GRE阅读入门第三讲
可以开始“上路子”的我们
以下这个篇章真的好。 篇幅短小，阅读压力极小。语流清晰，且词汇难度不大。同时，也不是晦涩艰深的知识。 The black experience, one might automatically assume, is known to every Black author. Henry James was pondering a similar assumption when he said: “You were to suffer your fate. That was not necessarily to know it.” This disparity between an experience and knowledge of that experience is the longest bridge an artist must cross. Don L. Lee, in his picture of the Black poet, “studying his own poetry and the poetry of other Black poets,” touches on the crucial point. In order to transform his own sufferings—or joys—as a Black person into usable knowledge for his readers, the author must first order his experiences in his mind. Only then can he create feelingly and coherently the combination of fact and meaning that Black audiences require for the re-exploration of their lives. A cultural community of Black authors studying one another’s best works systematically would represent a dynamic interchange of the spirit—corrective and instructive and increasingly beautiful in its recorded expression. 黑人文学从来都是literature类篇章的寥寥几个focus之一。文章大意就很简单，就是说诗人把经历转化成读者可以明白的知识。文中最有趣味的一句话就是：“You were to suffer your fate. That was not necessarily to know it.”。意思就是，我们是在经历命运之苦的，但是这些经历恐怕只是情感或者心理上的感受，而不是大脑可以辨认的知识。 这样解释，好像还是抽象了些？那举个例子吧：疫情几个月，我们被迫宅在家憋坏了，感到不开心，同时还可能胖了不少，穿衣服时难受、照镜子时看着镜中鼓胀的自己，都会感觉不开心。但是，这些不过是经历和体会，还不是知识。除非这些经历被提炼成知识性的描述，比如“受困于局限的空间而产生的被禁闭感，每日“房间——客厅”的单调和高频重复让生活欠缺了新鲜的刺激从而使人感到无聊，富余的精力得不到释放，体型的变化让我们对自己的认同感和接受度降低”，等等，才是知识。 经历是体验、感受、心里活动，是没有形态的，但是知识是有形态的，形态之一就是文字（或者话语），是可以被表述的。当然，诗人不是用上面的方式而是用诗歌的方式来表述经历的。 好了，懂了，我们做两道推断题（看到题干中的“infer”就是推断题）： It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers poetry to be which of the following? 题干中没有什么玄机。 (A) A means of diversion in which suffering is transformed into joy （真的么？这种选项也能干扰么？一定不会是答案。） (B) An art form that sometimes stifles creative energy （真的么？这种选项也能干扰么？一定不会是答案。） (C) A bridge between the mundane and the unreal （真的么？这种选项也能干扰么？一定不会是答案。） (D) A medium for conveying important information （poetry的文字形态可以把诗人的experience以knowledge的方式传递） (E) An area where beauty must be sacrificed for accuracy （真的么？这种选项也能干扰么？一定不会是答案。） 上面这一题很简单，下面这一题有些难度。 It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be LEAST likely to approve of which of the following? 尤其注意题干中的LEAST (A) Courses that promote cultural awareness through the study of contemporary art （没有直接找到依据去肯定这个选项？但是，也没有找到的依据去否定这个选项。不急，先看下面的选项。） (B) The development of creative writing courses that encourage mutual criticism of student work （文中的对应的信息是“A cultural community of Black authors studying one another’s best works systematically would represent a dynamic interchange of the spirit”。） (C) Growing interest in extemporaneous writing that records experiences as they occur （如果只是即时的记录经历，而不是把经历转化为知识来传递，那可不是本文的意思哟。） (D) A shift in interest from abstract philosophical poetry to concrete autobiographical poetry （文章讲到因为“You were to suffer your fate. That was not necessarily to know it”所以抽象的哲学——题干中的concrete autobiographical——不一定是通识性的体验而为人所知，所以呢，诗人“transform his own sufferings—or joys—as a Black person into usable knowledge for his readers”。那步呢，就是“the author must first order his experiences in his mind.”。那experiences的可不就是具象的自传体式——题干中的concrete autobiographical——的内容么。） (E) Workshops and newsletters designed to promote dialogues between poets （文中的对应的信息是“A cultural community of Black authors studying one another’s best works systematically would represent a dynamic interchange of the spirit”。）
