Day 5

英文重现

The basements of museums are simply not large enough to store the artifacts that are likely to be discovered in the future. There is not enough money even to catalog the finds; as a result, they cannot be found again and become as inaccessible as if they had never been discovered.

——GMAT OG 2015, Reading Comprehension, Passage 3

解析

1.“that are likely to be discovered in the future”是“that”引导的定语从句，用来修饰名词“artifacts”，“that”在从句中作主语。

2.“as...as”是表示程度相当的结构，意为“和……一样……”，“as if”意思是“犹如；好像”，此处将这两种用法结合了起来，表示在真实的“没有编成目录”的情况下和“比喻/假设的（好像）从来没有被发现过”的情况下，工艺品都同样“难以接近”。

3.“as if they had never been discovered”用的是虚拟语气，这一点可以从过去完成时结构“had been discovered”看出来，“as if/as though”引导的从句用虚拟语气时有以下三种情况：

a. 表示与现在事实相反，谓语动词用一般过去时。

b. 表示与过去事实相反，谓语动词用过去完成时。

c. 表示与将来事实相反，谓语动词用“would/might/could +动词原形”。

词义辨析

参考翻译

博物馆的地下室实在没有足够空间去储存将来可能被发现的（所有）手工艺品。甚至没有足够的钱将（所有的）发现编成目录；结果是，这些发现无法被再次找到，并且变得难以接近，就好像它们从来没有被发现过一样。

实战演练

The basements of museums are simply not large enough to store the artifacts that are likely to be discovered in the future. There is not enough money even to catalog the finds; as a result, they cannot be found again and become as inaccessible as if they had never been discovered. Indeed, with the help of a computer, sold artifacts could be more accessible than are the pieces stored in bulging museum basements. Prior to sale, each could be photographed and the list of the purchasers could be maintained on the computer. A purchaser could even be required to agree to return the piece if it should become needed for scientific purposes.

Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a disadvantage of storing artifacts in museum basements?

(A) Museum officials rarely allow scholars access to such artifacts.

(B) Space that could be better used for display is taken up for storage.

(C) Artifacts discovered in one excavation often become separated from each other.

(D) Such artifacts are often damaged by variations in temperature and humidity.

(E) Such artifacts often remain uncataloged and thus cannot be located once they are put in storage.

答案：E

答案解析

根据“storing artifacts in museum basements”的意思可定位到文中的句子“The basements

of museums are simply not large enough to store the artifacts that are likely to be discovered in the future”，该句子讲的是在博物馆地下室储存手工艺品的一个缺点“not large enough”，另一个缺点在随后的句子中“not enough money even to catalog the finds”，而第二个缺点还有深一层的缺点“they cannot be found again and become as inaccessible as if they had never been discovered”（这些发现无法被再次找到，而且变得难以接近，就好像它们从来没有被发现过一样），理解这句话，重点是要看懂“as…as”结构的意思。那么我们来分析选项：选项A“博物馆官员很少允许学者接触这些手工艺品”错误，博物馆官员不是不允许学者接触，而是因为没有目录，难以找到。选项B“本来能够用于展览的空间被用于存储”和第一个缺点“空间不够大”也是不一致的。选项C“同一批出土的手工艺品常常被分开”和选项D“这些手工艺品经常因为温度和湿度的变化被毁坏”原文均未提及。所以正确答案应该是选项E“这些手工品经常没有被编入目录，因此一旦被存储起来就无法被找到”，对应第二个缺点。