ThePerfect Essay
A) Looking back on too many yearsof education, I can identify one truly impossible teacher. She cared about me,and my intellectual life, even when I didn’t. Her expectations were highimpossibly so. She was an English teacher. She was also my mother.
B) When good students turn in anessay, they dream of their instructor returning it to them in exactly the samecondition, save for a single word added in the margin of the final page:”Flawless.” This dream came true for me one afternoon in the ninth grade. Ofcourse, I had heard that genius could show itself at an early age, so I wasonly slightly taken aback that I had achieved perfection at the tender age of14. Obviously, I did what any professional writer would do; I hurried off tospread the good news. I didn’t get very far. The first person I told was mymother.
C) My mother, who is just shy offive feet tall, is normally incredibly soft-spoken, but on the rare occasionwhen she got angry, she was terrifying. I am not sure if she was more upset bymy hubris(得意忘形) or by the fact that my Englishteacher had let my ego get so out of hand. In any event, my mother and her redpen showed me how deeply flawed a flawless essay could be. At the time, I amsure she thought she was teaching me about mechanics, transitions(过渡), structure, style and voice. But what I learned, and what stuckwith me through my time teaching writing at Harvard, was a deeper lesson aboutthe nature of creative criticism.
D) Fist off, it hurts. Genuinecriticism, the type that leaves a lasting mark on you as a writer, also leavesan existential imprint(印记) on you asa person. I have heard people say that a writer should never take criticismpersonally. I say that we should never listen to these people.
E) Criticism, at its best, isdeeply personal, and gets to the heart of why we write the way we do. Theintimate nature of genuine criticism implies something about who is able togive it, namely, someone who knows you well enough to show you how your mentallife is getting in the way of good writing. Conveniently, they are also thepeople who care enough to see you through this painful realization. For me ittook the form of my first, and I hope only, encounter with writer’s block—I wasnot able to produce anything for three years.
F) Franz Kafka once said:” Writingis utter solitude(独处), the descentinto the cold abyss(深渊) ofoneself. “My mother’s criticism had shown me that Kafka is right about the coldabyss, and when you make the introspective (内省的) decent that writing requires you are out always pleased by whatyou find.” But, in the years that followed, her sustained tutoring suggestedthat Kafka might be wrong about the solitude. I was lucky enough to find acritic and teacher who was willing to make the journey of writing with me. “Itis a thing of no great difficulty,” according to Plutarch, “to raise objectionsagainst another man’s speech, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a betterin its place is a work extremely troublesome.” I am sure I wrote essays in thelater years of high school without my mother’s guidance, but I can’t recallthem. What I remember, however, is how we took up the “extremely troublesome”work of ongoing criticism.
G) There are two ways to interpretPlutarch when he suggests that a critic should be able to produce “a better inits place.” In a straightforward sense, he could mean that a critic must bemore talented than the artist she critiques(评论). My mother was well covered on this count. But perhaps Plutarch issuggesting something slightly different, something a bit closer to MarcusCicero’s claim that one should “criticize by creation, not by finding fault.”Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to become better onthis own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but also almostalways meaningful.
H) My mother said she would helpme with my writing, but fist I had myself. For each assignment, I was write thebest essay I could. Real criticism is not meant to find obvious mistakes, so ifshe found any—the type I could have found on my own—I had to start fromscratch. From scratch. Once the essay was “flawless,” she would take an eveningto walk me through my errors. That was when true criticism, the type thatchanged me as a person, began.
I) She criticized me when Iincluded little-known references and professional jargon(行话). She had no patience for brilliant but irrelevant figures ofspeech. “Writers can’t bluff(虚张声势) theirway through ignorance.” That was news to me—I would need to find another way tostructure my daily existence.
J) She trimmed back my flowerylanguage, drew lines through my exclamation marks and argued for the value ofrestraint in expression. “John,” she almost whispered. I learned in to hearher:”I can’t hear you when you shout at me.” So I stopped shouting andbluffing, and slowly my writing improved.
