AP Lang备考方法：Reasoning和Line of Reasoning

（一）

这篇文章想跟大家探讨如何训练AP Lang的阅读。

这个话题非常宏大，所以我想聚焦在一对概念上：reasoning 和 line of reasoning。

我之所以选取这一对概念，是因为它们足够典型，具备“以小见大”的能力，是Lang阅读考试的重要考点。同时，它们能够帮我们看出AP lang这门学科知识体系的构建和其他学科的不同。

Top Guardians

我简单归纳了三点：

PART 1

概念不够陌生化。国际学校或者美高的孩子从小学开始，reasoning这个词在语文课上估计听了不少次。相比之下，他们对以下概念会更加陌生。

心理学的cerebellum，diencephalon，amygdala；生物学的mitosis，meiosis；化学的lattice energy，VSEPR，hybridization，electronegativity等等。

如果概念足够陌生，读者会表现足够的虔诚。不亚于在健身房教练给你的一对体测指数，不明觉厉。相反，lang的概念太常听见了，以至于很多同学忽略了对他们定义的了解。

PART 2

长相相似，实质却不同。比如这两个词在Webster的定义：

简单来说，reasoning是一种argument，可以分为deduction（演绎法）和 induction（归纳法）两种。而line of reasoning重点在line，即达到conclusion前那些reasons是如何串起来。

PART 3

概念与概念的差别不是并列关系，而是多种关系。

人类思维的方式喜欢二元对立：A与非A。但是很多Lang的概念却不如此。比如典型的是metonymy（换喻）和 synecdoche（提喻）的差别并不是截然相反，而是前者包含了后者。

又比如，reasoning有两种模式，line of reasoning可以是deduction（演绎法），也可以是induction（归纳法）。

Top Guardians

考试的时候

（二）这两个考点是怎么考察的？

比如，题目会让我们判断是哪种reasoning：

Located in which paragraph, the thesis indicates which organizational pattern for this passage?

A. paragraph 1, deduction

B. paragraph 2, deduction

C. paragraph 4, induction

D. paragraph 5, induction

E. paragraph 6, induction

同时，题目也会出现这种考法：

The essay’s line of reasoning is developed by primarily using

A. familiar to unfamiliar

B. unfamiliar to familiar

C. induction

D. deduction

E. question and answer

通过这两个题目，证明了上述区别的第三点。两者不是截然对立。既然如此，为什么有必要去区分差别，比如第二点？

大家阅读下面Lang的真题文本节选，尝试抽取里面的line of reaoning：

I suppose none of us will doubt that everything possible should be done to improve the quality of the mind of every human being.—If it is said that the female brain is incapable of studies of an abstract nature, — that is not true: for there are many instances of women who have been good mathematicians, and good classical scholars. The plea is indeed nonsense on the face of it; for the brain which will learn French will learn Greek; the brain which enjoys arithmetic is capable of mathematics. — If it is said that women are light-minded and superficial, the obvious answer is that their minds should be the more carefully sobered by grave studies, and the acquisition of exact knowledge.—If it is said that their vocation in life does not require these kinds of knowledge, — that is giving up the main plea for the pursuit of them by boys;—that it improves the quality of their minds. —If it is said that such studies unfit women for their proper occupations,—that again is untrue. Men do not attend the less to their professional business, their counting-house or their shop, for having their minds enlarged and enriched, and their faculties strengthened by sound and various knowledge; nor do women on that account neglect the work-basket, the market, the dairy and the kitchen. If it be true that women are made for these domestic occupations, then of course they will be fond of them. They will be so fond of what comes most naturally to them that no book-study (if really not congenial to their minds)  will draw them off from their homely duties. For my part, I have no hesitation whatever in saying that the most ignorant women I have known have been the worst housekeepers; and that the most learned women I have known have been among the best,—wherever they have been early taught and trained to household business, as every woman ought to be.

