【托福阅读】如何应对托福阅读推理题 ​

在托福阅读的考试中，推理题也是一种常见的题型。相信这类题型也会让同学们感到相当困惑，不知道如何理清推理思路，容易迷失在干扰选项中，混淆于细节题等等。今天我们就和大家一起来讨论一下应对这类题目的推理思路。

所谓的推理题目，就是文章中包含有相关信息，但是没有直接说明，需要我们从已知的信息推出未知的内容，以及从客观的信息推出主观的内容。这类题目是考查我们对于文中强烈暗示却未明确指出的观点的理解能力。

这类题型的标志是在题干中出现infer/imply/suggest/indicate/most likely 这样的词汇。一般表达形式：Which of the following can be inferred….. / What can be inferred about …..?

从推理思路上来说

可以分为正向推理和逆向推理

01正向推理

指的是我们推断出的内容和文章描述方向一致，通常体现为“整体与部分推理”，尤其对于那些题干中找不到推理对象的题目来说，这种方法是很有效的。因为“部分”应该具备“整体”所具备的特征，因此我们就可以有效的利用这个特点，做到从已知推出未知。

e.g.

Another major discovery was made in Egypt in 1989. Several skeletons of another early whale, Basilosaurus, were found in sediments left by the Tethys Sea and now exposed in the Sahara desert. This whale lived around 40 million years ago, 12 million years after Pakicetus. Many incomplete skeletons were found but they included, for the first time in an archaeocyte, a complete hind leg that features a foot with three tiny toes. Such legs would have been far too small to have supported the 50-foot-long Basilosaurus on land. Basilosaurus was undoubtedly a fully marine whale with possibly nonfunctional, or vestigial, hind legs.

It can be inferred that Basilosaurus bred and gave birth in which of the following locations？

A.On land

B.Both on land and at sea

C.In shallow water

D.In a marine environment

这个题目要求我们推出B在哪个地点bred and gave birth（繁殖和抚育）。回到文章中找寻，发现没有涉及到相关话题，也就是说我们找不到用于推理的对象了。但是文中提到“Basilosaurus was undoubtedly a fully marine whale”，既然说它是完全的的海洋性鲸鱼，就意味着一辈子都在海里生活，（这就是所谓的“整体”），那么题干问的“bred and gave birth”(相当于“部分”)。根据我们刚才所说，“部分”应当具备“整体”的特质，所以“bred and gave birth”也应当在海洋里。

在正向推理思维中，通常还可以通过所举例子的逻辑关系，来进行整体与部分的推理。从我们平时的写作中可以感受到，举例子的目的是为了进一步解释它所要论证的对象。所以，例子的内容应该是属于它要论证的对象，并且特征应该是一致的。

e.g.

Hills and mountains are often regarded as the epitome of permanence, successfully resisting the destructive forces of nature, but in fact they tend to be relatively short-lived in geological terms. As a general rule, the higher a mountain is, the more recently it was formed; for example, the high mountains of the Himalayas are only about 50 million years old. Lower mountains tend to be older, and are often the eroded relics of much higher mountain chains. About 400 million years ago, when the present-day continents of North America and Europe were joined, the Caledonian mountain chain was the same size as the modern Himalayas. Today, however, the relics of the Caledonian orogeny (mountain-building period) exist as the comparatively low mountains of Greenland, the northern Appalachians in the United States, the Scottish Highlands, and the Norwegian coastal plateau.

Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the mountains of the Himalayas?

A.Their current height is not an indication of their age.

B.At present, they are much higher than the mountains of the Caledonian range.

C.They were a uniform height about 400 million years ago.

D.They are not as high as the Caledonian mountains were 400 million years ago.

