GRE阅读机经真题答案详细解析之：Passage 19-「GRE阅读真题」免费下载

市面上流传的GRE阅读机经真题有三百多篇，同时又存在多种版本的答案和解析，有些疑难题目让考生不知道听谁的，还有些版本的解析像是用谷歌翻译把同题目和选项翻译了一下。TD GRE教研组认为，GRE阅读的解析，可以讲得再清楚一点。 GRE不光有技巧，不光有快速解题法，GRE更加考察大家的逻辑硬实力，文字理解实打实的深度。良好的GRE备考应当在课堂上向老师学习快速解题法，取同取反逻辑的同时，课下扎扎实实的读懂每一句话。读懂，是一切技巧使用的前提。皮之不存，毛将焉附？有感于此，我们尝试用比较长的时间，原创一个解析，力求做到超详细，大白话，包你懂。往期GRE阅读真题详细解析?：GRE阅读Passage 解析，今天继续为大家推出GRE阅读Passage 19（长阅读）解析，这篇阅读一共有14句话，带4道题，TD版超详细「包你懂」系列对此篇文章进行了清楚地解析。

GRE阅读Passage 19

The history of the transmission of ancient Roman texts prior to invention of the printing press is reconstructed from evidence both internal and external to the texts themselves. Internal evidence is used to reconstruct the relationship of the surviving manuscripts of a Roman text to one another, as represented in a modern stemma codicum: a diagram depicting the genealogical relationship of surviving manuscripts and those the stemma’s editor believes existed at one time. Stemma are scholar’s only road maps to textual connections based on internal evidence, but they may paint a distorted picture of reality because they diagram the relationships of only those manuscripts known or inferred today. If surviving copies are few, the stemma perforce brings into proximity manuscripts that were widely separated in time and place of origin. Conversely, the stemma can also bestow a semblance of separation on manuscripts written within a few months of one another or even in the same room. One type of external evidence that may shed light on the transmission of Roman texts is the availability of a work in the Middle Ages, when many classical texts were circulated. Too often, though, too much is inferred about a particular work’s circulation in the Middle Ages from the number of manuscripts surviving today. When a work survives in a single manuscript copy, editors call the manuscript, rather glamorously, the lone survivor– implying that all its (presumably rare) companions were destroyed sometime early in the Middle Ages by pillaging barbarians. It is equally possible that the work survived far into the Middle Ages in numerous copies in monastic libraries but were unnoticed due to lack of interest. The number of extant manuscripts, however few, really does not allow scholars to infer how many ancient Latin manuscripts of a work survived to the ninth, the twelfth, or even the fifteenth century. Quotations from a Roman text by a medieval author are another category of external evidence: but does the appearance of a rare word or grammatical construction—or even a short passage—really indicate a medieval author’s firsthand knowledge of this or that ancient work, or does such usage instead derive from some intermediate source, such as a grammar book or a popular style manual? Medieval authors do quote extensively from ancient authors; while such quotations provide some evidence of the works medieval circulation, as well as define its evolving fortunes and the various uses to which it was put, they may be far less useful in reconstructing the text of an ancient work. Much as scholars want to look for overall patterns and formulate useful generalizations, the transmission of each text is a different story and each manuscript’s history is unique. Scholars must be careful not to draw conclusions that go beyond what the evidence can support.

文章解析

第一句话：

The history of the transmission of ancient Roman texts prior to invention of the printing press is reconstructed from evidence both internal and external to the texts themselves. 白话版讲解： 在印刷术发明之前，古罗马人写了书（text应理解为a work），也是会传播（没有印刷术差不多就是用手抄）的。要重现这一传播史到底是怎样的（历史很漫长，要搞清某本书的哪个手抄本是抄的哪个版本的，是从哪传到哪的），可以依靠两种证据，一种是书内部的证据，另一种是书外部的证据。（只看这一句话，我们对internal和externa evidence是什么意思，肯定是不太清楚的，还要往下看。）

