考研英语历年真题阅读要点之1996-Text 4（一）

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　　“得真题者得天下”，真题的价值是任何模拟题都无法企及的。接触真题应该从基础阶段开始。文都英语老师为大家解读考研英语历年真题阅读理解中涉及的要点，包括词汇、短语和长难句。接下来看一下1996年考研英语真题阅读Text 4，这篇文章主要探讨了促成美国早期主要发明的因素。
　　What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America -- breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
　　account for“说明...的原因”；outburst“爆发”；breakthrough“突破”；首段是独句段，而且是问句，这种情况，问题往往是文章中心，阅读的目的是寻找问题的答案。
　　Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools: a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal, “spatial” thinking about things technological.
　　shaping factor“形成因素”；single out“挑选，选择”；elementary school“小学”；premium“奖金”；above all“尤其是，最重要的是”，说明接下来讲的是主要原因，如果题干涉及相关考查，往往会出现most probably或者main reason，大家要注意识别。
　　Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics... were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
　　首句承上启下；thanks to“幸亏，由于”；mechanic“技工”；literate“受过教育的，有读写能力的”；be at home in“熟悉，精通”；arithmetic，geometry和trigonometry为生僻词汇，不认识无所谓。
　　Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”
　　acute“敏锐的”；relate... to...“把...与...联系起来”；adaptiveness“适应性”；inventiveness“创造性”；as“正如”；thorough“彻底的，周密的”；develop into“发展成为”；skilled“熟练的，有技能的”，skillful“熟练的，巧妙的”。
　　A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium” system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.
　　stimulus“刺激”；precede“在...之前”；patent system“专利制度”；run parallel with“与...并存”；incentive含义同stimulus。
　　In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.
　　multitudes of“许多”；award“授予”；fair“展览会”；flock to“聚集到，涌向”；faith“信心”，也可以表示“信仰”，往往与介词in搭配；beneficence“恩泽”。
　　以上就是文都教育考研英语老师为大家梳理的1996年考研英语真题阅读Text 4前六段的要点。学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。大家平时一定注重学习与思考相结合。不要急于参考答案解析，一定要有独立思考的过程，善于发现和解决问题，从而培养和提升个人能力。
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