托福閱讀推理題不丟分的秘密

推斷題Inference Question，又叫推理題，這種題型是托福閱讀中較難的題型之一，也是考生們最容易丟分的一種題型。原因是：相比于其他大部分題型，比如說(shuō)事實(shí)信息題”看到即答案”的簡(jiǎn)單邏輯，推理題的”模糊"邏輯會(huì)讓我們無(wú)從下手，也是最容易丟的題目。

它通常會(huì)問(wèn)我們："What can we infer about XXX”，也就是關(guān)于XXX我們可以推理出什么?看到這里從小到大做習(xí)慣了中國(guó)式推理題的學(xué)生們就會(huì)激動(dòng)了，立馬把自己想象成名偵探柯南，準(zhǔn)備好好的抽絲剝繭推理一下。但是，請(qǐng)注意：在托福閱讀考試中，做推理題一定要學(xué)會(huì)"控制智商"!

其實(shí)很多做過(guò)TPO的同學(xué)會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)看到推理題的答案就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)是自己想多了，而那個(gè)讓你覺(jué)得很正確的選項(xiàng)一般來(lái)說(shuō)都存在”過(guò)度聯(lián)想”，或者說(shuō)”推理過(guò)度”的情況。而在提醒自己不要想太多以后，又會(huì)出現(xiàn)叫"推理不足"的情況。重要的就是合理拿捏這個(gè)度。

首先，我們可以把它的題目分為兩類：一類是題干定位型，一類是選項(xiàng)定位型。

怎么樣區(qū)分呢?

題干定位題，顧名思義，就是我們通過(guò)題目中的詞可以定位到原文中答案所在的位置從而選出答案;而選項(xiàng)定位型則是指我們沒(méi)辦法通過(guò)題目來(lái)定位的情況。

比如說(shuō)：題目問(wèn)What can be inferred about fish?而原文中整段都在講fish，你就沒(méi)有辦法去具體定位，這個(gè)時(shí)候我們就可以利用選項(xiàng)去定位原文。

好，區(qū)分了題目的兩種類型，接下來(lái)，我們來(lái)講題干定位型中的第一種邏輯推理—反向推理。我們?cè)谧鲱}時(shí)要意識(shí)到：如果這道題可以通過(guò)題干定位到，我們需要做的就是緊扣定位區(qū)間，在這個(gè)定位區(qū)間中找到依據(jù)并根據(jù)這個(gè)依據(jù)推斷出正確選項(xiàng)，需注意的是：雖然我們做的是推理題，但一定也是有依據(jù)的，一定要找到你的”證據(jù)”所在。

那么，什么是反向推理?就是學(xué)術(shù)寫作中，當(dāng)我們將事物按照某種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)進(jìn)行分類后，分類的內(nèi)容既不重合也不丟失。比如我們把A分成X和Y,X和Y之間沒(méi)有重合的部分，同時(shí)X和Y合并構(gòu)成A,也不會(huì)丟失A的某一部分。這樣一來(lái)，當(dāng)我們知道X所具有某一個(gè)特性，就能推出Y不具有這樣的特性，這就是反向推理。

我們拿一道TPO的題目實(shí)踐一下：

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 fluke and blowhole 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.

Q: Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 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.

這道題是非常經(jīng)典的題干定位、反向推理。題干中的sea otter, 定位到的區(qū)間為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.根據(jù)unlike推出sea otter情況與cetacean相反，因此選A。