SAT阅读话题分类——黑人土著

2015-11-19

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    In many respects living Native Americans remain as mysterious,
    exotic, and unfathomable to their contemporaries at the end
    of the twentieth century as they were to the Line Pilgrim
    settlers over three hundred fifty years ago. Native
　　5 rights, motives, customs, languages, and aspirations are
    misunderstood by Euro-Americans out of a culpable ignorance
    that is both self-serving and self-righteous. Part of
    the problem may well stem from the long-standing tendency
    of European or Euro-American thinkers to regard
　　10 Native Americans as fundamentally and profoundly
　　different，motivated more often by mysticism than by
　　ambition, charged more by unfathomable visions than
　　by intelligence or introspection.

　　This idea is certainly not new. Rousseau's "noble
　　15 savages’，wandered, pure of heart, through a pristine world.
Since native people were simply assumed to be incomprehensible,
they were seldom comprehended. Their societies
　　were simply beheld, often through cloudy glasses, and
　　rarely probed by the tools of logic and deductive analysis
　　20 automatically reserved for cultures prejudged to be
　　“civilized.” And on those occasions when Europeans
　　did attempt to formulate an encompassing theory, it was
　　not, ordinarily, on a human-being-to-human-being basis,
　　but rather through an ancestor-descendant model. Native
　　25 Americans, though obviously contemporary with their
　　observers, were somehow regarded as ancient, examples
　　of what Stone Age Europeans must have been like.

　　It's a great story, an international crowd pleaser, but
　　there is a difficulty; Native Americans were，and are,
　　30 Homo sapiens. Though often equipped with a
　　shovel-shaped incisor tooth, eyes with epicanthic folds’
　　or an extra molar cusp. Native American people have had
　　to cope, for the last forty thousand years or so, just like
　　everyone else. Their cultures have had to make internal sense
　　35, their medicines have had to work consistently and
　　practically, their philosophical explanations have had to be
　　reasonably satisfying and dependable, or else the ancestors
　　of those now called Native Americans would truly have
　　vanished long ago.

　　40 The reluctance in accepting this obvious fact comes
　　from the Eurocentric conviction that the West holds a
　　monopoly on science, logic, and clear thinking. To
　　admit that other, culturally divergent viewpoints are
　　equally plausible is to cast doubt on the monolithic
　　45 center of Judeo-Christian belief: that there is but one
　　of everything—God, right way, truth—and Europeans
　　alone knew what that was. If Native American cultures
　　were acknowledged as viable，then European societies
　　were something less than an exclusive club. It is little
　　50 wonder, therefore, that Native Americans were perceived
　　not so much as they were but as they had to be，from a
　　European viewpoint. They dealt in magic，not method.

　　They were stuck in their past, not guided by its precedents.
　　Such expedient misconception argues strongly for the
　　55 development and dissemination of a more accurate, more
　　objective historical account of native peoples—a goal
　　easier stated than accomplished. Native American societies
　　were nonliterate before and during much of the early period
　　of their contact with Europe, making the task of piecing
　　60 together a history particularly demanding. The familiar and
　　reassuring kinds of written documentation found in European
　　societies of equivalent chronological periods do not exist,
　　and the forms of tribal record preservation available—oral
　　history, tales，mnemonic devices, and religious rituals—
　　65 strike university-trained academics as inexact, unreliable,
　　and suspect. Eastern historians, culture-bound by their
　　own approach to knowledge, are apt to declaim that next to
　　nothing, save the evidence of archaeology, can be known
　　of early Native American life. To them, an absolute void
　　70 is more acceptable and rigorous than an educated guess.

　　However, it is naive to assume that any culture's history
　　is perceived without subjective prejudice. Every modem
　　observer, whether he or she was schooled in the traditions
　　of the South Pacific or Zaire, of Hanover, New Hampshire,
　　75 or Vienna, Austria, was exposed at an early age to one or
　　another form of folklore at>out Native Americans. For
　　some, the very impressions about Native American tribes
　　that initially attracted them to the field of American history
　　are aspects most firmly rooted in popular myth and stereo-
　　80 type. Serious scholarship about Native American culture and
　　history is unique in that it requires an initial, abrupt, and
　　wrenching demythologizing. Most students do not start
　　from point zero, but from minus zero, and in the process are
　　often required to abandon cherished childhood fantasies of
　　85 superheroes or larger-than-life villains.
　　♦ Rousseau was an eighteenth-century French philosopher.