第二、三、四、五句话：

Internal evidence is used to reconstruct the relationship of the surviving manuscripts of a Roman text to one another, as represented in a modern stemma codicum: a diagram depicting the genealogical relationship of surviving manuscripts and those the stemma’s editor believes existed at one time. Stemma are scholar’s only road maps to textual connections based on internal evidence, but they may paint a distorted picture of reality because they diagram the relationships of only those manuscripts known or inferred today. If surviving copies are few, the stemma perforce brings into proximity manuscripts that were widely separated in time and place of origin. Conversely, the stemma can also bestow a semblance of separation on manuscripts written within a few months of one another or even in the same room. 白话版讲解： 幸存到今时今日的（某本古罗马书的）的一种手抄本（manuscript不要理解成中文的“手稿”，中文“手稿”一般指作者本人写的初稿，其实manuscript在这里的意思是“手抄本”）和该本古罗马书的另一种手抄本，要复现两者之间的关系，一般就要使用手抄本内部的证据。复现这一关系的结果就是制出来一个stemma codicum。所谓stemma codicum，就是一种描绘多种幸存至今的手稿版本和多种一度存在过但后来亡佚失传没能幸存至今的手稿版本之间的家谱关系的表。（看到这里，我们要知道，stemma就是一种genealogical diagram。）这种stemma是学者根据手抄本内部证据做出来的唯一可以对各版本手抄本关系给出详细解释的东西（请注意这里road map的意思不是路线图，而是a detailed explanation）。但是stemma有一个缺点，就是有可能画出的是一个扭曲的现实，因为只有人们知道或推测某个手抄本版本存在过，才会把那个手抄本版本编到这个stemma里面去。（言下之意是，有些manuscript存在过，但是现在人们不知道它存在过，就不会把它编到stemma里去，也就是说stemma可能会漏掉一些manuscripts）。如果幸存至今的某本罗马书的手抄本只有很少几个版本，就必然（perforce）容易出现两种错误。一种错误是把实际产生年代或地点相差很远的两个手抄本误以为是产生年代或地点差不多的手抄本。另一种错误是，对产生年代或地点相近（前后只差几个月、或在同一个房间）的两个手抄本，产生一种semblance ，认为这手抄本之间的关系是separation（出现年代间隔很远）。即把实际上同时同地产生的手稿，误以为是相差几百年的不同年代产生的手稿。注解： semblance有两个意思，一个是“相似之处；类似”（resemblance; similarity），第二个意思是“假象”（the outward appearance or apparent form of something, especially when the reality is different），在文章中是第二个意思。

第六、七、八、九、十句话：

One type of external evidence that may shed light on the transmission of Roman texts is the availability of a work in the Middle Ages, when many classical texts were circulated. Too often, though, too much is inferred about a particular work’s circulation in the Middle Ages from the number of manuscripts surviving today. When a work survives in a single manuscript copy, editors call the manuscript, rather glamorously, the lone survivor– implying that all its (presumably rare) companions were destroyed sometime early in the Middle Ages by pillaging barbarians. It is equally possible that the work survived far into the Middle Ages in numerous copies in monastic libraries but were unnoticed due to lack of interest. The number of extant manuscripts, however few, really does not allow scholars to infer how many ancient Latin manuscripts of a work survived to the ninth, the twelfth, or even the fifteenth century. 白话版讲解： 有一种外部证据也可以对解释罗马书的传播有所帮助，这种外部证据就是看某本罗马书在中世纪是不是还没有亡佚。中世纪时，有很多经典著作（即罗马书）在流通。但是这种根据外部证据的方法，也有问题。问题就是，人们经常根据某本罗马书现今存世的手抄本的数量去过度推测这本书的手抄本在中世纪的流通情况。比如，如果哪本古罗马书至今存世的就只有一个手抄本了，当代的编辑们就把这个手抄本叫做“孤本”（很有吸引力的一个名字），然后觉得今天只剩一本了，那肯定在中世纪之前也就没有三五本了，然后就推测这本书的其他版本的手抄本是在中世纪早期被来自蛮夷地区的劫掠者给毁掉了（即因为现在只有一本了，就推测中世纪之前就只有三五本，到了中世纪早期，其余的三五本也毁了，在中世纪早期就只剩一本了，这是一种过度推测）。而实际情况可能不是这样。该本罗马书的多个手抄本可能都一直到中世纪中期晚期都还一直没有亡佚，只是当时没人感兴趣就没人知道它们躺在修道院里。无论某本书的现存手稿多么稀少（哪怕只剩一本），今天的学者们也无法根据这一点就推测在九世纪的时候，还存有多少种（古罗马书的）拉丁文手抄本。甚至连在十世纪、十五世纪，还存有多少种（古罗马书的）拉丁文手抄本，也无法推测。

