你是否还在为推断题做不对而痛苦不已？你是否还在苦苦思索为什么有些选项在原文中明明没提到，正确答案却偏偏要选它？
别担心，一条实用的阅读小技巧可以帮助你在做题时思路瞬间明朗！
在之前的文章我们讨论了有关于“until”和“prior to”这两个词汇的理解，今天要学习的技巧就和这两个小词有关。
ps：如果有同学还不熟悉它们的用法，
可以回顾往期文章：灵魂拷问：你真的理解until这个小词吗？
有了前面这个基础之后， 我们就可以开始探讨GRE阅读中推断题常考的一个时间原则：
时间对立，动作取反
简言之，时间取反，主句动词也要取反。
举个栗子🌰：
文艺复兴之后，人们反对中古时期的宗教束缚。
→文艺复兴之前，人们不反对中古时期的宗教束缚。
第一次工业革命之前，英国以农耕经济为主。
→第一次工业革命之后，英国不以农耕经济为主。
那这个原则在文章中是怎么运用的呢？老师从最新阅读机经文章当中选取了下面这段材料，大家可以通过这两句话来仔细体会一下“时间对立，动作取反”的原则。
①Only since the 1970s have American scholars regularly included mortuary remains in their research on Merovingian Gaul in the early medieval period. 
②Prior to the 1970s, most American medievalists neglected archaeological evidence from burial sites, including skeletal fragments and artifacts, in favor of more familiar historical and documentary sources.
两个句子当中都出现了相同的时间节点“the 1970s”
第①句探讨的是1970s之后（since the 1970s）的情况；
第②句探讨的是1970s之前（prior to the 1970s）的情况。
在阅读过程中可以合理运用“时间对立，动作取反”的原则对原文的两句话分别进行同义改写。
❗注意：改写时需要准确识别主句动词，时间取反之后，主句主干动词如果有否定词就删除否定词，没有否定词就添加否定词not。因此，原文两句话可作如下转换：
①原句：
Only since the 1970s have American scholars regularly included mortuary remains in their research on Merovingian Gaul in the early medieval period.
同义改写：
Before the 1970s American scholars regularly did not include mortuary remains in their research on Merovingian Gaul in the early medieval period.
如此一来，同一句话其实表达了双重含义：
1970s之前，学者没有研究丧葬遗址；1970s之后，学者开始研究丧葬遗址。
同样的，对第②句也可进行同义改写，改写时只需找到句子主干即可。

②主句：
Prior to the 1970s, most American medievalists neglected archaeological evidence from burial sites.
同义改写：
After the 1970s, most American medievalists did not neglect archaeological evidence from burial sites.
本句话同样也表达了双重含义：
1970s之前，学者没有研究丧葬地点的考古证据；1970s之后，学者开始研究丧葬地点的考古证据。
一番操作之后不难发现，其实①②两句话的核心内容是相同的，传达的信息也是一致的，其中的一些词是等价的：American scholars+medieval period=American medievalists，mortuary remains=burial sites，since the 1970s 和 prior to the 1970s 构成对立。
是不是有种豁然开朗的赶（感）脚（觉）呢？
不过有的小伙伴可能要问了，折腾了那么半天最后也是白费力气，明明原文把所有信息都告诉我们了，为什么还需要刻意转换呢？
的确，这篇文章同义改写之后两句话的内容其实重复了，但是并非每篇文章你都能指望原文呈现出完整的时间对比，有的文章只会提到一个时间节点，题目中却要求我们据此进行合理推断，此时我们就必须运用“时间对立，动作取反”的原则对原文进行同义改写了。
比如下面这篇文章：
Federal courts in the United States, especially before the famous 1962 case of Baker v. Carr, were often thought to be powerless in the area of election law, voting rights, and other legal questions clearly bearing on politics. This perception was not entirely correct, of course, as pre-1962 Supreme Court decisions such as that in the case of Smith v. Allwright demonstrated in the wake of that decision, voting participation among African Americans in the South increased substantially. However, political rights had not always been so clearly championed by the Supreme Court as they were in Smith v. Allwright. Indeed, the transformations between the Civil War and 1962 were such that, in reviewing voters’ rights cases over the intervening decades, one feels like an archaeologist cutting through distinct layers in which the judicial decisions uncovered reveal a pattern of ideological and societal change.
Which of the following can be inferred regarding the case of Baker v. Carr?
A. Its outcome required clarification in subsequent decisions rendered by the Supreme Court.
B. Its resolution attested to the power of federal courts to address legal issues related to politics.
C. It marked a radical change in judicial thinking in the United States.
D. It was decided before the Supreme Courts heard the case of Smith v. Allwright.
E. It has little historical significance aside from its focus on laws affecting politics.
题干：下列哪个关于“the case of Baker v. Carr”的说法可以从文章当中推断出来？
推断题的选项有时没有那么直截了当，但是由于这道题“the case of Baker v. Carr”的定位句原文第一句话中有明确的时间节点1962年的诉讼案之前（before the famous 1962 case），一旦我们掌握了“时间对立，动作取反”的套路，本题就迎刃而解，因此可对原句进行同义改写。
原句：
Federal courts in the United States, especially before the famous 1962 case of Baker v. Carr, were often thought to be powerless in the area of election law, voting rights, and other legal questions clearly bearing on politics.
同义改写：
Federal courts in the United States, especially after the famous 1962 case of Baker v. Carr, were not often thought to be powerless in the area of election law, voting rights, and other legal questions clearly bearing on politics.
1962年Baker v. Carr诉讼案之后，人们会认为美国联邦法院并非无能为力。
因此B选项中的内容完美地对应了原句的同义改写：its resolution=after the famouse 1962 case of Baker v. Carr，attested to the power=not powerless，legal issues related to politics=legal questions clearly bearing on politics。
总结
原文一旦出现“since, after, until, prior to, before+时间点/特殊事件”的结构时，我们需要找到主句动词，并根据“时间对立，动作取反”的原则对原文进行处理。
时间取反后，主干动词部分有否定词就删除否定词，没有否定词就自行添加否定词。这样一方面可以让我们更加透彻地理解原文，另一方面可以让我们快速找到推断题的正确选项。
作业
接下来给大家留一道作业,欢迎同学们积极留言，把答案和思路写在评论区，期待你的参与！下期持续更新干货哦！
今日作业：
The outpouring of contemporary American Indian literature in the last two decades, often called the Native American Renaissance, represents for many the first opportunity to experience Native American poetry. The appreciation of traditional oral American Indian literature has been limited, hampered by poor translations and by the difficulty, even in the rare culturally sensitive and aesthetically satisfying translation, of completely conveying the original’s verse structure, tone, and syntax.
By writing in English and experimenting with European literary forms, contemporary American Indian writers have broadened their potential audience, while clearly retaining many essential characteristics of their ancestral oral traditions. For example, Pulitzer-prizewinning author N. Scott Momaday’s poetry often treats art and mortality in a manner that recalls British romantic poetry, while his poetic response to the power of natural forces recalls Cherokee oral literature. In the same way, his novels, an art form European in origin, display an eloquence that echoes the oratorical grandeur of the great nineteenth-century American Indian chiefs.
The passage suggests which of the following about American Indian poets before the Native American Renaissance?
A. Art and mortality were rarely the subjects of their poetry.
B. Their oratorical grandeur reached its peak in the nineteenth century.
C. They occasionally translated their own poetry.
D. They seldom wrote poetry in English.
E. They emphasized structure, tone, and syntax rather than literary form.
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