二、案例分析
下面是一个历史话题的经典案例:
1) E.G. TPO 17 Lecture 3 (Egyptian Calendars)
听力原文:
Well, their astronomers had discovered that at a certain time of year the brightest star, Sirius, would disappear. Actually, it’d be hidden in the glare of the Sun. Even more significantly, the reappearance of Sirius would occur around the same time as the Nile’s flooding. And this annual event is called a heliacal rising. The heliacal rising was a fair indicator of when the Nile would flood. The next new moon, after the heliacal rising of Sirius, which happened in the last month of the calendar year, marked the New Year.
Why was the helical rising if Sirius important to the Egyptians?
Click on 2 answers.
A. It helped determine the beginning of the New Year.
B. It was used to calculate the length of the month.
C. It marked the beginning of harvest time.
D. It indicated when the Nile would flood.
分析:
此处考的是埃及的历法。在这个节选原文中包含了Sirius(天狼星),heliacal rising(偕日升)等概念,比较难以理解,需要考生有较快的反应速度。朗阁海外考试研究中心的专家在实际教学中发现,不少学员在遇到这类话题时会怀有抵触心态,大呼这种难度跟阅读都差不多了。诚然专业度高理解困难,考生应该认识到一点:ETS的考察宗旨还是不变的——检验考生的瞬时理解能力和知识储备的快速激活。在此,要做对这道双选题,要留心粗体信号词;还可以将辨音中听不懂的陌生词转化成抽象符号,搞清楚其作用即可。可以看出,Nile和New Year是关键词,故轻松选出AD。
下面再看一个例子:
2) E.G. TPO 18 Lecture 3 (Egyptian Calendars)
听力原文:
Now for the taste... Now, this is a good point to mention one of the biggest myths about spices. It’s commonly said that medieval Europeans wanted spices to cover up the taste of spoiled meat. But this isn’t really true. Anyone who had to worry about spoiled meat couldn’t afford spices in the first place. If you could afford spices, you could definitely afford fresh meat. We also have evidence that various medieval markets employed a kind of police to make sure that people did not sell spoiled food, and if you were caught doing it, you were subject to various fines, humiliating public punishments. So what actually was true was this: In order to have meat for the winter, people would preserve it in salt, not a spice. Spices actually aren’t very effective as preservatives.
25. What two factors explain why medieval Europeans did not use spices to cover the taste of spoiled meat?
Click on 2 answers.
A. Fresh meat was less expensive than spices were.
B. Spices were mainly used in incense and perfume.
C. The sale of spoiled food was prohibited.
D. Salt was cheaper than most spices were.