阅读理解应试总则
对于考研英语的阅读理解部分，我们应当掌握的最基本的应试总则就是命题专家的出题原则，考生应根据所读文章的写作思路，利用信号关键词进行定位，然后到选项中找到最佳重叠原文意思的选项。这就是阅读理解的解题全过程。
考生在判断选项是否能重叠原文时，常常会感到迷惑，无法判断选项是否与原文内容完全重叠，这是因为在设计考题时常用一些语言点来迷惑考生。一般说来，命题专家最常用的有四种方式：“语言简化”、“反话正说”、“正话反说”和“关键词替换”。
“语言简化”是命题专家命题时所使用的原则。在设置选项时，四个选项的长度及句法不应有太大差异，而选项所使用的语言难度必须低于文章本身的难度。
“反话正说”的命题方式是指文中用否定方式，选项用肯定的方式。即所谓的否定形式表达肯定意思。
1．“Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle.”
The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the . ［2000］
［A］turning of the business cycle ［B］restructuring of industry
［C］improved business management ［D］success in education
2．The strange, almost incomprehensible fact is that many professors, just as they feel obliged to write dully, believe that they should lecture dully. To show enthusiasm is to risk appearing unscientific, un-objective, it is to appeal to the students' emotions rather than their intellect. Thus the ideal lecture is one filled with facts and read in an unchanged monotone.
The majority of university professors prefer the traditional way of lecturing in the belief that _____.
A) it draws the close attention of the students
B) it conforms in a way to the design of the Creator
C) it presents course content in a scientific and objective manner
D) it helps students to comprehend abstract theories more easily
Exercises:
1. They are nowhere close to achieving anything.
2. He is no more fit to be a president than a schoolboy would be.
3. A whale is no less a mammal than a horse is.
4. I don’t so much love him as sympathize with him.
5. There is no rule but has exceptions.
6. They never meet without quarreling.
7. Nobody sought his aid but were helped.
8. The potential benefit of exercises can’t be overestimated.
另外一种常用的命题方式“正话反说”，是指原文用肯定方式表述，而选项用否定方式表述，两者意义相吻合。
3．How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don't have unpredictable things, you don't have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried （简洁的）reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it.
The author asserts that scientists .
［A］shouldn't replace “scientific method” with imaginative thought
［B］shouldn't neglect to speculate on unpredictable things
［C］should write more concise reports for technical journals
［D］should be confident about their research findings［1999］
Exercises:
1. Donavan would have loved the Internet.
2. We couldn’t have gone to the beach on a better day.
3. Its results fell short of my expectations.
4. This is the last thing I want to do.
5. Your answer is far from my satisfaction.
6. He is anything but an artist.
7. It’s out of the question/ out of question.
8. This is more than I can chew. It’s beyond/above me.
9. You should have known better than to take my words seriously.
“关键词替换”是专家命题时最常用的方式，几乎每一道题都用这种方式来设置。
4．This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, receives a new form of expression.
Futurists claim that we must .
［A］increase the production of literature
［B］use poetry to relieve modern stress
［C］develop new modes of expression
［D］avoid using adjectives and verbs
5．During the middle of the 19th century, Germany, along with other European nations, experienced an unprecedented rash of workplace deaths and accidents as a result of growing industrialization. Motivated in part by Christian compassion(怜悯)for the helpless as well as a practical political impulse to undercut the support of the socialist labor movement. Chancellor Bismarck created the world's first workers' compensation law in 1884.
5．The world's first workers' compensation law was introduced by Bismarck .
A) for fear of losing the support of the socialist labor movement
B) out of religious and political considerations
C) to speed up the pace of industrialization
D) to make industrial production safer
6．We learn from the passage that the process of industrialization in Europe _______.
A) met growing resistance from laborers working at machines
B) resulted in the development of popular social insurance programs
C) was accompanied by an increased number of workshop accidents
D) required workers to be aware of the potential dangers at the workplace
下面结合阅读理解应试的基本步骤，就具体题型提出相应的应试原则。
一、主题原则
其标志词为：best title/main idea/most likely to agree/ conclusion/
1. 明确的主题题型
7． If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that's God” came the reply, “but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor.”
