阅读理解基本理论

一、备考

1.体裁

考研的议论文一般都存在鲜明的观点和态度，作者的写作目的就是为了陈述观点，或表明态度。论点的特征是其争议性，内容包括支持或反对某一观点，提倡某一思想或就某一话题表示明确的态度。文章的组织结构逻辑性强，段落内部句子之间联系紧密，段与段之间意思紧密相连，整篇文章围绕一个中心展开，各个段落和中心意思存在某种联系。文章内容抽象，并且有充足的证据。

说明文大部分属于新闻报道。其特点是以事实为主，观点为辅，从不同方面论文某一话题。

出题者不会考虑你爱不爱读他所选的文章，他关心的是文章的语言难度、背景难度、适不适合出题，因此所选的文章大都较枯燥，即使不枯燥，由于语言难度大，也会使你感到乏味，尤其是碰到平时不甚了解的主题。考生在阅读心理上要自我调节，当文章读着费劲，感到烦躁时，告诫自己：我在考试，文章乏味是正常的。

2.题材

主要包括广泛关注的社会话题(注意：这里所说的社会主要不是中国，而是西方国家尤其是美、英、加、日等国)，如社会生活、文化、教育等的发展问题，科技新进展和商业经济等题材。

3.语言

考研阅读文章最明显的特征是句子的结构复杂，而且较长。我们采用语言难度测试软件对英文书刊文章进行了分析：一篇文章的阅读舒适度在0~100之间，难度与舒适度成反比，该数值越大文章越容易读，越小则阅读难度越大。教研英语文章大部分的阅读舒适程度在10~50之间，平均为40左右，总体来说读着费劲，很不舒服。根据可读性可把文章按难度分12个级别，即1~12级：1级最容易，12级最难。大多数教研阅读文章的难度级别在7~12之间。可见如果考生能把教研文章非常顺利地读懂，再注意扩充单词，你的英语阅读就有相当的水平了。为简化起见，我们用可读性发表示阅读舒适程度。本书所选的每个段落或每篇文章都注明这两个指数，供考生参考。

4.与本书同时阅读或先于本书阅读的书籍：

报刊选读

商业类：Business Week(商业周刊)，Economists(经济学家杂志)。

时事/社会问题类：Newsweek(新闻周刊)，Times(时代周刊)，The Washington Post(华成顿邮报)，USA Today(今日美国)，The Times(泰晤士报)，The Guardian(卫报)。

科普类：National Geographic(国家地理杂志)，Scientific American(科学美国人)，Science(科学杂志)，New Scientists(新科学家)，Discovery(发现杂志)。

准备词汇的书

《傻哥考研词频归类记忆》：傻哥编编著。

《硕士研究生入学考试星火词汇巧记速记》：“星火考研系列”体系，青岛海洋出版社出版。

准备长难句的书

《硕士研究生入学考试阅读基本功——难句过关》：“考试虫”体系，航空工业出版社出版。

二、阅读的顺序——先读文章还是先读题？

这个问题可以说因人而异，各有利弊。常见的有三种阅读方法：

1) 先读问题，读完一题然后去文章相应的地方找答案，看一题做一题。优点是：针对性强，阅读时无关内容可略过，阅读速度快，省时间。教研阅读题总体来看，题目的先后顺序与其对应于文章中的先后顺序大致相同。但肯定有少数题目不按原文的顺序出现。这种情况往往出现在下列题目上：段落大意题、个别句子题、词汇题。缺点是：对文章的整体把握差。对于下列题型可能会感到无从下手：主旨题、上下文逻辑关系题、作者观点/态度题、判断推理题。

2) 通读文章后看题，然后再回来读有关段落。优点是：对文章有一个总的概念和印象。对于下列题型有利：文章主旨题、上下文逻辑关系题、作者观点/态度题、判断推理题。缺点是费时间，对文章的细节记不清楚。

3) 读一层意思做几道题，阅读和做题交叉进行。优点是：速度适中，对于刚读完的内容印象深，记忆效果好。特别当考题集中在前面的段落时，优越性最明显。缺点是：对文章的整体理解不如第二种方法强。如果出题者不按文章内容顺序出题，此方法就行不通了。请大家试用上述三种方法做下面的的阅读理解题。

It’s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers’ misfortunes.

Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might — surprise! — fall off. The label on a child’s Batman cape cautions that the toy “does not enable user to fly”.

While warnings are often appropriate and necessary — the dangers of drug interactions, for example — and many are required by state of federal regulations, it isn’t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.

Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn’t have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. “We’re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren’t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries,” says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete’s injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute — a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight — issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. “Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities, ” says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability. [390 words 阅读舒适度：46.5(非常不舒服) 难度：11.5(较难)]

1. What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?

[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.

