SAT阅读中的小说

每一套的阅读题目里，都会有一个长篇的小说题材的文章，一般都会是小说中的经典，对这些经典文章的阅读和理解，相对别的题材和话题的文章读起来更有一定的难度，在阅读这些文章的时候，技巧性的东西很少，对这种题材的理解主要依靠读者对于叙述文章的一个理解力和领悟力，但是有一点比较重要，经典的小说的故事情节都是在一个大的社会背景下展开的，例如工业革命，还例如第一或者第二世界大战等，如果独立的去理解文章，很难对文章有一个比较有深度的理解。

在很多的模拟试题，以及练习题中，很多的小说被提到，这些小说可能对于中国读者稍有陌生，但是在外国文学中很多都是经典，例如Stephen Crane的 Open Boat，再例如Jack London的 To build a fire，还例如the crimson petal and the white，当然最有名的是，英国小说家Charles ***ens 的Great Expectation,远大前程.

我选了Open Boat中的一小段关于小船在浪涛中颠簸的描写和以及中文翻译放在着，大家可以体会一下这段文字的魅力。

英文

     A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho, and, by the same token, a broncho is not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high. The manner of her scramble over these walls of water is a mystic thing, and, moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily these problems in white water, the foam racing down from the summit of each wave, requiring a new leap, and a leap from the air. Then, after scornfully bumping a crest, she would slide, and race, and splash down a long incline and arrive bobbing and nodding in front of the next menace.

     A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats. In a ten-foot dingey one can get an idea of the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience, which is never at sea in a dingey. As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water. There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests.

     In the wan light, the faces of the men must have been gray. Their eyes must have glinted in strange ways as they gazed steadily astern. Viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtlessly have been weirdly picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to see it, and if they had had leisure there were other things to occupy their minds. The sun swung steadily up the sky, and they knew it was broad day because the color of the sea changed from slate to emerald-green, streaked with amber lights, and the foam was like tumbling snow. The process of the breaking day was unknown to them. They were aware only of this effect upon the color of the waves that rolled toward them.

中文

     坐在这只船上，简宜就像坐在一只狂蹦乱跳的野马上，何况，野马也不比那船小多少。那船腾跃，竖起，栽下，就和那野马一样。每逢浪头打来，小船因此而颠起时，它好似一匹烈马向高耸的栅栏扑去。那船如何攀越过一道道水墙，实在令人不可思议。况且，到了滔滔的白色浪脊上，通常还存在这样的问题：浪花每次从浪峰上俯冲下来，小船就必须跟着再跳一次，而且是临空一跳。接着，小船目空一切地撞上一个浪头之后，便滑下一道长坡，风驰电掣，水花四溅，颠颠晃晃地来到了下一个威胁跟前。
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大海上有个特别不利的情况：当你成功地越过一个浪头之后，你发现后边又有一个浪头接踵而来，一样的气势汹汹，一样的急不可待，非要想方设法把小船吞没不可。在一条十英尺长的小船上，一个人可以了解大海如何善于兴风作浪；而对于一般从未乘小船漂海的人来说，这是无法了解的。每逢—垛蓝灰色的水墙涌来，船上的人便给挡得什么也看不见，因而也就不难设想，这个浪头是大海的最后一次爆发，是海水的最后一次逞凶。波涛的运动极为优雅，静静地荡来，只有浪脊在咆哮。
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在惨淡的光线中，那几个人的面孔准是灰白色的。他们目不转睛地盯着船尾，眼睛准是在奇怪地闪烁着。若是从戏院的楼厅上看去，这整个场面无疑是神奇而迷人的。但是，船上的人却无暇来观赏，即便有这闲暇，他们心里还要想着别的事情。太阳冉冉地升上天空，他们知道是大白天了，因为海的颜色由蓝灰色变成了碧绿，上面还夹带着琥珀色的光道，而那浪花好似滚滚白雪。夜去昼来的过程，他们并不知晓。他们只是从滚滚而来的浪涛的颜色上察觉到这番变化。