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it'll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn't attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoat like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it's the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a lighthearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote “If at first you don't succeed, give up” or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.
7．The best title for the text may be . ［2002年45题］
［A］ Use Humor Effectively ［B］ Various Kinds of Humor
［C］ Add Humor to Speech ［D］ Different Humor Strategies
2. 隐蔽的主题题型
I came away from my years of teaching on the college and university level with a conviction that enactment (扮演角色), performance, dramatization are the most successful forms of teaching. Students must be incorporated, made, so far as possible, an integral part of the learning process. The notion that learning should have in it an element of inspired play would seem to the greater part of the academic establishment merely silly, but that is nonetheless the case. Of Ezekiel Cheever, the most famous schoolmaster of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his onetime student Cotton Mather wrote that he so planned his lessons that his pupils "came to work as though they came to play," and Alfred North Whitehead, almost three hundred years later, noted that a teacher should make his/her students "glad they were there."
8．What the author recommends in this passage is that ______.
A) college education should be improved through radical measures
B) more freedom of choice should be given to students in their studies
C) traditional college lectures should be replaced by dramatized performances
D) interaction should be encouraged in the process of teaching
二、态度原则
其标志词为：attitude, believe, deem, regard. 作者态度题有两种题型：
1. 文章作者态度题
Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979—1980, when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the backbone of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist's commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 by almost 30%. ［2002，55］
9．From the text we can see that the writer seems .
［A］ optimistic ［B］ sensitive ［C］ gloomy ［D］ scared
2. 局部作者态度题
The MBA, a 20th-century product, always has borne the mark of lowly commerce and greed (贪婪) on the tree-lined campuses ruled by purer disciplines such as philosophy and literature.
10. According to Paragraph 2, what is the general attitude towards business on campuses dominated by purer disciplines?
A)Envious. B)Scornful. C)Realistic. D)Appreciative.
Many Americans harbor a grossly distorted and exaggerated view of most of the risks surrounding food. Fergus Clydesdale, head of the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says bluntly that if the dangers from bacterially contaminated chicken were as great as some people believe. “the streets would be littered with people lying here and there. ”
11. What does the author think of the Americans' view of their food?
A) They overstate the government's interference with the food industry.
B) They are overoptimistic about the safety of their food.
C) They overestimate the hazards of their food.
D) They overlook the risks of the food they eat.
In1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age-----say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way” ,so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive.
12.The author's attitude to ward Richard Lamm's remark is one of
[A] strong disapproval. [B] reserved consent.
[C] slight contempt. [D] enthusiastic support.
三、段落原则
段落原则应用于根据段落内容所设置的题目，它包括两种形式：首句原则和末句原则。
1. 首句原则
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips（臀部）can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death—and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
13. What is implied in the first sentence?
［A］Americans are better prepared for death than other people.
［B］Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.
［C］Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.
［D］Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.［2003年56题］
2. 末句原则 有时一个自然段的主题句也会出现在段末，因此考点也相应转向末句。
Multivitamins are no substitute for exercise and a balanced diet, of course. As long as you understand that any potential benefit is modest and subject to further refinement, taking a daily multivitamin makes a lot of sense.
14. The author concludes the passage with the advice that_____.
A) the benefit of daily multivitamin intake outweighs that of exercise and a balanced diet
B) it's risky to take multivitamins without knowing their specific function
C) the potential benefit of multivitamins can never be overestimated
D) it's reasonable to take a rational dose of multivitamins daily
No woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times. Being thin is deemed as such a virtue .
15．In the eyes of the author, an odd phenomenon nowadays is that .
A）the Duchess of Windsor is regarded as a woman of virtue
B）looking slim is a symbol of having a large fortune
C）being thin is viewed as a much desired quality
D）religious people are not necessarily virtuous
四、转折/对比原则
In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
16．Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ____.