第十一、十二句话：

Quotations from a Roman text by a medieval author are another category of external evidence: but does the appearance of a rare word or grammatical construction—or even a short passage—really indicate a medieval author’s firsthand knowledge of this or that ancient work, or does such usage instead derive from some intermediate source, such as a grammar book or a popular style manual? Medieval authors do quote extensively from ancient authors; while such quotations provide some evidence of the works medieval circulation, as well as define its evolving fortunes and the various uses to which it was put, they may be far less useful in reconstructing the text of an ancient work. 白话版讲解： 还有一种外部证据。就是通过某一个中世纪作家在他写的书里面引用了某本古罗马书中的几句话，就推断该中世纪作者看过那本古罗马书，进而推断出在该中世纪作家生活的年代，那本被他引用的古罗马书还没有完全亡佚，还至少存在一种手抄本。但是这种推测是有问题的。一个中世纪作家在他写的书里，出现了某本古罗马书中的某个少见的词、语法结构、一整篇文章，其实并不能说明这位作家看过这本古罗马书。也许他不是从那本古罗马书里直接引的，而是从另一本讲语法的书、讲写作的手册里面转引的。如果是转引的，那他就可能并没有见过那本古罗马书。在他生活的年代，那本古罗马书已经完全亡佚了。确实，中世纪的作家们普遍在自己的著作中大量引用古罗马著作，这些引用也确实可以提供一些关于古罗马书在中世纪流通情况的证据，也可能勾勒出（define）古罗马书的版本是怎样演变，用于哪些用途了（比如被人选了部分编进了语法书或写作手册），但要想根据这些引用来复建出某本古罗马书的原文全文，就不行了。（这里省略了一层意思没有说完：复建不出书的原文，也就无法帮助确定该本罗马书的手抄本的传播情况。） 注解： 第十二句话末尾的the text和文章开头的texts不同，文章开头的Roman texts中的text的意思是a book or other written work，而这里的the text的意思是a piece of written or printed material regarded as conveying the authentic or primary form of a particular work。

第十三、十四句话：

Much as scholars want to look for overall patterns and formulate useful generalizations, the transmission of each text is a different story and each manuscript’s history is unique. Scholars must be careful not to draw conclusions that go beyond what the evidence can support. 白话版讲解： （对古罗马书的传播史，）尽管学者们都想找出一些总的模式，做出有用的概括和归纳来，但实际上每本古罗马书（text）的传播史都是不同的，每个手抄本（manuscript）的历史都是第一无二的。学者们要小心，有多少证据，就说多少话，不要过度推理，得出证据无法支持的结论。 注解： much as 尽管（however much ; even though）例句：Much as I'd like to blame you, I know I can't. 尽管我想怪你，但是我知道我不能怪你。 scholar和第十二句话中的Medieval authors是一样，可数名词复数，不带冠词，表示“泛指，普遍”（Generic Reference）的意思。 例句： I bought new pens and pencils at the store. (general, not specific ones) Cats have big eyes that can see in the dark. (cats in general, all of them) Babies cry a lot. (babies in general, all of them)