[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.

[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.

[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.

2. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to

[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products.

[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products.

[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability.

[D] feel obliged to view customers’ safety as their first concern.

3. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that

[A] some injury claims were no longer supported by law.

[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries.

[C] product labels would eventually be discarded.

[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes.

4. The author’s attitude towards the issue seems to be

[A] biased. [B] indifferent. [C] puzzling. [D] objective.

答案和解析

注意：为简明起见，在本书中规定第一段用 <1 >表示，第二段用 <2 >表示，依此类推；某段中的第一句用①表示，第三句用②表示，依此类推。

1. [B]。细节题。 <1 >④⑤“幸运的是，假如门口的擦鞋棕垫或炉灶上没有警示语告诉你可能遭受的危害，那么就可以提起诉讼，官司打赢就可获得赔偿，以弥补你所遭受的损害。自20世纪80年代初以来，陪审团成员开始认为更多的公司应对其顾客所遭受的不幸负法律责任。”可见“受伤的消费者可望得到法律制度的保护”正确。[A]不对，因为文章没有说“通过法律诉讼可以减轻他们所受的灾难”，灾难是无法减轻的。[C]、[D]均与文章明显不符。

2. [C]。细节题。 <2 >①“公司感觉受到了威胁，便作出了反应，其做法是写出越来越长的警示标识语，力图将种种可能发生的事故预先标明。”可见，许多厂商往往“利用标签避免法律方面的责任”，故[C]正确；写标签并非为了“让顾客满意”，故[A]错。、[D]均与文章不符。

3. [A]。逻辑细节题。问作者在文中援引Schutt头盔案例是何用意。作者举这样一个例子，肯定是为了证明自己所要表达的某个观点。在相关的上下文中，即 <4 >①②“现在看来这种潮流正在转变。尽管人身伤害索赔一如既往，但有些法庭已开始站到被告一方，特别是在那些有警示标语可能也改变不了什么的案件中。”可见下文所举Schutt头盔安案例是为了表明“某些受伤索赔已得不到法律的支持”，故[A]正确。、[C]、[D]皆错。

4. [D]。态度题。纵观全文，作者客观地叙述了从80年代初至今美国法律在这一问题上的态度变化，并没有表明自己的主观意图，因此，作者的态度是不偏不倚的是，是“客观的”，故[D]正确。[A]“有偏见的”；“冷漠的”；[C]“令人迷惑的”，皆不正确。

三、如何在文章中做记号

善于阅读的人往往在文章的某些句子或词语下面划线，表示重要，以便以后查找方便。实践证明，这种方法在考试中是非常有效的。因为通过标出重点，你的阅读更活跃，思维更积极，注意力集中，减少大脑“走私”。考研文章较长(450词左右)，考生很难记住所有的内容，甚至段落大意都可能忘记，而考题只有五个，不可能所有的句子都重要，都被考到。实际上看懂大部分句子就可以了。对主要句子，如表达中心思想、段落大意的句子，应该标出并重点阅读。

1． 文章主旨句

主旨句也就是中心思想句，通常在第一段，可以是第一句，也可能是最后一句，据有人统计位于最后一句的几率高于第一句。主旨句偶尔出现在末段，有的主旨句甚至是文章中间某段中的某句。主旨句的特点是：

1)是作者的观点(不是他人的观点，不是描写/说明，也不是事实)。

2)该观点可能是作者提倡的，也可能是作者对他人观点的批驳。

3)作者的观点只能有一个，其他的内容都起说明/论证作用。

4)主旨句具有归纳性、概括性、抽象性的特点。

5)常常结构复杂(命题者有意安排所致)。

例1

An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students’ career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction — indeed, contradiction — which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put computers in the classroom. (可读性：33 难度：12级)

①是说明句，交代背景“计算机走进课堂的支持者有两派，这两派之间的界限是无形的。”②是主旨句，说明主题——两派之间的这种差异说明“计算机走进课堂的运动”本质上是错误的。

例2

Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind’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. (可读性：58.5 难度: 8.7级)

①引出话题“巨型水坝”。②解释修水坝的原因。③转折。④是主旨句“一些巨型水坝弊大于利。”

例3

Exceptional children are different in some significant way from others of the same age. For these children to develop to their full adult potential, their education must be adapted to those differences. (可读性：45 难度：10.9级)

①引出话题“超常儿童”。②是主旨句“为了充分发展超常儿童的潜力，对他们的教育必须适应他们的特点”。

例4

Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of . It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labour, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television licence would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent more.

And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an srticle consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it claimed for it ,and that it represents good value.

Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of.

