新托福听力场景之历史话题考点分析
广州智美教育
 
朗阁海外考试研究中心
 
我们都知道新托福lecture的难度不断在增加。对于考生来讲，有几个方面的障碍需要克服：词汇，辨音能力和背景知识。前两方面，考生可以每天定下详细计划分别攻克。而关于背景知识，就需要考生将进行总结和积累了。实际上，备考新托福的过程对考生来讲就是一个锻炼语言能力和拓展知识面的过程。在此，朗阁海外考试研究中心的将为大家详解听力段子中较难的场景之一—历史话题。
 
一、概述
历史类场景往往和其他分支学科产生联系，具体可以从以下几个方面来考察：
☆ 政权或制度体制 如农业的产生，古埃及的女法老等。
☆ 文化方面 如茶文化历史，戏剧的起源，考古方面等。
☆ 历史人物 如爱默生，意大利画家等。
☆ 其他话题 历史容易和其他学科产生交叉，如考古和艺术。
 
历史类的话题有一个很大的特点，就是专业词汇较多。很多考生有这样一种感觉，就是好像听明白了一些，但一考到细节题就不知所措。也就是说，历史类话题可能出现较多的专业词汇和细节，考生需谨慎。下面我们就几个例子来仔细体会一下。
 
二、案例分析
下面是一个历史话题的经典案例：
1)     E.G. TPO 17 Lecture 3 (Egyptian Calendars)
听力原文：
Well, their astronomers had discovered that at a certain time of year the brightest star, Sirius, would disappear. Actually, it’d be hidden in the glare of the Sun. Even more significantly, the reappearance of Sirius would occur around the same time as the Nile’s flooding. And this annual event is called a heliacal rising. The heliacal rising was a fair indicator of when the Nile would flood. The next new moon, after the heliacal rising of Sirius, which happened in the last month of the calendar year, marked the New Year.
 
Why was the helical rising if Sirius important to the Egyptians?
Click on 2 answers.
A. It helped determine the beginning of the New Year.
B. It was used to calculate the length of the month.
C. It marked the beginning of harvest time.
D. It indicated when the Nile would flood.
分析：
此处考的是埃及的历法。在这个节选原文中包含了Sirius（天狼星），heliacal rising（偕日升）等概念，比较难以理解，需要考生有较快的反应速度。朗阁海外考试研究中心的在实际教学中发现，不少学员在遇到这类话题时会怀有抵触心态，大呼这种难度跟阅读都差不多了。诚然专业度高理解困难，考生应该认识到一点：ETS的考察宗旨还是不变的——检验考生的瞬时理解能力和知识储备的。在此，要做对这道双选题，要留心粗体信号词；还可以将辨音中听不懂的陌生词转化成抽象符号，搞清楚其作用即可。可以看出，Nile和New Year是关键词，故轻松选出AD。
 
下面再看一个例子：
2) E.G. TPO 18 Lecture 3 (Egyptian Calendars)
听力原文：
Now for the taste... Now, this is a good point to mention one of the biggest myths about spices. It’s commonly said that medieval Europeans wanted spices to cover up the taste of spoiled meat. But this isn’t really true. Anyone who had to worry about spoiled meat couldn’t afford spices in the first place. If you could afford spices, you could definitely afford fresh meat.  We also have evidence that various medieval markets employed a kind of police to make sure that people did not sell spoiled food, and if you were caught doing it, you were subject to various fines, humiliating public punishments. So what actually was true was this: In order to have meat for the winter, people would preserve it in salt, not a spice. Spices actually aren’t very effective as preservatives.
 
25. What two factors explain why medieval Europeans did not use spices to    cover the taste of spoiled meat?
Click on 2 answers.
A. Fresh meat was less expensive than spices were.
B. Spices were mainly used in incense and perfume.
C. The sale of spoiled food was prohibited.
D. Salt was cheaper than most spices were.
 
分析：
这里考察的是香料在历的角色。背景知识：香料在中世纪的欧洲是非常名贵的东西，只有皇族才能享用得到。原因诸多，运输昂贵是其中之一。考生若不熟悉spice这个单词，可以根据上下文猜测，此处很容易猜出。
 
在这里想强调一下myth的含义。大多数考生对这个词的理解都存在误区。实际上这个词只要考到，一般取“误解”这一含义，而非神话等义。在这里是说，人们用香料腌制坏掉的食物这种理解是错误的，因为人们有钱香料就有钱鲜肉，前者的理解本身就有矛盾。同时注意also这个重要并列词，后面引出第二个原因，所以选AC。
 
三、考点追踪
从上面这个例子可以看出历史话题具有以下特点：
☆ 细节偏多 可能没有信号词引领，听时要聚精会神。
☆ 信号词 信号词的形式多种多样，可能是单独的词组，也有可能是融汇在句子当中，要及时做好笔记。
☆ 陌生概念 可先记下字母，上下文一般会有定义解释或同义词。也可以注意计算机屏幕的提示词是否为这个词。
针对历史类的听力段子，朗阁海外考试研究中心的建议广大考生在备考时要多关注相关词汇，听时注意锁定细节。通过借鉴以上给出的例子，考生自己要多动脑多分析，研究，仔细推敲。扎扎实实地掌握场景词汇，提高灵敏度，才能攻克新托福听力