ower in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.(2000-2)

What does the example of India illustrate?

[A] Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

[B] Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

[C] The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.

[D] India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.

关于印度的例子在二段末。作者举这个例子的目的是说明进化的作用又少了一个用武之地：在过去，由于人们间的贫富差异使得人们的生存和生育受到影响，富人生存能力强，但是到了现在，贫富差异对人们的生存能力的影响已经很小。这样，自然选择在贫富差异方面就无所作为。B“自然选择在贫富之间的作用很难发挥”符合此意，为正确答案。A“富人的小孩一般比穷人多”为常识判断，即可能符合现实，但在原文没有提到，所以不是正确答案。C选项包含具体数字，这类选项一般是干扰选项。

又如，

Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn’t know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.(2005-2)

An argument made by supporters of smoking was that

[A] there was no scientific evidence of the correlation between smoking and death.

[B] the number of early deaths of smokers in the past decades was insignificant.

[C] people had the freedom to choose their own way of life.

[D] antismoking people were usually talking nonsense.

问题是“支持吸烟者的一个论据是什么”，这一点在一段谈到。C“人们有选择自己生活方式的自由”由一段第三句可以推出，因为原文指出“反对吸烟的游说团体存心破坏吸烟者的生活方式，政府不应该干涉吸烟”，由此可见支持吸烟者认为吸烟是他们的生活方式，他们有选择的自由，他人（包括政府在内）不应对此加以干涉。因此C为正确答案。A“没有科学证据证明吸烟和死亡之间的因果关系”与一段第二句“证据不充分，科学上还不确定”有出入，因为原文指出“证据不充分”，说明有证据，只是不充分而已，而A选项完全否定证据的存在，说得过于绝对。B“在过去数十年中早亡的烟民数目不大”与一段末句所说相反，也不是支持吸烟者的论据。D选项以偏概全。所以A、B、D三个选项都是干扰选项。

综合这几天对阅读的总结，做题时一定要以原文为依据。许多同学做题有方法，但因为凭印象、粗心大意或对词汇理解不准确，往往做错。有不良习惯的同学要注意纠正习惯，而词汇理解不准确的同学，一定要将问题涉及的原文词汇与选项词汇吃透。对于基础较差的同学，我甚至建议将每道题的答案以及它们所对应的原文词汇读熟，以增加自己的词汇量（尤其是同义词数量）、增强自己的做题感觉。还有些同学容易钻牛角尖，常常觉得哪个选项都不对或排除了正确选项。这些同学需要树立一种思想：虽然做题涉及逻辑，但是语言是第一位的，以语言的对应为最高原则。

今天的结束语是：Learn from mistakes（从错误中吸取教训）。

 

责任编辑:gaoyan