第十五天：难题错题 分别整理---阅读理解篇之三

除了寻找正确答案以外，有时需要避免选项中的陷阱。所以今天总结干扰选项的特征。

一、例证题

干扰选项特征：就事论事（以例子本身的细节为答案）

例如，

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.(2003-4)

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

问题对应二段倒数第二句。这个例子就是说明前一句的：由于有第三方为我们支付医疗费用，我们便要求医生为我们做所能做的一切事情，即使这么做毫无用处。二段末句进一步指出医生为了不让病人失望，经常采取一些过激的（aggressive）、缺乏科学根据的治疗方法。由于治疗结果不理想，自然造成医疗资源的浪费。A选项符合此意，为正确答案。B选项和C选项都就事论事，即都是例子本身的细节，不是例子要说明的内容。D“医疗费用越来越难以承担”在原文没有提到。

二、推理题

干扰选项特征：推得过远（所得出的结论经过多步推理产生，无原文依据）

例如，

The defining term of intelligence in humans still seems to be the IQ score, even though IQ tests are not given as often as they used to be. The test comes primarily in two forms, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales (both come in adult and children’s version). Generally costing several hundred dollars, they are usually given only by psychologists, although variations of them populate bookstores and the World Wide Web. Superhigh scores like vos Savant’s are no longer possible, because scoring is now based on a statistical population distribution among age peers, rather than simply dividing the mental age by the chronological age and multiplying by 100. Other standardized tests, such as the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), capture the main aspects of IQ tests.

What can be inferred about intelligence testing from Paragraph 3?

[A] People no longer use IQ scores as an indicator of intelligence.

[B] More versions of IQ test are now available on the Internet.

[C] The test contents and formats for adults and children may be different.

[D] Scientists have defined the important elements of human intelligence.

问题是“关于智力测验，能从第三段推出什么”。C“针对成年人和儿童的智力测验的内容和形式可能不同”与原文第三段第二句对应：The test comes primarily in two forms, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales (both come in adult and children’s version)，其中原文的括号中指出：智力测验的两种形式都有成人版和儿童版。既然如此，说明成年人的智力测验在内容和形式两方面与儿童可能不同，因此C为正确答案。注意：C选项中的format对应原文括号中的version。A“人们不再用智商分数反映智力水平”推得过远，因为段首仅说现在智商测验不如过去频繁，这不等于取消了智商测验。B“因特网上的智商测验版本比以前更多了”与原文“不同智商测验版本充斥了万维网”不符，因为选项中的比较是原文所没有提到的。

三、主旨题

干扰选项特征：细枝末节（以例子、细节做主题）

例如，

When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange 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.

……

Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data 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 from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original level. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business.

The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries’

[A] management efficiency.

[B] biomass level.

[C] catch-size limits.

[D] technological application.

问题是“作者似乎主要关注大多数渔场的哪一个方面”，这等于问文章的主题。B“生物数量水平”就是文章主题，因为作者从第二段开始都在论述这一问题，所以B选项为正确答案。A“管理效率”和C“捕获量限制”在原文未提过，D“技术应用”是细枝末节，所以它们都是干扰选项。

四、事实细节题

干扰选项特征：

1． 正反混淆（态度、有无与原文相反）

2． 无中生有（选项中的比较在原文无依据）

3． 扩大范围（选项去掉了原文的限制条件或修饰范围）

4． 因果倒置（两个事物在问题与选项中的因果关系与它们在原文的因果关系相反）

例如，

Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, Why We Should, Like, Care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive—there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper. (2005-4)

To which of the following statements would McWhorter most likely agree?

[A] Logical thinking is not necessarily related to the way we talk.

[B] Black English can be more expressive than standard English.

[C] Non-standard varieties of human language are just as entertaining.

[D] Of all the varieties, standard English can best convey complex ideas.

