GRE阅读 | 破解GRE阅读理解系列（十八）

GER阅读，有时候也真的是缺乏想象力。缺乏想象力的时候呢，就会用文字游戏考察大家。比如我们看下面这个题目。其实大家可以不看那么具体，就先看选项（D）。

The author specifically mentions all of the following as difficulties that particularly affect women who are theoreticians of feminist literary criticism EXCEPT the

(A) tendency of a predominantly male academic establishment to form preconceptions about women

(B) limitations that are imposed when criticism is defined as objective and scientific

(C) likelihood that the work of a woman theoretician who claims the privilege of art will be viewed with prejudice by some academics

(D) inescapability of power struggles between women in the academic profession and the academic establishment → 看这里（但是不要误解，这道题的正确答案不是此选项）

(E) tendency of members of the academic establishment to treat all forms of feminist literary theory with hostility

你怎么理解选项（D）里的between？

1） between women？也就是 women in the academic profession and the academic establishment VS. women in the academic profession and the academic establishment ？

2） between women in the academic profession and the academic establishment？也就是 women in the academic profession VS. the academic establishment ？

其实，这里考察了 establishment 这个词的熟词僻意。除了我们最熟悉的那个意思之外，这个词还有一个释义是“权威人士”。the academic establishment 就是“学术上的权威人士”。那么选项（D） 的第2）个理解就合理了。

许多同学做到此题都会感觉，这个选项真的是无聊透顶的伎俩。可能确实如此，但是，可见在GRE阅读中，我们对熟词僻意这样的文字游戏，真的是不得不防呀，因为还真的是频繁被考察呢。比如：还有许多同学指出，选项（E）：tendency of members of the academic establishment to treat all forms of feminist literary theory with hostility 中的那个“all”，也是出卷方在玩文字游戏。故意用一个不起眼的“all”来表达程度，但是这个不起眼的地方却是对于答案判定的关键点。