问两道Magoosh阅读题

岳然UID：3654715

Chopin the pianist has been greatly overshadowed by Chopin the composer. When Chopin the pianist is mentioned, it is his dreamy gaze and supple wrists (as well as countless female admirers gathered around the piano returning that same dreamy stare). But Chopin was a formidable pianist in his own right: after all, he was able to play, from start to finish, all twenty-four of his etudes, a set of pieces so demanding that even today’s great pianists feel taxed after performing them. Two things perhaps account for this oversight: for one, any pianist for whom no extant recordings exist is likely not to weather time well. Secondly, Chopin’s coeval and friend, Franz Liszt, was of such legendary prowess that Chopin himself wished he could play his own etudes the way Liszt did. Nevertheless, Chopin deserves to be remembered not just as a composer of challenging pieces but as a pianist capable of executing, with panache, these very pieces.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt on the author’s contention regarding Chopin the pianist?

A. Chopin rarely, if ever, played the piano works of other composers.

B. Apart from a cello concerto and a few other works, Chopin composed mainly for the piano.

C. Chopin seldom performed his etudes in concerts, preferring to play in front of a small group.

D. Not all of Chopin’s compositions are as difficult to execute as his etudes.

E. Chopin, himself, acknowledged that he was primarily a composer, and would have composed even more difficult pieces had he the ability to play them.

正确答案是E：如果肖邦承认自己主要是个作曲家，如果有能力演奏的话，他会写出更难的钢琴曲。

我觉得这个答案不合理之处在于，这只能说明肖邦自己认为，他的演奏能力还有提高的空间。但他的观点是否能影响作者对他演奏水平的评判？毕竟作者用到的论据是“after all, he was able to play, from start to finish, all twenty-four of his etudes, a set of pieces so demanding that even today’s great pianists feel taxed after performing them. ”（肖邦能够完整地演奏自己的24支练习曲，而演奏这些曲子即使是对今时今日最伟大的钢琴家来说仍然是非常费力的）

既然他已经能演奏这些很难的曲子了，就说明他的水平已经在客观上达到了一个高度啊……

岳然UID：3654715

I submit that impact of solid bodies is the most fundamental of all interstellar processes that have taken place on the terrestrial planets: without impact, Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury would not exist.

Simply put, the collision of smaller objects is the process by which the terrestrial planets were born. On the surface, that the geological record of the earliest history of impacts on the terrestrial planets has been lost, is troubling. As the process is self-erasing, to a certain extent, the earliest record would have been lost even if processes of melting and internal evolution of the planets had not occurred. But much of the record of the last stages of accretion of the planets is preserved, especially on the moon, Mercury, and Mars. In fact, the last stage of accretion is still going on, albeit at a very slow rate.

This is fortunate, because we can study many aspects of the processes of planetary birth by investigation of the nature of small bodies that still exist, the dynamics of their orbital evolution, and the effects that they produce when they ultimately collide with a planet. If impact and accretion were not still occurring, it would be hard to come to grips with a number of difficult problems of planetary origin and early evolution.

The author suggests that at least some of “a number of difficult problems...” can be understood by


A. extrapolating from observable phenomenon

B. anticipating the result of the collision of small bodies

C. studying the rate of accretion on planets

D. observing the internal process of planets

E. discounting the dynamics of how orbits change over time

正确答案是A……排除法的话确实只剩下A，但这也太vague了吧？真正考试的时候会有这种答案么……

无敌浩克OneUID：3605802

这题我觉得原文的点在于，认为能弹奏有难度的曲子就是钢琴家，而E说的是不能弹，说明能力有限。而其他的选项都没有涉及难度，所以更错

下一题还没做，感觉有的题目其实有点牵强，只能选相对来讲更对的那个

岳然UID：3654715

无敌浩克One 发表于 2015-10-1 07:05
这题我觉得原文的点在于，认为能弹奏有难度的曲子就是钢琴家，而E说的是不能弹，说明能力有限。而其他的选项 ...

好吧，也只能这么理解了