下面是SAT短篇阅读实例的第二篇，我们在此将其作为一个练习，你可以试试用上面的方法步骤完成这第二个小短篇。

　　Passage 2

　　Question 11-12 are based on the following passage

　　Some critics believe that the frequent use of repetition in Native American ceremonial texts was a result of their oral nature and helped make the works easy to remember. Native American scholar Paula Gunn Allen argues that this factor must be peripheral, however, because people in societies without writing traditionally have had more finely developed memories than do people who use writing. Native American children learned early to remember complicated instructions and long stories by heart. For a person who couldn’t run to a bookshelf to look up information, reliance on memory became very important in everyday life. Such a highly developed everyday memory is not likely to fail on ceremonial occasions.

　　11. The primary purpose of the passage is to

　　(A) rute a claim

　　(B) describe a process

　　(C) analyze a discovery

　　(D) advocate a practice

　　(E) reveal a problem

　　12. In context, what does the final sentence suggest about Native American ceremonial texts?

　　(A) Understanding them requires a highly developed memory.

　　(B) Their inclusion of complicated and detailed material is traditional.

　　(C) They are not always oral in nature, nor are they always repetitive.

　　(D) They are important in the everyday lives of many Native Americans.

　　(E) Their use of repetition cannot be explained as an aid to memorization.

　　(11)题答案：A

　　简析：

　　这道题目要求你说出这篇短文的目的，那就不是只看一两句话就可以解决问题的了，这是一道主旨性题目，需要我们从宏观上做全面的把握。但实际上当我们读完Some critics believe that……Native American scholar Paula Gunn Allen argues that之后我们就能有一个大概的印象就是这是对一个问题的争论，通过对后面文字的进一步确认我们就能做出正确的选项。

　　(12)题答案：E

　　简析：我们以suggest锁定这道题目为推断性的题目，以the final sentence锁定题目在文章中的出处，即Such a highly developed everyday memory is not likely to fail on ceremonial occasions. 根据文章内容，我们在分析后可选出最后答案。

　　SAT短篇阅读在SAT阅读考试中占有很大的比重，所以同学们在平时的复习中要多进行练习并进行大量地阅读，培养语感和阅读速度，在阅读中增加自己的词汇量。

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