一.文学类文章介绍
篇章类型：文学类文章主要包括叙述故事，讲述一件事情或者经历，对一个观点或概念的思考。在SAT阅读考试中，文学类文章的考察主要是一篇小说的节选，但是其他类型的文章也有可能包含文学的元素，比如比喻性的语言或形象。
更多内容查看可点击：sat2016阅读分析
难度分析：其篇章来源主要为近40年的minority fiction(少数族裔小说)和19th and early 20th century classic novels(经典小说)，以及新SAT将增加考查的近几十年的美国本土作家的小说作品等。
答题建议：考试需加强作品主旨、态度、功能、写作目的、写作意图以及结构上的理解与训练，并加大阅读量、提高词汇储备。
二.例题详解
这篇文章属于美国和世界文学类型的一篇文章，难度属于稍难等级。
Questions 14-18 are based on the following passage.
This passage is adapted from Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, originally
published in 1911. Mattie Silver is Ethan’s household employee.
Mattie Silver had lived under Ethan’s roof for a year, and
from early morning till they met at supper he had frequent
chances of seeing her; but no moments in her company
were comparable to those when, her arm in his, and her
5 light step flying to keep time with his long stride, they
walked back through the night to the farm. He had taken to
the girl from the first day, when he had driven over to the
Flats to meet her, and she had smiled and waved to him
from the train, crying out, “You must be Ethan!” as she
10 jumped down with her bundles, while he reflected, looking
over her slight person: “She don’t look much on housework,
but she ain’t a fretter, anyhow.” But it was not only that the
coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was
like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth. The girl was more
15 than the bright serviceable creature he had thought her. She
had an eye to see and an ear to hear: he could show her
things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that
all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could
wake at will.
20 It was during their night walks back to the farm that he felt
most intensely the sweetness of this communion. He had
always been more sensitive than the people about him to the
appeal of natural beauty. His unfinished studies had given
form to this sensibility and even in his unhappiest moments
25 field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerful
persuasion. But hitherto the emotion had remained in him as
a silent ache, veiling with sadness the beauty that evoked it. He
did not even know whether any one else in the world felt as he
did, or whether he was the sole victim of this mournful
30 privilege. Then he learned that one other spirit had trembled
with the same touch of wonder: that at his side, living under
his roof and eating his bread, was a creature to whom he could
say: “That’s Orion down yonder; the big fellow to the right is
Aldebaran, and the bunch of little ones—like bees swarming—
35 they’re the Pleiades . . .” or whom he could hold entranced
before a ledge of granite thrusting up through the fern while
he unrolled the huge panorama of the ice age, and the long
dim stretches of succeeding time. The fact that admiration for
his learning mingled with Mattie’s wonder at what he taught
40 was not the least part of his pleasure. And there were other
sensations, less definable but more exquisite, which drew them
together with a shock of silent joy: the cold red of sunset
behind winter hills, the flight of cloud-flocks over slopes of
golden stubble, or the intensely blue shadows of hemlocks on
45 sunlit snow. When she said to him once: “It looks just as if it
was painted!” it seemed to Ethan that the art of definition
could go no farther, and that words had at last been found to
utter his secret soul. . . .
As he stood in the darkness outside the church these
50 memories came back with the poignancy of vanished
things. Watching Mattie whirl down the floor from hand
to hand he wondered how he could ever have thought that
his dull talk interested her. To him, who was never gay but
in her presence, her gaiety seemed plain proof of
55 indifference. The face she lifted to her dancers was the
same which, when she saw him, always looked like a
window that has caught the sunset. He even noticed two or
three gestures which, in his fatuity, he had thought she
kept for him: a way of throwing her head back when she
60 was amused, as if to taste her laugh before she let it out,
and a trick of sinking her lids slowly when anything
charmed or moved her.
14. Over the course of the passage, the main focus of the narrative shifts from the
(A) reservations a character has about a person he has just met to a growing appreciation that character has of the person’s worth.
(B) ambivalence a character feels about his sensitive nature to the character’s recognition of the advantages of having profound emotions.
