2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 81

Unit 81

When I applied under Early Decision to the University of Pennsylvania four years ago, I was motivated by two powerful emotions: ambition and fear. The ambition was to fulfill my lifelong expectation of attending an Ivy League school; the fear was that without the advantage offered by Early Decision, I wouldn’t make the cut. A Penn admissions officer told me that the previous year they had accepted 45 percent of Early Decision applicants and just 29 percent of total applicants. The implication was clear: applying under Early Decision dramatically improves your chances of acceptance. At Brown University, my other favorite, applying early did not confer any advantage. While Brown was my No. 1 choice, Penn was a close second, and I desperately wanted to make sure I got into one of the two.

I applied just before the Nov. 1 deadline, and six weeks later I got my acceptance package. I was thrilled and relieved. While my friends spent winter vacation finishing as many as 18 applications each, I relaxed. On a school trip to France over spring break, I drank wine while everyone else struggled with international calling cards to phone home and find out where they’d been accepted. People cried about getting rejected, or began the difficult and agonizing process of choosing between two or more schools. Strangely, none of this made me feel better about having applied early. It made me feel worse. When a lot of people from my class got into Brown, I wondered if I, too, could have.

Penn sent a discombobulating array of material to incoming freshmen over the summer. As the pile of mail mounted, so did my concerns that I had made the wrong choice. I had been to Penn only one day, in October of my senior year. I realize now I did not know nearly enough about myself or the school. Picking classes was far more arcane than I had expected （or than it would have been at a smaller school）. And when I got to the campus, I found that fraternities and sororities were a more noticeable and obnoxiouspresence than the 30 percent student membership had suggested to me.

It wasn’t long before I knew Penn was not right for me and I looked into transferring. For me, it was about more than just changing schools. I wanted to have the traditional application experience I’d missed out on during my first go-round. The only school on my list that allowed transfers during the second semester of freshman year was Wesleyan, so I waited out the whole year, then applied to Yale, Brown and Wesleyan. I got into Wesleyan. The irony that I could have gotten in sooner, without getting rejected by the other schools, was not lost on me. But I know I made the right decision.

To high-school seniors who want to avoid making the same mistake I did, my advice is simple: don’t apply under Early Decision unless you are absolutely sure that the school is your first choice. And, just as important, don’t let your parents or college-guidance counselor persuade you to apply under Early Decision. They may have their own agenda, or at least their own perception of who you are and what you want. As I discovered, no one can really know what you want better than yourself, and even you may need time to figure out what that is.

注（1）：本文選自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2002年真題Text 3。

1. The main reasons for the author to apply under Early Decision are ______.

A) pride and ambition

B) dream and fear

C) easiness and effort-saving

D) trouble-saving and release

2. It can be inferred from the text that the main advantage of Early Decision is that ______.

A) you can graduate from the high school earlier

B) you don’t need to worry about the results

C) you needn’t take the entrance examination

D) you’re more likely to be accepted

3. The description of the author’s feelings in Paragraph 2 shows that ______.

A) he is satisfied with his choice

B) there are many advantages of being accepted earlier

C) less effort is needed under Early Decision

D) he is happy with but doubts about his decision

4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that ______.

A) a full consideration is needed before applying

B) students should avoid the shortcut

C) a quick decision will do you no good

D) the author shouldn’t apply under Early Decision

5. From the text we can see that the writer seems ______.

A) regretful

B) optimistic

C) gloomy

D) sensitive

篇章剖析

本文是一篇記敘文，以作者的親身經歷講述了“優(yōu)先申請”政策帶給自己的苦與樂。第一段講述了我為什么要考慮使用“優(yōu)先申請”政策；第二段指出這一政策在開始時帶給我的甜頭；第三段指出自己進大學后的煩惱；第四段指出我的補救措施；第五段提出自己對其他人的忠告和建議。

詞匯注釋

confer /k?n?f??(r)/ vt. 賜給（稱號、學位等）；帶來

agonizing /??g?na?z??/ adj. 苦惱的，痛苦難忍的

discombobulate /?d?sk?m?b?bj?le?t/ vt. 使混亂，使泄氣，使困惑

array /??re?/ n. 排列，編隊；軍隊；衣服；大批

mount /ma?nt/ vi. 增長

arcane /ɑ??ke?n/ adj. 神秘的，不可思議的

fraternity /fr??t??n?ti/ n. 兄弟關系，友愛，互助會，兄弟會

sorority /s??r?r?ti/ n. 婦女聯誼會，女學生聯誼會

obnoxious /?b?n?k??s/ adj. 不愉快的，討厭的

lost /l?st/ adj. 不產生效果的

agenda /??d?end?/ n. （pl.）議程

難句突破

And when I got to the campus, I found that fraternities and sororities were a more noticeable and obnoxious presence than the 30 percent student membership had suggested to me.

