托福阅读推断题的三种解题方式，学会反套路一波 - 沃邦国际教育
托福阅读推断题的三种解题方式，学会反套路一波
来源:&&&时间： 10:55:05
推断题Inference Question，又叫推理题，是许多同学最烦恼的阅读题型。往往阅读已达25分以上的同学，最后的几道错题中就有推断题的身影。曾遇到一个分数已经29的高分学员，二刷托福的最后阶段，还是每每在推断题上栽跟头。
原因呢，就在于推断题逻辑的&模糊&&&比起大部分题型，比如细节题简单粗暴、非黑即白的逻辑，推断题的态度要显得暧昧许多。但首先我们要确定的是，虽然很难在原文中找到直接的同义改写，但文中一定会有依据。一旦依据不足，那做的就不是推断题，而是&脑补题&了。问我们：&What can we infer about XXX&，实际上是问&作者对XXX有什么潜台词？&
潜台词里套路多，所以我们首先把题目分为两类。一类是（1）&题干定位&型，一类可以叫作（2）&选项定位型&。读完题干就可以区分。举个简单的例子：
现在城市中养猫的人群正在兴起，逐渐改变了以往狗多猫少的情况。其中原因有很多，首先，比起养狗，养猫更加方便。猫咪几乎没有体味，不需要遛，也不需要经常洗澡：猫会自己&洗澡&。与狗不同，它们的唾液有很强的清洁力。此外，猫比狗需求的陪伴更少，这很适合生活忙碌的白领人群。现代宠物行业培养了许多适宜家养的猫咪品种。比如美国短毛猫，脾气较为温顺，尤其是银虎斑，性格乖巧，适合作为家养宠物。
根据这段原文出两道推断题。（1）关于美国短毛猫，我们可以推断出什么结论？（2）关于养猫，我们可以推断出什么结论？那么第一题就是&题干定位题&，因为&美国短毛猫&可以确定定位区间&&原文的最后一句话。而第二题，我们却显然无法根据题干来定位，因为整段文字都是讲养猫的。所以第二题我们采取的策略是根据选项去定位。我们可以叫它&选项定位型&。
区分了两种类型，就可以分别看看它们的套路了！
一个简单的思维导图：
今天我们要详细讲解的是题干定位型的推断题。以下是一些用得上的推理逻辑。
1. & 反向推理
要有信心的是：只要题干中的关键词是可以定位的，这道题就肯定不难，肯定可以拿下。我们要做的就是紧扣定位区间，从几句话中确定依据，再回头看选项。很快就可以知道哪几个选项的依据不足。我们还是根据上面这个养猫的例子来出几道题，考考大家的逻辑。
1. &关于动物的唾液，我们能推断出什么结论？
A． 猫的唾液比人类的沐浴液更有清洁力。
B． 狗的唾液没有清洁力。
C． 动物的唾液都有清洁力。
D． 因为猫的唾液可以自我清洁，所以猫的一生不需要洗澡。
这道题拿到手，当然是用&唾液&作为关键词去定位。找到定位区间：&猫咪并不需要遛，也不需要经常洗澡：猫会自己&洗澡&。与狗不同，它们的唾液有很强的清洁力。&依据仅有这两句话，其中没有提到&人类的沐浴液&，因此排除A；&猫不需要经常洗澡&和D中的&一生不需要洗澡&矛盾，排除D；C显然不对，因此选择B。
B这个选项，我们叫做反向推理，由&与狗不同，&&&这句话推出。这个逻辑非常常见。现在来看一看TPO中的练习题：
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.
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.
这道题是非常经典的题干定位、反向推理。题干中的sea otter, 定位到的区间为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.逻辑和上面那道例题非常相似，根据unlike推出sea otter情况与cetacean相反，因此选A。
还有一种更为隐晦的反向推理。比如，托福出分了，妈妈对你说：你和小明、小红都是一个班的，你看看小明这次考得特别好，小红也考得不错！请问根据妈妈的话可以推断出什么？当然是妈妈的潜台词：&你&没有考好。这件事妈妈没有明说，但仍然是反向推理出来的。
那就让我们把这种题目拿下，考出个超级好的成绩，让妈妈无话可说：
A symbiotic relationship is an interaction between two or more species in which one species lives in or on another species. There are three main types of symbiotic relationships: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The first and the third can be key factors in the structure of a
that is, all the populations of organisms living together and potentially interacting in a particular area.
Which of the following statements about commensalism can be inferred from paragraph 1?