K) Somewhere along the way I setaside my hopes of writing that flawless essay. But perhaps I missed somethingimportant in my mother’s lessons about creativity and perfection. Perhaps thepoint of writing the flawless essay was not to give up, but to never willinglyfinish. Whitman repeatedly reworded “Song of Myself” between 1855 and 1891.Repeatedly. We do our absolute best wiry a piece of writing, and come as closeas we can to the ideal. And, for the time being, we settle. In critique,however, we are forced to depart, to give up the perfection we thought we hadachieved for the chance of being even a little bit better. This is the lesson Itook from my mother. If perfection were possible, it would not be motivating.
46. The author was advised against theimproper use of figures of speech.
47. The author’s mother taught him avaluable lesson by pointing out lots of flaws in his seemingly perfect essay.
48. A writer should polish his writingrepeatedly so as to get closer to perfection.
49. Writers may experience periods of timein their life when they just can’t produce anything.
50. The author was not much surprised whenhis school teacher marked his essay as “flawless”.
51. Criticizing someone’s speech is said tobe easier than coming up with a better one.
52. The author looks upon his mother as hismost demanding and caring instructor.
53. The criticism the author received fromhis mother changed him as a person.
54. The author gradually improved hiswriting by avoiding fact language.
55. Constructive criticism gives an authora good start to improve his writing.
参考答案
46. I，根据关键信息“figures of speech”定位到I段，原文中该词组前面的形容词是“irrelevant”，和句中的“improper”为同义替换关系。
47. C，根据关键信息“flaws”可定位至C段，同义替换关系句“my mother and her red pen showed me how deeply flawed a flawlessessay could be.”
48. K，该句意思为“为了达到完美，作家应该反复地修改他的文章”，对应K段中的“Perhaps the point of writing theflawless essay was not to give up, but to never willingly finish.”
49. E，该句大意为“某些时间段里，作家可能会感觉什么都写不出来了”，对应E段中的“I was not able to produceanything for 3 years.”。
50. B， 该句意为“当老师认为作者的文章没有瑕疵时，他并不惊讶”，对应B段的“so I was only slightly takenaback that I had achieved perfection at the tender age of 14.”该句中的“taken aback”意为“惊讶”。
51. F，该句意为“对别人的演讲品头论足总比自己做一个更棒的演讲容易”，对应F段的“It is a thing of no greatdifficulty,” according to Plutarch, “to raise objections against another man’sspeech, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is awork extremely troublesome.”。
52. A，该句意为“作者视其母为最严格和最细心的老师”，对应A段的“She cared about me, and my intellectual life, even when I didn’t.Her expectations were high impossibly so. She was an English teacher. She wasalso my mother.”。
53. H，该句意为“作者从其母处得到的批评改变了作者的人格”，对应H段的“That was when true criticism, thetype that changed me as a person, began.”。
54. J，该句意为“作者通过避免使用华而不实的语言慢慢地提升自己的作品”，对应J段的“So I stopped shouting and bluffing,and slowly my writing improved.”。
55. G，该局意为“有建设性的评判能让作家在提升作品方面有一个好的开始”，对应G段“Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to becomebetter on this own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but alsoalmost always meaningful.
”。
46. Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another.
答案：D
47. Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.
答案：B
48. Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.
答案：F
49. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.
答案：O
50. In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.
答案：G.
51. Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and their family
答案：E.
52. Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.
答案：J.
53. To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it themselves.
答案：M.
54. We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.
答案：C.
55. The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.
答案：H.
46. G 该选项第一句和第二句明确指出，“培养小孩子感受快乐的能力不难，只需要改变教育的思维模式就可以哒”。
47. D 从该选项的“The thing that sets children apart from adults is not… It’s their enormous capacity for joy”一句便可看出。
48. A 该选项先举例说“曾经爱尔兰对儿童很残忍”，最后指出“美国其实也差不多啦”。
49. F 从该选项中一句“Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy”便可以看出。
50. K 从该选项的第一句“Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine”便可看出哒。
51. H 从该选项最后一句便可看出。
52. C 该选项的一句“when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child…”证明其适合。
53. I 该选项指出，“学校的管理人员给教师施压，让他们给学生制定严格的规则和布置大量的作业”，所以可知他们觉得hard work是至关重要的。
54. B 该空很好找呀，所有选项只有一个B选项提到了effective schools，而且分析该选项，发现其整体也非常符合。
55. J 从该选项的第二句“Decades of research have…, kids need to want to learn”便可选出。