主體句式：I found that...

結構分析：本句句型結構并不復雜，重點在于對that引導的賓語從句中more...than的理解。

句子譯文：進校后，我發(fā)現大學生聯誼會比比皆是，其討嫌程度遠勝過吸引我入會的所謂30%的各類學生會員。

題目分析

1. B 細節(jié)題。原文對應信息是“I was motivated by two powerful emotions: ambition and fear. ”

2. D 推理題。原文對應信息是“The implication was clear: applying under Early Decision dramatically improves your chances of acceptance. ”作者希望提高錄取的幾率，所以才放棄了申請自己的第一選擇——布朗大學，而選擇了賓夕法尼亞州大學。

3. D 推理題。第二段前半部分描述了作者釋然、悠閑的狀態(tài)，這和他的同學形成了鮮明的對比。而最后一句“When a lot of people from my class got into Brown, I wondered if I, too, could have. ”卻又道出了他的不甘和遺憾。

4. A 推理題。文章前幾段描述了作者依據“提前決定”政策選擇賓夕法尼亞州大學的前因后果，最后一段總結了他的經驗教訓。并不是他的做法不對，而是有些欠考慮。

5. A 情感態(tài)度題。通讀全文，作者表現更多的情感是后悔。

參考譯文

四年前，當我根據“提前決定”的原則申請賓夕法尼亞州立大學的時候，有兩種強烈的情感促使我這么做：雄心和恐懼。我的雄心是我要實現上名牌大學的夙愿，恐懼的是如果沒有“提前決定”政策帶來的有利條件，我就無法走此捷徑。賓夕法尼亞州立大學負責招生工作的人告訴我，去年他們錄取了45%的“提前決定”的考生，而從其他申請者中只錄取了總數的29%。這就清楚地表明：“提前決定”政策能大大提高被錄取的幾率。布朗大學是我青睞的另一所學校，但提前申請沒有任何好處。布朗大學是我的第一個選擇，而賓夕法尼亞州立大學是我的第二選擇，我非常希望我能保證進入其中的一所。

在11月1日這個最后期限之前，我提交了申請。六周之后，我收到了錄取書。我激動萬分，如釋重負。當我的朋友們在寒假期間忙著提交多達18份申請書的時候，我悠然自得。在學校組織的春假法國之旅中，當我悠然喝酒的時候，其他同學卻憂心忡忡，用國際電話卡打電話回家看自己是否被錄取。有人因為沒被錄取而傷心落淚，有人開始艱難而又痛苦地從兩所或更多的學校中進行選擇。奇怪的是，我沒有因為已經提前申請好了而感到高興，相反，我感覺很糟糕。當我班有很多同學考上了布朗大學時，我特別想知道如果我也報考的話，是否也能考上。

賓夕法尼亞州立大學給暑期過后即將入學的新生寄來了一大堆令人困惑的材料。隨著郵件的增多，我的擔心也隨著增長。我擔心我做出了錯誤的選擇。我只在賓夕法尼亞州立大學待過一天，那是在我畢業(yè)那年的十月份。我現在意識到我不僅對自己也對這所學校缺乏足夠的了解。選課讓我著實摸不著頭腦，這遠遠超過了我預想的情況（或起碼比稍小點的學校情況復雜）。進校后，我發(fā)現，大學生聯誼會比比皆是，其討嫌程度遠勝過吸引我入會的所謂30%的各類學生會員。

沒過多久我就發(fā)現賓夕法尼亞州立大學不適合我，于是我就著手轉學。對我來說，這不僅僅是換學校的問題。我想彌補我在第一輪申請中錯過的傳統申請經歷。允許我選擇在第一年第二學期轉學的唯一一所學校是衛(wèi)斯理教派大學。我等了整整一年，接著又申請了耶魯大學、布朗大學和衛(wèi)斯理教派大學。我能很快被衛(wèi)斯理教派大學錄取。我本來可以在未遭到其他學校拒絕的情況下被該校錄取，但這種極具諷刺意味的事這回又在我身上應驗了。不過，我知道這次的決定是正確的。

對于那些想避免犯跟我一樣錯誤的高中畢業(yè)班的學生來說，我的建議很簡單：除非你百分之百確定那所學校就是你的第一選擇，否則不要按“提前決定”的政策進行申請。還有一點也很重要，不要讓你的父母或者大學指導顧問說服你去按“提前決定”的政策進行申請。他們可能有他們自己的計劃，或者他們至少對你的為人和你的期望有自己的看法。我認為，沒人能比你自己更能真正了解你想要什么，甚至有時我們也需要時間來思考一下自己想要什么。