一道高考英语试题所引发思考.docVIP

一道高考英语试题所引发的思考 　　经过了一年多的紧张复习，高三同学们即将迎来2007年高考。然而，回顾近几年的高考英语命题，却有许多不尽人意的地方。 　　2006年高考英语山东卷第23题 Engines are to machines _____hearts are to animals. 　　A. as B. that C. what D. which 　　当时官方公布的答案是C. what，目前市面上各种辅导书也都给出了这个答案。然而，这个题的最佳答案应该是A. as，尽管如果没有as，what也是可以的。 　　为什么会出现这样的错误呢？一位高中英语教师告诉我，在高中英语课本中曾经出现过 “A is to B what C is to D” 这个句型。但这只能证明在这个句子中，选what 是可以的，并不能说明 what 是最佳答案。 　　当我用百度搜索时发现：Engines are to machines_____hearts are to animals 这句英文在网上很多地方都出现过，一般是在“高三英语单项选择题精选”的页面中，四个选项是 that、what、where 和which。 就这个题而言，答案当然是 what。 　　但2006年山东高考英语卷的四个选项是 A. asB. that.C. whatD. which 。命题者的本意如果是想考察上述what的句型，在设计题的时候就应该特别小心，不能把 as 出现在备选项中。 　　为了进一步确认，首先，我问了几个外教，他们都说就这孤立的、没有语境的一句话而言，as 是首选答案，这是毫无疑问的。其中，英籍教育专家 Mr. David Rowles 在给我的E-mail中说： 　　 As I said in my earlier e-mail，I think that context has a role to play in all this... my first “gut” reaction was “as”...and I think that “as” is better in a bald，no-context statement. If the “engines” statement comes at the end of a paragraph detailing similarities between engines and hearts，and maybe prefaced by “so”，then maybe “what” is more appropriate. But，as it stands without context， then “as” is better.省略 英文网站上发了帖子，寻求native speaker的帮助，在14个回复中，13人选择了as。 这是其中的一个回复： 　　The correct answer is “as”. This type of question is called an analogy. 　　Another and more popular example of one is： A glove is to hand as a shoe is to _____ (The answer is ‘foot’ because the glove covers/protects the hand， then the shoe must cover/protect whatever it is referring to.) 　　I hope that made sense to you. If I figure out a better way to explain it let you know. 　　再次，我且在BBC 的学习网站上也发了帖子，一位语言教师回复道： 　　I’d agree with you. Though ‘what’ is possible，it cannot be used in the sentence you have given as an example. If we use ‘what’ the relationship between the two parts has to be absolute. This is not the case. The engine of a machine does not perform the same function as the heart in an animal - the heart is simply a muscle that pumps，it does not provide any p