命题者说：影响英语阅读理解难度的因素分析

宁夏

阅读理解是高考英语试题中分值所占比例最大的项目，每年高考结束后，专家学者们都会对当年的试题进行分析，其中一个重要维度就是阅读理解的难度。笔者作为一线教师，结合自身教学及命题实践分析影响阅读理解难度的因素，旨在抛砖引玉，为广大同行的阅读教学及命题提供一些有益的启示。

一、试题难度的定义

难度是指被试群体完成某一道题的正确率或正答所占的百分比，这个统计量称为试题的难度。定量刻画试题难度的量数，被称之为难度系数或难度值。难度系数的大小，往往直接以试题的平均得分率或学生通过率来表达。难度系数使用字母P 表示，P 越大表示试题越简单，P 越小表示试题越难。一般来讲，难度0.3～ 0.7 为中等难度，这样的试题区分度一般较好；0.3 以下为难题；0.7 以上为简单题。

二、影响难度的因素

1.体裁和题材

英语课程内容是发展学生学科核心素养的基础，由六大要素组成，即主题、语篇、语言知识、文化知识、语言技能和学习策略。其中，主题指围绕人们生活、学习和工作相关的某一范围展开的话题类别，为语言学习提供内容范围。学生对主题意义的探究应是学生学习语言的最重要内容，直接影响学生对语篇理解的程度、思维发展的水平和语言学习的成效。整个高中阶段所涉及的主题内容包括人与自我、人与社会和人与自然三大类别。人与自我围绕“生活与学习”“做人与做事”设计了9 项子主题；人与社会围绕“社会服务与人际沟通”“文学、艺术与体育”“历史、社会与文化”“科学与技术”设计了16 项子主题；人与自然围绕“自然生态”“环境保护”“灾难防范”“宇宙探索”列入了7 项子主题。

当学生所面对的阅读材料是他所熟悉的主题内容时，如外研版教材中涉及的肢体语言、威尼斯狂欢节、英语与美语的异同等，相对而言，阅读理解的难度就会有所降低。根据图式理论，如果学生不熟悉阅读材料的内容，那么新的图式不能在原有的图式中找到相应的位置，更不能更新原有图式，这样的阅读理解难度相对较大。

如下文是一篇高考同源文章，主题是人与社会中的11.法律常识和法治意识等；体裁是说明文。

The law is important for a society for it serves as a norm of conduct for citizens.It was also made to provide for proper guidelines and order upon the behaviour for all citizens and to sustain the equity on the three branches of the government.It keeps the society running.Without law there would be chaos and it would be survival of the fittest and everyman for himself.Not an ideal lifestyle for most part.

…

Nonetheless,when law cannot bring about change without social support,it still can create certain preconditions for social change.Moreover,after independence,the Constitution of India provided far-reaching guidelines for change.Its directive principle suggested a blueprint for a new nation.The de-recognition of the caste system,equality before the law and equal opportunities for all in economic,political and social spheres were some of the high points of the Indian Constitution.

文章介绍了法律在社会中的重要性。但是首先学生对于说明文和议论文本身就具有畏难情结，再者学生在日常的生活和学习中，接触法律的机会也较少，并没有明确的法律常识和法律意识，这就使得文章难度陡然上升。若难度过高，教师在改写的过程中，可以通过“提炼中心，缩短文本，添加注释，替换词汇，改变句式”等方法降低难度，以符合当前高考难度以及命题规律，如上文中第一段内容。该段内容介绍了法律的重要性，其中时态使用了一般现在时和一般过去时：一般现在时：The law is important；一般过去时：It was also made；语态使用了被动语态：It was also made to provide for proper guidelines。状语从句：for it serves as a norm of conduct for citizens；虚拟语气：Without law there would be chaos；并列句：Without law there would be chaos and it would be survival of the fittest and everyman for himself.省略句：Not an ideal lifestyle for most part.超纲词汇：norm，guidelines，sustain，equity idea；文化障碍：a norm of conduct，guidelines and order，the equity on the three branches of the government，be survival of the fittest；熟词生义：for most part。笔者将该段落进行改写，新的段落内容为：The law is important for a society.Firstly,it directs the behaviors of citizens.Secondly,it keeps the balance of the government.It keeps the society running.

2.文本词汇

影响阅读理解难度的第二个因素是材料中词汇的使用。阅读材料的词汇因素主要指生词数量和语篇长度。《考试大纲》中要求词汇量为3500 左右。一般而言，阅读理解部分生词量不超过3%，所谓的生词是指超出《课程标准》和《考试大纲》范围的词。生词过多会使材料难度加大。因此，在命制试题的过程中，当生词量超过3%时，教师应替换和删掉一些生词，或者给出汉语注释，以降低阅读材料的难度。下文是笔者对高考同源文章的一次简化：

原文：Society is a‘web-relationship’and social change obviously means a change in the system of social relationship where a social relationship is understood in terms of social processes and social interactions and social organizations.Thus,the term,‘social change’is used to indicate desirable variations in social institution,social processes and social organization.It includes alterations in the structure and functions of the society.Closer analysis of the role of law leads us to distinguish between the direct and the indirect aspects of the role of law.

简化后：Society is a‘web-relationship’and social change obviously means a change in the system of social relationship,where a social relationship is understood in terms of social processes and social interactions（互动）and social organizations.Thus,the term,‘social change’is used to show some variations（变化）in social institution,social processes and social organization.It includes changes in the structure and functions of the society.Closer analysis of the role of law leads us to distinguish（区别）between the direct and the indirect aspects.

