季春五月，柳絮亂飛。風香雲淡，芳草萋萋。花濃葉綠，禽徜小溪。韓愈曰，「五月榴花照眼明，枝間時見子初成」。
今天上午，2018年美國高考SAT亞太5月考試結束，沃邦SAT教研組第一時間全方位回顧考情，以饗讀者。希望對本次考試的考生，以及準備參加今年8月北美的考生有所幫助。
本次考試閱讀整體難度中等，歷史類雙篇，觀點相似，比較少見。三篇科學類文章相對簡單。語法整體難度居中，考點常規，部分考點重複出現。數學整體簡單，無需複雜計算，考點重複，本文數學不做回憶。
閱讀部分
第一篇：小說
文章概述：
1835年，作者Nicolai Gogol ，選自小說「The MysteriousPortrait」
文章共4段
大意：講述一個年輕的畫家在為擺脫現實生活的窮困窘境而取悅大眾和維持高水準的藝術創作標準之間的矛盾。
第一段：簡要概括藝術家的創作風格和才華
第二段：教授對年輕藝術家的告誡，教授首先肯定藝術家的才華，但是又警告他要把心思放在賺錢和取悅大眾，追求流行上，教授已經發現了年輕藝術家有這方面的端倪。對此表示遺憾。認為別的畫家可以為賺錢流於俗套，但是Nchartkoff是有天賦的人，應該更耐心地把精力花在創作上。
第三段：Narrator陳述了artist的生活和心境。此人在繪畫時會廢寢忘食，而且有很高的藝術鑑賞力和才華。但是當沒錢付房租的時候，他也會羨慕那些既有錢又有名氣的畫家們。
第四段：narrotor 帶我們走進了藝術家的內心糾結，他用了一系列的反問句來表現心裡的矛盾和痛苦。他的那些嚴肅作品即使全部賣出，別人也不會給他幾個錢。不出名，那些人能了解他買他的畫作呢？教授讓自己耐心，但是耐心能讓他脫離這種貧困生活嗎？
題目：
第一題:大意題：the passage mainly concerns， (答案：the struggle the artist’s values)
第二題：段落目的題，the main purpose of the first paragraphis ，(答案：to present the main character’sartistic traits)
第三題&第四題：詢證題，the professor’sview of great art is， (答案：it should be artistic accomplished andnot garish)
第五題：詞彙題，fashionable， (答案：trendy)
第六題：細節推斷題，the professor and the artist differs intheir views concerning whether， (答案：gaining money is detrimental to artisticintegrity)
第七題：詞彙題，考want， (答案：need)
第八題&第九題：詢證題，問the artist’s view of highartistic standard is that ，(答案：it is laborious and does not get thedeserved compensation)
第十題：段落目的題，問the purpose of the last paragraph，(答案：tocatalogue the frustrations of the young artist)
文章原文：
Young Chartkov was an artist with a talent that promised much: in flashes and moments his brush bespoke power of observation, understanding, a strong impulse to get closer to nature.
"Watch out, brother," his professor had told him more than once, "you have talent; it would be a sin to ruin it. But you're impatient. Some one thing entices you, some one thing takes your fancy—and you occupy yourself with it, and the rest can rot, you don't care about it, you don't even want to look at it. Watch out you don't turn into a fashionable painter. Even now your colors are beginning to cry a bit too loudly. Your drawing is imprecise, and sometimes quite weak, the line doesn't show; you go for fashionable lighting, which strikes the eye at once. Watch out or you'll fall right into the English type. Beware. You already feel drawn to the world: every so often I see a showy scarf on your neck, a glossy hat. . . It's enticing, you can start painting fashionable pictures, little portraits for money. But that doesn't develop talent, it ruins it. Be patient.Ponder over every work, drop showiness—let the others make money. You won't come out the loser."
The professor was partly right. Sometimes, indeed, our artist liked to carouse or play the dandy—in short, to show off his youth here and there. Yet, for all that, he was able to keep himself under control. At times he was able to forget everything and take up his brush, and had to tear himself away again as if from a beautiful, interrupted dream. His taste was developing noticeably. He still did not understand all the depth of Raphael, but was already carried away by the quick, broad stroke of Guido, paused before Titian's portraits, admired the Flemish school. 6 The dark surface obscuring the old paintings had not yet been entirely removed for him; yet he already perceived something in them, though inwardly he did not agree with his professor that the old masters surpassed us beyond reach; it even seemed to him that the nineteenth century was significantly ahead of them in certain things, that the imitation of nature as it was done now had become somehow brighter, livelier, closer; in short, he thought in this case as a young man thinks who already understands something and feels it in his proud inner consciousness. At times he became vexed when he saw how some foreign painter, a Frenchman or a German, sometimes not even a painter by vocation, with nothing but an accustomed hand, a quick brush, and bright colors, would produce a general stir and instantly amass a fortune. This would come to his mind not when, all immersed in his work, he forgot drinking and eating and the whole world, but when he would finally come hard up against necessity, when he had no money to buy brushes and paints, when the importunate landlord came ten times a day to demand the rent. Then his hungry imagination enviously pictured the lot of the rich painter; then a thought glimmered that often passes through a Russian head: to drop everything and go on a spree out of grief and to spite it all. And now he was almost in such a situation.
