首先这些意思不是考查的“怪”,其实日常的语境中也是会用到的,毕竟大多数的GRE 考查文本是来自于消费级别的杂志期刊的。但确实这些意思可能不是我们接触的某个词的时候的首要意思,或者说不是某个单词在字典中的第一个或者第二个解释,所以会导致我们在题中看到的时候觉得比较突兀。
以下简单总结下部分单词,并不穷尽:
# purport 表示“事与愿违的意图”
会有和design 对比的来考察,design 只是一个简单的“意图”;而如果用purport 不仅仅说明有这个意图,而且这个意图没有实现
Ziegler has long been seen as a model of ___self-sacrifice/altruism______, but Gunther, in her biography of Ziegler, comes to a very different conclusion: that Ziegler caused far more harm than good to the people she purported to serve.
# discriminate 理解为宽泛的 “区别、区分”
“歧视”这个意思意思是“区别”这个意思的衍生意思,如果说的中性一些,“歧视”就是“缺别对待”,从考试角度来说,这个单词最好理解为中性的 “区别、区分”
Faced with so much conflicting information on the internet, many people come to believe that all sources are so ___slanted/tendentious______ that efforts to discriminate between the true and the false are inevitably futile.
# convenient 带点负面的腔调
表示方便这个意思没有问题,我们遇到使用这个意思的句子也不会困惑。只是包括中文中用的时候,有时加个convenient 会带点“负向”的强调,比如一个“方便”的解决办法,隐含的意思就是这个办法不是最好的,只是比较方便想到。英语里用到这个词的时候个别的场合下也有类似的效果,可能因为是convenient,显得就没有那么用心(deliberate),就有点lazy 了。
This book indulges in a number of convenient __fictions/inventions_____, including its dubious timeline and its veneer of collective authorship.
# of course 表示让步态度
关于of course 表示让步这个点不算是GRE 的特点考法,在什么语境或者考试里of course 都是让步的,只是我们接触“态度类型的文本”少的时候,对于它的让步效果不会特别敏感。
Compared to Earth over most of its 4 to 6-billion-year history, the world we live in today is quite (i)___atypical__. Of course, it is human nature to regard the world that we are used to as (ii)_permanent____. The oceans, prairies, and mountain chains—even the air we breathe—seem the norm and therefore (iii)__eternal___.
# at best : 出现题目里面跟负向态度
As astronomers do not yet have a good understanding of the fundamental nature of dark matter, it should not be a surprise that astronomy students' ideas about dark matter are, at best, __superficial/sketchy______.
# qualification 表示 不绝对
As he has matured as a scholar, Felmar has come to see the merit of qualification. His conclusions, which early in his career he (i)__stated as absolutes__, are now often (ii)__hedged__.