成人学位英语阅读理解解题方法：例证题

 阅读理解文章基本上是说明文，议论文。而这类体裁的文章少不了用例子、事实来说明观点。因此往往会碰到要求推测文章举例的目的(这些例子要说明什么观点)的题目。如

　　The example of…is given to show/illustrate that .

　　What can be inferred from the author's example of…?

　　The experiment/study suggests/shows that .

　　例证题为三级阅读理解的常考点之一，所以阅读时对于for example, for instance, such as, as等引出的例子可以注意，划出这几个提示词，以便做题时查找。这类题的基本结构为The author provides in Line…(或Paragraph…)an example in order to…，意思是问文中举出某现象或例子的目的。由于三级阅读理解文章大都是说明文和议论文，所以文章中举出一些例子无非是为了说明一定的道理。关键在于这个例子在原文出现的位置，但不管如何，这个例子之前或之后不远处通常都有一句总结说明性的话，这句话就是答案，即被例证的对象。如果例子与全文主题有关，则例证主题，答案为主题句;如果例子与段落主题有关，那就是例证段落主题，则答案为段落主题句;此外，答案为例子前后总结说明性的话。做例证题的注意事项如下。

　　1.illustrate(例证)、give an example(举例)、verify(证实)等不同表达法在题干或选项中并不影响答案。

　　2.假如题干问的是某一具体事物，其所在的句子就是例证的内容。例子为句段的，通常为两种模式：a.先总结说明，再举例子(例证)，总结说明后有时伴有提示词，如for instance, for example等;b.先举例子(例证)，再总结说明，总结说明前有时伴有提示词，如thus, therefore, in conclusion, as a result等。

　　3.注意例证所在的段落主题句。如果例证所在段有概括段落思想的主题句，就首先读这个主题句，看它的意思和问题下四个选择项哪项意思一致。一致的那个就是答案，不要去读具体例证了。因为举例的目的是为了说明观点，而段落中的例子大多是说明段落主题思想的。

　　Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child--or even an animal, such as a pigeon-can learn to recognize faces, we all take this ability for granted.

　　We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone's per-sonality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.

　　Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone's personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a "nice face" looked like, you probably would have a diffi- cult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a "nice person", you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.

　　There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon Allport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people's behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for de- scribing, or typing his personality. Bookworms, conservatives, military types—people are described with such terms.

　　People have always tried to "type"each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain's (坏人) or the hero's role. In fact, the words "person"and "personality"come from the Latin persona, meaning "mask". Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the "good guys"from the "bad guys"because the two types differ in ap-pearance as well as in actions.

　　By using the example of finger prints, the author tells us that

　　A. people can learn to recognize faces

　　B. people have different personalities

　　C. people have difficulty in describing the features of finger prints

　　D. people differ from each other in facial features

　　这是一道例证题，实际上考的是对文章首句的理解：Faces, like fingerprints, are unique(人的面孔像指纹一样独一无二)，由此可知D项为正确答案：各人的面孔各不相同。

　　4.注意例证上下文、上下旬的作者观点。如果例证所在段没有主题句或例证本身就是一段，就要看例证上面一段或句、下面一段或句有否相关的归纳性的作者观点。如果这个作者观点和问题中的某一个选择项意思一致，那就是答案，也不要去读具体例证了。

     Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no corresponding increase in wisdom. But agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define "wisdom" and consider means of promoting it.

　　There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a prob-lem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scien- tific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind.

　　You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say) as modern medicine has succee-ded, in enormously lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowering the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody's mind at the present time; you study the makeup of the atom from a disin-terested (无利害关系的) desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.

　　Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase augments (增强) our capacity for realising our pur-poses, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our purposes are unwise.

　　The author uses the examples in the passage to illustrate his point that

　　A. it's extremely difficult to consider all the important elements in a problem

　　B. success in medical research has its negative effects

　　C. scientists may unknowingly cause destruction to the human race.

　　D. it's unwise to be totally absorbed in research in scientific medicine

　　题干问的是几个例子的例证作用。事实上，本文的两个例子都集中在第二段：第一个例子从第二段第四句开始，有一个标志词，for example，这属于上述的“从总结说明到举例子的模式”，答案在例子之前;第二个例子在第二段末，也有提示词：To take an even more dramatic example，它进一步例证第一个例子所说明的意思。因此，只需直接找第一个例子之前的总结性语句即可：This has become more difficult than it used to be ow-ing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians.这是紧承上句 "take account of all the important factors in a problem" 而来的，由此可知正确答案A为被例证的论点：考虑一个问题中的所有重要因素极为困难。