考研英语：精解真题中的阅读细节

距离考研还有将近四十天时间，对于英语备考来说，还是要研究真题，对于做过的题目现在正是梳理的好时候，这一过程是个承前启后的关键步骤。对于英语阅读来说，当中出现概率最高的细节题还是需要大家花心思去理解的。

　　Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education -- not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find。

　　“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,” says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance。” Ravitch’s latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits。

　　But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society。”

　　“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,” writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book。

　　Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing。” Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized -- going to school and learning to read -- so he can preserve his innate goodness。

　　Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines。

　　School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’s educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise。”

　　56.What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?

　　[A] The habit of thinking independently。

　　[B] Profound knowledge of the world。

　　[C] Practical abilities for future career。

　　[D] The confidence in intellectual pursuits。

　　57.We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of ________。

　　[A] undervaluing intellect

　　[B] favoring intellectualism

　　[C] supporting school reform

　　[D] suppressing native intelligence

　　58.The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are ________。

　　[A] identical

　　[B] similar

　　[C] complementary

　　[D] opposite

　　59.Emerson, according to the text, is probably ________。

　　[A] a pioneer of education reform

　　[B] an opponent of intellectualism

　　[C] a scholar in favor of intellect

　　[D] an advocate of regular schooling

　　56题根据题干中American parents定位到第一段第二行：Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education -- not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. C.practical abilities for future career。正是对于上一句话的同义替换。

　　57题根据American have a history定位到第四段第三行，说的是从我们的历史开始，我们对于民主和大众主义的渴求促使我们拒绝一切有精英主义色彩的事物。而选项中都没有和反对精英主义直接相关的选项，需要看下一句是对精英主义的表现：实用的知识、常识、天生的智慧会被认为比书上的一切东西要高贵。在这里需要区分的是intellect和native intelligence，前者指的是后天书本上获得知识，后者指的是先天的智力。

　　58需要寻找Ravitch和Emerson所在的句子。Ravitch观点在第二段第二行“schools could be a counterbalance。”联系上一句得知他主张学校应该重视知识而不是随社会的大流。Emerson的观点在第五段第二行“schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints an children。”两人观点一个希望学校多重视知识；另一个不应该多教知识。因此选的是相反的观点。

　　59根据Emerson定位到第五段第二行，与58题题目考察知识点重复，其实也可以说是一道态度题，他认为不应该多教知识，因此对应B，而CD是原意的反面。

　　做好考研英语阅读细节题，重要的是审题要细致认真，这需要同学们平时练习时多总结积累。最后冲刺阶段，大家可以把之前做过的细节题进行梳理，看看自己错在哪里，把失分点进行归类，让自己不再犯类似错误。