There is one more point feel I ought to touch on. Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.

If its message were confined merely to information — and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive — advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants.(360 words 可读性：49.8 难度：11.5级)

文章话题是广告。这篇文章主旨句显然不在第一段，而是在第三段。该段是前两段的内容的总结：广告是带来前所未有的物质上的好处的力量。后两段(4、5段)话题为与他人争辩广告的劝说作用，认为广告就是要劝另人购买。

2． 段落主题句(TOPIC SENTENCE)

除了标出篇章的主旨句外，标出各段的主题句同样重要。每一段都有一个段的中心句，也有人叫它段落大意句、段中心思想句等等。主题句是考试重点，很多题目都是围绕着段中心设计的。确定主题句不仅有利于确定文章主旨，还有利读懂细节题，因此主题句的确定是阅读的关键。

主题句的特点：1)通常是第一句话，偶尔是最后一句，段中少见。2)是观点(不是描写/说明、不是事实)。可能是作者的观点，也可能是他人的观点。3)该观点可能是作者提倡的，也可能是作者认为其他人的观点是错误的/偏激的等等。4)作者的观点只能有一个。主题句只能有一个，其他的内容都起说明/论证作用。5)具有归纳性、概括性、抽象性等特点。

例1

And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself. (可读性：68.6 难度：7.8级)

Q：What is the myth concerning giant dams?

[A] They bring in more fertile soil.

[B] They help defend the country.

[C] They strengthen international ties.

[D] They have universal control of the waters.

解析：主题句为①“控制该河段水域的神话依然继续着。”下面的句子是两个个体例子说明主题句。所以[D]“他们有对河流水域的完全控制权”正确。

例2

You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Everyone who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human. Similarly, money, growing old ,sickness, deaths, natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings. But some people are able to make it , to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N.B.D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don’t measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also,the most rare. (可读性：51.4 难度：11.1级)

1. In the paragraph, the author tells us that

[A] difficulties are part of everyone’s life.

[B] depression and unhappiness are unavoidable in life.

[C] everybody should learn to avoid trying circumstances.

[D] good feelings can contribute to eventual academic excellence.

2. According to the passage, what kind of people are rare?

[A] Those who don’t emphasize bookish excellence in their pursuit of happiness.

[B] Those who are aware of difficulties in life but know how to avoid unhappiness.

[C] Those who measure happiness by an absence of problems but seldom suffer from N.B.D.’S.

[D] Those who are able to secure happiness though having to struggle against trying circumstances.

分析：①为主题句“知道如何面对逆境才是真正的聪明人。”②~⑦支持主题句：②③④⑤说“对于所有人来说困难和矛盾是人生的不可避免的一部分”。⑥但有些人成功地避免了不幸，而有些人却精神崩溃。⑦重申主题句。“那些认识到困难是人生必然存在的事物，不以有无困难来衡量愉快与否，是最聪明的人，也是很罕见的人。”答案：1.[A] 2.[B]

3． 题干与选项中的关键词

仔细读考题，从考题中找出关键词，目的是确定考的是什么，考文章中的哪一段、哪一句。常见的关键词包括题干中重要的普通名词或专有名词，形容词、副词的最高级，四个选项中相同、相近词或者相关内容。在这些关键词的指引下寻找对应的句子或段落。有的时候关键词可以是各种词类，非常隐蔽，需要非常细心才能找到。

例1

“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.”(可读性：57.3 难度：9.6)

Q: 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.(实考试题)

解析：Pasteur是关键词，在文章中先找到Pasteur很容易，这样就确定了所考的段落。由于篇幅所限，本文没有引证所有的段落(请参看1994年全国统考试题Passage4)。纵读全文，大家会进一步体会到这种方法的好处的。正确理解提到Pasteur的相关句子便可知道：治愈癌症还要等很多年。所以答案是[D]。

例2

Cars account for half the oil consumed in the U.S., about half the urban pollution and one fourth the greenhouse gases. They take a similar toll of resources in other industrial nations and in the cities of the developing world. As vehicle use continues to increase in the coming decade, the U.S. and other countries will have to deal with these issues or else face unacceptable economic, health-related and political costs. It is unlikely that oil prices will remain at their current low level or that other nations will accept a large and growing U.S. contribution to global climatic change. (可读性：47.47 难度：12级)

Q：From the passage we know that the increased use of cars will

[A] consume half of the oil produced in the world.

[B] have serious consequences for the well-being of all nations.

[C] widen the gap between the developed and developing countries.

[D] impose an intolerable economic burden on residents of large cities.