「Yes! be patient, be patient!" he said with vexation. "But patience finally runs out. Be patient! And on what money will I have dinner tomorrow? No one will lend to me. And if I were to go and sell all my paintings and drawings, I'd get twenty kopecks for the lot. They've been useful, of course, I feel that: it was not in vain that each of them was undertaken, in each of them I learned something. But what's the use? Sketches, attempts—and there will constantly be sketches, attempts, and no end to them. And who will buy them, if they don't know my name? And who needs drawings from the antique, or from life class, or my unfinished Love of Psyche, or a perspective of my room, or the portrait of my Nikita, though it's really better than the portraits of some fashionable painter? What is it all, in fact? Why do I suffer and toil over the ABC's like a student, when I could shine no worse than the others and have money as they do?」
第二篇
文章概述：
一篇相對簡單直白的社會學科科研型文章，科研型文章的要素基本都有，諸如research question / experimental design / results / evaluation等。
文章主旨：研究記憶力和錯誤記憶(falsememory)的關係。第一段引出什麼是 false memory，並說了下它的嚴重性，清白的人可能會因為別人的錯誤記憶被指認為有罪（有題）。
有人推測記憶力好的人更不容易出現false memory。文章通過一個實驗，比較記憶力好的人和普通記憶的人，然後通過在實驗中認為設置一些幹擾記憶（錯誤記憶），比如sleep是pilow和bed的幹擾詞。
實驗結果：記憶力對錯誤記憶沒有影響。
倒數第二段說結果不讓人意外。
最後一段延伸到我們沒有關於記憶力強的definitive explanation。
題目：
第一題：詞彙題 curiosity。
第二題&第三題：細節信息加證據，考第一段結尾，false memory有害（damaging）。
第四題：詞彙題 exact。
第五題：考察實驗設計，問它設置的那些幹擾詞有什麼特點（criticallure）。
第六題：考倒數第二段主旨，別的科學家不意外。
第七題：考第6題的證據。
第八題：跟原文無關的圖表，很簡單，讀記憶力強組的Y軸。
第九題：跟原文無關的圖表題，結合兩個圖標考對照組的兩個Y值。
第十題：跟原文有關的圖表題，圖表信息支持了文章核心主旨，記憶力跟錯誤記憶的。
文章原文：
RememberThat? No You Don’t. Study Shows False Memories Afflict Us All
Even people with extraordinary memories sometimes make things up without realizing it
It’s easy enough to explain why we rememberthings: multiple regions of the brain — particularlythe hippocampus — are devoted to the job. It’s easy to understand why we forgetstuff too: there’s only so much any busy brain can handle. What’s trickier iswhat happens in between: when we clearly remember things that simply neverhappened.
The phenomenon of false memories iscommon to everybody — the party you’re certain you attended in high school,say, when you were actually home with the flu, but so many people have told youabout it over the years that it’s made its way into your own memory cache.False memories can sometimes be a mere curiosity, but other times they havereal implications. Innocent people have gone to jail when well-intentionedeyewitnesses testify to events that actually unfolded an entirely differentway.
What’s long been a puzzle to memoryscientists is whether some people may be more susceptible to false memoriesthan others — and, by extension, whether some people with exceptionally goodmemories may be immune to them. A new study in the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences answersboth questions with a decisive no. False memories afflict everyone — evenpeople with the best memories of all.
(MORE: Creating False Memories in Mice’s Brains — and Yours)
To conduct the study, a team led bypsychologist Lawrence Patihis of the University of California, Irvine, recruited a sample group of people all ofapproximately the same age and divided them into two subgroups: those withordinary memory and those with what is known as highly superiorautobiographical memory (HSAM). You』ve met people like that before, and theycan be downright eerie. They’re the ones who can tell you the exact date onwhich particular events happened — whether in their own lives or in the news — aswell as all manner of minute additional details surrounding the event that mostpeople would forget the second they happened.
To screen for HSAM, the researchershad all the subjects take a quiz that asked such questions as 「[On what date]did an Iraqi journalist hurl two shoes at President Bush?」 or 「What publicevent occurred on Oct. 11, 2002?」 Those who excelled on that part of thescreening would move to a second stage, in which they were given random,computer-generated dates and asked to say the day of the week on which it fell,and to recall both a personal experience that occurred that day and a publicevent that could be verified with a search engine.