笔者的改动范围主要是减少文章词数，将难词替换，并对关键词进行汉语注释。如将原文中的interactions,variations,distinguish 进行注释，将原文中的indicate 改为show,desirable 改为some，使该段落的原长度由87 词缩减为82 词，并将原文章的592 词缩减为324 词，从而降低了文章难度。

3.试题的类型

试题类型多指细节理解题、推理判断题、词义猜测题、主旨大意题等不同的考点。一般而言，细节理解题相对而言，比较简单，其他几种类型的试题则相对较难。

以下为笔者命制的高考同源试题，文章属于记叙文，难度不大，但是在试题设置上，笔者没有设计细节理解题，而是以其他考点为主，以便增加试题难度：

The origin of coffee? I never really thought about it.When I was a kid,coffee was always around.My parents drank coffee,my grandparents drank coffee,all the adults I knew drank coffee.I thought I would drink it too when I was older,and of course,I did.

But there must have been a time before coffee.I don’t remember coffee making an appearance in any of the Bible（圣经）stories I learned.Jesus changed water into wine,not coffee.Maybe if coffee had been around,he would have changed some of the water into coffee,for after dinner.Maybe that’s what “B.C.”meant:“before coffee”.

According to popular legend,the origin of coffee can be traced to a thousand years ago,when an Abyssinian (Ethiopian)goatherd（牧羊人）named Kaldi observed his goats dancing and jumping.Kaldi had previously found the behavior of his goats to be“normal”,so he knew that something unusual was going on.When Kaldi went closer,he saw that the goats were happily eating the red berries（浆果）and shiny（发亮的）leaves of an unfamiliar tree.Kaldi decided to try some,and when he did he joined the dancing goats and became“the happiest herder（牧者）in happy Arabia”.

Some time later,a passing monk（和尚）observed Kaldi and the goats.When Kaldi told him about the berries,the monk thought they might be the answer to his prayers（祈祷）.The unnamed monk came up with the idea of drying and boiling the berries to make a beverage.His fellow monks loved the new drink because it encouraged them to pray — and it tasted good too.

So now that I know about Kaldi and his goats,if someday someone calls me an“old goat”,I’ll just smile,have another sip of coffee,and maybe do a little dance.

1.Why did Jesus change water into wine instead of coffee?

A.Because Jesus didn’t like coffee.

B.Because coffee didn’t appear that time.

C.Because it was not the right time to have coffee.

D.Because Jesus was better at changing water into wine.

分析：根据第二段第四句 “Maybe if coffee had been around,he would have changed some of the water into coffee,for after dinner”，该句中的be around 本意为“露面，拜访”，此处表示咖啡的“出现”，该题考查学生是否真的理解了be around 等同于appear；而且该句为虚拟语气，使用if+过去完成时，表示对过去的假设，由此可知当时咖啡并没有出现。

2.What was the author’s attitude toward the origin of coffee?

A.Serious. B.Objective.

C.Humorous. D.Sincere.

分析：该题考查学生对于作者行文写作中写作口吻的把握。学生读完文章可知，文章是介绍咖啡起源的，这样的社科文章，通常都是刻板、严肃的，学生会陷入思维定式的陷阱，根据文章第二段最后一句话“Maybe that’s what‘B.C.’meant:‘before coffee.’”众所周知，B.C.的意思是“公元前”，而在本文中，作者用大家都知道的例子，来验证自己的说法，从而得出一个令人啼笑皆非的结论，这说明作者是很幽默的。

3.What does the underlined word“beverage”in Paragraph 4 mean?

A.A kind of new drink.

B.A kind of food made by monks.

C.A kind of soup needed to be boiled.

D.A kind of drugs encouraging people to keep awake.

分析：该题为猜测词义题。根据画线词所在句子“The unnamed monk came up with the idea of drying and boiling the berries”，笔者设计了B 选项中的monk，C 选项中的boiled，以及D 选项中学生所熟知的咖啡的功效keep awake 来进行干扰。而猜测生词时，不仅要关注上文，同样也要关注下文，原文中下一句“His fellow monks loved the new drink”才是解题的题眼。

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.The Development of Coffee

B.The Popularity of Coffee in the World

C.The Coffee-Drinking Tradition in My Family

D.The Origin of Coffee:Kaldi and the Dancing Goats

分析：标题概括题的选项通常是简短的，学生容易误选A，而这篇文章的关键不是development，而是origin，文章的标题除了简短外，还要具有概括性，这是学生不容易注意到的。

答案：1.B 2.C 3.A 4.D

4.受测群体

影响阅读理解难度的另一个因素是受测群体的最近水平能力。高三针对的是选拔性的高考，有严格的《考试说明》，高考命题者在命制阅读理解试题时，所面对的是全国的考生，其目的是为高校选拔人才，所以阅读理解难度往往中等偏上，所以高考才是权威的。而高一高二，学生的课标任务还没有完成，词汇量有限，而且受测群体的主要任务是完成教学目标，且该受测群体所接受的测试任务是课堂练习、小测验、单元考试、期中考试等，这类测试中所选的阅读理解主要是检测受测群体在单位时间内所学的内容，属于诊断性测试。因此，命制阅读理解试题之前，命题者要熟悉受测范围内受测群体，即高一高二学生，近期内的学习心理、学习态度等非智力因素以及学习进度、学习的知识和能力等基本学习情况，以此作为命制阅读理解试题的依据。同时，为保证受测群体不产生厌学的负面情绪，命题者要把控阅读理解的文本难度，在文本长度、试题类型、词汇分布等方面，均要与近期内受测群体的能力水平保持一致。

三、总结

综上所述，教师在命制阅读理解试题时，应综合考虑文本材料，并结合受测群体的水平，选择合适的题材和体裁，对文章中的词汇进行二次加工，根据阅读文本的难度对试题的类型进行调整，以增加或者减少阅读理解的整体难度。