被“新东方”应试技巧武装到牙齿的中国学生，围剿起旧SAT阅读语法题得心应手绰绰有余。可是，新SAT的阅读部分潜伏着一支精锐部队，让应试教育专家和学生们望洋兴叹，屡攻不克。
那就是“美国历史”或“世界级话语”部分。其选材大多是十八，十九世纪英美法文学家，社会学家，政治家的演讲，时评或辩论稿。其文字风格属于近乎文言文与白话文之间，句法叠床架屋般多层次，主体结构经常被频繁出现的同位语或插入语打断或打乱，导致习惯汉语完整表达法的中国学生读着读着就云山雾罩起来，找不着北。例如1869年一名叫Elizabeth Cady Stanton在她的一篇关于美国妇女投票权利的文章中这么写道：
" The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish , aggrandizing, loving war, violence , conquest , acquisition , breeding in the material and moral world alike discord, disorder, disease , and death. "
其实上句中，主句很简单，只有一句话：The male element is a destructive force.其余都是附属的成分。
" Through what slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries, while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!"
上句也是一样，主句"the soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries. "被埋在前后一大堆附属品堆中，千呼万唤出不来：
" Here that great conservator of woman's love, if go permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in freedom against oppression, violence, and war, would hold all these destructive forces in check, for woman knows the cost of life better than man does, and not with her consent would one drop of blood ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain."
上句中，主语 that great conservator of woman's love与谓语would hold all these destructive forces in check之间，被if开头和as开头引领的两个分句腰斩，整个句子显得“神龙见首不见尾”，学生读起来就有“只在此山中，云深不知处”的困惑。
如何突破这个瓶颈？没有捷径，没有取巧，没有套路，只有老老实实大量阅读那个时代的文章，熟悉那种咬文嚼字的学究语感，习惯在貌似支离破碎的长句中迅速捕捉到主句的主谓宾结构，撇清/厘清它与分句/插入语/同位语的关系。只有这样，才那达到《桃花源记》中的那种意境：“初极狭，才通人。复行数十步，豁然开朗。”
