SAT备考阅读中的关键词，在英文中，“comparison”表达的是信息之间的相似之处，而表达相异之处*使用“contrast”。牛津词典对“contrast”的定义如下:
· the degree of difference between tones in a television picture, photograph, or other image
· enhancement of the apparent brightness or clarity of a design provided by the juxtaposition of different colors or textures
· the action of calling attention to notable differences: use knowledge of other languages for contrast and comparison with English
· [in sing.] a thing or person having qualities noticeably different from another
条目挺多，但都*含不同或差异。这也是为何，“compare”会被翻译成“比较”， 而“contrast”会被翻译成“对比”。“比较”更注重两个事物“像”的方面，而 “对比”强调的是“不像”的方面。理解对比的存在，既能帮助理清文章，也能 帮助做题。我们来看个稍微有点长的例子:
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must be worshipped in close-locked solitude-- which was hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song of birds, and started to no human tones-- Eppie was a creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires, seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and living movements; making trial of everything, with trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object compacted of changes and hopes that forced his thoughts onward, and carried them far away from their old eager pacing towards the same blank limit -- carried them away to the new things that would come with the coming years, when Eppie would have learned to understand how her father Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of that time in the ties and charities that bound together the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened and blinded more and more to all things except the monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web; but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening his senses with her fresh life, even to the old winter-flies that came crawling forth in the earlyspring sunshine, and warming him into joy because she had joy. 这个段落来自于 2016 年 10 月 1 日北美考区新 SAT 阅读原文, George Eliot 的
Silas Marner 《织工马南》节选。很多同学表示好难，好难受，好难承受… 但 对于一个掌握了对比关系的人来说，这篇节选其实应该长成这个样子:
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must be worshipped in close-locked solitude-- which was hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song of birds, and started to no human tones-- Eppie was a creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires, seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and living movements; making trial of everything, with trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in all eyes that looked on her.
The gold had kept his thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object compacted of changes and hopes that forced his thoughts onward, and carried them far away from their old eager pacing towards the same blank limit -- carried them away to the new things that would come with the coming years, when Eppie would have learned to understand how her father Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of that time in the ties and charities that bound together the families of his neighbors.
The gold had asked that he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened and blinded more and more to all things except the monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web; but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening his senses with her fresh life, even to the old winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because she had joy. 其实只有三句话。嗯，真的！只有！三句话！虽然每句话很长，但看看这么清晰 的骨架结构，再淡定地阅读每句话对比的细节。真是阳光灿烂的日子啊~
*句话说的是金子啥也不要，很猥琐，躲着光，不听鸟叫，不闻人声，而 Eppie 有无尽的要求，不断的欲望，爱阳光，爱声音，爱运动….相比之下，Eppie 确 实是更有活力啊，所以下面这道题只能选 A。
As compared with Silas’s gold, Eppie is portrayed as having more
A) vitality
B) durability
C) protection
D) self-sufficiency
利用对比组织文章的例子比比皆是，比如:
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. ….. Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong….
对比不仅仅是不同而已，有时甚至是截然相反，所以利用对比关系，我们可以找 出很多反义词和反义词组，以此推断它们在上下文中的含义，以上文为例：
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. ….. Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong….
如果有个单词题，长成这样：
As used in the paragraph, “squares with” most nearly means
A) in harmony with
B) at odds with
C) circles with
D) doubles with
答案也只好明显是 A。推理过程如下：“square with”与“out of harmony with” 反义，自然也只能选“in harmony with”。不过，考官不会出这么明显的题，一 般会换个与“in harmony with”同义的短语，例如“in accordance with”或 者“in line with”。
上面的例子都好长，我们来看个短的吧，轻松一下。
My grandmother took me to the Plaza de Armas, to the studio of Don Juan Ribero, the best photographer in Santiago, a curt man as dry as stale bread on the outside, but generous and sentimental inside.
加粗的文字对比了一个人的外在特征和内在特征。Don Juan Ribero 大概是个“刀
子嘴，豆腐心”的人。当然更重要的是，针对这个对比设置了考题。
还有一些对比不那么明显，但依旧是对比，而且依旧考了题，比如:
“Let’s see if you can photograph the dark shadows in your nightmares,” Severo del Valle said as a joke, never suspecting that that would be my one objective for months, and that in the task of deciphering that nightmare I would end up in love with the world.
Severo del Valle 只是玩笑话，而“我”却当真了。两人的态度截然不同，形成 对比。请看下面的题目:
In the first paragraph, the narrator emphasizes the contrast between
A) the benefits of a life of wealth and privilege and the rewards of determination and hard work.
B) her earnest attitude and Severo del Valle’s playful tone.
C) the family’s overwhelming preoccupation with materialism and her focus on art and beauty.
D) her attempts to assert her own independence and the grandmother’s authoritarian control over the family.
还有呢，再看！
Ribero was the favorite of the upper class, the photographer of the social pages, but the people gazing at me from the walls of his studio were not bigwig conservatives or beautiful debutantes, but Indians, miners, fishermen, laundresses, poor children, old men, many women like the ones my grandmother helped with her loans from the ladies club.
Ribero 是上流社会的宠儿，是社会封面的摄影师。然而，他*室的墙上贴的 却都是普通人甚至穷苦人民的照片。他的职业活动和他的爱好形成了鲜明的对比。