「It was a Monday,」 said one personasked about Oct. 19, 1987. 「That was the day of the big stock-market crash andthe cellist Jacqueline du Pré died that day.」 That’s somepretty specific recall. Ultimately, 20 subjects qualified for the HSAM groupand another 38 went into the ordinary-memory category. Both groups werethen tested for their ability to resist developing false memories during aseries of exercises designed to implant them.
(MORE: This is Your Brain on Fairness)
In one, for example, theinvestigators spoke with the subjects about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks andmentioned in passing the footage that had been captured of United Flight 93crashing in Pennsylvania — footage, of course, that does not exist. In bothgroups — HSAM subjects and those with normal memories — about 1 in 5 people 「remembered」seeing this footage when asked about it later.
「It just seemed like something wasfalling out of the sky,」 said one of the HSAM participants. 「I was just, youknow, kind of stunned by watching it, you know, go down.」
Word recall was also hazy. Thescientists showed participants word lists, then removed the lists and testedthe subjects on words that had and hadn’t been included. The lists allcontained so-called lures — words that would make subjects think of other,related ones. The words pillow, duvet and nap, for example, might lead to a false memory of seeing the word sleep. All of the participants in both groups fell for the lures,with at least eight such errors per person—though some tallied as many as 20.Both groups also performed unreliably when shown photographs and fed luresintended to make them think they』d seen details in the pictures they hadn’t.Here too, the HSAM subjects cooked up as many fake images as the ordinaryfolks.
「What I love about the study is howit communicates something that memory-distortion researchers have suspected forsome time, that perhaps no one is immune to memory distortion,」 said Patihis.
What the study doesn’t do, Patihisadmits, is explain why HSAM people exist at all. Their prodigious recall is amatter of scientific fact, and one of the goals of the new work was to see ifan innate resistance to manufactured memories might be one of the reasons. Buton that score, the researchers came up empty.
「It rules something out,」 Patihissaid. 「[HSAM individuals] probably reconstruct memories in the same way thatordinary people do. So now we have to think about how else we could explain it.」He and others will continue to look for that secret sauce that elevatessuperior recall over the ordinary kind. But for now, memory still appears to befragile, malleable and prone to errors — for all of us.
第三篇
文章概述：
文章標題：beans』 talk 2013年，economist newspaper limited。
第一段，提出有一個現象，植物可能是相互聯繫的，當一個植物收到攻擊或者影響，就會像其他植物發出報警信號，就像 local Wi-Fi 一樣，那麼有一個理論被提出，是不是當有蚜蟲攻擊植物，植物就會通過一些 fungi 去給鄰居植物發出信號呢。
第二段，寫調查者通過之前對於該現象的研究發現，植物受到攻擊就會通過 irritate 而且發出相關信號去吸引 wasp，那麼現在基於這個結果，調查者要去進一步通過實驗調查的是到底是不是通過 fungi 發出的信號， fungi 到底是不是信息傳播者。
第三段，講解了實驗的一些基本情況，例如分為8個小組，每個實驗小組有5株植物，然後對於不同的植物進行不同的變量控制。
第四段，講解對於不同的實驗組進行變量控制之後出現的不同反應。
第五段，開始總結實驗結果和推理實驗結論，本段講解的是 infested 的植物是可以通過 fungi 發送信號給鄰居植物，並且吸引黃蜂，消滅蚜蟲的。
第六段，講解 uninfected 的植物所反映出來的實驗結果，其結果也同樣讓人驚訝。
最後一段，論述在植物中的細菌，菌類和植物之間的關係，其中正向情感詞 help 可以有效幫助解題。
題目：
第一題：文章目的題，問整篇文章的 purpose，其中正確答案應該理論通過實驗去論證，有幹擾項 undermine了一個理論等。
第二題：段落作用，考察第一段為後面引出討論起到了什麼樣的作用，其中迷惑選項有無中生有信息例如 parasite interaction 等，答案應該為將現象生活化，後面進行科學討論和研究。
第三題：細節題，考察作者在研究菌類和植物的關係，基於了哪些 old fact？答案應該出自信息 line 10，講到過去的研究表明植物可以釋放 volatile chemical。
第四題：細節題，問文章中調查人員做的實驗的實驗目的是什麼？根據文章行號line15 部分，可以看到有同義詞對應，本次試驗 set out 等，為了證明細菌等是否是被攻擊信息的傳播者。
第五題：詢證題，同上題。
第六題：段落作用題，問第三四段的段落作用是什麼， 解題應該更好理解三四段段落大意，明晰在整個實驗中的作用，三四段重點講解的是：試驗把植物分為幾組，並且各自控制何種變量，答案應為 experiment condition。
第七題：詞彙題考察 control 的語境含義，文章內容為兩種植物，one感染細菌，the other odorless control，選項有 force；restrictive mechanism等。
第八題：細節題，問實驗中能夠解釋為被感染細菌的植物吸引蚜蟲的原因，解題需要定位到倒數第二段，講解第二種實驗結果的部分。
第九題：觀點總結，題目問，通過文章能夠總結出 bean 和 fungi 之間的關係，定位到最後一段講解雙方關係，其中有兩help可以幫助解題，答案選項有 mutual beneficial.