A. It excludes interactions between more than two species.
B. It makes it less likely for species within a community, to survive.
C. Its significance to the organization of biological communities is small.
D. Its role in the structure of biological populations is a disruptive one.
根据题干的commensalism, 找到定位区间&There are three main types of symbiotic relationships: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The first and the third can be key factors in the structure of a biological community&。第一句话罗列了三种关系，第二句话强调了第一种和第三种是key factor，那么没有提到的第二种&&也就是题干所问的这一种，就是与之相反的不是key factor。答案呼之欲出：就是C,its significance is small.
再来一题更难的：
With question such as these clearly before them, the scientists aboard the Glomar Challenger processed to the Mediterranean to search for the answers. On August 23, 1970, they recovered a sample. The sample consisted of pebbles of hardened sediment that had once been soft, deep-sea mud, as well as granules of gypsum and fragments of volcanic rock. Not a single pebble was found that might have indicated that the pebbles came from the nearby continent. In the days following, samples of solid gypsum were repeatedly brought on deck as drilling operations penetrated the seafloor. Furthermore, the gypsum was found to possess peculiarities of composition and structure that suggested it had formed on desert flats. Sediment above and below the gypsum layer contained tiny marine fossils, indicating open-ocean conditions. As they drilled into the central and deepest part of the Mediterranean basin, the scientists took solid, shiny, crystalline salt from the core barrel. Interbedded with the salt were thin layers of what appeared to be windblown silt.
Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about the solid gypsum layer?
A. It did not contain any marine fossil.
B. It had formed in open-ocean conditions.
C. It had once been soft, deep-sea mud.
D. It contained sediment from nearby deserts.
这题拿到手，还是找定位区间：&the gypsum was found to possess peculiarities of composition and structure that suggested it had formed on desert flats. Sediment above and below the gypsum layer contained tiny marine fossils, indicating open-ocean conditions.&第一句话说gypsum的内在结构说明它是在沙漠形成的；第二句话讲了gypsum上下两层的情况：富含marine fossils。从第二句话中，我们倾向于推出中间的gypsum曾并没有marine fossils，逻辑和上题一样。第一句话给了我们佐证：gypsum本身应当从沙漠来，当然没有海洋沉淀。答案：A。
反向推理的逻辑大致如此。其中还有一种较为特殊的&时间推理&，我们也可以看一看。
2. & 时间推理
时间推理的逻辑非常简单。大致就是：小明在2017年去了美国读大学&&可以推出2017年以前小明没有去美国读大学。通过时间先后来反推，其实也属于反向推理中的一种。一道简单的TPO：
The story of the westward movement of population in the United States is, in the main, the story of the expansion of American agriculture&of the development of new areas for the raising of livestock and the cultivation of wheat, corn, tobacco, and cotton. After 1815 improved transportation enabled more and more western farmers to escape a self-sufficient way of life and enter a national market economy. During periods when commodity prices were high, the rate of westward migration increased spectacularly.
What can be inferred from paragraph 1 about western farmers prior to 1815?
A. They had limited their crop production to wheat, corn, tobacco,
and cotton.
B. They were able to sell their product
at high prices.
C. They had not been successful in raising cattle.
D. They did not operate in a national market economy.
答案选C。你选对了吗？
再来看一看时间推理更进一步的题会出成什么样：
This was before the steam locomotive, and canal building was at its height. The companies building the canals to transport coal needed surveyors to help them find the coal deposits worth mining as well as to determine the best courses for the canals. This job gave Smith an opportunity to study the fresh rock outcrops created by the newly dug canal. He later worked on similar jobs across the length and breadth of England all the while studying the newly revealed strata and collecting all the fossils he could find. Smith used mail coaches to travel as much as 10000 miles per year. &In 1815 he published the first modern geological map &A Map of the Strata of England and Wales with a Part of Scotland&, map so meticulously researched that it can still be used today.
Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about canal building?
