巧舌如簧的英国佬 - FT速读测试

速读测试：巧舌如簧的英国佬

本文作者为英国《金融时报》专栏作家西蒙·库柏（Simon Kuper）。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
workaholic	工作狂
confess	承认，忏悔
albeit	尽管，即使
marvel at	对…惊奇
rhetoric	巧善言辞，华而不实的言语
verbal	词语的，口头的
eloquence	口才，雄辩

常见问题

阅读FT对你有什么好处？

对于全球的商业精英来说，阅读英国《金融时报》是每天必须进行的修炼。《金融时报》的文章以分析见长，逻辑严密，特别适合准备GRE和GMAT的考生。培生集团推出的PTE考试的阅读题，就是利用了FT的文章来做阅读理解。

阅读速度多快才够用？

在信息爆炸的今天，能够迅速地阅读和理解大量资料，已成为所有人必不可少的技能。对于准备参加各种英语测试的考生来讲，阅读速度可能是决定成绩的关键。要想在GRE和GMAT的考试中拿到高分，你的阅读速度至少要达到每分钟200字。

如何迫使自己提高阅读速度?

我们有一个自动滚屏的工具来帮助你提高速度。点击该按钮后，屏幕就开始滚动，迫使你改掉向回看的习惯，加快速度。默认为每分钟140字（朗读速度）。随着你的技能提升，你可以挑战更高的速度，直到达到1000。

小字速度：+ -

阅读以下文章

Speaking of the British 
By Simon Kuper

I recently went on a business trip with three members of the British ruling classes. The late-night banter over drinks was predictably excellent. Sometimes, though, we had to work. When that happened, my companions showed up unprepared and without notes – and did just fine. No wonder, because their entire education had been a lesson in winging it. They knew that all you need to succeed is to speak well, and that’s what the British ruling classes do: they speak well.

I’m talking about the caste of Britons who attended private school and/or Oxbridge before joining the establishment: senior politicians, civil servants, lawyers, pontificators and the better-dressed sort of banker. It’s the class of Tony Blair, David Cameron, Christopher Hitchens, Anne Robinson and Simon Cowell: the people who speak English better than the rest of the world.

Even the entrance exam for the British establishment chiefly tests the ability to talk without knowledge. Good grades are not enough. You also need to perform in a peculiarly British ritual: the Oxbridge interview. It works like this: you are 17 years old. You are wearing a new suit. You travel to an Oxbridge college for your interview. You find the tutor’s rooms. Perhaps you’re served sherry, which you’ve never seen before. Then you talk. The tutors, sprawled on settees, drawl questions about whatever is keeping them awake. I know an applicant who was asked: “Don’t you think the Piazzetta San Marco in Venice looks like a branch of Barclays bank?” If you speak well, you get handed your entry ticket to the establishment.

You arrive at Oxbridge knowing little. After all, you probably did school exams in just three subjects. At university, you only study one. Often it’s English literature or history or Latin and Greek – the sort of subjects that have parents in other countries asking anxiously: “But what use will that be later?”

Nor is workaholic study encouraged. A South African relative of mine started his first “supervision” at Cambridge by confessing that he hadn’t read every single book on the reading list. “Good God,” said his supervisor, “nor have I. I put them down hoping that you’d look at a couple, and tell me what they said.”

Oxbridge’s teaching methods reward good talk. Aged 18, perhaps hungover, you read out your pitiful but elegant essay. The tutor points out gaps in your knowledge. For an hour, you talk your way around those gaps.

Traditionally, elite Britons then leave education aged 21. Until recently they rarely bothered with graduate school. Consequently, they know very little but speak very well, albeit only in English.

C.P. Snow, in his “Two Cultures” lecture of 1959, marvelled at their ignorance of basic science. Winston Churchill, for instance, had approved the misguided “area bombing” of Germany based on a flawed statistical study by his chief scientific adviser, Lord Cherwell. Of course Churchill couldn’t check the numbers. His forte was rhetoric. It’s no coincidence that his Nobel prize was for literature. And it’s no coincidence that Britain’s wartime king, George VI, is now known chiefly for his struggle – depicted in the film The King’s Speech – to speak well.

Numbers remain a challenge for Britain’s ruling class. It treats the City as a magical moneymaking machine, whose demands are best granted because lord knows how the thing works. Even the finance minister, George Osborne, has no education in economics beyond whatever he picked up studying history at Oxford. British public debate just doesn’t feature many numerate people such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or China’s ruling engineers. Britain’s own excellent engineers and quants are stuck in the engine room while the rhetoricians drive the train.

Britain’s rulers still struggle to judge scientific arguments about nuclear energy or climate change, writes the historian Lisa Jardine (who appears in this week’s Inventory). When Tony Blair hinted that Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” could hit London within 45 minutes, the establishment mostly believed him. Educated Americans would often praise Blair for arguing the case better than President Bush could. Yes, Blair spoke well. That’s what he did. Where there were gaps in his knowledge, he talked around them.

