托福閱讀題型各個擊破——推斷題

搞定推斷題的要點其實只有一個，那就是理清作者的邏輯。在看懂每句話句義的基礎上，還需要的是明白前后句之間的關系，了解他們在作者的論證或者敘述中所起的作用，在此之后，閱讀選項，直接選出正確選項，或者排除所有錯誤選項得到正確選項就好，咱們來看幾個例子。

【例1】Paragraph 1: Groundwater is the word used to describe water thatsaturates the ground, filling all the available spaces. By far the mostabundant type of groundwater is meteoric water; this is the groundwater thatcirculates as part of the water cycle.
　　 Ordinary meteoric water is water thathas soaked into the ground from the surface, from precipitation (rain and snow)and from lakes and streams. There it remains, sometimes for long periods,before emerging at the surface again. At first thought it seems incredible thatthere can be enough space in the ―solid‖ ground underfoot tohold all this water.

1.Which of the following can be inferredfrom paragraph 1 about the ground that we walk on?

○It cannot hold rainwater for long periodsof time.
　　○It prevents most groundwater fromcirculating.
　　○It has the capacity to store large amountsof water.
　　○It absorbs most of the water it containsfrom rivers.

這個題目其實只需要關注段落中的最后一句就可以了，因為這是唯一一句據(jù)提到了“我們腳下的土地”的，句中說，‘乍一想起來，我們腳下結實的土地居然能有空間容納這么多的水，這似乎有點不可思議。’這句中透露的一個事實就是，我們腳下的土地就是能容納這么多水，于是C選項正確。

【例2】Paragraph 1: The transition from forest to treeless tundra on amountain slope is often a dramatic one. Within a vertical distance of just afew tens of meters, trees disappear as a life-form and are replaced by lowshrubs, herbs, and grasses.
　　This rapid zone of transition is called the uppertimberline or tree line. In many semiarid areas there is also a lowertimberline where the forest passes into steppe or desert at its lower edge,usually because of a lack of moisture.

2.Which of the following canbe inferred from paragraph 1 about both the upper and lower timberlines?

○B(yǎng)oth are treeless zones.
　　○B(yǎng)oth mark forest boundaries.
　　○B(yǎng)oth are surrounded by desertareas.
　　○B(yǎng)oth suffer from a lack of moisture.

段落中已經(jīng)說明，upper timberline是樹林的上端與草地、灌木叢的分界線，而lower timberline是樹林下端與草原或是沙漠的分界線，于是upper and lower timberlines的共同點就是，他們都是樹林與其他地區(qū)的分界線，也就是樹林的邊界，B選項正確。

【例3】Paragraph 5: Even the kind ofstability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated withmaximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is oftenfound in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwoodforest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individualsgrowing on the forest floor are reduced.
　　In general, diversity, by itself, doesnot ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest thatdiversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability—just the opposite, in fact. Amore complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system tobreak down. A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than achild’s tricycle.

3.Which of the following canbe inferred from paragraph 5 about redwood forests?

○They become less stable asthey mature.
　　○They support many specieswhen they reach climax.
　　○They are found in temperatezones.
　　○They have reduced diversity duringmid-successional stages.

這個題目其實我在最初做的時候沒有選出答案，因為A,B,D都明顯有問題：A正好說反了，生態(tài)系統(tǒng)成熟之后會更穩(wěn)定；B也不對，段落中已經(jīng)明說紅樹林在頂峰時多樣性已經(jīng)下降了；D也正好跟文意相反，過渡時期是生態(tài)系統(tǒng)多樣性處于頂峰的時間。但是最初我覺得C似乎沒被提到過，于是就沒選出來，后來才發(fā)現(xiàn)了專講紅樹林的那句與上句之間有個坑人的“for example”的關系，于是紅樹林肯定是屬于上一句所提到的temperate zone里的，C選項正確。