A. Canals were built primarily in the south of England rather than in other regions.&
B. Canal building decreased after the steam locomotive was invented.&
C. Canal building made it difficult to study rock strata which often became damaged in the process.&
D. Canal builders hired surveyors like Smith to examine exposed rock strata.
这道题目跪了无数人。其实这题看似信息杂乱，但题目中的canal building是可以定位的：文中的前3句话。第一句话就是题眼所在：在steam locomotive出现之前，canal building was at its height。你是否理解了at its height？它表示&达到了顶峰&。所以简单地画一个图，是这样的：
所以选B，毫无疑问。A信息不足，而C和D都和原文有不同程度的出入。
再来练一道题：
Oil pools are valuable underground accumulations of oil, and oil fields are regions underlain by one or more oil pools. When an oil pool or field has been discovered, wells are drilled into the ground. Permanent towers, called derricks, used to be built to handle the long sections of drilling pipe. Now portable drilling machines are set up and are then dismantled and removed. When the well reaches a pool, oil usually rises up the well because of its density difference with water beneath it or because of the pressure of expanding gas trapped above it. Although this rise of oil is almost always carefully controlled today, spouts of oil, or gushers, were common in the past. Gas pressure gradually dies out, and oil is pumped from the well. Water or steam may be pumped down adjacent wells to help push the oil out. At a refinery, the crude oil from underground is separated into natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, and various oils. Petrochemicals such as dyes, fertilizer, and plastic are also manufactured from the petroleum.
Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about gushers?
A. They make bringing the oil to the surface easier.
B. They signal the presence of huge oil reserves.
C. They waste more oil than they collect.
D. They are unlikely to occur nowadays.
这道题同样绊倒了许多同学。现在我们再来根据推理逻辑做一遍，就会觉得它并不难。Gusher可以定位到这句话：&Although this rise of oil is almost always carefully controlled today, spouts of oil, or gushers, were common in the past.&如此有限的一句话，只能推出D这个结论，其他三个选项，字面看起来虽然很有道理：gusher就是井喷，可以说有A、B、C说的石油到达地表更易、标志着巨大油储量、废油比集油多等特征。但是，它们都没有依据，根本不需要仔细研究。所以先确定依据，再看选项，可以大大节省时间。
3. & 从属推理
最后来讲一讲比较罕见、也较难的逻辑：从属推理。先来举个栗子：
沃邦的同学们都非常好学。比如小明，他虽然有学校的课业压力，但丝毫不放松托福的学习，不仅能很快完成作业，还能主动提问、积累词汇，最后取得了很好的托福成绩。
根据小明我们能推断出什么？
A.小明在托福学习上比学校课业上花更多的时间
B.小明的词汇量比较差
C.小明是沃邦的学生
D.小明的交作业交得最早
这道题很容易，选C，其他选项都是依据不足，过度推断。C这种逻辑我们就叫它&从属推理&。有点像亚里士多德的三段论，但我们更强调观点和例子之间的从属关系。例子能够满足观点的条件。
这张图的右边部分就是一个完整的论证机构。严格来讲，要定位一个选项，应当定位到完整的论证结构，而不是单纯的例子部分。就拿上题来说，如果只定位到小明个人的部分，就会遗漏观点句中的依据。前方高能，难题两道：
Even the kind of stability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated with maximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwood forest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individuals growing on the forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability&just the opposite, in fact. A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. (A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child&s tricycle.)
Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 5 about redwood forests?
A. They become less stable as they mature.
B. They support many species when they reach climax.
C. They are found in temperate zones.
D. They have reduced diversity during mid-successional stages.
掌握了从属推理之后，定位出来的区间就不是从&Once a redwood forest...&开始，而是要包含上面的观点句：&At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community.&妥妥的选C。但是这道题要排除A、B、D却并不是那么容易，因为涉及到maturity, diversity 和stability三个变量。我们根据原文意思来画个示意图：
有没有感觉到A、B、D都是要欺骗感情的呢？所以这道题，应该坚决果断地选C，这样就能争取时间。
最后再来一道难题：
After the Roman Empire&s conquest of Britain in the first century A.D., the presence of administrators, merchants, and troops on British soil, along with the natural flow of ideas and goods from the rest of the empire, had an enormous influence on life in the British Isles. Cultural influences were of three types: the bringing of objects, the transfer of craft workers, and the introduction of massive civil architecture. Many objects were not art in even the broadest sense and comprised utilitarian items of clothing, utensils, and equipment. We should not underestimate the social status associated with such mundane possessions which had not previously been available. The flooding of Britain with red-gloss pottery form Gaul (modern-day France), decorated with scenes from Classical mythology, probably brought many into contact with the styles and artistic concepts of the Greco-Roman world for the first time, whether or not the symbolism was understood. Mass-produced goods were accompanied by fewer more aesthetically impressive objects such as statuettes. Such pieces perhaps first came with officials for their o others were then acquired by native leaders as diplomatic gifts or by purchase. Once seen by the natives, such objects created a fashion which rapidly spread through the province.
