河南省专升本英语考试历年试题失误分析
2016-03-18史晓南河南化工职业学院河南郑州450042
史晓南(河南化工职业学院,河南 郑州 450042)
河南省专升本英语考试历年试题失误分析
史晓南
(河南化工职业学院,河南郑州450042)
摘要:自河南省于2001年采取考试方式选拔优秀专科毕业生到本科院校深造以来,专升本英语考试已经走过了14个年头。其中语法单项选择题所占分值比例一直很大。但由于其出题内容仍然受上世纪八九十年代的规定主义语法的影响,该考试忽视了语法的规定性和用法的灵活性之间的辩证关系并沿袭了陈旧的中考、高考、英语四级和考研英语的语法知识点,成为考题失误出现最多的地方。本文尝试分析这些失误,并对专升本英语考试的改革提出建议。
关键词:专升本英语试题;语法;用法
Abstract:It is fourteen years since Henan Province carried out TOP-UP English Test (the English test for asso-ciate bachelors to enter four-year system colleges and universities and to receive a bachelor's degree), in which sin-gle choice of grammatical points account for a large part in total marks. Influenced by prescriptive grammar in 1980s and 1990s, the test neglects the dialectical relation between grammatical prescriptiveness and flexibility of usages and follows grammatical points in old-fashioned, in which most errors are made. The article tries to analyze those errors in order to put forward suggestions for reform in TOP-UP English Test.
Keywords:TOP-UP English Test ; grammar; usages
一、分析
专升本英语考试的试题失误主要体现在以下几个知识点。
(一)关于no use的用法
It's no use ______.(公共2001,18)
A. compainingB. complainC. to complain D. to be complained
It is no use ______ me not worry about his injury.(公共2008,17)
A. for you to tellB. your tellingC. you tellD. having told
It's no use ______ with him since he has made up his mind.(公共2010,31)
A. to argueB. arguingC. to be arguedD. argued
Michael Swan的《实用英语用法》以及我国的许多英语著作都将It's no use to do视为错误用法,但是It's no use to do的用法也常见于著名作家的著作中,并得到许多语言学家的认可。Erade认为,两种用法都是正确的;其细微的差别仍然可以用传统语法中关于动名词和不定式的区别这一知识点来解释:动名词表示经常的状况,不定式表示某一具体情况。
(二)关于all that和all which的用法
The final examination will cover all ______ taught this term.(公共2002,2)
A. what has beenB. that has beenC. that wasD. which has been
which用作all的关系代词的用法很少见,但也不能算错误,章振邦的《新编英语语法》和薄冰的《英语词汇札记》等权威英语著作已将这种用法视为正确,例如:
This is all which Mr. Black could offer.
That is about all which is necessary to say about the movie.
(三)关于except和except for的用法
______ a young man, the office was empty.(公共2004,2)
A. But forB. Except forC. BesidesD. Ex-cept
His son is quite well now, ______ a slight fever.(公共2005,13)
A. exceptB. besidesC. in addition toD. except for
It was almost dark in the street ______ a few very pow-erful spotlights.(公共2008,18)
A. excludingB. except forC. exceptD. but for
The classroom is quite clean ______ some waste paper on the floor.(专业2005,19)
A. except forB. exceptC. besidesD. without
钱歌川先生在《英文疑难详解》中详细分析了except和except for用法上的区别;F. T. Wood对于二者也作过类似的区分,其基本观点为表示同一类并列事物的时候用except;反之,不是表示同一类事物之间用except for。这种观点是符合传统语法观点的。但是目前人们在使用二者时表现出了极大的灵活性。现代语言学家们也对这种灵活表现出了宽容的态度:R. A. Close和LDCE的编者们认为except与except for在许多情况下已不存在上述区别。因此上述题目中均可选except选项。
(四)祈使句的反义疑问句的用法
Go and get some water, ______?(公共2003,23)
A. don't youB. shall youC. can't youD. won't you
Don't forget to walk the dog while I am away, ______?(公共2007,15)
A. will youB. do youC. shall youD. can you
赵振才主编的《英语常见问题解答大词典》明确指出:肯定祈使句的反义疑问句用will you, won't you, can you, can't you均可,而否定祈使句的反义疑问句则使用can you或will you。因此上述试题均有多个正确答案。
(五)倒装的让步状语从句
Smart ______ he is, he can't find the answer to this question.(公共2004,4)
A. likeB. asC. thatD. how
倒装的让步状语从句不仅可由as引导,也可以由that来引导,出题人估计没有意识到that也是正确的用法。
(六)表语从句
The fact is ______ exists no life on the moon.(公共2004,10)
A. thatB. whereC. thereD. that there
出题人过分强调了书面语的权威性,而引导表语从句的that在口语中往往省略,因此C、D均为正确答案。
(七)confess的用法
Finally the accused confessed to ______ the girl.(公共2004,16)
A. killB. killingC. have killedD. having killed
张道真的《现代英语用法词典》中详述了confess的用法:confess doing/having done, confess to doing/having done均为正确的用法。
(八)ING分词和ED分词的区别
______ out of the taxi, he was seized by the police.(公共2005,4)
A. To stepB. When steppedC. In his stepping D. On his stepping
该题参考答案为B。很明显是错误的。因为当状语从句中的主语和主句的主语一致,并且从句中有be动词时,可以将从句中的主语和be动词一起省略,B选项的完整形式为When he was stepped out of the taxi, he was seized by the police. 而step这个动作和逻辑主语为主动关系。正确答案应为D。
(九)marry的用法
"Your daughter has two children, doesn't she?"(公共2005,19)
"Yes. She ______ in 1980."
