Question

The old idea that child prodigies (神童) “burn themselves” or “overtax their brains” in the early years, therefore, suffer from failure and (at worst) mental illness is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults.

To find this out, 1,500 gifted persons were followed up to their thirty-fifth years with these results:

On adult intelligence tests, they scored as high as they did as children. They were, as a group, in good health, physically and mentally. Eighty-four percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life.

About 70 percent had graduated from colleges, though only 30 percent had graduated with honors. A few had even flunked out (退學), but nearly half of these had returned to graduate.

Of the men, 80 percent were in one of the professions or in business, managerial or semiprofessional jobs. The women who had remained single had offices, business, or professional occupations.

The group had published 90 books and 1,500 articles in scientific, scholarly, and literary magazines and had collected more than 100 patents.

In a material way they didn’t do badly either. Average income was considerably higher among the gifted people, especially the men, than for the country as a whole, despite their comparative youth when last surveyed.

In fact, far from being strange, maladjusted (難以適應) people locked in an ivory tower, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality.

The main idea of the passage is __________.

A. that gifted adults can be as intelligent as when they were young

B. that bright children are unlikely to be physically and mentally healthy

C. that gifted children are most likely to become bright grown-ups

D. that when the bright children grow up, they become ordinary

From the passage, we can conclude that ____________.

A. most of the gifted children became white-collar workers

B. half of the gifted followed up graduated from colleges

C. each of the talented published at least one article

D. successful men got higher income than successful women

Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?

A. The gifted could not be fit for their social positions.

B. Most of the bright and successful women remained single.

C. The gifted men got full marks on intelligence tests.

D. Most of the gifted appeared satisfied with their life.

The explanation of the underlined part “turning their early promises into practical reality” is _____________.

A. earning their living and keeping promises             

B. doing practical jobs and facing reality

C. doing what they have promised                     

D. realizing what they were expected

Answer 1

【小題1】C

【小題2】A

【小題3】D

【小題4】D

解析:

此文的結構比較清晰，第1段提出觀點，The old idea that …is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults.雖然第一句很長，而且有難詞myth，但如果按照這里提供的方法，注意最基本的主句，就不影響理解，尤其是后面的as a matter of fact突出了事實應該是怎樣，才是關鍵內容，前面一句即使不懂都沒有關系。

從行文邏輯考慮，這一段用正反兩方面的話表明作者的觀點，以下就應當用事實論證。果不其然，從2段始至7段止，作者從幾個方面介紹了這些天資聰穎的孩子們所取得的驕人成績。

最后一段做總結，呼應第一段的觀點。In fact, far from being …, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality.

【小題1】　考查文章的主旨大意，對議論文來說，就是作者反復論證的觀點，所以答案是C。B、D明顯和第一段的觀點相反，易排除。相對而言，誤選A的學生較多，究其原因在于沒有分清文章中的事實和觀點。

【小題2】這種提問方式可涵蓋全文也可涉及細節；本題主要是細節，并需要簡單的概括推理，答案是A。調查的人中大學畢業率是70%，所以B錯。文章只給出了出版文章的總數，但沒說明該群體具體出版文章數量的比例，所以C也錯。D乍一看很對，但本文談的主題是gifted people，不是successful people，所以是偷換概念，也不對。

【小題3】這是一道細節題。根據原文84 percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life.可確定答案為D，同時排除B。A明顯有悖于文章的觀點，所以錯。C選項中說的滿分也不符合原文。

【小題4】本題考查對難句的理解。此句看似簡單，劃線部分的每一個詞都為考生所熟知，但是這里promise指(成功的)希望，而作為動詞的promise指承諾或（某物）有可能…。遇到意思不太明確的詞或句時，一定要注意根據主旨大意，上下文來確定，因為考查點一定是重要的內容。所以即使不太明白意思這句，也可以從結構判斷，既然它是總結，對首段觀點做呼應，它和首段第二句意思的肯定接近。所以為D，神童像人們期望的那樣長大也有所作為。