可以将各个选项与原文一一进行比较，与McWhorter谈到的观点一致的就是正确答案。按照出题顺序，可以优先定位四段，其中四段末句指出：他（指McWhorter）并不像其他人那样认为如果我们讲话不得体就无法正确思考。这等于说他认为我们即使讲话不得体也能正确思考，就是说逻辑思维与我们的讲话方式没有必然的联系。A选项说的正是这一意思，为正确答案。其他三个选项与四段所说都不相符，也不是McWhorter认可的观点，所以都是干扰选项。第二个选项中的比较“more expressive than…”在原文未提到，属于无中生有。

又如，

In spite of “endless talk of difference”, American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is “the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference” characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed into “a culture of consumption”, launched by the 19th-entury department stores that offered “vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite” these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democratic act.” The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization. (2006-1)

According to the author, the department stores of the 19th-century

[A] played a role in the spread of popular culture.

[B] became intimate shops for common consumers.

[C] satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable elite.

[D] owed its emergence to the culture of consumption.

根据问题中的关键词the department stores of the 19th-century定位一段第三句——该句指出：人们被吸引到“消费文化”之中——这场消费运动是由19世纪的百货商店发起的。这里的“消费文化”就是前一句中所说的“大众文化”（popular culture）。既然19世纪的百货商店导致了消费文化，即大众文化的出现，那么（A）“在传播大众文化方面起了一定作用”是正确答案，因为它符合此意。B选项属于断章取义，C选项与原文正反混淆，而D“百货商店的出现源于消费文化”颠倒了因果关系，反之才对。

五、其他

1．常识判断（根据一般经验做出判断）

2．过于绝对（最高级、唯一性判断在原文无依据）

例如，

There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.(2000-2)

What does the example of India illustrate?

[A] Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

[B] Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

[C] The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.

[D] India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.

关于印度的例子在二段末。作者举这个例子的目的是说明进化的作用又少了一个用武之地：在过去，由于人们间的贫富差异使得人们的生存和生育受到影响，富人生存能力强，但是到了现在，贫富差异对人们的生存能力的影响已经很小。这样，自然选择在贫富差异方面就无所作为。B“自然选择在贫富之间的作用很难发挥”符合此意，为正确答案。A“富人的小孩一般比穷人多”为常识判断，即可能符合现实，但在原文没有提到，所以不是正确答案。C选项包含具体数字，这类选项一般是干扰选项。

又如，

Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn’t know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.(2005-2)

An argument made by supporters of smoking was that

[A] there was no scientific evidence of the correlation between smoking and death.

[B] the number of early deaths of smokers in the past decades was insignificant.

[C] people had the freedom to choose their own way of life.

[D] antismoking people were usually talking nonsense.

问题是“支持吸烟者的一个论据是什么”，这一点在一段谈到。C“人们有选择自己生活方式的自由”由一段第三句可以推出，因为原文指出“反对吸烟的游说团体存心破坏吸烟者的生活方式，政府不应该干涉吸烟”，由此可见支持吸烟者认为吸烟是他们的生活方式，他们有选择的自由，他人（包括政府在内）不应对此加以干涉。因此C为正确答案。A“没有科学证据证明吸烟和死亡之间的因果关系”与一段第二句“证据不充分，科学上还不确定”有出入，因为原文指出“证据不充分”，说明有证据，只是不充分而已，而A选项完全否定证据的存在，说得过于绝对。B“在过去数十年中早亡的烟民数目不大”与一段末句所说相反，也不是支持吸烟者的论据。D选项以偏概全。所以A、B、D三个选项都是干扰选项。

综合这几天对阅读的总结，做题时一定要以原文为依据。许多同学做题有方法，但因为凭印象、粗心大意或对词汇理解不准确，往往做错。有不良习惯的同学要注意纠正习惯，而词汇理解不准确的同学，一定要将问题涉及的原文词汇与选项词汇吃透。对于基础较差的同学，我甚至建议将每道题的答案以及它们所对应的原文词汇读熟，以增加自己的词汇量（尤其是同义词数量）、增强自己的做题感觉。还有些同学容易钻牛角尖，常常觉得哪个选项都不对或排除了正确选项。这些同学需要树立一种思想：虽然做题涉及逻辑，但是语言是第一位的，以语言的对应为最高原则。

今天的结束语是：Learn from mistakes（从错误中吸取教训）。