第十題：詢證題同上一題。
文章原文：
Beans』 talk 2013年，economist newspaper limited
THE idea that plants have developed a subterranean internet, which they use to raise the alarm when danger threatens, sounds more like the science-fiction of James Cameron’s film 「Avatar」 than any sort of science fact. But fact it seems to be, if work by David Johnson of the University of Aberdeen is anything to go by. For Dr Johnson believes he has shown that just such an internet, with fungal hyphae standing in for local Wi-Fi, alerts beanstalks to danger if one of their neighbors is attacked by aphids.
Dr Johnson knew from his own past work that when broad-bean plants are attacked by aphids they respond with volatile chemicals that both irritate the parasites and attract aphid-hunting wasps. He did not know, though, whether the message could spread, tomato-like, from plant to plant. So he set out to find out—and to do so in a way which would show if fungi were the messengers.
As they report in Ecology Letters, he and his colleagues set up eight 「mesocosms」, each containing five beanstalks. The plants were allowed to grow for four months, and during this time every plant could interact with symbiotic fungi in the soil.
Not all of the beanstalks, though, had the same relationship with the fungi. In each mesocosm, one plant was surrounded by a mesh penetrated by holes half a micron across. Gaps that size are too small for either roots or hyphae to penetrate, but they do permit the passage of water and dissolved chemicals. Two plants were surrounded with a 40-micron mesh. This can be penetrated by hyphae but not by roots. The two remaining plants, one of which was at the center of the array, were left to grow unimpeded.
Five weeks after the experiment began, all the plants were covered by bags that allowed carbon dioxide, oxygen and water vapor in and out, but stopped the passage of larger molecules, of the sort a beanstalk might use for signaling. Then, four days from the end, one of the 40-micron meshes in each mesocosm was rotated to sever any hyphae that had penetrated it, and the central plant was then infested with aphids.
At the end of the experiment Dr Johnson and his team collected the air inside the bags, extracted any volatile chemicals in it by absorbing them into a special porous polymer, and tested those chemicals on both aphids (using the winged, rather than the wingless morphs) and wasps. Each insect was placed for five minutes in an apparatus that had two chambers, one of which contained a sample of the volatiles and the other an odorless control.
The researchers found, as they expected from their previous work, that when the volatiles came from an infested plant, wasps spent an average of 3? minutes in the chamber containing them and 1? in the other chamber. Aphids, conversely, spent 1? minutes in the volatiles』 chamber and 3? in the control. In other words, the volatiles from an infested plant attract wasps and repel aphids.
Crucially, the team got the same result in the case of uninfected plants that had been in uninterrupted hyphae contact with the infested one, but had had root contact blocked. If both hyphae and roots had been blocked throughout the experiment, though, the volatiles from uninfected plants actually attracted aphids (they spent 3? minutes in the volatiles』 chamber), while the wasps were indifferent. The same pertained for the odor of uninfected plants whose hyphae connections had been allowed to develop, and then severed by the rotation of the mesh.
Broad beans, then, really do seem to be using their fungal symbionts as a communications network, warning their neighbors to take evasive action. Such a general response no doubt helps the plant first attacked by attracting yet more wasps to the area, and it helps the fungal messengers by preserving their leguminous hosts.
