An Irish newspaper editorial encouraging women to participate in the non-importation movement launched in Ireland in 1779 appears consistent with a perception that the political use of the consumer boycott originated in North America and spread eastwards across the Atlantic to Ireland. This is a view that most historians have concurred with. For example, T.H. Breen argued that the consumer boycott was a brilliantly original American invention. Breen did acknowledge that a few isolated boycotts may have taken place in other countries. However, Mary ODowd argues that from the late seventeenth century, Irish political discourse advocated for the nonconsumption of imported goods and support for home manufactures by women in ways that were strikingly similar to those used later in North America.
體會下這兩道小題目
1. The passage is primarily concerned with
A. resolving a dispute
B. advocating a course of action
C. tracing the evolution of a practice
D. citing competing views of an issue
E. chronicling a series of events
2. In the context of the passage, the highlighted sentence serves to
A. qualify a point made in the preceding sentence
B. correct an erroneous assumption
C. provide evidence in support of a perception cited in the opening sentence
D. provide a rationale for the view expressed in the following sentence
E. establish the popularity of a point of view
解析
答案：1 D 2 A
你都做對了么?
我們一起來分析下：
文章開始，通過一篇新聞評論(newspaper editorial)引出主流觀點：抵制進口消費的政治運動起源于美國，傳播到愛爾蘭。T.H. Breen 是主流觀點的例子。However之后, 介紹Mary ODowd的相反觀點：愛爾蘭的婦女抵制進口品的歷史可以追溯到17世紀，它是有自己的歷史的，也就是說，不是起源于美國的。
第一題是文章主旨題。通過文章結(jié)構(gòu)分析可知答案D準確。A選項不準確，因為”resolving”需要作者明確表態(tài)支持哪個觀點，而該文作者沒有明確自己的觀點。
第二題是高亮句子功能題。高亮的句子為“Breen did acknowledge that a few isolated boycotts may have taken place in other countries.”這一句的上一句是說Breen認為抵制消費活動起源于美國，顯然高亮句是B做的讓步。A選項準確。下一句是Mary的完全相反的觀點：抵制行為起源于愛爾蘭，D選項不正確，高亮句不是為后句的觀點提供合理性。