The author’s rhetorical stance is characterized by a dynamic tension between her

(A)  appeal for change and her insistence that such a change does not threaten the status quo

(B)  celebration of women’s intellect and her apparent unwillingness to name examples of outstanding female thinkers

(C)  sympathy for women writers and her desire not to appear too partial toward them

(D)  efforts to valorize domestic labor and her obvious distaste for the drudgery of such work

(E)  concern for the state of women’s education and her conviction that men’s education needs reform as well

答案：A。

选择其他答案的同学，有两个主要原因：

壹

把所有女性主义的文章的主题简化：男女平等。有点类似于我们去日本旅游前，对日本的印象是街道干净整洁。之后，你兴高采烈地和朋友去了日本一趟，回来被问及你对日本的看法，你的回答是：干净和整洁。

贰

没有理解line of reasoning的精髓：line！reasons到conclusion是如何串起来的。

大家阅读下面Lang的真题文本节选，尝试抽取里面的line of reaoning：

（1）结论：I suppose none of us will doubt that everything possible should be done to improve the quality of the mind of every human being.(应该给女性教育)

（2）理由1: If it is said that the female brain is incapable of studies of an abstract nature, — that is not true:（她们有能力抽象思考）

（3）理由2: If it is said that such studies unfit women for their proper occupations,—that again is untrue……; nor do women on that account neglect the work-basket, the market, the dairy and the kitchen …… They will be so fond of what comes most naturally to them that no book-study (if really not congenial to their minds)  will draw them off from their homely duties.（学习不会耽误她们的工作）

如果足够敏感的读者会惊讶地发现，（3）到（1）的推导过程是ironic。理由是（1）的结论的确是男女平等，女性平等地有权力受到教育。但是理由（3）却是男权的。接受教育的前提是不能影响homely duties。这就是（3）和（1）体现题目的dynamic tension

结论，把（3）推到（1）的过程就是“line”的精髓，问自己是怎么推过去？日本真的只是干净和整洁吗？

（三）

经过上面论述，大家应该已经体会到这对概念的重要性。那如何训练这种能力？

提供四种解决办法：

1.真题。优点，贴近真实考试；缺点，题目有限。

2.教辅。优点，题目数量多；缺点，杂，且出题方式直白，非所有题符合考试特点。守壹团队对所有题目进行了深度筛选，选出适合练习的题目。

3.国外获奖文章。优点，比lang考试的文章长，而且难度稍微更高。守壹团队统计了lang真题阅读里面的主题特点，结合真题出题思路，我们选取了国外获奖文章，带着学生练习。（不是小说、戏剧、诗歌，这些是lit的内容）。缺点，自己筛选需要大量时间，且不知道自己分析的质量如何。

4.原版阅读。如果时间充裕，追求比3更高难度，我们会和学生讨论经典文本，分析里面的line of reasoning：

阅读Karl Marx（马克思）的 Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844《1844经济哲学手稿》。讨论人是如何被异化？资本如何获得生命？通过重塑KM的line of reasoning，不再局限于知道结论。

阅读Friedrich Nietzsche（尼采）的The Birth of Tragedy。讨论人生的意义是什么？《悲剧的诞生》下面是通过对文本line of reasoning的分析讨论Aeschylus，Sophocles和Euripides的戏剧是如何推导出尼采对Dionysus（酒神）的推崇。

文本难度如下：

With those two gods of art, Apollo and Dionysus, we establish our recognition that in the Greek world there exists a huge contrast, in origin and purposes, between the visual arts, the Apollonian, and the non-visual art of music, the Dionysian. These two very different drives go hand in hand, for the most part in open conflict with each other and simultaneously provoking each other all the time to new and more powerful offspring, in order to perpetuate in them the contest of that opposition, which the common word “Art” only seems to bridge, until at last, through a marvellous metaphysical act of the Greek “will,” they appear paired up with each other and, as this pair, finally produce Attic tragedy, as much a Dionysian as an Apollonian work of art.

上课分析的节选：

篇幅关系无法一一列举，基本的逻辑是：

如果时间紧张，（1）无疑是最好的材料。

如果时间充裕，利用（2）（3）（4）让水平高于考试，无往而不利。