SAT阅读题目练习:

　　Passage 1

　　http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/oration-in-memory-of-abraham-lincoln/

　　Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln

　　By Frederick Douglass

　　Truthis proper and beautiful at all times and in all places, and it is never moreproper and beautiful in any case than when speaking of a great public man whoseexample is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after hisdeparture to the solemn shades, the silent continents of eternity. It must beadmitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monumentwe have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense ofthe word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations,in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.(Frederick Douglass认为林肯的立场与黑人的立场不同)

　　He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare ofwhite men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of hisadministration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country. In all his education and feeling he was an American of the Americans. He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. (林肯开始只是反对奴隶制的扩张，但没有提出废除。)His arguments in furtherance of this policy had theirmotive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his ownrace. To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states where it existedAbraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the swordof the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed guarantees of theUnited States Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside theslave states. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his guilty master were already inarms against the Government. The race to which we belong were not the special objects of his consideration. (这里又在划分作为黑人的我们与白人的界限。)Knowing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens, a pre-eminence in this worship at once full and supreme.First, midst, and last, you and yours were the objects of his deepest affectionand his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by forces ofcircumstances and necessity. (继续划分界限)To you it especially belongs to sound his praises,to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon your walls, and commend his example, for to you he was a great and glorious friend and benefactor. Instead of supplanting you at his altar, we would exhort you to build high his monuments; let them be of the most costly material, of the most cunning workmanship; let their forms be symmetrical, beautiful, and perfect, let their bases be upon solid rocks, and their summits lean against the unchanging blue, overhanging sky, and let them endure forever! But while in the abundance of your wealth, and in the fullness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat you to despise not the humble offering we this day unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.(后面一直在划清你们和我们的界限。)

　　Passage 2

　　http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/an-abraham-lincoln-memorial-address-in-philadelphia/

　　An Abraham Lincoln Memorial Address in Philadelphia

　　By Booker T Washington

　　You ask one whom the Great Emancipator found a piece of property and left an American citizen to speak of Abraham Lincoln. My first acquaintance with our hero and benefactor is this: Night after night, before the dawn of day, on an old slave plantation in Virginia, I recall the form of my sainted mother,bending over a batch of rags that enveloped my body, on a dirt floor, breathing a fervent prayer to Heaven that “Marsa Lincoln” might succeed, and that one day she and I might be free; and so, on your invitation, I come here to-night to celbrate with you the answer to those prayers. But be it far from me to revive the bitter memories of the past, nor would I narrow the work of Abraham Lincolnto the black race of this county; rather would I call him the Emancipator of America—the liberator of the white man North, of the white man South; the one who, in unshackling the chains of the Negro, has turned loose the enslaved forces of nature in the South, and has knit all sections of our country together by the indissoluble bonds of commerce. To the man in the North who cherished hatred against the South, Lincoln brought freedom. (Booker T Washington一直认为黑人主动通过辛苦努力在和白人融合，同时白人也应该在其地位不受影响条件下给黑人机会。这是这种比较柔和的思想使得他认为林肯也是在为黑人的权利而努力。)To the white man who landed at Jamestown years ago, with hopes as bright and prospects as cheering as those who stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock, Lincoln, for the first time, gave an opportunity to breathe the air of unfettered freedom—a freedom from dependence on others’ labor to the independence of self-labor; freedom to transform unused and dwarfed hands into skilled and productive hands; to change labor from drudgery into that which is dignified and glorified; to change local commerce into trade with the world; to change the Negro from an ignorant maninto an intelligent man; to change sympathies that were local and narrow into love and good- will for all mankind; freedom to change stagnation into growth,weakness into power; yea, to us all, your race and mine, Lincoln has been agreat emancipator.(以上大段的排比，气势宏大，论证了林肯努为黑人权利进行的改变)

　　SAT阅读题目解析:

　　第一篇来自Frederick Douglass-Oration in memory of Abraham Lincoln。第一篇文章主要观点是林肯虽然废奴，但是其实都是为了自己的利益。

　　第二篇来自于Booker T.Washington。第二篇观点则是林肯废奴其实对于美国各个阶层和人群都是非常有好处的。

　　如果大家学过普通美国历史、SAT2美国历史或者AP美国历史，不难看出这次双篇美国历史文章是对林肯关于废奴观点的评论。如果学过美国历史，我们不会不知道这两个黑人领袖，Douglass相对激进，而Booker T. Washington相对温和，主张黑人先不要追求过多政治主张，而是帮助白人多做一些具体的事情，而白人也要多帮助黑人的一种渐渐的融合。如果有了这样的背景知识，这篇文章读起来就不会太难。

　　还有一个观点，阅读毕竟是阅读，不是光是学习历史常识，因此，在学习学科知识的同时，一定要读起来，提高词汇量，理解力，培养快速领会作者意思的能力。背景知识有助于我们理解，但必须通过长期的阅读训练才能提高阅读和写作能力。只有读懂了，才能把题作对，而不是靠蒙对答案。

　　总之，通过这个双篇历史题材，我感觉历史背景的积淀对于读懂历史题材文章至关重要，而读懂文章才能确保作对题目。在阅读时间非常紧张的情况下，这些功底是需要学生平时长期积淀的，而不是突击培训出来的。