“女权主义”话题算是GRE中的常见话题，基本上每次考试都会有同学反映遇到了相关类型的文章。跟语言类考试不同的是，GRE是一个标准的“美国式”考试，它考察的背景内容基本上贯穿了整个美国历史，从印第安人、独立战争、美国内战、废除奴隶制，再到工业革命、产业革命。而女性权利这个话题又是这一整个时间纵轴中不可或缺的一个部分。GRE阅读考试中对于女权主义的探讨一般会涉及政治、工作、教育等方面。

今天，我们就来一起分析两篇关于女权主义的GRE 真题。

 

Passage 1

 

Carla L. Peterson’s Doers of the Word (1997), a study of African American women speakers and writers from 1830-1880, is an important addition to scholarship on nineteenth-century African American women. Its scope resembles that of Frances Smith Fosters 1993 study, but its approach is quite different. For Foster, the Black women who came to literary voice in nineteenth-century America were claiming their rights as United States citizens, denying that anything should disqualify them from full membership in an enlightened national polity. Peterson sees these same women as having been fundamentally estranged from the nation by a dominant culture unsympathetic to Black women, and by a Black intelligentsia whose male view of race concerns left little room for Black female intellect. 

Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

 

1. The passage indicates that Peterson identifies which of the following as obstacles faced by the women included in her study?

A. the attitudes of Black male intellectuals toward female intellectual work

B. the discriminatory attitudes faced by Black women in nineteenth-century America as a whole

C. disagreements among Black women speakers and writers themselves about the impact of the Black intelligentsia

 

2. It can be inferred that Peterson’s study and Fosters study are similar with respect to which of the following?

A. the writers that each takes up for examination

B. the degree to which each has influenced other scholars

C. the assumptions that each brings to nineteenth-century African American literature

D. their analysis of the nineteenth-century Black intelligentsia

E. their interpretation of nineteenth-century Americas dominant culture

 

上面这篇文章主要是通过和Foster的作品进行比较来介绍Peterson的关于美国黑人女性演说家和作家的研究。

题是一道多选题，按照课上所讲的做题步骤，先确定答案范围，再进行对应。题目中的给出的答案的限定范围有两个：1. Peterson 2. obstacles faced by the women。那么基于这两个限定范围，我们基本上可以定位在最后一句话。然后根据选项的对应，我们发现A 选项对应“and by a Black intelligentsia whose male view of race concerns left little room for Black female intellect”；B选项对应“Peterson sees these same women as having been fundamentally estranged from the nation by a dominant culture unsympathetic to Black women”，因此答案选AB。

 

第二题是一道推理题。上过课的同学应该记得课上老师说过的关于推理题的考点，例如正推／倒推，比较推理等相关内容。这道题的定位关键是找共性。那文章哪里提到了Peterson和Foster的共性呢？resemble帮助我们很快定位到了“Its scope resembles that of Frances Smith Fosters 1993 study, but its approach is quite different.”这句话。也就是说这两个人的研究共性是研究范围一直，因此A为正确答案。

Passage 2

 

Writing about nineteenth-century women’s travel writing, Lila Harper notes that the four women she discussed used their own names, in contrast with the nineteenth-century female novelists who either published anonymously or used male pseudonyms. The novelists doubtless realized that they were breaking boundaries, whereas three of the four daring, solitary travelers espoused traditional values, eschewing radicalism and women’s movements. Whereas the female novelists criticized their society, the female travelers seemed content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation. In other words, they lived a contradiction. For the subjects of Harper’s study, solitude in both the private and public spheres prevailed—a solitude that conferred authority, hitherto a male prerogative, but that also precluded any collective action or female solidarity.

 

1.Which of the following best characterizes the “contradiction” that the author refers to?

A. The subjects of Harper’s study enjoyed solitude, and yet as travelers they were often among people.

B. Nineteenth-century travel writers used their own names, but nineteenth-century novelists used pseudonyms.

C. Women’s movements in the nineteenth-century were not very radical in comparison with those of the twentieth-century.

D. Nineteenth-century female novelists thought they were breaking boundaries, but it was the nineteenth-century women who traveled alone who were really doing so.

E. While traveling alone in the nineteenth-century was considered a radical act for a woman, the nineteenth-century solitary female travelers generally held conventional views.

 

Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

 

2. According to the passage , solitude had which of the following effects for the nineteenth century female travelers?

A. It conferred an authority typically enjoyed only by men.

B. It prevented formation of alliances with other women.

C. It relieved peer pressure to conform to traditional values.

 

上面这篇文章主要讲的是十九世纪女性旅行作品，通过描述19世纪四位女性作家用了自己的本名，以及她们的关于女权的意识，来引出她们处于一种矛盾之中。一方面她们批评她们所处的社会，但是又避免一些激进的行为。她们更喜欢远离社会，但与之同时，她们这种单独行动的做法也排除了其他集体活动或女性联合。

 

题是一道比较简单的事实题，先在文章中定位到“contradiction”，文中用了“in other words”来表述，所以解题句是前面的内容，即“The novelists doubtless realized that they were breaking boundaries… content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation.”整理一下内容，可知她们的矛盾点在于，她们独自上路，在这一点上打破了当时的常规，但是在同时这些travelers中有三个都支持传统的观点，反对女性运动。所以这道题答案选E。

 

第二题又是一道多选题，依旧按照上文所提及的解题步骤，先确定答案范围，再进行对应。题干的给予的限定信息是“solitude”对于19世纪女性旅行家的影响，因此定位点在最后一句话上。然后根据选项的对应，我们发现A 选项对应“a solitude that conferred authority, hitherto a male prerogative”，B选项对应“but that also precluded any collective action or female solidarity”。因此这道多选题答案为AB。

其实从这两篇文章我们可以看出，女权类型文章的考点多偏向细节化的考察，要求学生对于该类型文章的句子内部结构和句子与文章之间的逻辑关系有一个很好的把握。在同学们备考的过程中，我希望大家可以按照课上要求完成长难句的练习和单词的记忆。同时结合课上所讲的各类题型的解题方法，规范自己的解题步骤。

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