第四篇
文章概述：
這次雙篇文章觀點並不是完全相反的，而是都反對一個Banks Labor Policy，但是觀點方面側重有些不同。作者1說到Banks Labor Policy其實還是奴隸制度，並沒有真正的解放黑人，黑人需要利用內戰之後和解放奴隸宣言之後的這個政治機會，繼續努力爭取真正的解放和完全的平等和自由。作者2先對比了古代奴隸制度和美國奴隸制度的不同，然後說到解放奴隸宣言宣布之後黑人的狀況，依然沒有各方面的政治權利，然後呼籲改變。
題目：
1-4題考查P1
第一題：細節題，考查道格拉斯對於BanksLabor policy，沒有給出定位的細節題，但是不難定位，在文章剛開始的，原文說違反了解放奴隸宣言的初衷，答案選擇違反了美國政府的的本意。
第二題：單詞題，practically在原文的意思是事實上，本質上或者實際上，對應選項中的effectively。
第三題：考查作者手法，屬於修辭類考點，問針對一個反駁道格拉斯的觀點，道格拉斯在最後一段如何做出回應，答案選道格拉斯運用感情的描寫，描繪出美國目前黑人沒有真正自由的慘狀。
第四題：單詞題，deposition原文的意思是現在黑人這種政治環境和條件，對應選項中的placement。
5-7題考查P2
第五題：無定位細節題。問作者2對比了古代的奴隸制度和美國奴隸制度的不同。P2第一段講到古代的奴隸和奴隸主是一個種族，如果不是奴隸身份了，可以和奴隸主一樣。而美國的奴隸制是針對於一個特定的種族（黑人），即使不是奴隸制度了，黑人依然遭受偏見。
第六題：無定位細節題，問作者2為什麼說現在要立刻改變，避免Banks法案給美國黑人造成長期的不良影響。答案在文章最後一段結束的部分，作者說現在必須改變，避免根基變深。
第七題：單詞題，fired在原文中是想法受到啟發，對應選項中的illuminated。
8-11考查雙篇
第八題：求同題，比較簡單，問兩個作者會同意選項中哪個說法，答案選都不同意Banks Labor Policy。
第九題：求異題，問兩個作者對於內戰CivilWar的看法有何不同，作者一說到內戰後給了黑人一個很好的契機去追求更多的權利和真正的平等，作者二說內戰讓內戰結束後南方州的白人對黑人有不好的看法。
第十題&第十一題：尋證題 40題問作者1會如何看待作者2裡面的黑人沒有到法庭出證等權利，作者1覺得這就是奴隸制，並不是自由，並不是解放了黑人。
第五篇：科學
文章概述：
也是簡單的自然學科科研型文章。
文章主旨(研究問題）：Finch（某種鳥）頭的顏色（red vs black）跟personality（aggression/risk-taking/喜歡novelty）有關。
核心假設：紅頭鳥攻擊行為高於黑頭鳥，合理的推到是紅頭鳥也更愛risk-taking和novelty的事物，但因為黑頭鳥在覓食上不佔優勢（被紅頭鳥打壓），所有黑頭鳥為了食物的需求也要risk-taking和喜歡novelty。
通過一些精巧的實驗，實驗結果：紅頭鳥果然攻擊行為高於黑頭鳥，但是risk-taking和對novelty興趣都低於黑頭鳥。為了保證準確性，這個實驗再一周後又重複了一次。裡面有提到每個鳥的個體行為還是比較consistent（出了一道細節加證據）。
最後說risk-taking和對novelty成對出現很正常，特別是有覓食壓力的黑頭鳥。
題目：
第一題：目的題，the purpose of the passage is to (答案，to expand people’s knowledge about bird behavior)
第二題：推斷題，the second prediction tested in thestudy reflects which assumption (答案，risk-takingbenefits the black-headed birds more than do red-headed birds)
第三題：詞彙題，the word 「displacement」 in the experiment suggests that birds (答案jostle other birds away during feeding)
第四題：「predator」問雙引號的作用，最近幾次第二次考察引號的作用，體現捕食者是假的。
第五題：考細節，鳥個體的行為比較consistent（兩月後）
第六題：針對Q5的證據題
第七題：觀點題，題目問下面那種情況是UNLIKELY的對於 individual finch，其中有一個選項講到紅頭鳥很快會回到曾經有predator的食物周圍，但是並不explorative，整個選項和文章內容不一致，屬於 unlikely。
第八題：詢證題，基於上一道題目，找到雙邊關係論述的信息要點，文章最後，講了boldness和explorative是correlated，支持上一個題目的unlikely。
51題 考查圖1，直接來自於圖2
52題 考查圖2，直接來自於圖2
文章原文：
title-Gouldian finches』 head colour reflects their personality
What this suggests is that behavioural characteristics, such as aggression and other traits, may be correlated with particular head colour morphs meaning that head colour is indicative of different personality types. This idea has been tested in a new paper by Leah Williams and her colleagues.
In order to determine if head colour really does indicate personality traits in Gouldian finches Williams and her colleagues tested a number of predictions. First they looked at pairs of black-headed birds which were expected to show less aggression towards each other than pairs of red-headed birds, this makes sense since red-headed birds had previously been found to exhibit higher levels of aggression.
The second prediction was that red-headed birds should be bolder, more explorative and take more risks than black-headed birds. This hypothesis is based on previous studies of other species that have shown a correlation between aggression and these behavioural characteristics. However, there is another possibility, red-headed birds could take fewer risks for two reasons; first, they may be more conspicuous to predators due to their bright colouration and second, it may pay black headed birds to take more risks and be more explorative so they find food resources before the dominant red-headed birds do.