解析：关键词是increased use of cars, 并且和③中vehicle use continues to increase相呼应，确定考点在此句。③“美国和其他国家将不得不做出选择，或者处理这些问题，或者面临不堪设想的经济、健康以及政治后果。”可见答案为[B]。

四、正确选项和错误选项的特点

出题者命题碰到的第一个问题是选材。文章的来源决不可能是学生学过的教材，或者市场上出售的教辅和模拟题。他们要从考生不易得到的、不熟悉的、不经常读的材料中选择。这些材料包括英语国家的报刊杂志，以及众多的普通读物。命题要考虑到文章要有一定的难度，对于话题考生不能太陌生，当然太熟悉也不行。文章要有一定的完整性，即使是从一篇长文章摘下来的一部分，其本身也要相对独立，要有中心思想等。然后就是确定题眼(考点)，一篇文章只考5道题，不可能所有内容都考，这就要确定考什么。总的原则是文章哪里难就考哪。特别是中国学生不易理解之处就可能成为考点。常考的包括长难句的理解、逻辑推测能力以及段落或文章的中心思想等。考点确定之后，就是写解和设置干扰项。两者的特点如下：

1． 正确选项的特点

设置正确选项(解)的一个常用方法就是同义替换或释义(paraphrase)，即把文中语言改头换面，运用与原文不同的结构、不同的词汇，来表达相同或类似的意思。常见的形式有：

1)正确选项大量使用原文的同义词或同义结构

例1

Useful as half-sleeping might be, it’s only been found in birds and such water mammals as dolphins, whales, and seals. Perhaps keeping one side of the brain awake allows a sleeping animal to surface occasionally to avoid drowning. (可读性：56.8 难度：10.1)

Q：While sleeping, some water mammals tend to keep half awake in order to

[A] alert themselves to the approaching enemy.

[B] emerge from water now and then to breathe.

[C] be sensitive to the ever-changing environment.

[D] avoid being swept away by rapid currents.(实考试题)

解析：解是②的改写，原文和答案词汇比较如下：

答案中的词汇实际上是文中词汇的英语释义。答案是[B]。

例2

We live in a society in which the medicinal and social use of substances (drugs) is pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves. When do these socially acceptable and apparently constructive uses of a substance become misuses? First of all, most substances taken in excess will produce negative effects such as poisoning or intense perceptual distortions. Repeated use of a substance can also lead to physical addiction or substance dependence. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued. (可读性：42.4 难度：12级)

Q：Physical dependence on certain substances results from

[A] uncontrolled consumption of them over long periods of time.

[B] exclusive use of them for social purposes.

[C] quantitative application of them to the treatment of diseases.

[D] careless employment of them for unpleasant symptoms.(实考试题)

解析：解是④的改写，原文和答案词汇与结构比较如下：

解中词汇比文中词汇难而且长。答案是[A]。

例3

There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a “disjunction” between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics. (可读性：37.8 难度：12级)

Q：The official statistics on productivity growth

[A] exclude the usual rebound in a business cycle.

[B] fall short of businessmen’s anticipation.

[C] meet the expectation of business people.

[D] fail to reflect the true of economy.

解析：原文和答案词汇与结构比较如下：

答案词汇比文中词汇简单，主要考查对原文词汇是否真正理解了。答案是[B]。

2)正确选项频繁使用原文的反义词加上反义结构来表达与原文相同的意思，如：

He is old. He is no longer young. 句子结构一个是肯定形式，一个是否定形式，考查考生对这两种结构的理解。

例

Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he con speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words. At three he knows about 1,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar. (可读性：73.2 难度：8.0级)

Q：If a child starts to speak later than others, he will

[A] have a high IQ.

[B] be less intelligent.

[C] be insensitive to verbal signals.

[D] not necessarily be backward.(实考试题)

解析：解是①后半句双重否定的改写，原文和答案词汇比较如下：

答案是[D] 

3)正确选项是原文的总体或局部

总体和局部(或称一般和特殊)的关系主要表现为：一般是特殊的总和，特殊为一般的属性。这种题型考查类比推理能力。

例

There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external result or product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a promotion, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language — all these are examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts. (可读性：51.9 难度：11.6级)

Q: A person is generally believed to achieve personal growth when

[A] he has given up his smoking habit.

[B] he has made great efforts in his work.

[C] he is keen on learning anything new.

[D] he has tried to determine where he is on his journey. (实考试题)

解析：题干中generally是关键词，与②中generally相对。②：“人们通常认为个人的成长是外在的成果或产物，是容易辨别和衡量的”，正确答案必须符合“外在”、“易辨别和衡量”这两个一般特征。[A]“当一个人戒了烟”，烟戒了是一种易辨别的、外在的“成果”，与“升职”等相似，属于特殊的情况。故[A]正确。