Blair had only one verbal shortcoming, which he shared with Margaret Thatcher: no sense of humour. But in general, Britain’s ruling classes are funny speakers. To quote Noël Coward, this class’s favoured playwright: “Since my life began/The most I’ve had is just/A talent to amuse.”

It was the urge to amuse that recently prompted Cameron to riff on an old TV ad and shout “Calm down, dear,” at a female Labour MP. No other western leader (except Silvio Berlusconi) would have risked the sexism, because they don’t need to be funny.

Admittedly, ignorance sometimes saves Britain’s rulers from error. Ignorant and suspicious of philosophy, they reject the daft ideas that sometimes ensnare the French or German elites. Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet.

选择正确答案

Which person of the following is thinked as a "rhetorician"?

正确！"It’s the class of Tony Blair, David Cameron, Christopher Hitchens, Anne Robinson and Simon Cowell: the people who speak English better than the rest of the world."

Warren Buffett
Bill Gates
David Cameron
All of the above

选择正确答案

Which of the following is NOT called "pontificators"?

"I’m talking about the caste of Britons who attended private school and/or Oxbridge before joining the establishment: senior politicians, civil servants, lawyers, pontificators and the better-dressed sort of banker.",故选择C项。

Senior politicians
Lawyers
Engineers
Civil servants

选择正确答案

Which best describes the author's outlook towards the UK's future as "eloquence running the country"?

正确！"Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet."

It hasn't worked out disastrously.
It is beneficial to the country.
It will surely destroy the country.
It is not feasible at all.

选择正确答案

Which of the following is CORRECT, according to the author?

正确！"George VI, is now known chiefly for his struggle – depicted in the film The King’s Speech – to speak well."故B项有误；"Even the finance minister, George Osborne, has no education in economics beyond whatever he picked up studying history at Oxford."故C项有误；"Blair had only one verbal shortcoming, which he shared with Margaret Thatcher: no sense of humour."，故D项有误。

The entrance exam for the British establishment chiefly tests the ability to talk without knowledge.
Winston Churchill, depicted in the film The King's Speech, is known chiefly for his struggle to speak well.
British public debate just doesn't feature many numerate people such as the finance minister George Osborne.
Blair is a good speaker and funny.

放松与总结

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您的正确率太低，在目前这个阶段，对你来说最重要的是提高英文水平和金融专业水平，而不是速度。请您点击后退仔细查看您答错的题目，并和原文对照。对原文中所有不懂的句子和知识点，也请一一查明。建议您：
1. 在进行下一次训练的时候，将滚屏速度保持在100以下。
2. 您可以找一些有声读物，如《经济学人》的audio edition，帮助你提高英文水平。

看得出你是非常认真来进行这次训练的，如果你坚持的话，你会获得非常大的提高。目前你的阅读速度偏低，可能是因为英文不是你的母语。不过，请不要放慢阅读速度。研究表明，阅读速度越快的人，其理解的正确率反而越高。因此，您可以同时提高您的阅读速度和理解能力。给你一点建议：
1. 一定要改掉默念的习惯
2. 不要一个词一个词的看，要学会把一个语义群当作一个整体来看。比如“an emergency $180bn injection of dollar”这个语义群，你要学会把他当作一个整体来看。
3. 看DVD的时候，切换到英文字幕。

用正常语速来朗读一篇文章，平均速度是每分钟140词。这说明你的阅读速度比朗读还要慢。建议您：1. 每一段的第一句话往往是最重要的。
2. “速读”最忌讳的就是“读”，不要一边看一边默念。
3. 在下一个训练中将滚屏速度设为140，迫使自己不能回头去看已经读过的部分。

您的阅读速度已经超过了正常语速，说明你已经开始有些速读的感觉了。美国大学生的最低阅读速度为每分钟250词，加把劲你就可以赶上了。建议您：
1. 养成习惯，读过的部分不要回头去看，这样会影响速读。
2. 加强“扫描”的训练，让自己的眼睛能“一目一行”。

您的阅读速度已经达到了美国大学生的水平，可喜可贺。不过作为金融从业人员，每天需要阅读数不清的中英文研究报告、公司年报、报刊杂志等，您还需要向每分钟350字进军。建议您：
1. 加强“扫描”的训练，让自己的眼睛能“一目两行”。
2. 对中英文的数字，尤其是大数字(million, billion)的转换进行总结和练习。

厉害，您的阅读速度已经超过了美国大学生的水平。不过，要成为巴菲特那样的金融专家，您需要锻炼出“一目十行”的火眼金睛。建议您在每次的训练中注意三个要点：
1. 您已经学会了将文章分成语义群，而非词来阅读，现在，你需要扩大每一个语义群中的词数。
2. 加快阅读每个语义群的速度。
3. 看过的内容尽量不要回看。

这就是传说中的“一目十行”吗？难以置信！

世界纪录才每分钟416,250字，居然被你破了！无语...

讨论和交流 请发表和本次测试相关的内容

讨论和交流请发表和本次测试相关的内容