托福阅读：比较级的“陷阱”

　　今天我们来聊一聊关于中英文表达比较的差异，开门见山，宝宝们先来做一下这道题：

　　Nearly any kind of plant of the forest understory can be part of a deer's diet. Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer browses on huckleberry, salad, dogwood, and almost any other shrub or herb. But this is fair-weather feeding. What keeps the black-tailed deer alive in the harsher seasons of plant decay and dormancy? One compensation for not hibernating is the built-in urge to migrate. Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder.

　　It can be inferred from the discussion in paragraph 2 that winter conditions

　　A. Cause some deer to hibernate

　　B. Make food unavailable in the highlands for deer

　　C. Make it easier for deer to locate understory plants

　　D. Prevent deer from migrating during the winter

　　解题思路：这是一道推断题，那么根据题干中winter condition我们可以去原文中找到相关线索。然而这里并没有出现一模一样的定位词，所以我们需要找到表达相同概念的意群(同义替换)，比如：late fall 深秋/初冬，snow雪。这些词都和winter condition传达了一样的概念。所以我们可以发现，答案应该就出现在最后两句话里：

　　Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder.

　　有些聪明的宝宝发现后面有个even表示让步转折，老师敲黑板说过：“有转折的地方一定是重点，会出题!”这句话的意思是：尽管地上有雪，高高的灌木层依然暴露在外面。

　　看到这里，很多宝宝应该知道答案就是C：冬季条件让鹿更容易找到灌木层。如果你选了C，很抱歉，你掉进坑里了，C是迷惑性选项，正确答案应该是B。

　　下面就让我们一起看看，在中文和英语中表达比较的差异性。

　　ETS作为一个非营利性机构(Welcome To Facebook!)，出一套托福试题的成本大概是80万美元，目前中国的报名费更是以每月50的幅度上涨。很多宝宝不理解，为何成本要这么高?钱都花在哪里了?

　　对于阅读来说，钱基本都花在出迷惑性选项上了。每一个选项都是ETS精雕细琢出来的，他们非常了解其他国家学生的语言习惯，以及在学习英语中会遇到的误区，其中英语和中文在表达比较方面，有很大的差异。

　　上面的表格中我列举了一些重要的中英表达比较的不同，其他还有很多我就不多做赘述了。

　　聪明的宝宝们应该发现了，在表达的过程中，中文的语言习惯往往重心在后面，强调结果，而英文则是逻辑性更强，着重于整个句型结构。换句话讲，英语里的比较级更加直观，中文的比较级相对没那么明显。比如我说：“小明你变这么瘦呀~”，小明此时脑子里只有一个概念：我在说他瘦。然而他却忽略的我暗示他之前比现在胖的这个重点。ETS就抓住了我们这一语言习惯，经常在这里出迷惑性选项。

　　那么我们回到刚才那一题：

　　Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder.

　　It can be inferred from the discussion in paragraph 2 that winter conditions

　　A. Cause some deer to hibernate

　　B. Make food unavailable in the highlands for deer

　　C. Make it easier for deer to locate understory plants

　　D. Prevent deer from migrating during the winter

　　C选项翻译成中文是冬季条件让鹿更容易找到灌木层。很多宝宝都会把英文翻译成中文理解，那么按照我们的语言习惯，此时我们会忽略选项前方的很重要的比较级，而把关注点放在后面的找到灌木丛，因此很多人就选择了C选项。

　　那么该如何规避这个习惯呢?

　　1. 培养对英文语言的比较级的敏感度，如果你全身都不敏感，那么建议宝宝们每次看题之前先找找看选项有没有比较级，然后回原文确定。

　　2. 只要发现比较级，立刻确定三件事：

　　a.比较的主体(谁和谁比)

　　b.比较的内容(他俩比的是啥)

　　c.比较的结果(他俩比的怎么样)

　　看起来很简单的思路，但是很多宝宝做题时会忘记，所以希望各位一定记住这个框架结构。

　　再次回到刚才那道题，我们仔细看C选项 ：Make it easier for deer to locate understory plants。首先需要先找到主体：谁和谁在比较....... 我们会惊人的发现，原来文章里根本没有比较，所以C是完完全全的错误选项。可是如果选项改成Make it easy for deer to locate understory plants，那么这个选项就对了。

　　理解了这个考点之后，我们再一起来做一个简单的题吧(微笑)：

　　Throughout most of Earth's history, glaciers did not exist, but at the present time about 10 percent of Earth's land surface is covered by glaciers. Present-day glaciers are found in Antarctica, in Greenland, and at high elevations on all the continents except Australia. In the recent past, from about 2.4 million to about 10,000 years ago, nearly a third of Earth's land area was periodically covered by ice thousands of meters thick. In the much more distant past, other ice ages have occurred.

　　According to paragraph 5, in what way is the present time unusual in the history of Earth?

　　A. There are glaciers.

　　B. More land is covered by glaciers than at any time in the past.

　　C. There is no ice age.

　　D. No glaciers are found in Australia.

　　这一题答案就是我英文名的首字母啦，看看你有没有选对?如果实在无法理解这一题，欢迎随时联系我。最后希望各位宝宝们加油背单词，再送给大家一句话：

　　The most proud thing is to DIE in the glory of battle against TOEFL!