In order to test the first prediction paired birds of matching head colour were moved into an experimental cage without food. After one hour of food deprivation a feeder was placed into the corner of the cage where there was only enough room for one bird to feed at a time. aggressive interactions such as threat displays and displacements were then counted over a 30 minute period.
The results as shown in the figure below were striking. Red-headed birds were significantly and consistently more aggressive than black-headed birds.
To test the birds willingness to take risks they were deprived of food for one hour before their feeder was replaced. After the birds had calmly begun to feed a silhouette of an avian predator was moved up and down in front of the cage to scare the birds from the feeder. The time it took for them to return to the feeder was taken as a measure of their willingness to take risks, birds that returned quickly were considered to be greater risk takers than those that were more cautious.
This time the results were surprising. Red-headed birds were considerably more cautious than those with black heads at returning to the feeder after a 「predator」 had been introduced. As the figure below shows they took on average 4x longer to begin feeding again than the less aggressive black-headed birds.
Finally, the authors investigated the birds interest in novel objects or 「object neophilia」 which is defined in the paper as 「exploration in which investigation is elicited by an object’s novelty「. To do this a bunch of threads was placed on a perch within the cage, the time taken for the birds to approach the threads within one body length and to touch them were recorded over a one hour period. In line with the results from the risk taking experiment it was found that the aggressive red-headed birds showed less interest in novel objects than did black-headed birds. The difference is not so striking as the previous experiments but was statistically significant nonetheless.
These experiments were repeated after a two month interval and showed that different birds differed in their responses but the responses of individual birds were consistent over time. Head colour was found to predict the behavioural responses of the birds. Red-headed birds were more aggressive than black-headed birds but took fewer risks and were not explorative.
What is surprising about these results is that aggression does not correlate with risk taking behaviour, however, the authors do provide a convincing explanation, suggesting that…
Interestingly boldness and risk taking behaviours were found to be strongly correlated, regardless of head colour they always occurred together forming a 「behavioural syndrome」. This implies that there is selection in favour of specific combinations of traits and of head colour in relation to those traits. Selection favours aggression in red-headed birds and the boldness/risk taking behavioural syndrome in black-headed birds. This makes sense when you consider the high risk of predation faced by red-headed birds if they take too many risks and the need for black-headed birds to find food away from the dominant red heads which occupy the safest foraging locations.
Williams and her colleagues suggest that if red-headed birds are aggressive, and black-headed birds take more risks, this could lead to differences in foraging tactics. For example, black headed birds could increase their foraging opportunities by feeding at more risky sites away from interference by the dominant red-headed birds which feed in safer locations. The lower conspicuousness of their black heads means they are at less risk of predation at exposed sites that red-headed birds would be.