　　13. The reference to ‘the Pilgrim settlers” (lines 3-4) is used to
　　(A) invite reflection about a less complicated era
　　(B) suggest the lasting relevance of religious issues
　　(C) establish a contrast with today's reformers
　　(D) debunk a myth about early colonial life
　　(E) draw a parallel to a current condition

　　14. In line 12，"charged" most nearly means
　　(A) commanded
　　(B) indicated
　　(C) replenished
　　(D) inspired
　　(E) attacked

　　15. In line 14, the reference to Rousseau is used to emphasize the
　　(A) philosophical origins of cultural bias
　　(B) longevity of certain types of misconceptions
　　(C) tendency to fear the unknown
　　(D) diversity among European intellectual traditions
　　(E) argument that even great thinkers are fallible

　　16. The phrase "international crowd pleaser" (line 28) refers to
　　(A) an anthropological fallacy
　　(B) an entertaining novelty
　　(C) a an">　　17. The "difficulty" referred to in line 29 most directly undermines
　　(A) the ancestor-descendant model used by European observers
　　(B) the possibility for consensus in anthropological inquiry
　　(C) efforts to rid popular culture of false stereotypes
　　(D) theories based exclusively on logic and deductive reasoning
　　(E) unfounded beliefs about early European communities

　　18. Lines 34-37 ("Their cultures ... dependable") describe
　　(A) customs that fuel myths about a society
　　(B) contradictions that conventional logic cannot resolve
　　(C) characteristics that are essential to the survive of any people
　　(D) criteria that Western historians traditionally use to assess cultures
　　(E) preconditions that must be met before a culture can influence others

　　19. The two sentences that begin with ‘They” in lines 52-53 serve to express the
　　(A) way one group perceived another
　　(B) results of the latest research
　　(C) theories of Native Americans about Europeans
　　(D) external criticisms that some Native American accepted
　　(E) survival techniques adopted by early human societies

　　20. In lines 66-70, the author portrays Western historians as
　　(A) oblivious to the value of archaeological research
　　(B) disadvantaged by an overly narrow methodology
　　(C) excessively impressed by prestigious credentials
　　(D) well meaning but apt to do more harm than good
　　(E) anxious to contradict the faulty conclusions of their predecessors

　　21. The "educated guess’’ mentioned in line 70 would most likely be based on
　　(A) compilations of government population statistics
　　(B) sources such as oral histories and religious rituals
　　(C) analyses of ancient building structures by archaeologists
　　(D) measurements of fossils to determine things such as physical characteristics
　　(E) studies of artifacts discovered in areas associated with particular tribes

　　22. The geographical references in lines 74-75 serve to underscore the
　　(A) influence Native American culture has had outside the United States
　　(B) argument that academic training is undergoing increasing homogenization
　　(C) universality of certain notions about Native American peoples
　　(D) idea that Native Americans have more in common with other peoples than is acknowledged
　　(E) unlikelihood that scholars of Native American history will settle their differences

　　23. The passage suggests that “Most students” (line 82) need to undergo a process of
　　(A) rebelliousness
　　(B) disillusionment
　　(C) hopelessness
　　(D) inertia
　　(E) self-denial

　　24. In line 83，"minus zero” refers to the
　　(A) nature of the preconceptions held by most beginning scholars of Native American culture
　　(B) quality of scholarship about Native American cultures as currently practiced at most universities
　　(C) reception that progressive scholars of Native American history have received in academia
　　(D) shortage of written sources available to students of Native American history
　　(E) challenges.that face those seeking grants to conduct original research about Native American history

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13.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer E :
　　Choice (E) is correct. "To draw a parallel" between two things means to show the similarities between
　　the two. The author shows the similarity between the way Native Americans were viewed by the Pilgrim
　　settlers 350 years ago and the way they are viewed by many people today.
　
　　14.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer D :
　　Choice (D) is correct. Native Americans are being regarded as "fundamentally . . . different, motivated
　　more often by mysticism than by ambition, charged more by unfathomable visions than by intelligence
　　or introspection" (lines 11-13). Here, "charged" is used in much the same way that "motivated" is used;
　　just as ambition motivates, visions and intelligence "charge," or inspire.

