考研英语阅读理解命题思路透析和真题揭秘
2006年Text 3
When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strong happened to the large animals; they suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived, the large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being over-fished has been known for years what researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods de not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) inanes fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative, one reason for this is that fishing technology has improved Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago that means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since to baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around noise.
Dr. Myers and Dr. worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the date support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline". The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped form a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to de business.
33. By saying these figures are conservative (line in ,paragragf-3), Dr worm means that
[A] fishing technology has improved rapidly
[B] then catch-sizes are actually smaller then recorded
[C] the marine bio mass has suffered a greater loss
[D] the date collected so far are pit pf date.
[答案] C
[解题思路]
本题要求判断Worm博士说的"这些数据尚未保守"这句话的具体含义，其对应的信息是文章的第三段。该段第一句话后面的内容是对这句话内容的补充说明，指出现代渔业技术的改进、鲨鱼的减少等因素都大大提高了捕鱼率，正如该段所说的，"the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes"（现在和过去的真正差距可能会比之前通过捕获区记录变化得到的数据更大）。也就是说，这些数据保守的原因在于实际的捕鱼量可能比现有数据更大，即海洋动物总量损失的实际情况比现有数据显示的结果更加严重，因此C选项为正确答案。A选项是解释这句话的原因之一，但不是其含义。B选项的表述与文章意思相反。D选项认为这些数据已经过时，但数据保守并不意味着它已过时，文章中也没有提到这一点，因此该选项错误。
[题目译文]
Worm博士说"这些数字是保守的"（第三段第一行）这句话的意思是 。
[A] 捕鱼技术得到了快速提高
[B] 捕鱼量实际上没有记录的那么大
[C] 海洋生物量受到了更大的损失
[D] 迄今为止搜集到的资料已经过时
2006年Text 4
Many things make people think artists are weird and the weirdest may be this: artists only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.
This wasn't always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere in the 19th century, more artists began seeing happiness as insipid, phony or, worst of all, boring as we went from Wordsworth's daffodils to Baudelaire's flowers of evil.
You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen such misery. But it's not as if earlier times didn't know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today.
After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.
People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in peril and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
Today the messages your average Westerner is bombarded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agenda--to lure us to open our wallets to make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. "Celebrate!" commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
What we forget--what our economy depends on is forgetting--is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need someone to tell us as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. It's a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
37. The word "bummer" (Line 5. paragraph 5) most probably means something
[A] religious
[B] unpleasant
[C] entertaining
[D] commercial
[答案] B
[解题思路]
本题要求猜测bummer这个词的意思，可以回到原文从上下文寻找线索。文章第五段第二句话提到了"the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in peril and that they would someday be meat for worms"（最有效的大众媒体是教堂，它提醒信徒们，他们的灵魂处于危险之中，他们总有一天会成为蛆虫的食物）。在这一前提下，显而易见我们可以推出下一句话的意思应该是"因此，他们并不需要艺术再来表现这种失落感"，因此答案为B。
[题目译文]
"bummer"（第五段第五行）这个词最可能的意思是 。
[A] 宗教的
[B] 不愉快的
[C] 娱乐的
[D] 商业的
2007年Text 1
If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be even more pronounced.
What might account for this strange phenomenon? Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills; b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the above.
Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in "none of the above." Ericsson grew up in Sweden, and studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology. His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory: training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers. "With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20," Ericsson recalls. "He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers."
This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person "encodes" the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice. Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers. Their work makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers -- whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming -- are nearly always made, not born.
22. The word "mania" (Line 4, Paragraph 2) most probably means
[A] fun.
[B] craze.
[C] hysteria.
[D] excitement.
[答案] B
[解题思路]
"mania"这个词出现在文章第二段，原句为"soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania"（ 热爱足球的父母更可能在春季（每年足球狂热的鼎盛时期）怀孕）。仔细观察原文可以发现mania对应于句子开头的mad，因此包含有"疯狂"的意思，正确答案为B选项。A和D选项的两个词都没有达到"狂热"这个程度，而C选项的hysteria在程度上又大大超过了mania，也不符合原文。
[题目译文]
"mania"（第二段第四行）最有可能的意思是
[A] 嬉笑
[B] 狂热
[C] 歇斯底里
[D] 兴奋
2008年Text 1
While still catching-up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. "Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men," according to Dr. Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York's Veteran's Administration Hospital.
Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affects the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males.
Adding to a woman's increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased "opportunities" for stress. "It's not necessarily that women don't cope as well. It's just that they have so much more to cope with," says Dr. Yehuda. "Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men's," she observes, "It's just that they're dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner."
Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. "I think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family numbers, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating."
Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but wad determined to finish college. "I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better." Later her marriage ended and she became a single mother. "It's the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck."
Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez's experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function.
第五章、细节题命题思路透析
Part I、命题规律透析
细节题考查的是文章中的具体信息和关键细节，是每年考研题型中出现次数最多的题型，一般都有十几道题。与主旨题考查考生对于文章的总体理解不同，细节题考查的是考生对于文章局部结构的掌握。细节题相对于其他题型比较简单，同时做好这类题对于考生在阅读理解部分取得基础分和高分都有着至关重要的作用，因此考生应该争取做对全部的细节题。细节题考查的内容包罗万象，根据阅读文章的具体情况而定。对于议论文来说，细节题的考查范围一般为以下内容：事实、数据、新旧观点、从正面或者反面来论证的例子、文章结论等。对于说明文来说，细节题一般都会涉及到某个具体的事件、现象或者人物，问题往往涉及到：时间、地点、人物、事件特征；起因、过程、结果、意义；目的、条件、步骤、方法； 数据、年代、世纪等。
细节题的提问方式非常多样，一般都两种形式，即不完整的陈述句和完整的问句形式。在陈述句中，常用的引出问题的词语或者词组包括from, because of, by, according to 等。在问句中，常用的疑问词包括what, which, where, who, when, how （也就是我们平时经常说的新闻写作的五个"W"+ 一个"H"）。下面我们还将有更加详细的规律剖析。
如果进行进一步的细分，则细节题还可以分为以下4类：1、考查事实和同义转化的细节题，这种题目一般会把原文中的信息在不改变原意的情况下通过另一种说法来表述，因此选项中有可能会出现一些新的考生不熟悉的信息。2、考查因果关系的细节题，这种题目中一般要求考生根据题干中的信息在原文中找到某一个现象存在或事件发生的原因和结果，及其之间的关系。3、考查例证关系的细节题，这种题目一般考查考生对于作者在文章中进行举例的目的的理解，也就是说，要考生找出文章中某一个具体的实例所论证的观点。4、考查方式和手段的细节题，这种题目要求考生从文章找出做某一件事情的方法和手段。
细节题常见表达方式
1、考查事实和同义转化的细节题
According to paragraph 4, what puzzles the author is that some bosses fail to . (2007)
In bringing up the concept of GASP the author is making the point that . (2007)
According to the author, health-saving plans will . (2007)
Ericsson and his colleagues believe that . (2007)
According to Eriscsson, good memory . (2007)
In the author's opinion, advertising . (2006)
The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries' . (2006)
Dr. Myers and other researchers hold that . (2006)
According to the author, the department stores of the 19th century . (2006)
The negative feeling generated during the day tend to . (2005)
Researchers have come to believe that dreams . (2005)
According to Bruce Alberts, science can serve as . (2005)
An argument made by supporters of smoking was that . (2005)
Dr. Brosonan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that monkeys . (2005)
The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are . (2004)
What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school? (2004)
When mentioning "the $4 million to $10 million rage" (line 3, Para 3), the author is talking about . (2004)
Which of the following can be a disadvantage of search agents? (2004)
In contrast to the US, Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care . (2003)
The author believes that, in face of the challenge from animal rights advocates, scientists should . (2003)
Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is . (2003)
Straitford is most proud of its . (2003)
The emergence of the Net has . (2003)
According to the NAS's report, one of the problems in end-of-life care is . (2002)
The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries . (2002)
Besides reducing human labor, robots can also . (2002)
According to the text, what is beyond man's ability now is to design a robot that can . (2002)
Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in . (2002)
To make your humor work, you should . (2002)
