Question

一道gre绿皮书填空题

As late as 1891 a speaker assured his audience that since profitable farming was the result of natural ability rather than______, an education in agriculture was______.
第一空选项：A.effort B. luck C.learning
第二空选项：D.useless E.vital F.intellectural

答案是CD。
想问第一空为什么选learning 而不是effort

Answer 1

effort主要是努力，施加力气这种的，对应的反义是不费力
而题干中natural ability强调的不是毫不费力得来的ability，而是一种自然的天生的ability，所以和learning习得的，后天学习而来的相对应，构成反义对比。

填空做多了你就会发现，老美有一些反义对应的思路和咱们不一样，咱们对应的比较死，而美国人讲究属性和范围。看多了你这种思维就美化了~~

Answer 2

上一位同学解释的很好了.
我把两个词的英文解释列在这里你就更明白了.
effort: Definition of EFFORT
1: conscious exertion of power : hard work <a job requiring time and effort>
2: a serious attempt : try <making an effort to reduce costs>
3: something produced by exertion or trying <the novel was her most ambitious effort>
4: effective force as distinguished from the possible resistance called into action by such a force
5: the total work done to achieve a particular end <the war effort>
以上来自韦伯.以下来自维ki.
Learning: Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information.

effort是指conscious exertion of power,而learning是指acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge.effort是指自觉地下功夫,learning是指汲取新的知识.因为对应的是natural ability,说明是自然本身已有的东西,所以就要选它的反项,即是"取新-learning".
而且你要细读下面,an education in agriculture was ______. 这就更加表明了应该是learning.

Answer 3

此题重点就是education的同意对应是learning