15.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer B :
　　Choice (B) is correct. In the first paragraph, the author discusses certain widespread misconceptions
　　about differences between Native Americans and Europeans or Euro-Americans. The second paragraph
　　begins with the sentence, "This idea is certainly not new" (line 14). The next sentence introduces
　　Rousseau and the "noble savages," who Rousseau imagines as being fundamentally different from
　　Europeans. We know from the footnote that Rousseau was an eighteenth-century philosopher. So
mentioning Rousseau shows how long these kinds of misconceptions have been around.

16.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer A :
　　Choice (A) is correct. The author describes a European theory of Native Americans "as examples of what
　　Stone Age Europeans must have been like" (lines 26-27). This is the theory that the author says is "a
　　great story, an international crowd pleaser" (line 28). But it is also a theory that the author regards as
　　obviously false, an "anthropological fallacy."

17.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer A :
　　Choice (A) is correct. The author describes the theory that regards Native Americans as "examples of
　　what Stone Age Europeans must have been like" (lines 26-27) as a theory based on "an
　　ancestor-descendant model" (line 24). Although this might have been a "great story" (line 28), the
　　author mentions a "difficulty." That difficulty is that Native Americans had to cope and change over "the
　　last forty thousand years or so, just like everyone else" (lines 33-34). They could not have survived if
　　they had remained like Stone Age peoples. So this "difficulty" undermines the view that Native
　　Americans are like the Stone Age ancestors of modern-day Europeans. 　　Choice (C) is correct. The author explains that Native American "cultures have had to make internal
　　sense, their medicines have had to work consistently and practically, their philosophical explanations
　　have had to be reasonably satisfying and dependable, or else the ancestors of those now called Native
　　Americans would have truly vanished long ago." The last clause makes it clear that the lines describe
　　characteristics "essential to the survival of any people."

19.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer A :
　　Choice (A) is correct. The sentence immediately before the two sentences that begin with "They" (lines
　　52-53) says that "Native Americans were perceived not so much as they were but as they had to be,
　　from a European viewpoint" (lines 50-52). What follows tells how Native Americans had to be perceived
　　from that European viewpoint: "They dealt in magic, not method. They were stuck in their past, not
　　guided by its precedents." Thus, these two sentences serve to express the way Europeans perceived
　　Native Americans.

　 20.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer B :
　　Choice (B) is correct. In lines 66-70 the author describes Western historians as "culture-bound by their
　　own approach to knowledge." The problem is that the "forms of tribal record preservation available"
　　(line 63) are seen by Western researchers as "inexact, unreliable, and suspect" (lines 65-66). The result
　　of this methodological bias, according to the author, is that Western historians do not take advantage of
　　the evidence that is available. Thus, the author presents Western historians as disadvantaged by their
　　overly narrow methodology.

　 21.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer B :
　　Choice (B) is correct. The author describes the following problem: "the forms of tribal record
　　preservation available—oral history, tales, mnemonic devices, and religious rituals—strike
　　university-trained academics as inexact, unreliable, and suspect" (lines 63-66). The result, according to
　　the author, is that to Western historians "an absolute void is more acceptable and rigorous than an
　　educated guess" (lines 69-70). The "educated guess" the author proposes would thus be based on the
records available: oral histories, tales, mnemonic devices, and religious rituals.

　 22.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer C :
　　Choice (C) is correct. The geographical references—the South Pacific, Zaire, New Hampshire,
　　Austria—are used to make the point that people all over the world learn certain myths about Native
　　Americans. The author is concerned to show that virtually no students come to the subject of Native
　　American history without some previously learned misconceptions.

　 23.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer B :
　　Choice (B) is correct. In this section of the passage, the author discusses how people all over the world
　　receive their first impressions of Native American culture from a widespread but seriously flawed
　　mythology. "Disillusionment" means disenchantment, or being deprived of a false belief. In the author's
　　view, "most students must be "disillusioned" of their "childhood fantasies"--that is, the folklore of the
　　American West, of "cowboy and Indian" tales--before learning the truth about Native American history and culture.

24.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
　　Explanation for Correct Answer A :
　　Choice (A) is correct. The passage suggests that when most students begin studying the history and
　　culture of Native Americans, they not only have a lot to learn, they have a lot to unlearn as well. As the
　　author states in the last sentence: "Most students do not start from point zero, but from minus zero, and
　　in the process are often required to abandon cherished childhood fantasies . . ." (lines 82-84). It's not
　　that beginning scholars know nothing ("point zero"); rather, they have powerful and flawed
　　preconceptions about Native Americans ("minus zero").

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SAT阅读话题分类——黑人土著

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