既然碰到，在這里就介紹一下托福閱讀里的“不錯即是對”原則，托福是很嚴謹、成熟的考試，閱讀題目中的錯誤選項往往都被設計成與原文邏輯有直接矛盾，所以如果你像我一樣碰到了三個選項明顯能看出問題而第四個選項拿不準的狀況（不僅限于推斷題，所有閱讀題目都適用），那基于托福考試的特點，你完全可以直接選擇那個沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)錯誤的選項，然后進入下一道題，這樣基本可以保證你的選擇正確，而且節(jié)約了答題的時間。

【例4】Paragraph 2: One of the most puzzling aspects of the paintings istheir location. Other rock paintings—for example, those of Bushmen in SouthAfrica—are either located near cave entrances or completely in the open. Cavepaintings in France and Spain, however, are in recesses and caverns far removedfrom original cave entrances.
　　This means that artists were forced to work incramped spaces and without sources of natural light. It also implies thatwhoever made them did not want them to be easily found. Since cave dwellersnormally lived close to entrances, there must have been some reason why so manygenerations of Lascaux cave dwellers hid their art.

4.What can be inferred fromparagraph 2 about cave painters in France and Spain?

○They also painted rocksoutside caves.
　　○They did not live close tothe cave entrances.
　　○They developed their ownsources of light to use while painting.
　　○Their painting practices did not last formany years.

此題似乎異常簡單，段落中有一句“This means that artists were forced to work in cramped spaces andwithout sources of natural light.”畫家們作畫的時候必須在狹窄的、沒有自然光源的空間里作畫，于是推斷出西班牙與法國的壁畫畫家已經(jīng)是有某種自然光源以外的光源，C選項正確。

【例5】Paragraph 4: Very little light filters through the canopy of leavesand branches in a rain forest to reach ground level—or close to the ground—andat those levels the yellow-to-green wavelengths predominate. A signal might bemost easily seen if it is maximally bright. In the green-to yellow lightingconditions of the lowest levels of the forest, yellow and green would be thebrightest colors, but when an animal is signaling, these colors would not bevery visible if the animal was sitting in an area with a yellowish or greenishbackground.

The best signal depends not only on its brightness but also on howwell it contrasts with the background against which it must be seen. In thispart of the rain forest, therefore, red and orange are the best colors forsignaling, and they are the colors used in signals by the ground-walkingAustralian brush turkey. This species, which lives in the rain forests andscrublands of the east coast of Australia, has a brown to-black plumage withbare, bright-red skin on the head and neck and a neck collar of orange-yellowloosely hanging skin.

During courtship and aggressive displays, the turkeyenlarges its colored neck collar by inflating sacs in the neck region and thenflings about a pendulous part of the colored signaling apparatus as it utterscalls designed to attract or repel. This impressive display is clearly visiblein the light spectrum illuminating the forest floor.

5.Which of the following canbe inferred from paragraph 4 about yellow and green colors compared with redand orange colors at the bottom of the forest?

○Yellow and green are bettercolors for signaling than red and orange colors.
　　○Orange and red are brightercolors than yellow and green.
　　○Yellow and green are likelyto be more common in the background than red and orange.
　　○Orange and red colors do not contrast aswell with the forest floor as yellow and green do.

題目涉及到的是前半段關于光信號顏色的選擇問題的討論，作者說，林中低處的光多數(shù)是黃色或是綠色的，這兩種光的亮度最高，但是林中低處的背景色也是黃色和綠色，所以以這兩種光作為光信號顏色的話，與背景的對比度就很不理想，相比之下，橙色和紅色就更勝一籌了，于是選項中A、B、D都與文意相反，C選項正確。

寫本文的時候我一直都在問自己“推斷題真有這么簡單嗎？”生怕自己是站著說話不腰疼，但是在TPO里面轉(zhuǎn)了幾圈之后發(fā)現(xiàn)推斷題真的是思路很簡單清晰，只要大家讀懂作者的意思，這部分的題目就基本都沒有太多難度。當然，如果有什么我遺漏了的問題，大家可以在下面提問，我和其他幾位版主會盡量回答的。