这个题目推理的对象是mountainside of Himalayas, 出现在for example 中，并且有一个很鲜明的标志As a general rule, 我们确定这个题目属于举例引发的整体与部分推理。. “As a general rule, the higher a mountain is, the more recently it was formed”，先告诉我们一个普遍的规律，山越高，形成的时间越近。后面紧接着说到“Lower mountains tend to be older”（山越矮则越老），再次印证以上规律。通过这个规律我们就可以进行推理，因此可以推断出Himalayas 只有大约50 million years old， 而Caledonian range 大约400 million years。所以推出Himalayas 比 Caledonian 年轻， 所以Himalayas比Caledonian高。正确选项是B

02逆向推理

上文讲的正向推理，是文章里面讲A特质，选项中选出的也是A特质，而逆向推理则恰恰相反，它是在两个形成对比的特征事物之间进行出题，所以我们要做的是，否定与其相反的事物特征，即可推出答案。比如时间的对比，或者特定词汇的运用

e.g. 

The nineteenth century brought with it a burst of new discoveries and inventions that revolutionized the candle industry and make lighting available to all. In the early-to-mid-nineteenth century, a process was developed to refine tallow (fat from animals) with alkali and sulfuric acid. The result was a product called stearin. Stearin is harder and burns longer than unrefined tallow. This breakthrough meant that it was possible to make tallow candles that would not produce the usual smoke and rancid odor. Stearins were also derived from palm oil, so vegetable waxes as well as animal fats could be used to make candles…

Which of the following can be inferred from this paragraph about candles before the nineteenth century?

A.They did not smoke when they were burned. 

B.They produced a pleasant odor as they burned.

C.They were not available to all. 

D.They contained sulfuric acid. 

题目问的是before the nineteenth century, 但是文章没有讲到19世纪前的内容。但是提到19世纪发生了什么，The nineteenth century brought with it a burst of new discoveries and inventions that revolutionized the candle industry and make lighting available to all。19世纪后，由于一系列的新发明，蜡烛产业发生变革，光明唾手可得。我们因此可以推出19世纪之前与之相反的特征，因此选C They were not available to all.

e.g.：

It should be obvious that cetaceans-whales, porpoises, and dolphins-are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke1 and blowhole2 cannot disguise their affinities with land dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans.

Which of the following can be inferred from this paragraph about early sea otters?

A.It is not difficult to imagine what they looked like.

B.There were great numbers of them.

C.They lived in the sea only.

D.They did not leave many fossil remains

题目问的是sea otters 定位到第4句话“However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like”通过这句话，我们知道early sea otters 和 first whales 的关系是 unlike。所以我们要找的是与first whales的特点相反的答案。所以选择A。

03注意推理题与细节题的区别

推理题不等于细节题（事实信息题），我们不能够像细节题一样，执着于对应选项和原文中的某一句话。因为推理题的本质就是让我们从文章已知的信息推断出未知的内容，需要通过推理才能得到答案，而细节题是可以直接找到答案的，而且选项是对应信息的改写。因此，从思路上先要理清两种题型的本质区别，才能有效避免干扰选项。

e.g.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the paintings is their location. Other rock paintings—for example, those of Bushmen in South Africa—are either located near cave entrances or completely in the open. Cave paintings in France and Spain, however, are in recesses and caverns far removed from original cave entrances. This means that artists were forced to work in cramped spaces and without sources of natural light. It also implies that whoever made them did not want them to be easily found. Since cave dwellers normally lived close to entrances, there must have been some reason why so many generations of Lascaux cave dwellers hid their art.What can be inferred from this paragraph about cave painters in France and Spain? 

A.They also painted rocks outside caves.

B.They did not live close to the cave entrances.

C.They developed their own sources of light to use while painting.

D.Their painting practices did not last for many years.

题目问cave painters in France and Spain，可能会迅速锁定第3句话，“Cave paintings in France and Spain, however, are in recesses and caverns far removed from original cave entrances”，可能会有同学因此盲目地选出答案B。要注意两个要点，第一点：选项中有代词，一定要注意还原，they指的是cave painters in F and S, 而目前锁定的目标句主语是cave paintings，概念是完全不一样的。第二点：就是上文提到的推理题和细节题的本质区别。推理题一般不会像细节题那样从原文某一句对应改写而得到答案，而是要通过固定的推理路径从已知推出未知。因此，从这一做题思路上出发，也可以帮助我们排出干扰项。

这道题是通过第4句推理得出答案“This means that artists were forced to work in cramped spaces and without sources of natural light”没有自然光线，推出相对的概念，可能会有人造光线。所以选C。 

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