"Juggling one's like" probably means living a life characterized by . (2001)
The writer's experiment shows that downshifting . (2001)
The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be . (2001)
It seems that now a country's economy depends much on . (2001)
Digital devide is something . (2001)
The growth of specialization in the 19th century might be more clearly seen in sciences such as . (2001)
The change in Japanese lifestyle is revealed in the fact that . (2000)
In the Westerners' eyes, the postwar Japan was . (2000)
Futurists claim that we must . (2000)
When a novel literary idea appears, people should try to . (2000)
What sued to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph? (2000)
The loss of US predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American . (2000)
The belief that education is indispensable to all children . (1999)
The author think the present rush to put computers in the classroom is . (1999)
We learn from the beginning of the passage that Web business . (1999)
Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to . (1999)
What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened? (1999)
The hot spot theory may prove useful in explaining . (1998)
Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s . (1998)
The official statistics on productivity growth . (1998)
According to the author, the American economic situation is . (1998)
What is the myth concerning giant dams? (1998)
In face of the recent attacks on the company, the chairman . (1997)
The tradition of hospitality to strangers . (1997)
In the eyes of visitors from the outside world, . (1997)
When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will . (1997)
2、考查因果关系的细节题
Today's double-income families are at greater financial risk in that . (2007)
People nowadays can no longer achieve IQ scores as high as vos Savants because . (2007)
According to the townsfolk, the RSC deserves no subsidy because . (2006)
The author associates the issue of global warming with that of smoking because . (2005)
Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are . (2005)
Why can many people se "silver linings" to the economic slowdown? (2004)
Why does CarreerSite's agent offer each job hunter only three job options? (2004)
According to the text, the cost increase in the rail industry is mainly caused by . (2003)
According to those who support mergers, railway monopoly is unlikely because . (2003)
The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is . (2002)
The direct reason for specialization is . (2001)
Governments attach importance to the Internet because it . (2001)
The basic problem of journalism as pointed out by the writer lies in their . (2001)
Despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its . (2001)
According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the US as a result of . (2001)
Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because . (2000)
According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society? (2000)
The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because . (2000)
The author seems to believe the revival of the US economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the . (2000)
The US achieved its predominance after World War II because . (2000)
NBAC will leave the issue of embryo research undiscussed because . (2000)
That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that . (1998)
The census distinguished itself from previous studies on population movement in that . (1998)
The author raises the question "what about pain without gain?" because . (1998)
Senator Robert Dole criticized Time Warner for . (1997)
Physical dependence on certain substances results from . (1997)
"Substance abuse" (the last sentence, Para 1) is preferable to "drug abuse" in that . (1997)
3、考查例证关系的细节题
According to Paragraph 2, some organizations check their systems to find out . (2007)
The statement "It never rains but it pours" is used to introduce . (2007)
