之前我们了解了,大学英语四六级考试大纲规定:四六级考试命题的语料均选自英文原版材料,包括日常生活中的对话、讲座、广播电视节目、报刊、杂志、书籍、学术期刊等。但是对于地道的英语语料,我们也无须惧怕。我们给大家介绍了四六级命题语料选材四原则,就是为了让大家了解四六级阅读基本没有想象中的那么难,或者只要明白了出题的原则,大家可以更沉着冷静的应对考试。

下面我们再介绍一个四六级阅读的解题真理。

四六级阅读的正确选项包含一条亘古不变的,却往往被许多考生忽略甚至误解的道理,那就是:所有正确选项都是原文的同义改写。沿着这条逻辑,只要我们考生找到每一个正确选项在文中出现的位置以及出现的特征,加以总结就会得出四六级正确选项同一的命制套路,在考场上自如运用。

我们以下面一篇文章作为例文,来说明这个正确选项定位原文的真理。

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

(为方便说明,此处我们把提干放在文章前面。)

47. By saying “it might as well begin with the words ‘Once upon a time.’”(Line 3, Para. 10),the author suggests that the American myth is divorced from reality.

48. What is the American Dream of the well-to-do built upon? The bowed backs of the working poor.

49.Some Americans try to make themselves feel less guilty by attributing the poverty of the working people to(their) low skilled.

50. We learn from the passage that the difference in pay between the lowest paid and the average worker in American is  much greater  than that in other industrialized countries.

51. According to the author, how would an American family with a car and a house in the suburbs probably feel about themselves today? Poor

America is a country that now sits atop the cherished myth that work provides rewards, that working people can support their families. It’s a myth that has become [47] so divorced from reality that it might as well begin with the words “Once upon a time.” Today 1.6 million New Yorkers suffer from “food insecurity,” which is a fancy way of saying they don’t have enough to eat. Some are the people who come in at night and clean the skyscrapers that glitter along the river. Some pour coffee and take care of the aged parents of the people who live in those buildings.[48]The American Dream for the well-to-do grows from the bowed backs of the working poor, who too often have to choose between groceries and rent.

In a new book called The Betrayal of Work, Beth Shulman says that even in the booming 1990s one out of every four American workers made less than $8.70 an hour, an income equal to the government’s poverty level for a family of four. Many, if not most, of these workers had no health care, sick pay or retirement provisions.

[49] We ease our consciences, Shulman writes,by describing these people as “low skilled,” as though they’re not important or intelligent enough to deserve more. But low-skilled workers today are better educated than ever before, and they constitute the linchpin(关键)of American industry. When politicians crow(得意洋洋地说)that happy days are here again because jobs are on the rise, it’s these jobs they’re really talking about. Five of the 10 occupations expected to grow big in the next decade are in the lowest-paying job groups. And before we sit back and decide that’s just the way it is, it’s instructive to consider the rest of the world. [50]While the bottom 10 percent of American workers earn just 37 percent of our average wage, their counterparts in other industrialized countries earn upwards of 60 percent. And those are countries that provide health care and child care, which eases the economic pinch considerably.

Almost 40 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, a family with a car and a house in the suburbs felt prosperous.[51]Today that same family may well feel poor, overwhelmed by credit-card debt, a second mortgage and the cost of the stuff that has become the backbone of American life. When the middle class feels poor, the poor have little chance for change, or even recognition.