A) more family-oriented C) more profound
B) unusually popular D) relatively formal
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is human kind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
17. The third sentence of this paragraph implies that .（转折）
［A］ people would be happy if they shut their eyes to reality
［B］ the blind could be happier than the sighted
［C］ over-excited people tend to neglect vital things
［D］ fascination makes people lose their eyesight［1998］
五、指代原则
Conventional wisdom about conflict seems pretty much cut and dried. Too little conflict breeds apathy (冷漠) and stagnation (呆滞). Too much conflict leads to divisiveness (分裂) and hostility. Moderate levels of conflict, however, can spark creativity and motivate people in a healthy and competitive way.
Recent research by Professor Charles R. Schwenk, however, suggests that the optimal level of conflict may be more complex to determine than these simple generalizations.
18. In the eyes of the author, conventional opinion on conflict is .
A) wrong B) oversimplified C) misleading D) unclear
六、类比原则
In the villages of the English countryside there are still people who remember the good old days when no one bothered to lock their doors. There simply wasn't any crime to worry about.
Amazingly, these happy times appear still to be with us in the world's biggest community. A new study by Dan Farmer, a gifted programmer, using an automated investigative program of his own called SATAN, shows that the owners of well over half of all World Wide Web sites have set up home without fitting locks to their doors.
19. By saying “... owners of well over half of all World Wide Web sites have set up home without fitting locks to their doors" (Lines 3-4, Para. 2), the author means that _____.
A) those happy times appear still to be with us
B) there simply wasn't any crime to worry about
C) many sites are not well-protected
D) hackers try out tricks on an Internet site without actually breaking in
Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce.
20. One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____.
A) they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom
B) they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands
C) they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations
D) they tend to suspect their husbands’ loyalty to their marriage
And with so much more money floating in the workers' compensation system, it's not surprising that doctors and lawyers have helped themselves to a large slice of the growing pie.
21.The author ends the passage with the implication that ______.
A)compensation benefits in America are soaring to new heights
B)people from all walks of life can benefit from the compensation system
C)the workers are not the only ones to benefit from the compensation system
D)money floating in the compensation system is a huge drain on the U.S. economy
This nonverbal ‘spatial ’ thinking can be as creative as painting and writing. Robert once wrote, “The mechanic should sit down among levers（杠杆）, screws（螺丝）, wedges（锲）, wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.”
22. A technologist can be compared to an artist because . (明喻)
［A］ they are both winners of awards
［B］ they are both experts in spatial thinking
［C］ they both abandon verbal description
［D］ they both use various instruments
七、例证原则
其标志词为：case, example, illustrate/illustration, demonstrate/demonstration, exemplify.
“ I have great confidence that by the end of the decade we’ll know in vast detail how cancer cells arise,” says microbiologist Robert Weinberg, an expert on cancer. “ But, ” he cautions, “ some people have the idea that once one understands the causes, the cure will rapidly follow. Consider Pasteur. He discovered the causes of many kinds of infections, but it was fifty or sixty years before cures were available.”
23. The example of Pasteur in the passage is used to _______ .
[A] predict that the secret of cancer will be disclosed in a decade.
[B] indicate that the prospects for curing cancer are bright.
[C] prove that cancer will be cured in fifty to sixty years.
[D] warn that there is still a long way to go before cancer can be conquered.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians—frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient---too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
24. The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that ______ .
[A] medical resources are often wasted
[B] doctors are helpless against fatal diseases.
[C] some treatments are too aggressive.
[D] medical costs are becoming unaffordable.
八、句子理解原则
In the US and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.
25. When the author says that “observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling”, he means .
［A］observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of euthanasia
［B］similar bills are likely to be passed in the US, Canada and other countries
［C］observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes
［D］the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop
It is wonderful how everyone agrees (or fears to disagree ) that genetic discrimination is a bad thing. Your genes are beyond your control. Why should you be punished for them? Unfortunately, genetic discrimination is universal, inevitable and in some ways, essential. Leaving aside the hot issue of intelligence, consider clearly genetic traits such as musical or athletic talent. Practice, practice will get you to Carnegie Hall, but only if you’re born on the right bus. The notion of not discriminating on the basis of inborn talent is not even an abstract ideal. The world would be a poorer place if it didn’t distinguish between me and Yo-Yo Ma in doli |