不认识qualify，怎么敢去考GRE？
GRE阅读备考经常有一些迷思（myths），其中一条就是出现 qualify 的选项大概率就是正确选项。
不知道小伙伴们有没有笃信过这个原则呢？
诚然，ETS非常喜欢考察 qualify 这个词，它也经常出现在正确选项中，但是总有一些不按套路出牌的题目。
那我们今天就来盘点几道正确答案并没有包含qualify的题~
首先，我们需要明确 qualify 的词义以及考法。
American Heritage Dictionary 对 qualify 的定义是：
to modify, limit, or restrict, as by listing exceptions or reservations
qualify直译就是“限定”，
即让言辞或观点显得客观严谨不偏不倚，
这体现的就是“让步—转折”关系中“让步”部分的作用。
例如下面这两个句子👇👇
①For example, T.H. Breen argued that the consumer boycott was a brilliantly original American invention.
②Breen did acknowledge that a few isolated boycotts may have taken place in other countries.
①Breen的观点：消费者的联合抵制行动是美国原创。
②Breen也承认有几起抵制行动在其他国家发生。
真题中考察了第②句话的功能，很明显，第②句指出了第①句中的人物观点的一些例外情况，从而让观点显得没有那么绝对极端，所以是对前一句观点的限定，因此这道题的正确选项就是“qualify a point made in the preceding sentence”。
其实不难发现，选项中有qualify并不能说明什么问题，还得判断选项说法是否符合原文。
例如下面这道真题👇👇
Prominent among theories of the function of sleep is Meddis’ immobilization hypothesis, which holds that sleep, rather than serving a restorative function, plays a protective role during times that animals cannot be usefully engaged in other activities. Meddis reasoned that animals not immediately threatened by predators would be safer if they passed the time sleeping.
However, that hypothesis cannot easily explain why one often observes a rebound in sleep time or intensity following a period of sleep deprivation. Neither does the hypothesis explain the existence of various states of sleep, which themselves may be associated with different functions.
❓In the context of the passage as a whole, the highlighted portion serves primarily to
A. present the thinking that led scientists to qualify a widely accepted view
B. describe the basis on which a hypothesis was advanced
C. illustrate the kind of reasoning that is applied in a branch of science
D. explain how a hypothesis can be tested empirically
E. relate the analysis that refined a tentative explanation
加粗句描述的是Meddis的推理论证：
在没有天敌威胁时，动物如果睡觉就会更安全。
这两句其实是“论点—论据”的结构，加粗句的作用是用来支持前一句Meddis的观点，即睡眠发挥了保护作用。
B选项“描述了原理的提出所依赖的基础”和原文的句间关系最吻合，而出现“qualify”的A选项“提供了某种思路让科学家们对一个广泛接受的观点作出了限定”与原文结构显然不符。
再来看另外一道“反套路”的题👇
Since the 1970s, there has been a movement in African literary studies toward the recognition of national literatures in newly independent African states, such as Cameroon, Senegal, and Benin. But while in some of these national literatures there has undoubtedly emerged a sense of corporate identity, often marked by clear thematic and formal progressions, it remains an incontrovertible fact that the European languages in which these literatures are expressed have only an official acceptance: they are neither indigenous to the cultures on which they have been imposed, nor are they national in any real sense of the word. This must limit the claims of any of these literatures to national significance, however abundant the corpus or coherent the internal configurations.
❓The highlighted portion of the passage serves primarily to
A. support a conclusion stated later in the passage
B. qualify an assertion presented earlier in the passage
C. suggest an explanation for an anomaly mentioned in the passage
D. offer a tentative answer to a question raised in the passage
E. justify the use of a term introduced earlier in the passage
很明显，B选项以qualify开头，那这道题能不能根据套路来秒选B呢？
加粗句在冒号之后，本来按照常理这句话的作用是具体说明冒号之前的内容，即“这些文学作品中使用的欧洲语言只有官方才会接纳”，但选项当中并没有此类选项。
观察选项发现所有选项全都涉及了句间关系，那说明加粗句的作用需要联系上下文判断。
最合理的就是A选项，即“支持了文章后半部分陈述的一个结论”，因为加粗句描述的内容就是为了说明了最后一句当中的结论，即“这些文学作品中使用的欧洲语言必定是它们成为民族文学的限制因素”，B选项“对前文提到的观点进行限定”并不符合这句的功能。
qualify常考的词义是“限定”，考点是“让步句”功能。
虽然qualify经常作为正确选项，但不能确保每道题都是如此，还得具体问题具体分析，做题时切勿依赖某种机械套路进行选择。
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，我们会在下午6：00前公布置顶正确答案~
The greater the distance an island is from a continent (assuming islands are of similar size and elevation), the fewer plant and animal species it will support but the greater the distinctiveness of those species. As an example, compare Trinidad and Tobago with Puerto Rico. Trinidad and Tobago are two sister islands lying off South America, to which they were once connected by a land bridge. Their combined land mass is little more than half that Puerto Rico, but their native avifauna totals approximately four hundred species, nearly twice that of Puerto Rico’s. However, all the bird species on Trinidad and Tobago, with the sole exception of an endemic guan, are found either on the South American mainland or elsewhere. Contrarily, Puerto Rico’s native avifauna totals only two hundred and forty species but includes sixteen endemic species, which, except for two occurring in the nearby Virgins Islands, are found nowhere else in the world.
❓The highlighted sentence serves primarily to
A. acknowledge a possible flaw in a generalization presented at the beginning of the passage.
B. cite evidence to support a possible explanation for a phenomenon mentioned in the preceding sentence
C. qualify a claim about the relationship that usually pertains between an island’s size and its relative abundance of animals species
D. establish a contrast between the relative proportion of endemic to nonendemic species on Trinidad and Tobago as compared with Puerto Rico
E. point to a possible way in which species native to the South American mainland might have come to inhabit offshore islands.
微信扫码关注该文公众号作者