相信没有同学会不认识“especially”。这个词虽然非常简单，但却经常成为GRE中的“考点”。很多同学由于对这个词所传递的“逻辑关系”把握得不精准而犯一些错误。
误区
当especially出现在“两个对象”之间时，很多同学或多或少会感受到这两个对象应该是有一定区别的才会使用especially；然后就直接把这个词当做一个“取反”的逻辑词来做题了。
但实际的情况是，我们不能简单地说especially是一个“取同”还是“取反”的逻辑词；严格来说它表达的是：
特征方向相同，但存在一种程度上的比较。
举个简单例子：
Food seems cheaper, especially meats.
especially表达的是：
food和meats都cheaper「特征方向相同」，但是meats相比其它food而言cheap得更多「程度上有比较关系」。
对于这个逻辑的把握无论是填空还是阅读中都有考察过，我们来看一下具体题目~
GRE填空真题
The author takes issue with the ideological blinders that have distorted much migration research, especially ______ modernization theorists and others for their untested assumptions of an immobile preindustrial past.
A. undermining
B. citing
C. castigating
D. chastising
E. endorsing
F. commending
答案
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CD
这道题我们已知的关系是：
author质疑了（take issue with）ideological blinders，那些ideological blinders扭曲了很多migration research。
现在我们要填的是一个分词，这个动词的发出者还是前面的author，动作的接受者是有着untested assumptions的一些人。有着untested assumptions的这些人对应的就是之前distort research的那些blinders。
根据especially的逻辑提示，这个动作和前面的 “take issue with”应该方向一致, 最终这个句子本质上就是在说：
the author takes issue with了一群ideological blinders，尤其是“take issue with”了其中的modernization theorists and others。
因此应该选择CD。
GRE阅读真题
At first glance, the place of Henry James among Modernist writers remains somewhat problematic. His dozen or more novels and scores of short stories obey the classic rules. Unlike Modernist novels, whose focus on characters’ inner lives provoked critics’ complaints that “nothing happens,” James’s plots move forward at a relentless pace, with denouements occurring where convention has put them, at the end. Their dialogue, if at times high-flown, is naturalistic; their author appears as an all-knowing presence. Despite these literary orthodoxies, though, James’s works, especially his late novels, show something amazingly new and unexpected. His explorations of consciousness shy at no complexity and lend his otherwise conventional novels the focus on interiority that characterizes the Modernist project in fiction.
Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
It can be inferred that the author of the passage would agree with which of the following claims about James’s fiction?
A. It would belong more obviously in the category of modernist literature if James had regularly subordinated plots to explorations of characters’ consciousness.
B. It shares with modernist novels an emphasis on interiority but diverges from them by upending conventional narrative structures.
C. It exhibits more commonality with modernist fiction in the late novels than in the early ones.
答案
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C
文章主线简单概括一下：
乍一看Henry James好像不是modernist writer，他应该属于classic。但是，在作者看来，尽管他有很多classic的特点，他依旧是modernist writer，有很显著的modernist的特征。
这道题目问的就是作者对James的看法。接下来辨析一下选项：
A选项，首先先来说一下对于这种虚拟语气句型的理解：
If…had/were…, … would….
这种句型里，if条件句里的内容一定和实际的情况是反的！
回到我们这个选项，这个选项其实想说的是：
James没有探索characters’ consciousness，所以他不能被很明显的放在modernist里。
而这就和文章矛盾了！文章一直明确在说James是有涉及inner live/consciousness的。
B选项，逻辑反了。James和modernist的区别应该是James有一些符合convention的东西，而不是他推翻（upending）了convention。
C选项，James的late novels比early novels更加modern。这个比较的关系是正确的。就来自于文章的“especially”：
James’s works, especially his late novels, show something amazingly new and unexpected.
根据我们刚刚梳理的对especially的正确理解，这个句子想传递的是：
James的作品「无论是early还是late ones」都是modern的（new and unexpected）。只不过他的late novels比early novels更加modern。
因此C是正确选项，逻辑关系表达的是非常准确的。
今天的分享就到这里啦！especially的精确逻辑理解你学会了嘛？觉得本期内容有帮助的同学记得一键三连哦