同义替换与大学英语四级考试

同义替换与大学英语四级考试

　　李加军

　　在改革后的大学英语四级考试中，听力理解和阅读理解各占到试卷总分的1/3。

　　听力理解和阅读理解的命题既存在差异也存在共同点。就差异而言，两者在信息输入形式上有别，也可以说学生获取信息的渠道(channel)有别。另外，考试时听力只能听一遍，而阅读理解却没有此限制。就共同点而言，命题形式基本一致，大多都是选择题，通过试题去推测学生的整体语言水平。

　　在选项的命题中命题人员都倾向于把录音中的信息或者阅读材料中的信息加以转换，而不是直接摘抄录音或者阅读材料中的句子，也就是对录音或阅读中的信息进行同义替换，用作试题答案或者干扰项。这就是为什么很多同学在做完题后，会有种选项与录音或阅读材料无法紧密联系的感觉。

　　下面以2006年6月24号新四级考试真题为例，说明掌握同义替换的答题技能对准备四级考试的重要性。第14题的选项为：

　　A) The woman didn’t expect it to be so warm at noon.

　　B) The woman is sensitive to weather changes.

　　C) The weather forecast was unreliable.

　　D) The weather turned cold all of a sudden.

　　而录音中的内容为：

　　Man: You look like you are freezing to death. Why don’t you put this on?

　　Woman: Thank you. It was warm at noon. I don’t expect the weather to change so quickly.

　　Question: What do we learn from this conversation?

　　很明显，命题人员在设计选项时使用“all of a sudden”来替换录音中的“so quickly”，用“turned cold”替换“change”及“warm at noon”等信息。

　　再比如，第18题，选项为：

　　A) The woman can’t tolerate any noise.

　　B) The man is looking for an apartment.

　　C) The man has missed his appointment.

　　D) The woman is going to take a train trip.

　　而录音为：

　　Man: Madam, I hear you have an apartment for rent. May I take a look at it?

　　Woman: Sure. You are welcome any time by appointment, but I have to tell you the building is close to a railway, and if you cannot put up with the noise, you might just as well save the trip.

　　在本题中，命题人员在选项A中用“tolerate”代替“put up with”。

　　在35题中，选项为：

　　A) The couple cook the dishes and the children help them.

　　B) The husband does the cooking and the wife serves as the waitress.

　　C) The mother does the cooking while the father and children wait on the guests.

　　D) A hired cook prepares the dishes and the family members serve the guests.

　　此题根据录音中的“The mother of the family cooks all the dishes， the father and children serve people who come to eat them.”命制。

　　命题人用“wait on”替换“serve”，这样既考查了录音能否听懂，又考查词汇量及信息转换能力。同学们要把看到的和听到的信息联系起来，不能仅仅根据录音去查找与录音一致的句子。

　　阅读理解section B中第57题选项为：

　　Hancock’s study focuses on_______.

　　A) the consequences of lying in various communications media

　　B) the success of communication technologies in conveying ideas

　　C) people’s preferences in selecting communications technologies

　　D) people’s honesty levels across a range of communications media

　　本题的选项设计比较概括。每个选项侧重一个角度，A侧重说谎的后果，B侧重通讯技术的成功，C侧重人们的偏好，D 侧重对于不同通讯媒介，人们的诚实水平是不一样的。由第一段中的“The first study to compare honesty across a range of communications media has found that people are twice likely to tell lies in phone conversations as they are in emails.”，我们得知选项D能够完全概括本句的含义，在意思上对等，虽然没有使用原句，可是概括性选项的设置同样表达了原文的意思，只是原句具体，答案D较概括抽象。其他几项与本文无关。

　　又如，58题的选项为：Hancock’s research finding surprised those who believe that_________.

　　A) people are less likely to lie in instant messages.

　　B) people are unlikely to lie in face?鄄to?鄄face interactions.

　　C) people are most likely to lie in email communication.

　　D) people are twice as likely to lie in phone conversations.

　　本题直接对应原文中的“...have surprised psychologists. Some expected emailers to be the biggest liars...”所以本题应选择C项。“the biggest liar”在语义上直接对应“most likely to lie”,虽然形式上不同。

　　同学们如能把握这一对等，就可以很容易找到答案，并能找到命题人的命题技巧，可以直接命中答案。

　　再如，第59题的选项为：According to the passage, why are people more likely to tell the truth through certain media of communication?

　　A) They are afraid of leaving behind traces of their lies.

　　B) They believe that honesty is the best policy.

　　C) They tend to be relaxed when using those media.

　　D) They are most practiced at those forms of communication.

　　本题对应“But Hancock says it is also crucial whether a conversation is being recorded and could be reread, ...People appear to be afraid to lie when they know the communication could later be used to hold them to account...”。我们可以看出A项中的“afraid of leaving behind traces of their lies”与本句语义对等。

　　60题的问题中“a preferable medium for promoting sales”与“the best medium for sales”语义对等。在答案选项中，命题人员使用“exaggerate”对等原文中的“stretch the truth”。

　　忌讳命题照抄、照搬录音或原文中的句子，要避免原词原句的出现，使用同义替换是不可避免的，这也是命题人员常用的技巧。

　　无论录音还是阅读材料，它与问题、选项，这三者之间在语义上是互通的整体。

　　围绕原文设计的问题，基于原文设计的选项，都决定了选择题的命制无法避免地要使用同义替换去实现语义对等。

　　对于准备四级考试的同学来说，一方面在平时学习过程中，要注意单词、词组释义paraphrase(restate the meaning of sth. in other words)和句型转换的训练。

　　另一方面，做题过程中，要敢于选择与原文形式不同而意思一致的选项。关键是意思对等。掌握这一点对于提高成绩无疑是有很大帮助的，所谓“知彼知己，百战不殆”。

(06－07学年第13期)