A. marriedB. had marriedC. was married D. got married
该题参考答案为D。D选项之所以正确是因为get+过去分词或形容词可以表示行为动作;虽然人们更倾向于用get mar-ried来表示“结婚”这一行为,但A选项也是正确的,是因为marry是一个一次性动词,其过去式可以表示过去的行为。
(十)介词but的用法
The departure time of the plane has been postponed, so we have nothing to do now but _____.
(公共2006,11;专业2011,22)
A. waitB. to be waitingC. to waitD. waiting
英语语法里有一条规则:表示例外的介词(but, except等)可以与不带to的动词不定式连用,当然也可以与带to的动词不定式连用。至于在这种用法里but,except等究竟是介词还是连词,英美语言学家们至今也没有一致的意见。一般的倾向是:在but和except之前有实义动词do的某种形式时,其后的动词不定式符号to可以省略。
(十一)时态的用法
I told you yesterday that city ____ larger than I thought it would be. Well, the business section is smaller than I thought it would be.(公共2007,73)
A. wasB. isC. has beenD. should be
该题参考答案为A。很显然应使用be动词的一般现在时is表示客观情况;而且与后句中的is形成照应。
(十二)名词普通格做定语
My daughter and I took a ______ tour around New York City.(公共2009,39)
A. two dayB. two day'sC. two-daysD. two-day
语言事实以及语言学家的论述(夸克等人的《英语语法大全》)明确告诉我们:撇号在与复数的时间名词连用时可以省略的,例如:several weeks'/weeks vacation;a ten days'/days ab-scence。
二、建议
根据以上失误总结,笔者提出如下合理化建议。
1.减少单选题所占分值。高考也在进一步压缩此种题型的分值;考研英语和英语四级考试先后取消该题型,也从侧面印证了这一建议的合理性。
2.语法知识应放在语篇中进行考查。受到语篇语言学的影响,2003年之后进行的考研英语中,所有的语言知识点均通过阅读和写作两种技能进行考查。而教学和考试实践证明,孤立的语法单选题对提高学生的阅读写作能力收效甚微。
3.进一步提高出题人水平,并在考试前对试题严格把关。2012年英语专业试题无法全部获取,原因就在于失误较多被封存。该考试也属于高考的组成部分,应出题严谨,严肃对待。
三、结束语
不宜再把不符合传统语法或者规定主义理念的用法判为典型错误加以批判,而应让学生了解更多鲜活的语言材料。纯语法的单选题已经不能适应现代外语教育发展的需要。可喜的是,这几年专升本考试也在进行积极的改进:在单选题中侧重考查词汇和固定搭配,纯语法结构的题由于上述缺陷,所占分值正在进一步减少。希望专升本英语考试按照现代英语教学的理论和实践的需要,并考虑高考、四六级和考研英语之间的衔接,进行必要的改革。
参考文献
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中图分类号:G642
文献标志码:A
文章编号:2096-000X(2016)03-0259-02
作者简介:史晓南(1982,2-),男,河南开封人,文学学士,讲师,研究方向:英语教育。