The birthday phenomenon found among soccer players is mentioned to . (2007)
By citing the examples of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that . (2006)
The extinction of large prehistoric animals is noted to suggest that . (2006)
Why are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks mentioned in paragraph 5? (2006)
Be referring to the limbic system, the author intends to show . (2005)
What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars? (2004)
The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that . (2003)
The example of the grandmotherly woman is used to show the public's . (2003)
The author begins his article with Edmund Burke's words to . (2003)
Donovan's story is mentioned in the text to . (2003)
The author uses the example of a monkey to argue that robots are . (2002)
The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of . (2001)
The author writes of the development of geology to demonstrate . (2001)
What does the example of Indian illustrate? (2000)
The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that . (1999)
Paragraph 2 and 3 are written to . (1998)
Families in frontier settlements used to entertain strangers to . (1997)
4、考查方式和手段的细节题
In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by . (2005)
How did Redmond find his job? (2004)
To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered by . (2002)
细节题常见出题位置
1、表示原因和结果的词汇：如because, because of, so, for, since, as, thus, therefore, consequently, in consequence, as a result, arise from, due to, in that, why,, be caused by, be deduced from, be attributed to, be responsible for, result from, result in, cause, account for, originate from, lead to, attribute to, derive from, base, basis, reason, result, consequence, such that, so that等。
2、文章中出现关于举例的词汇：如for example, for instance, take ... as an example, as, such as, like, case, a case of, in the case of, a case in point, say, for one, intend to, use the example of ... to show that, begins with ... to, is intended to, ... is mentioned to show , demonstrate, the example illustrates, ... is proved with the example of...等。
3、文章中出现的表示方式的词汇：by, through, by means of, by way of, must, should, have to, ought to以及一些祈使句。
4、文章中表示起承转合的词汇：如but, however, on the contrary, yet, as a matter of fact, in fact, actually, indeed, nevertheless, nonetheless, whereas, by comparison, so, therefore等。
5、文章中出现的表示条件的词语：如when, if等。
6、文章中一些指代了具体内容的代词：如it, they, these those, this, that等。
7、文章中出现的不定式to引导的目的状语从句。
8、文章中出现的引用处，主要是引用某个人的话。
9、专有名词出现的地方，包括人名、地名、机构名称、书籍文章影视作品的名称以及其他专有名词等，一般都以大写字母开头或者是大写字母形式的缩写。
10、数字、年代和世纪出现的地方。
11、特殊标点符号出现的地方，包括冒号、引号、括号、破折号等。
12、文章中出现的特殊句型，如同位语、定语、状语、虚拟语气、插入语、不定式、分词、各种从句如定语从句、宾语从句、同位语从句等。
13、文章中表示强调或递进关系的词语：如also, as well, even, most ... of all等。
14、文章中出现的表示最高级和绝对性意义的词汇。
15、文章中表示某项研究或者假设的词：如research, study, findings, researchers, research group, hypothesis, assumption, experiment, survey, investigation等。
16、文章的第一段和最后一段，以及每一个段落的第一句和最后一句话。
细节题正确答案选项的特点
1、原文中的某个或某些关键词语和词组在选项中由其同义词或者近义词代替，总体的语法则没有变化。
2、通过语法的改变来重新叙述原文信息，比如在主动句和被动句之间进行变换，在一般陈述句和it引导的句子之间进行变换，在一般陈述句和强调句型之间进行变换等。
3、原文从某个角度叙述或论述某个现象或观点，而选项则从另一个角度进行叙述或者论述，关于该现象或论点的本质没有任何变化。
4、原文和选项从相反的角度讨论同一个现象或者观点，如果原文正面表述则选项从反面切入，而如果原文从反面论述那么选项就是正面的角度。
5、原文和选项之间是抽象和具体的关系，即如果原文是抽象的论述则选项是具体的实例，相反，如果原文是具体的例子那么选项就在此基础上上升为抽象的概念或理论。
细节题干扰答案选项的特点
1、照抄原文，但是却故意改变其中的一两个起决定性作用的关键词语，从而改变句意，与原文意思相左。
2、与常识相违背，或者在基本的逻辑上无法自圆其说。
3、与原文的意思相反。
4、把原文的信息进行张冠李戴，即把关于A的细节放到B上面，从而干扰考生阅读后的记忆。
5、把原文的意思进行扩大或者缩小，即去原文部分的意思，或者扩大原文某个表述的外延。
6、使用一些表示绝对性意思的字眼，这些词语我们在总论中多次提及，一般都不会是正确选项。
7、一些与原文无关的、或者在原文中根本没有出现过的信息。
细节题解题方法
在总论中我们曾经指出，考生在阅读文章的时候要在一些标记性词汇上坐上一些标志，这些标志对于细节题尤其有用。考生根据阅读一次的印象和这些标志就能够迅速定位该问题相对应的句子，从而找到答案。在做题时只要阅读与题目相关的句子即可，不用花太多时间看上下文。需要注意的是，正确答案不一定与原文一模一样，而往往出现原文的同义释义或者同义词和近义词。
此外，如果考查细节的因果关系，要抓住表示因果意义的单词来分析。在没有明显的表示因果关系的情况下，就应该通过分析其逻辑关系来判断。
如果是考查细节的例证关系，则应该阅读文中举例出的前后句，因为在这些地方往往会出现一个总结说明的句子，而这个句子就是正确答案，当然可能在表述上与选项有所不同。另外，有一些例子看上去好像在论证某个枝节的问题，但实际上却和文章的中心思想紧密相连，因此在做题时要记住紧扣文章主题，因为每一个例子都是为了文章的中心思想服务的。
最后，在遇到一些涉及细节的"三选一"题目中，要充分运用排除法帮助做题。