考研英语阅读命题思路透析和真题揭秘(3)

考研英语阅读四大命题原则
　　命题专家在设计阅读题目时，总是会使尽浑身解数以各种方式迷惑考生，为他们选择正确的答案设置各种障碍。以下四大原则就是考研命题专家们最常用的一些方式和原则：
　　语言简化："语言简化"是命题专家使用语言时所必须遵守的一条重要原则。一般来说，一道题的四个答案不仅长度差不多，语言的用词水平和语法难度也都差不多。此外，答案的文字难度一般低于文章本身，这也是对考生非常有利的一点，有时候甚至还可以通过答案来帮助理解原文。由于这是一个普遍的原则，在这里我们就不具体地举例子。
　　关键词替换：关键词替换是阅读理解题目中出现最频繁的命题原则，一般都会在正确答案中用原文某个关键词的同义词或者近义词进行替代。或者从更广的意义上来说，有时候命题者会以和原文意思相同但是遣词造句不同的方式来设计正确答案，即用不同的话把原文的某个句子复述一遍，而错误答案反而往往会看上去和原文差不多，这个时候考生需要仔细阅读加以区别。
　　例题：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［2000年第61题］
　　［正确答案］C
　　正话反说：即选项用否定的方式（如双重否定句，或者一个否定形式加上另一个否定词如never, none等）来表述文中用肯定方式所表述的内容，两者的意思是相同的。
　　例题：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 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年第68题］
　　［正确答案］B
　　反话正说：顾名思义，即文中用否定方式所来表述一定的内容，而选项中用肯定的方式把同样的意思再表达一遍。
　　例题："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.
　　［A］ turning of the business cycle
　　［B］ restructuring of industry
　　［C］ improved business management
　　［D］ success in education［2000年第54题］
　　［正确答案］A
　　考研阅读理解文章的结构特点
　　对于一篇完整的英文说明文或者议论文来说，不论其形式看上去有多么复杂多样，但是套用一句老话："万变不离其宗。"一般考研阅读的文章都是采取传统的三段论形式：即提出问题（提出说明的事物或者现象）、分析问题（对事物或者现象进行说明）、解决问题（对说明的事物或者现象进行总结）。当然这里所说的"三段论"不是指所有的文章都分为三个段落，但是大部分文章基本上都是由这三个部分组成的。下面我们列举几种具体的情况来进行简单的分析，并在每种模式后面都举出了一篇考研真题的文章以帮助具体考生理解这些模式的特点，考生在平时的复习中也应该自己注意训练相关的判断力。
　　模式1
　　第一部分：提出问题，可以开门见山地提出问题或者先阐述他人的观点然后揭示自己与之相左的观点；第二部分：层层递进地进行分析，段落之间的逻辑联系非常强，每一段的论述都之前一段为依据，这些段落经常以moreover, further, furthermore, besides, in addition 等词语或者词组开头；第三部分：在第二部分逻辑推理的基础上得出结论。
　　例文：95年Passage 3
　　In such a changing, complex society formerly simple solutions to informational needs become complicated. Many of life’ s problems which were solved by asking family members, friends or colleagues are beyond the capability of the extended family to resolve. Where to turn for expert information and how to determine which expert advice to accept are questions facing many people today.
　　In addition to this, there is the growing mobility of people since World War Ⅱ. As families move away from their stable community, their friends of many years, their extended family relationships, the informal flow of information is cut off, and with it the confidence that information will be available when needed and will be trustworthy and reliable. The almost unconscious flow of information about the simplest aspects of living can be cut off. Thus, things once learned subconsciously through the casual communications of the extended family must be consciously learned.
　　Adding to societal changes today is an enormous stockpile of information. The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated , time-consuming and sometimes even overwhelming .
　　Coupled with the growing quantity of information is the development of technologies which enable the storage and delivery of more information with greater speed to more locations than has ever been possible before. Computer technology makes it possible to store vast amounts of data in machine-readable files, and to program computers to locate specific information. Telecommunications developments enable the sending of messages via television, radio, and very shortly, electronic mail to bombard people with multitudes of messages. Satellites have extended the power of communications to report events at the instant of occurrence. Expertise can be shared world wide through teleconferencing, and problems in dispute can be settled without the participants leaving their homes and/or jobs to travel to a distant conference site. Technology has facilitated the sharing of information and the storage and delivery of information, thus making more information available to more people.

　　In this world of change and complexity, the need for information is of greatest importance. Those people who have accurate, reliable up-to-date information to solve the day-to-day problems, the critical problems of their business, social and family life, will survive and succeed. "Knowledge is power" may well be the truest saying and access to information may be the most critical requirement of all people.
　　其中中间三段的第一句话都是对上文的承接并引出新的话题，分别为"In addition to this..."、"Adding to societal changes is an enormous stockpile of information"、"Coupled with the growing quantity of information is..."。
　　模式2
　　第一部分：开头提出一个概念、一个中心思想或者一种现象；
　　第二部分：围绕着这个概念、中心思想或者现象，从各个方面进行分析和解释说明，这种文章比较容易定位其主旨；
　　第三部分：对文章进行总结，并再一次对该概念、中心思想进行阐述，或对相关现象进行说明。
　　例文：2000年Passage 5
　　If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition health, distinction, control over one's destiny must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition's behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, However, it is the educated who have claimed to have give up on have give up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition-if not always their own the that of their parents and grandparents. There is heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped with the educated themselves riding on them.
　　Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs. The locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.
　　The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
　　这篇文章主要围绕着地质活动的热点（hot pot）理论这个概念进行讨论。
　　模式3
　　第一部分：提出问题，该问题涵盖了两个方面（或者更多）；
　　第二部分：分别对这两（或更多）个方面进行分析和论述；
　　第三部分：总结全文，其中包含了对以上所涉及的各个方面的概括。
　　例文：2001年Passage1
　　Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialisation was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
　　No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.
　　A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.
　　Although the process of professionalisation and specialisation was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
　　文章开头就提出了问题的两个方面，即科学发展的specialization（专业化）和professionalization（职业化）。