從狹義上看,該類題型指題干上有三個典型詞,即infer,imply和conclusion。如:What can you infer from the story? 或What is the implied meaning of this sentence? We can draw the conclusion from the passage that…, 推理性問題原文中沒有現成的答案。答案是你自己推想出來的,但不能憑空瞎想,必須以原文中某句話或某個詞語為依據去合理推測才能找到合適的答案。
No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of nation. “Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?” Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. “You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?” At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul-searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It’s a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.
At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company’s mountainous debt, which will increase to $17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently.
The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice-T’s violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. “The test of any democratic society,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, “lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won’t retreat in the face of any threats.”
Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard-line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders’ meeting, Levin asserted that “music is not the cause of society’s ills” and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the “balanced struggle” between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.
The 15-member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. “Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited,” says Luce. “I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this.”
The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that.
[A] Luce is a spokesman of Time Warner
[B] Gerald Levin is liable to compromise
[C] Time Warner is united as one in the face of the debate
With the start of BBC World Service Television, millions of viewers in Asia and America can now watch the Corporation’s news coverage, as well as listening to it.
And of course in Britain listeners and viewers can tune in to two BBC television channels, five BBC national radio services and dozens of local radio stations. They are brought sport, comedy, drama, music, news and current affairs, education, religion, parliamentary coverage, children’s programmes and films for an annual license fee of £83 per household.
It is a remarkable record, stretching back over 70 years—yet the BBC's future is now in doubt. The Corporation will survive as a publicly-funded broadcasting organization, at least for the time being, but its role, its size and its programmes are now the subject of a nation-wide debate in Britain.
The debate was launched by the Government, which invited anyone with an opinion of the BBC—including ordinary listeners and viewers—to say what was good or bad about the Corporation, and even whether they thought it was worth keeping. The reason for its inquiry is that the BBC’s royal charter runs out in 1996 and it must decide whether to keep the organization as it is, or to make changes.
Defenders of the Corporation—of whom there are many—are fond of quoting the American slogan “If it ain’t broken, don't fix it.” The BBC “ain’t broke”, they say, by which they mean it is not broken (as distinct from the word ‘broke’, meaning having no money), so why bother to change it?
Yet the BBC will have to change, because the broadcasting world around it is changing. The commercial TV channels—TV and Channel 4—were required by the Thatcher Government’s Broadcasting Act to become more commercial, competing with each other for advertisers, and cutting costs and jobs. But it is the arrival of new satellite channels—funded partly by advertising and partly by viewers’ subscriptions—which will bring about the biggest changes in the long term.
In the passage, which of the following about the BBC is not mentioned as the key issue?
[A] Extension of its TV service to Far East.
[B] Programmes as the subject of a nation-wide debate.
[C] Potentials for further international co- operations.
Specialization can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialization was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.?
54. The direct reason for specialization is _________.
[A]the development in communication
[B]the growth of professionalisation
[C]the expansion of scientific knowledge
[D]the splitting up of academic societies
該題考察的是實行專業化的直接因素是什么,根據本文第一句即可找到答案C為正確選項,其中“as a response to”即表示的是因果關系。
類似的解題思路可應用到以下文章中:
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in earlyAmerica—breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal, spatial thinking about things technological.(1996)
1. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to ________.
[A] elementary schools
[B] enthusiastic workers
[C] the attractive premium system
[D] a special way of thinking
The researchers studied the behavior of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of goods and services than males. (2005)
2. Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are ________.
[A] more inclined to weigh what they get
[B] attentive to researchers’ instructions
[C] nice in both appearance and temperament
[D] more generous than their male companions
這兩道題共同的特點就是題目中都有一個表示程度的限定詞。第一道題中的限定詞是in a large part,第二道題中的限定詞是most probably,這兩個詞語的出現本身就有一個暗示,說明選項中應該有不止一個原因,但是題目要求回答出其中最重要的一個因素。原文定位第一道題,可以發現定位句“I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools;a labor force that welcomed the new technology;the practice of giving premiums to inventors;and above all the American genius for nonverbal,spatial thinking about things technological”中含有四個并列成分,分別是“excellent elementary schools” , “a labor force”, “the practice of giving premiums to inventors”和“the American genius for nonverbal,spatial thinking about things technological”。上述四個內容在選項中都有出現,很多同學會因為先入為主的思維習慣選擇A。但是當我們注意到題干中的限定信息是要求找其中影響最大的一個因素,我們就要比照四個因素哪個影響最大。原文中的第四點前出現了above all,這個短語表示“最重要的是”,所以此題應該選擇D。
類似的2005年的考題中也出現了同樣的情況,題干中出現most,選項中出現了列舉。“They look cute. They are good-natured,cooperative creatures,and they share their food tardily. Above all,like their female human counterparts,they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of goods and services than males.” 這些列舉也分別被設計成了干擾項。但是其中受到強調的是above all 后面的這個因素。“like their female human counterparts,they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of goods and services’ than males”,所以此題答案為A。