;

I should have set up the image of Duty,the fetish of Perseverance,in my small bedroom at Mrs.

King’s lodgings,and they two should have been my household gods,from which my darling,my cherished-in-secret,Imagination,the tender and the mighty,should never,either by softness or

strength,have severed me.But this was not all;the antipathy which had sprung up between myself 15

and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily,excluded me from every

glimpse of the sunshine of life;and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.

Antipathy is the only word which can express the feeling Edward Crimsworth had for me—a 20

feeling,in a great measure,involuntary,and which was liable to be excited by every,the most

trifling movement,look,or word of mine.My southern accent annoyed him;the degree of

education evinced in my language irritated him;my punctuality,industry,and accuracy,fixed his dislike,and gave it the high flavour and poignant relish of envy;he feared that I too should one day make a successful tradesman.Had I been in anything inferior to him,he would not have hated 25

me so thoroughly,but I knew all that he knew,and,what was worse,he suspected that I kept the padlock of silence on mental wealth in which he was no sharer.If he could have once placed me in

a ridiculous or mortifying position,he would have forgiven me much,but I was guarded by three

faculties—Caution,Tact,Observation;and prowling and prying as was Edward’s malignity,it

could never baffle the lynx-eyes of these,my natural sentinels.Day by day did his malice watch 30

my tact,hoping it would sleep,and prepared to steal snake-like on its slumber;but tact,if it be

genuine,never sleeps.

I had received my first quarter’s wages,and was returning to my lodgings,possessed heart

and soul with the pleasant feeling that the master who had paid me grudged every penny of that hard?earned pittance—(I had long ceased to regard Mr.Crimsworth as my brother—he was a hard, 35

grinding master;he wished to be an inexorable tyrant:that was all).Thoughts,not varied but

strong,occupied my mind;two voices spoke within me;again and again they uttered the same

monotonous phrases.One said:“William,your life is intolerable.”The other:“What can you do to alter it?”I walked fast,for it was a cold,frosty night in January;as I approached my lodgings,I

turned from a general view of my affairs to the particular speculation as to whether my fire would 40

be out;looking towards the window of my sitting-room,I saw no cheering red gleam.

1.Which choice best summarizes the passage?

(A)A character describes his dislike for his new job and considers the reasons why.

(B)Two characters employed in the same office become increasingly competitive.

(C)A young man regrets privately a choice that he defends publicly.

(D)A new employee experiences optimism,then frustration,and finally despair.

正确答案：A

分析：作者在文章当中承认自己的工作令人厌烦（irksome），并且讲述了不喜欢这份工作的原因是和自己的老板关系不好。

2.The main purpose of the opening sentence of the passage is to

A)establish the narrator’s perspective on a controversy.

B)provide context useful in understanding the narrator’s emotional state.

C)offer a symbolic representation of Edward Crimsworth’s plight.

D)contrast the narrator’s good intentions with his malicious conduct.

正确答案：B

分析：文章第一句话解释说人们选择了错误职业后，并不喜欢承认，在承认这种不愉快之前，他们往往会继续这个工作一段时间。这种状态反映了作者本人的情形：作者发现自己的工作很令人厌烦，但是如果不是和老板很糟糕的关系，他也会忍受一段时间。

3.During the course of the first paragraph,the narrator’s focus shifts from

A)recollection of past confidence to acknowledgment of present self-doubt.

B)reflection on his expectations of life as a tradesman to his desire for another job.

C)generalization about job dissatisfaction to the specifics of his own situation.

D)evaluation of factors making him unhappy to identification of alternatives.

正确答案：C

分析：文章第一段刚开始描写的是人们选择职业的一般讨论，然后描写了作者本人对于自身工作的厌烦。

4.The references to“shade”and“darkness”at the end of the first paragraph mainly have which effect?

A)They evoke the narrator’s sense of dismay.

B)They reflect the narrator’s sinister thoughts.

C)They capture the narrator’s fear of confinement.

D)They reveal the narrator’s longing for rest.

正确答案：A

分析：文章描述了作者本人与他老板Edward Crimsworth的敌对关系。这种关系使作者感觉到生活在阴影和黑暗当中（shade and darkness）。所以，使用“阴影”（shade）和“黑暗”（darkness）这些词汇，表明了作者对于目前工作及与老板关系的沮丧。

5.The passage indicates that Edward Crimsworth’s behavior was mainly caused by his

A)impatience with the narrator’s high spirits.

B)scorn of the narrator’s humble background.

C)indignation at the narrator’s rash actions.

D)jealousy of the narrator’s apparent superiority.

正确答案：D

分析:作者提到Crimsworth不喜欢他是因为Crimsworth意识到作者不但不是逊于Crimsworth,反而比Crimsworth更聪明。因此Crimsworth嫉妒作者的聪明和才智。

6.The passage indicates that when the narrator began working for Edward Crimsworth,he viewed

Crimsworth as a

A)harmless rival.

B)sympathetic ally.

C)perceptive judge.

D)demanding mentor.

正确答案：B

分析：文章中作者提到：他很长时间没有把Crimsworth当做兄弟看待（had long ceased to regard Mr.Crimsworth as my brother）,在这个表述中，“兄弟”表示亲密的朋友，也说明他们曾经是朋友（刚开始工作时）。

7.Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A)Lines15-17(“the antipathy...life”)

B)Lines21-22(“My southern...irritated him”)

C)Lines29-30(“Day...slumber”)

D)Lines34(“I had...brother”)

正确答案：D

分析：见第6题解释。

8.At the end of the second paragraph,the comparisons of abstract qualities to a lynx and a snake mainly have the effect of

A)contrasting two hypothetical courses of action.

B)conveying the ferocity of a resolution.

C)suggesting the likelihood of an altercation.

D)illustrating the nature of an adversarial relationship.

正确答案：D

分析：Crimsworth使用山猫一样的眼神，像蛇一样鬼鬼祟祟，不断挑刺，意图打击作者。所以“lynx”和“snake”实际上反映了两人的敌对关系。

9.The passage indicates that,after a long day of work,the narrator sometimes found his living quarters to be

A)treacherous.

B)dreary.

C)predictable.

D)intolerable.

正确答案：B

分析：文章提到作者经过一天的工作后，回到家里，发现自己的壁炉没有温暖的火光（cheering red gleam）,描写住所的沉闷孤寂，实际是衬托作者一天工作的难受。

10.Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A)Lines9-11(“I should...scenes”)

B)Lines12-13(“I should...lodgings”)

C)Lines35-37(“Thoughts...phrases”)

D)Lines38-40(“I walked...gleam”)

正确答案：D

分析：见第9题解释。