Paragraph 1 suggests that one benefit for British natives in buying such items as red-gloss pottery made in Gaul was
A. improved quality of utilitarian items
B. Understanding the symbolism of Classical mythology
C. higher social standing&
D. Learning to mass-produce pottery for a profit
定位区间：从观点句&We should not underestimate the social status associated with such mundane possessions which had not previously been available&开始，直到&red-gloss pottery&具体的例子展开部分。答案C来自观点句，强调日用品和社会地位之间的关系。你做对了吗？
总结一下，今天我们研究了推断题中的&题干定位型&，即用题干中的关键信息可以确定定位空间的题。
分析了反向推理、时间推理和从属推理这三个逻辑。是不是已经可以拿下这一半的推断题了呢？下次有机会我们再展开&选项定位型&即无法用题干信息定位的推断题。
近期出分情况
08-31 09:40
08-24 02:13
08-15 10:29
08-11 09:36
08-08 09:22
07-28 09:17
07-24 09:09
07-13 09:58
07-11 09:39
07-07 11:35后使用快捷导航没有帐号？
查看: 1714|回复: 3
最后登录在线时间141 小时寄托币197 声望0 注册时间阅读权限15帖子精华0积分144UID3313921
寄托新兵, 积分 144, 距离下一级还需 6 积分
声望0 寄托币197 注册时间精华0帖子
Paragraph 5: Even the kind of stability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated with maximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwood forest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individuals growing on the forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability—just the opposite, in fact. A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. (A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle.)
7. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 5 about redwood forests?
A.They become less stable as they mature.
B.They support many species when they reach climax.
C.They are found in temperate zones.
D.They have reduced diversity during mid-successional stages.
我疑惑A选项，是说推理题，不能根据例子里面的内容进行推理吗？
最后登录在线时间141 小时寄托币197 声望0 注册时间阅读权限15帖子精华0积分144UID3313921
寄托新兵, 积分 144, 距离下一级还需 6 积分
声望0 寄托币197 注册时间精华0帖子
求解答啊啊啊啊
最后登录在线时间413 小时寄托币266 声望5 注册时间阅读权限20帖子精华0积分209UID3297456
初级会员, 积分 209, 距离下一级还需 141 积分
声望5 寄托币266 注册时间精华0帖子
例子里面是说，当红木成熟的时候，红木林里的其他物种种类和数量会减少&&而不是红木不稳定。 因为这一段讲的是物种的稳定性与其所在环境的物种多样性没有关系。 举这个例子是为了解释前面的一句话。前面讲物种的最大的多样性是在mid-successional ，而不是在climax community。 而红木是属于climax community。所以例子说当红木成熟的时候，在他那个环境中的物种会减少。根据排除法ABD都不对，只有选C了
最后登录在线时间872 小时寄托币2586 声望81 注册时间阅读权限35帖子精华0积分1908UID3531334
特级会员, 积分 1908, 距离下一级还需 1092 积分
声望81 寄托币2586 注册时间精华0帖子
本题我毫不犹豫自信满满的选了D
广州九微教育科技有限公司
Copyright &
GTER All Rights Reserved
Powered by您好，欢迎来到新东方
【托福】托福阅读：推断套路千千万，看完这篇斩一半
来源：沈阳新东方
作者：小编
　推断题Inference Question，又叫推理题，是许多同学最烦恼的阅读题型。往往阅读已达25分以上的同学，最后的几道错题中就有推断题的身影。曾遇到一个分数已经29的高分学员，二刷托福的最后阶段，还是每每在推断题上栽跟头。
　　原因呢，就在于推断题逻辑的“模糊”——比起大部分题型，比如细节题简单粗暴、非黑即白的逻辑，推断题的态度要显得暧昧许多。但首先我们要确定的是，虽然很难在原文中找到直接的同义改写，但文中一定会有依据。一旦依据不足，那做的就不是推断题，而是“脑补题“了。问我们：“What can we infer about XXX”，实际上是问“作者对XXX有什么潜台词?”
