措辭分析題要求考生理解作者是如何挑選單詞、短語和語言模式來影響文章的含義、語氣和風格的。與詞匯題不同，措辭分析題的重點並不是單詞的定義，它更強調特定詞匯、短語和語言模式對文章的含義、語氣和風格所產生的修辭作用。措辭分析題的考察內容主要分為兩類：一種是考察修辭作用，另一種是考察文章語氣。
題幹關鍵詞：purpose, effect, or impact ( of certain words, phrases, or sentences ) ;tone ( of the particular lines or the whole passage )
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材料：The Official SAT Study Guide
試卷：2
頁數：453
題號：4
Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.This passage is from Charlotte Bront ë , The Professor,originally published in 1857.
No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man, worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I am baffled!" and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X — felt my occupation irksome. The thing itself — the work of copying and translating business-letters — was a dry and tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke, monotony, and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes; I should have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. King ’ s lodgings, and they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherished-in-secret, Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But this was not all; the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily, excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.
4. The references to "shade" and "darkness" at the end of the first paragraph mainly have which effect?
A ) They evoke the narrator ’ s sense of dismay.
B ) They reflect the narrator ’ s sinister thoughts.
C ) They capture the narrator ’ s fear of confinement.
D ) They reveal the narrator ’ s longing for rest.
答案 : A
答案解析 : 本題問的是文章第一段結尾使用 "shade" 和 "darkness" 有什麼作用。文章措辭肯定是為文章主旨服務的，因此在分析措辭時，要註意結合文章整體的基調，並考慮作者的寫作意圖。這段作者主要闡述瞭自己對工作現狀的厭惡和不滿。定位到 "shade" 和 "darkness" 具體位置 Lines 27-33，作者說自己和雇主之間產生的憎惡越來越深，像密集的 "shade" 每天蔓延，讓自己不見天日，覺得自己像長在潮濕的 "darkness" 的井壁上的植物。這裡作者使用瞭比喻的修辭手法，顯然是為瞭營造某種感覺，並將這種感覺更為形象的傳達給讀者。
A 選項說是喚起敘述者的沮喪感。這和這一段表達的情緒一致，也能支撐作者的寫作意圖，為最佳選項。
B 選項說是反應瞭敘述者險惡的思想。本段沒有任何措辭表現出作者的險惡用心，與全文基調不符，排除。
C 選項說是抓住瞭敘述者對這種監禁的恐懼。結合本段的其它措辭，如：irksome, tedious, borne with, nuisance, antipathy 等，表達的都是類似 " 厭倦 " 或 " 絕望 " 的情緒，並沒有表現出恐懼，因此排除。
D 選項說是揭示瞭敘述者對休息的渴望。作者用瞭很多 "I should have … " 來傳達自己的行為或想法，例如： "I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties" ( Lines 14-15 ) ，由此可見作者厭惡工作的原因之一是不願埋沒自己的才能，並不是想要休息，因此該選項排除。
重點詞匯：
baffle: [ 'b æ f ( ə ) l ] vt. 使…困惑 ; 使…受挫折 | n. 擋板 ; 困惑
irksome: [ ' ɜː ks ( ə ) m ] adj. 令人厭煩的，討厭的 ; 令人厭惡的
tedious: [ 'ti ː d ɪə s ] adj. 沉悶的 ; 冗長乏味的
nuisance: [ 'nju ː s ( ə ) ns ] n. 討厭的人 ; 損害 ; 麻煩事 ; 討厭的東西
antipathy: [ æ n't ɪ p əθɪ ] n. 反感 ; 厭惡 ; 憎惡 ; 不相容
glimpse: [ gl ɪ m ( p ) s ] n. 一瞥，一看 | v. 瞥見
slimy: [ 'sla ɪ m ɪ ] adj. 黏滑的 ; 泥濘的 ; 諂媚的，虛偽的
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