英銘老師：閱讀測驗是很多考生畏懼的英文題型之一，其實閱題測驗的的解題並不難，因為外國人寫文章都愛用破題法，只要看第一段即可知道文章大概在講什麼內容。例如在此篇文章的第一段中，有提到“proverb” (諺語)，所以文章一定跟” 諺語”有關。
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Almost every language has its share of proverbs. “Too many
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cooks spoil the broth”—so goes a proverb that is familiar to most
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Americans. People in Iran expressed the same thought with different
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words: “Two midwives will deliver a baby with a crooked head.” So do
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the Russians: “With seven nurses, the child goes blind.” The
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Japanese: “Too many boatmen run the boat up the top of the
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mountain.”
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These lean, didactic, aphoristic statements, so varied in their
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languages, seem to distill a universal wisdom. Is it possible that all
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human beings share certain feelings about life in common and thus
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produce like-sounding proverbs? In the Samoan fishing culture,
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which is dependent on the canoe, islanders would have no difficulty
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in recognizing the kinship of the English proverb, “It never rains but it
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pours”, to one of their own: “It leaks at the gunwale, it leaks in the
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keel.” An old saying of the Nandi tribe in Africa goes: “A goat’s hide
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buys a goat’s hide and a gourd a gourd.” This is equivalent to the
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Biblical injunction, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
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They say that the best proverbs—no matter what the
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language—have certain characteristics in common: they all are
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concerned about life in general and cover a vast range of human
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endeavor—love and war, birth and death, sickness and health, and
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work and play. But it remains a mystery why some civilizations are
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rich in proverbs and others are not.
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( ) 1. What does the proverb, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, advise people to do?
(A) Try to do one thing at a time.
(B) There should be only one person in charge of cooking.
(C) One should be responsible for the task he is assigned to do.
(D) Sometimes it’s better not to have too many people involved in a task.
( ) 2. Which of the following statements is didactic?
(A) Oblige us with your presence.
(B) I will teach you to meddle in my affair.
(C) He has more sense than to do so.
(D) It is better to cherish what one has now than feel sorry afterwards.
( ) 3. The word, “injunction” means _____.
(A) an order (B) a request (C) a saying (D) an entry
( ) 4. The equivalent to “It leaks at the gunwale, it leaks at the keel” is:
(A) Too many boatmen run the boat up to the top of the mountain.
(B) An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
(C) It never rains but it pours.
(D) A stitch in time saves nine.
英銘老師：閱讀測驗是很多考生畏懼的英文題型之一，其實閱題測驗的的解題並不難，因為外國人寫文章都愛用破題法，只要看第一段即可知道文章大概在講什麼內容。例如在此篇文章的第一段中，有提到“proverb” (諺語)，所以文章一定跟” 諺語”有關。
第1題：“廚子多了做壞了湯(人多反倒誤事)”，這個諺語要大家該怎麼做？(A)一次試著只做一件事。(B)應該只有一個人負責做飯。(C)每個人都應該對被分配到的任務負責。(D)有時候，最好不要有太多的人參與一項任務。意思較接近的是(D)。
補充：
proverb n. 諺語 (always)
An old Arabic proverb says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
一句古老的阿拉伯諺語說，敵人的敵人就是我的朋友。
同義：saying, adage, dictum, maxim, aphorism.
spoil v. 損壞、溺愛 (always)
Don't let mistakes spoil your life.
不要讓錯誤毀了你的生活。
The boy was spoilt by his grandmother.
這個男孩被他的祖母給慣壞了。
broth n. 湯 (sometimes)
The waitress served me with a big bowl of steaming broth.
女服務生給我端上一大碗熱騰騰的肉湯。
同義：soup.