　　潜台词里套路多，所以我们首先把题目分为两类。一类是(1)“题干定位“型，一类可以叫作(2)“选项定位型“。读完题干就可以区分。举个简单的例子：
　　现在城市中养猫的人群正在兴起，逐渐改变了以往狗多猫少的情况。其中原因有很多，首先，比起养狗，养猫更加方便。猫咪几乎没有体味，不需要遛，也不需要经常洗澡：猫会自己“洗澡”。与狗不同，它们的唾液有很强的清洁力。此外，猫比狗需求的陪伴更少，这很适合生活忙碌的白领人群。现代宠物行业培养了许多适宜家养的猫咪品种。比如美国短毛猫，脾气较为温顺，尤其是银虎斑，性格乖巧，适合作为家养宠物。
　　根据这段原文出两道推断题。(1)关于美国短毛猫，我们可以推断出什么结论?(2)关于养猫，我们可以推断出什么结论?那么第一题就是“题干定位题”，因为“美国短毛猫”可以确定定位区间——原文的最后一句话。而第二题，我们却显然无法根据题干来定位，因为整段文字都是讲养猫的。所以第二题我们采取的策略是根据选项去定位。我们可以叫它“选项定位型”。
　　区分了两种类型，就可以分别看看它们的套路了!
　　一个简单的思维导图：
　　今天我们要详细讲解的是题干定位型的推断题。以下是一些用得上的推理逻辑。
　　1. 反向推理
　　要有信心的是：只要题干中的关键词是可以定位的，这道题就肯定不难，肯定可以拿下。我们要做的就是紧扣定位区间，从几句话中确定依据，再回头看选项。很快就可以知道哪几个选项的依据不足。我们还是根据上面这个养猫的例子来出几道题，考考大家的逻辑。
　　1. 关于动物的唾液，我们能推断出什么结论?
　　A. 猫的唾液比人类的沐浴液更有清洁力。
　　B. 狗的唾液没有清洁力。
　　C. 动物的唾液都有清洁力。
　　D. 因为猫的唾液可以自我清洁，所以猫的一生不需要洗澡。
　　这道题拿到手，当然是用“唾液“作为关键词去定位。找到定位区间：“猫咪并不需要遛，也不需要经常洗澡：猫会自己“洗澡”。与狗不同，它们的唾液有很强的清洁力。“依据仅有这两句话，其中没有提到“人类的沐浴液”，因此排除A;“猫不需要经常洗澡”和D中的“一生不需要洗澡”矛盾，排除D;C显然不对，因此选择B。
　　B这个选项，我们叫做反向推理，由“与狗不同，……”这句话推出。这个逻辑非常常见。现在来看一看TPO中的练习题：
　　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.
　　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.
　　这道题是非常经典的题干定位、反向推理。题干中的sea otter, 定位到的区间为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.逻辑和上面那道例题非常相似，根据unlike推出sea otter情况与cetacean相反，因此选A。
　　还有一种更为隐晦的反向推理。比如，托福出分了，妈妈对你说：你和小明、小红都是一个班的，你看看小明这次考得特别好，小红也考得不错!请问根据妈妈的话可以推断出什么?当然是妈妈的潜台词：“你”没有考好。这件事妈妈没有明说，但仍然是反向推理出来的。
　　那就让我们把这种题目拿下，考出个超级好的成绩，让妈妈无话可说：
　　A symbiotic relationship is an interaction between two or more species in which one species lives in or on another species. There are three main types of symbiotic relationships: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The first and the third can be key factors in the structure of a
that is, all the populations of organisms living together and potentially interacting in a particular area.
　　Which of the following statements about commensalism can be inferred from paragraph 1?
　　A. It excludes interactions between more than two species.
　　B. It makes it less likely for species within a community, to survive.
　　C. Its significance to the organization of biological communities is small.
　　D. Its role in the structure of biological populations is a disruptive one.
　　根据题干的commensalism, 找到定位区间“There are three main types of symbiotic relationships: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The first and the third can be key factors in the structure of a biological community”。第一句话罗列了三种关系，第二句话强调了第一种和第三种是key factor，那么没有提到的第二种——也就是题干所问的这一种，就是与之相反的不是key factor。答案呼之欲出：就是C,its significance is small.
　　再来一题更难的：
　　With question such as these clearly before them, the scientists aboard the Glomar Challenger processed to the Mediterranean to search for the answers. On August 23, 1970, they recovered a sample. The sample consisted of pebbles of hardened sediment that had once been soft, deep-sea mud, as well as granules of gypsum and fragments of volcanic rock. Not a single pebble was found that might have indicated that the pebbles came from the nearby continent. In the days following, samples of solid gypsum were repeatedly brought on deck as drilling operations penetrated the seafloor. Furthermore, the gypsum was found to possess peculiarities of composition and structure that suggested it had formed on desert flats. Sediment above and below the gypsum layer contained tiny marine fossils, indicating open-ocean conditions. As they drilled into the central and deepest part of the Mediterranean basin, the scientists took solid, shiny, crystalline salt from the core barrel. Interbedded with the salt were thin layers of what appeared to be windblown silt.