(C) intensity of feeling a character has for another person to the character’s concern that that intensity is not reciprocated.
(D) value a character attaches to the wonders of the natural world to a rejection of that sort of beauty in favor of human artistry.
题目考点：修辞类
答案：C
答题思路：考生需掌握文章的整体结构
解析：文章的第一段描写了Ethan对Mattie的情感，Ethan “had taken to the girl from the first day” (lines 6-7) and saw her as “like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth” (line 14).文章第二段的(lines 20-48)主要讲的是他们一起走回农场的夜晚以及Ethan由于“one other spirit . . . trembled with the same touch of wonder”的一种喜悦之情，也就是说文章的前两段表现的是Ethan对Mattie强烈的情感。而文章的最后一段却描写了Ethan对Mattie情感的变化，Ethan发现Mattie在社交场合与另外一名男子的互动并开始对自己的情感产生了动摇。
15. In the context of the passage, the author’s use of the phrase “her light step flying to keep time with his long stride” (lines 4-5) is primarily meant to convey the idea that
(A) Ethan and Mattie share a powerful enthusiasm.
(B) Mattie strives to match the speed at which Ethan works.
(C) Mattie and Ethan playfully compete with each other.
(D) Ethan walks at a pace that frustrates Mattie.
题目考点：修辞类
答案：A
答题思路：考生需掌握作者词汇选择的修辞作用
解析：作者使用的短语主要是为了介绍第二段中详述的话题，也就是Ethan通过和Mattie夜晚的散步发现自己对Mattie日益增长的情感，因此这些句子是为了表明两个人之间的一种和谐和强烈的情感。
16. The description in the first paragraph indicates that what Ethan values most about Mattie is her
(A) fitness for farm labor.
(B) vivacious youth.
(C) receptive nature.
(D) freedom from worry.
题目考点：信息和观点类
答案：C
答题思路：考生需掌握文章中两个主人公之间的关系
解析：文中的8-14行提到了很多Mattie的品质，比如：她很友好(“smiled and waved”), 急迫(“jumped down with her bundles”), 随和(“she ain’t a fretter”)以及有活力(“like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth”).但是其中最吸引Ethan却是她对周围世界有着一颗开阔的心，在文中的最后一段有体现，“She had an eye to see and an ear to hear: he could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could wake at will” (lines 15-19).
17. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
(A) Lines 1-6 (“Mattie . . . farm”)
(B) Lines 6-12 (“He had . . . anyhow”)
(C) Lines 12-14 (“But it . . . hearth”)
(D) Lines 15-19 (“She had . . . will”)
题目考点：信息和观点类
答案：D
答题思路：考生需在文中找出支持上一问题答案的最佳支持性证据。
解析：文中的15-19行提到Mattie “had an eye to see and an ear to hear: [Ethan] could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could wake at will.”话句话说就是Mattie对外界的观点经历是一种接纳的心态，因此最能支持上一问题的答案。
18. The author includes the descriptions of the sunset, the clouds, and the hemlock shadows (lines 42-45) primarily to
(A) suggest the peacefulness of the natural world.
(B) emphasize the acuteness of two characters’ sensations.
(C) foreshadow the declining fortunes of two characters.
(D) offer a sense of how fleeting time can be.
题目考点：修辞类
答案：B
答题思路：考生需分析文章部分和整体之间的关系
解析：文章中的40-45行表明“there were other sensations, less definable but more exquisite, which drew [Ethan and Mattie] together with a shock of silent joy: the cold red of sunset behind winter hills, the flight of cloud-flocks over slopes of golden stubble, or the intensely blue shadows of hemlocks on sunlit snow.”在文章的第二段(lines 20-48), Ethan和Mattie通过对大自然共同的兴趣和感受建立了深厚的联系，而前面的那些描写是为了增强主人公情感的强烈。就像文中所说的，Ethan和Mattie不仅欣赏大自然的美和静而且感受到了大自然强有力的“shock of silent joy”。
以上就是小编为大家介绍的新SAT阅读文学类文章分析的全部内容，希望对备考新SAT阅读的考生们有帮助。
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