题目解析

1. The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following? A. tracing certain changes in the methods used to study the transmission of ancient Roman texts. B. contrasting two types of evidence used in investigating the transmission of ancient Roman texts. C. outlining certain difficulties associated with studying the transmission of ancient Roman texts. D. advocating the use of one type of evidence about ancient Roman texts over the use of another type. E. explaining the development and potential uses and drawbacks of stemma in the study of ancient Roman texts. 本题答案：c 白话版讲解： 问文章主要是关于什么的？实际上是问整篇文章的修辞功能。文章首先说了用internal evidence来重现古罗马书手抄本的传播史容易出现什么问题，然后说了用external evidence来这样做容易出现什么问题。所以C选项“概述在研究古罗马书的传播史时会遇到的一些困难”正确。文章并不是在追溯对古罗马书传播史的研究方法的变化史，所以A选项错误。文章并没有对比internal evidence和external evidence这两种证据，所以B选项错误。文章没有说哪种evidence好，应该用哪种，哪种不好，不要用哪种。所以D选错误。文章提到了stemma，但显然不是主要在谈stemma，所以E错误。 2. As described in the passage, a stemma is most closely analogous to which of the following? A. a department store inventory list that excludes some departments B. a map from which a large section has been torn off C. a chronology that includes only major historical events D. a family tree in which some generations are not recorded E. a government organizational chart from which some agencies are omitted 本题答案：D 白话版讲解： 问下列哪种情况和文章中提到的stemma是相似、可类比的。根据讲解，我们在读到第二句话的时候，应该知道stemma是一种genealogical diagram，而genealogical 的意思是“系谱的；家谱的；宗谱的”（of or relating to the study or tracing of lines of family descent），在这个diagram中，有些手抄本（manuscript）漏掉了，但这不是管家，关键是diagram中彼此之间是类似以一种family成员的关系，所以选D。A、B、C、E的内部都没有family关系，所以错误。 Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply. 3. In its discussion of external evidence, the passage suggests which of the following about manuscripts of ancient Roman texts during the Middle Ages? A. It is possible that fewer manuscripts were destroyed by barbarians in the early Middle Ages than scholars frequently suppose. B. Additional copies of some so-called lone survivor manuscripts may have existed well into the Middle Ages. C. If an ancient Roman text is quoted in a work by a medieval author, then it is likely that at least one manuscript copy of that text survived into the Middle Ages. 本题答案：A 白话版讲解： 在介绍外部证据时，文章提到了古代罗马书手抄本在中世纪时的流传情况，下列哪一说法是文章暗示了的？ A“学者们常常认为很多手抄本在中世纪早期被野蛮人毁掉了，实际上没有毁掉那么多。”根据文章第八句话和第九句话，正确。 B“一些被称为孤本的手抄本在中世纪中后期时不是孤本，那时候还存在其他抄本。”根据文章第九、十句话，正确。 C“如果一个中世纪作家在书中引用了某本古罗马书，那么就可以推知，该本古罗马书的至少一个手抄本在中世纪时还存世。”根据文章第十一句话，错误。 4. Click on the sentence in the first paragraph that suggests that scholars might be led to underestimate the extent of the connection between certain manuscripts. 点击空白处查看答案 ▼ 图片 白话版讲解： 细节题。要求在第一自然段中找出暗示学者可能会被误导而低估某些手抄本之间的联系的紧密程度的那句话。文章第五句话（即第一段最后一句话）中的manuscripts written within a few months of one another or even in the same room是指联系很紧密的几种手抄本，而bestow a semblance of separation，就是认为这手抄本之间的关系是separation（出现年代间隔很远）。即把实际上同时同地产生的手稿，误以为是相差几百年的不同年代产生的手稿。可以对应本题的题干中的underestimate……。