SAT阅读精讲（5）- 议论文段落逻辑之一

李嘉玉 主讲

That nineteenth-century French novelist Honore de Balzac could be financially wise in his fiction while losing all his money in life was an irony duplicated in other matters. For instance, the very women who had been drawn to him by the penetrating intuition of the female heart that he showed in his novels were appalled to discover how insensitive and awkward the real man could be. It seems the true source of creation for Balzac was not sensitivity but imagination. Balzac's fiction originally sprang from an intuition he first discovered as a wretched little school boy locked in a dark closet of his boarding school: life is a prison, and only imagination can open its doors.

                                                                                                  Questions:        

Style of passage: persuasive

Why?

What’s its thesis?

What are its supporting points?

What is its concluding idea?

The logic structure of this paragraph is as following:

一个众说周知的事实 is duplicated in other matters. 这不仅是主题句，也预示，接下来文章要讲诉other matters去印证作者的观点。  句子 “It seems the true source of creation for Balzac was not sensitivity but imagination.” 是推理和提出假设。接下来马上给出假设理由。

典型句子分析：

That (….) was duplicated in other matters. That = “nineteenth-century French novelist Honore de Balzac could be financially wise in his fiction while losing all his money in life.”

The women(…) were appalled to discover how...  

The women = “who had been drawn to him by the penetrating intuition of the female heart that he showed in his novels.”

模仿例子：

That Nanjing local government could be economically wise in its planning while wasting all of its taxation in life was an irony duplicated in other matters. For instance, the very people who had been drawn to the smart idea of the Nanjing municipal project “Separation of Rain and Waste” that the local government showed in its propaganda newspaper were appalled to discover how ineffective and awkward the project in facing of a few large rain falls in last few months. It seems the true source of motivation for the government was not strategic vision but ambition. Local government’s plan originally sprang from a vision it first discovered as greedy clerks locked in meeting rooms of their offices: life is a prison, and only ambition can open its doors.  

Homework 1: imitate it with one of your teachers to replace Balzac.

Homework 2: read it loudly few times and try to memorize it.