　　Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about the solid gypsum layer?
　　A. It did not contain any marine fossil.
　　B. It had formed in open-ocean conditions.
　　C. It had once been soft, deep-sea mud.
　　D. It contained sediment from nearby deserts.
　　这题拿到手，还是找定位区间：“the gypsum was found to possess peculiarities of composition and structure that suggested it had formed on desert flats. Sediment above and below the gypsum layer contained tiny marine fossils, indicating open-ocean conditions.”第一句话说gypsum的内在结构说明它是在沙漠形成的;第二句话讲了gypsum上下两层的情况：富含marine fossils。从第二句话中，我们倾向于推出中间的gypsum曾并没有marine fossils，逻辑和上题一样。第一句话给了我们佐证：gypsum本身应当从沙漠来，当然没有海洋沉淀。答案：A。
　　反向推理的逻辑大致如此。其中还有一种较为特殊的“时间推理”，我们也可以看一看。
　　2. 时间推理
　　时间推理的逻辑非常简单。大致就是：小明在2017年去了美国读大学——可以推出2017年以前小明没有去美国读大学。通过时间先后来反推，其实也属于反向推理中的一种。一道简单的TPO：
　　The story of the westward movement of population in the United States is, in the main, the story of the expansion of American agriculture—of the development of new areas for the raising of livestock and the cultivation of wheat, corn, tobacco, and cotton. After 1815 improved transportation enabled more and more western farmers to escape a self-sufficient way of life and enter a national market economy. During periods when commodity prices were high, the rate of westward migration increased spectacularly.
　　What can be inferred from paragraph 1 about western farmers prior to 1815?
　　A. They had limited their crop production to wheat, corn, tobacco,
　　and cotton.
　　B. They were able to sell their product
　　at high prices.
　　C. They had not been successful in raising cattle.
　　D. They did not operate in a national market economy.
　　答案选C。你选对了吗?
　　再来看一看时间推理更进一步的题会出成什么样：
　　This was before the steam locomotive, and canal building was at its height. The companies building the canals to transport coal needed surveyors to help them find the coal deposits worth mining as well as to determine the best courses for the canals. This job gave Smith an opportunity to study the fresh rock outcrops created by the newly dug canal. He later worked on similar jobs across the length and breadth of England all the while studying the newly revealed strata and collecting all the fossils he could find. Smith used mail coaches to travel as much as 10000 miles per year. In 1815 he published the first modern geological map “A Map of the Strata of England and Wales with a Part of Scotland”, map so meticulously researched that it can still be used today.
　　Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about canal building?
　　A. Canals were built primarily in the south of England rather than in other regions.
　　B. Canal building decreased after the steam locomotive was invented.
　　C. Canal building made it difficult to study rock strata which often became damaged in the process.
　　D. Canal builders hired surveyors like Smith to examine exposed rock strata.
　　这道题目跪了无数人。其实这题看似信息杂乱，但题目中的canal building是可以定位的：文中的前3句话。第一句话就是题眼所在：在steam locomotive出现之前，canal building was at its height。你是否理解了at its height?它表示“达到了顶峰“。所以简单地画一个图，是这样的：
　　所以选B，毫无疑问。A信息不足，而C和D都和原文有不同程度的出入。
版权及免责声明
①凡本网注明"稿件来源：新东方"的所有文字、图片和音视频稿件，版权均属新东方教育科技集团（含本网和新东方网）
所有，任何媒体、网站或个人未经本网协议授权不得转载、链接、转贴或以其他任何方式复制、发表。已经本网协议授权的媒体、网站，在下载使用时必须注明"稿件来源：新东方"，违者本网将依法追究法律责任。
② 本网未注明"稿件来源：新东方"的文/图等稿件均为转载稿，本网转载仅基于传递更多信息之目的，并不意味着赞同转载稿的观点或证实其内容的真实性。如其他媒体、网站或个人从本网下载使用，必须保留本网注明的"稿件来源"，并自负版权等法律责任。如擅自篡改为"稿件来源：新东方"，本网将依法追究法律责任。
③ 如本网转载稿涉及版权等问题，请作者见稿后在两周内速来电与新东方网联系，电话：010-。