The results of this fascinating study strongly support the hypothesis that head colour does indeed signal personality in Gouldian finches. I would love to see some more research in this area. The authors themselves suggest that more research is needed to find out what roles head colours play in social situations. It would also be interesting to find out how widespread this phenomenon is, given that birds frequently use plumage colouration as signals it seems likely to me that colour may indicate personality in other avian species.
語法部分
第一篇
文章概述：
Bejamn Banneker : marking time
本文主要寫了BB通過對鐘錶的研究，進而研究天體運動，將時間精確。通過自身的學習鑽研，最終幫助美國選定了capital。他本人也得到廣大人民群眾尊重和紀念。
題目：
1.代詞考點：選their，指代名詞clocks
2. 粘連句考點。逗號前後是完整句子，原句錯誤。
3.主旨題。選該段主旨。這一段講的是bb認識了對他幫助很大的朋友。選的是表達該意思；他建立了堅固的友誼這一項。
4.合併句子題。可以根據簡潔性的原則，把後面句子變為從句，由whose引導。
5.簡潔性考點。選擇能夠成為簡單句的一項即可。
6.動詞考點。這裡考到了倒裝句。主語是一個人，要選單數過去時態。
7.副詞考點。particularly後面直接加名詞。
8.句子排序題。句子中有his cousin，只要找到對應的人，放到對應句後就可以。
9.過渡詞考點。選today。今天bb是怎樣被人紀念的。
10.精準用詞。懷念，追念。commemorate
11.增刪句子。句子是說人們可以在紀念地附近玩什麼，與主旨無關，不加。
第二篇
文章概述：
energy storage under pressure
文章概述 本文講述了新型能源如何有效利用。講述了風力能源的優缺點以及解決辦法caes。講述了風力的潛力和前景。
題目
題目：
1.增刪句子。加該句。因為它說明了清潔能源都有什麼。
2.精準用詞。選擇peak of，而不是peek for
3. 簡潔性。選能夠構成簡單句的一項。
4.句子順序題。說的是通過擠壓空氣，獲得能量，從而發電，放到段末。
5. 冒號。冒號後面解釋說明了用新能源的兩個地方。
6. 粘連錯誤。選，and一項。
7.增刪句子。加，說明了新能源的廣泛應用
8.不用標點。主謂之間不用任何標點。
9.動詞主謂一致和時態考點。
10.精準用詞，收集利用能源。capitalize
11.結論。總結清潔能源有效利用之後前景。
第三篇
文章概述：
A Man of Many Words
講一個作家自己要寫一本字典，一開始只是想要單純的寫字典，但是後來想要通過這本字典來產生一些影響。
題目：
1.syntax 句子合併，選項有兩個是並列邏輯，兩個是主從邏輯，主從邏輯的兩個選項重點不同。
2.ronon 出現兩句句子，逗號和with的選項出現runon可以排除，as和and這兩個選項需要通過語義來進行選擇。
3.pron 代詞指代，根據語義來判斷代詞指代對象
4.tone 四個單詞分別為 primo, foremost, hotpot,big-man
5.句子結構和邏輯，一個選項是SVO，and doing出現結構上的錯誤可以排除，另外的選項為SVO by doing；SVO，doing；n+doing根據語義來進行選擇
6.proposition 引出段落大意，段落主要講對於單詞進行定義，選項出現關鍵詞definition
7.support 選出哪個選項可以引出後面的引用，根據引用內容進行選擇
8.tense 根據上下文的時態一致性進行選擇
9.focus 句子加減題 上下文講文章對象通過他的字典來影響English language加入的句子與上下文無關
10.transitional words 四個邏輯連接詞分別為by the same token, for example, on the contrary, nevertheless
11.punctuation 考前後逗號的對應，at the very least前後加兩個逗號
第四篇
文章概述：
Retailers Benefiting from Paying Well
很多公司通過低價來吸引顧客，這個舉動會導致員工薪資的降低。但是如果給員工提薪會帶來很多好處，比如減少員工辭職，避免使用沒有經驗的員工；其次也可以提高員工工作效率，使零售業者獲得更多的利益。
題目：
1.precision 文章用來修飾wisdom 四個單詞分別為conventional, habitual, accustomed, routine
2.punctuation 插入語使用 句子結構為doing, and...., while doing
3.syntax 根據結構和語義來進行選擇
4.punctuation 同位語的標點，兩個逗號內對修飾語對前面two chains of stores進行修飾
5.comparison 要注意比較對象的一致性，the average number is double the number
6.modifier examing分詞修飾主語professor，錯誤選項為when examined, when they examined, an examiner
7.quantitative information 哪個選項符合符合圖表及段落內容，段落主要講工資低會導致員工數量減少，根據段落內容來進行選擇
8.quantitative information 哪個選項可以支持句子的前半部分，前半部分說到工資好的公司，員工離開的比例低
9.support 哪個選項可以引出後文的信息，段落主要講了兩個公司的成功，選項中出現關鍵success
10.subject-verb agreement 主語是the success of sth. A of B的結構
11.選出哪個選項符合文章大意，文章主要講漲薪可以幫助有更好的收益，選項出現關鍵詞benefit
寫作部分
本文選自2014年地New York Times，文章淺顯易懂，歌頌地是當下的「分享經濟」，鼓勵更多的pharmaceuticalcompanies分享臨床試驗數據，互通有無，分享相關地試驗數據，提高研發新藥的速度，減少藥物的副作用，為社會做出更多的貢獻。 這篇文章的evidence部分主要運用的是medical evidence 和典型案例分析(case study)，並且用業內的leader做role model，增強persuasiveness；Reasoning的部分來說，主要的是contrast和cause-effect analysis，此外還有pre-emptivecounterargument； emotional appeals主要集中在文章的最後，用sense of duty/responsibility/ Samaritan spirit（好人精神）來uplift social morale.
Give the Data tothe People
1. LASTweek, Johnson & Johnson announced that it was making all of its clinicaltrial data available to scientists around the world. It has hired my group,Yale University Open Data Access Project, or YODA, to fully oversee the releaseof the data. Everything in the company’s clinical research vaults, including unpublishedraw data, will be available for independent review.
作者用Johnson &Johnson最近的announcement用以introducethe article.很顯然，這個決定非常的突然而且讓人感覺驚訝和heart-warming。
2. Thisis an extraordinary donation to society, and a reversal of the industry’straditional tendency to treat data as an asset that would lose value if exposedto public scrutiny.
