邊練邊說

　　下面給出一例真題（選自2009年10月的SAT真題）加以說明。

　　Each passage below is followed by questions based on its content. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in each passage and in any introductory material that may be provided.

　　Passage 1

　　Question 9-10 are based on the following passage.

　　Through a friend’s father, Elizabeth found a job at a publishing company. Her parents were puzzled by this. The daughters of their friends were announcing their engagements in the Times, and those who joined the Peace Corps or had gone to graduate school were filed under the heading of “Useful Service,” as if they had entered convents or dedicated themselves to the poor. Elizabeth further puzzled her parents by refusing to take a cent of their money, although her mother knew the truth: what you dole out to the young binds them to you. To have Elizabeth owing nothing was disconcerting, to say the least.

　　9. The narrator mentions the daughters of Elizabeth’s parents in line 3 primarily to

　　(A) criticize a behavior

　　(B) praise an activity

　　(C) explain a reaction

　　(D) note a transformation

　　(E) advocate an action

　　10. The passage suggests that Elizabeth’s parents found which quality to be “disconcerting” (line 11) in their daughter?

　　(A) Magnanimity

　　(B) Independence

　　(C) Frugality

　　(D) Lack of ambition

　　(E) Unwillingness to take risks

　　讓我們回憶一下剛才提到的做題步驟：

　　以第9題， The narrator mentions the daughters of Elizabeth’s parents in line 3 primarily to…第10題The passage suggests that Elizabeth’s parents found which quality to be “disconcerting” (line 11) in their daughter為例：

　　首先，我們可以根據題干給出的關鍵信息確定類型。

　　根據題干中的關鍵信息The narrator mentions…primarily to…（可以再根據選項中給出的答案）確定這是一道作用題，屬于推斷性題目。而題干信息The passage suggests that…則告送我們這是一道推理題，仍然屬于推斷性題目。

　　然后，我們要回歸原文。

　　根據in line 3我們可以很容易的在文中鎖定題目的出處，接下來做的就是回歸到第三行，仔細閱讀第三行前后的語句。你可能需要的信息包括：Through a friend’s father, Elizabeth found a job at a publishing company. Her parents were puzzled by this. The daughters of their friends were announcing their engagements in the Times, and those who joined the Peace Corps or had gone to graduate school were filed under the heading of “Useful Service,” as if they had entered convents or dedicated themselves to the poor.

　　根據in line 11我們回到原文很容易就可以找到“disconcerting”這個詞，下面就是尋找是哪一個quality讓Elizabeth的父母很不安了。由于這個詞出現的位置靠后，所以前面的Elizabeth further puzzled her parents by refusing to take a cent of their money, although her mother knew the truth: what you dole out to the young binds them to you.被列入我們的考慮范圍。

　　隨后，我們要做的就是回歸選項，根據選項中所給出的答案與原文進行比對，最后選出最優答案。

　　先看第9題。通過分析我們認識到，Elizabeth通過朋友的父親在出版公司找到了一份工作，這使得她的父母困惑不解。為什么要困惑不解呢？接下來我們看到的是 The daughters of their friends were…我們很容易發現這段話放在這里就是為了解釋Elizabeth父母困惑不解的原因，女兒們都是怎么了？難道都想進修道院積善行得還是想貧困一生？（因為出版業在美國的薪金水平很低，身為父母他們可能真的不明白女兒為什么要做出這樣的選擇）。答案實際上已經揭曉了，我們在選項中看到選項（C）符合上述分析，接下來只需要把它選出來就可以了。

　　再看第10題。閱讀上面的一句話我們就能發現，Elizabeth不止讓她的父母吃了一次驚，她掙得錢本身不多，還拒絕要家里一個子，盡管她的母親知道其中的奧妙—Elizabeth只是不想對家里產生依賴，但是家里人要是看到女兒經濟狀況不好，怎么能不著急呢。所以(B) Independence是造成disconcerting的直接原因，答案也就不言自明了。