作者發表了對J& J決定的看法，作者用了extraordinary donation 這樣的word choice來積極評價這個決定，這個決定無疑是對社會做出了巨大貢獻。
3. Today, more than half of the clinicaltrials in theUnited States, including many sponsored by academic and governmentalinstitutions, are not published within two years of their completion. Oftenthey are never published at all. The unreported results, not surprisingly, areoften those in which a drug failed to perform better than a placebo. As aresult, evidence-based medicine is, at best, based on only some of theevidence. One of the most troubling implications isthat full information on a drug’s effects may never be discovered or released.
作者告訴了我們這個決定的社會背景，即半數以上的美國醫藥公司視臨床試驗數據為行業機密；同時，作者告訴我們，這種現象給社會帶來的危害:the most troubling implicationis that full information on a drug’seffects may never be discovered or released.相比之下，J & J 公司的決定就顯得很偉大。
4. Evenwhen studies are published, the actual data are usually not made available. Endusers of research — patients, doctors and policy makers — are implicitly toldby a single group of researchers to 「take our word for it.」 They are oftenforced to accept the report without the prospect of other independentscientists』 reproducing the findings — a violation of a central tenet of thescientific method.
作者繼續發表對普遍的行業做法，這裡作者運用了邏輯分析，說的是這樣的做法給medical practitioner帶來的困擾。
5. To befair, the decision to share data is not easy. Companies worry that theircompetitors will benefit, that lawyers will take advantage, that incompetentscientists will misconstrue the data and come to mistaken conclusions.Researchers feel ownership of the data and may be reluctant to have others useit. So Johnson & Johnson, as well as companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Medtronic that have made more cautious moves towardtransparency, deserve much credit. The more we share data, however, the more wefind that many of these problems fail to materialize.
作者繼續表揚J&J的決定，說公司的決定不容易，同時作者在分析為何公司不願意分享這些數據的原因，主要原因是competition和legal entanglement，作者反駁說，其實更多的公司，包括GSK和 Medtronic，加入公開臨床數據的分享，這些擔心的原因就越不會發生。
6. In2011, YODA struck a deal with Medtronic to release all the data on one of itsproducts — a device that stimulates the production of bone. At the time,questions had been raised about the device’s safety, including whether itcaused cancer, and about the conflicts of interests of some of the company’sresearchers. Medtronic made the unusual decision to respond to the debate byreleasing the device’s data for independent review. We commissioned and thenpublished two independent reviews of the data, and now have made them globallyavailable.
為了buttress claim，作者舉了個例子（a case in point），2011年YODA 與 Medtronic的合作，這一段主要圍繞前段中提到的「為何公司擔心分享臨床試驗數據」展開。
7. Interestingly,the reviews produced somewhat conflicting results. One found that the devicewas no better than a bone graft and might be associated with a slight increasein cancer, while the other found that the device was effective and the cancerrisk inconclusive. To us these differences reinforce the value of open science:now the data are out there for further study.
作者繼續在對這個案例進行詳細分析；合作過程中發生的一些conflicting results等正好呼應了作者一開始擔心的the mosttroubling implication，同時驗證了分享臨床數據的好處。
8. Thisprogram doesn’t mean that just anyone can gain access to the data withoutdisclosing how they intend to use it. We require those who want the data tosubmit a proposal and identify their research team, funding and any conflictsof interest. They have to complete a short course on responsible conduct andsign an agreement that restricts them to their proposed research question. Mostimportant, they must agree to share whatever they find. And we excludeapplicants who seek data for commercial or legal purposes. Our intent is not tobe tough gatekeepers, but to ensure that the data are used in a transparent wayand contribute to overall scientific knowledge.
這裡一段可以說是pre-empt了讀者的potential concern，即分享臨床數據並不代表這些數據可以被濫用，這樣說的目的是打消target audience的顧慮，這樣更多的醫藥公司能夠加入分享臨床數據的潮流中來。 這裡大量地呼籲audience，再次重申了project地社會貢獻。
9. Thereare many benefits to this kind of sharing. It honors the contributions of thesubjects and scientists who participated in the research. It is proof that anorganization, whether it is part of industry or academia, wants to play a roleas a good global citizen. It demonstrates that the organization has nothing tohide. And it enables scientists to use the data to learn new ways to helppatients. Such an approach can even teach a company like Johnson & Johnsonsomething it didn’t know about its own products.
這一段作者飽醮感情地歌頌了分享精神，希望更多地醫藥企業能夠加入分享隊伍，主要是通過appeals to their duty。
10.For the good of society, this is a breakthrough thatshould be replicated throughout the research world.
最後一段， 作者呼籲更多企業能夠加入分享地隊伍，為社會做出貢獻。
本文為沃邦教育SAT教研組原創，轉發請經授權後再操作。