段落推理题是考研阅读理解常用的一种命题方式。这类题目往往选取文章中的某段或是某个句子，或是某人的言论让考生推断隐含的意思。有的考生对这种题目很是头疼。觉得无从下手：文章还是半懂不懂的，更别说探究隐含的意思了。
其实，不尽然。段落推理题的题目很容易识别，常用的命题形式有：What can we infer from the first paragraph? (从第一段中我们能推出什么?)首先明确考研中根本就没有所谓的推理，推理题的做法和细节题的做法是一致的，只是这样设置题干可以扩大命题控制的区域，一个题目在某些情况下甚至相当于四个细节题，早年还有更为无耻的命题方式：What can be inferred from the passage? 这样命题其实就是出题人希望试题涵盖更多的测试点，对考生来讲最大的障碍就是time-consuming(耗时)，考生如果每个选项仔细和原文比对应该不难找出答案，哪怕费时稍微多一些。但是有的时候我们却遇到出题人为我们设置的另外一个困境：选项和原文比对时，我们很难排除。先看一个例题:
2007年Text 4最后一题：
It can be inferred from Paragraph 5 that___________.
[A] data leakage is more severe in Europe
[B] FTC’s decision is essential to data security
[C] California takes the lead in security legislation(D)
[D] legal penalty is a major solution to data leakage
原文根据：
1.The current state of affaires may have been encouraged—though not justified—by the lack of legal penalty (in America, but not Europe) for data leakage.
2.Until California recently passed a law, American firms did not have to tell anyone, even the victim, when data went astray.
3. That may change fast: lots of proposed data-security legislation is now doing the rounds in Washington, D.C.
4.Meanwhile, the theft of information about some 40 million credit-card accounts in America, disclosed on June 17th, overshadowed a hugely important decision a day earlier by America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that puts corporate America on notice that regulators will act if firms fail to provide adequate data security.
参考译文：
1.尽管还没有得到证实，但目前这类事件的发生很有可能是因为还没有相关法律对信息泄漏做出处罚(在美国，不是在欧洲)。
2.直到最近，加利福尼亚才通过了一项法律，而在此之前，当信息被窃取时，美国的公司不用告知任何人，甚至包括受害人，信息是何时泄露的。
3.这种情况可能迅速改变：如今，许多信息保护法的议案正在华盛顿被广泛传议。
4.与此同时，6月17日披露的消息表明，美国大约4000万张信用卡的信息被人盗取，这一情况给美国联邦贸易委员会在前一天所作的一个重要决定蒙上了阴影，该决定要求美国所有的商业公司提供充足的数据安全保障，否则监管人员就会采取行动。
通过第一句括号中的内容可以排除[A] data leakage is more severe in Europe。
通过第四句我们找到了[B] FTC’s decision is essential to data security的依据。
通过第二句我们又看到了[C] California takes the lead in security legislation的依据。
通过第一句我们也看到了[D] legal penalty is a major solution to data leakage的依据。
在考场上很少同学能笃定地选择出一个选项，而在一些辅导书的讲解中，也是非常牵强的给出了一些排除B、C选项理由：比如说：C选项中的加州只是走到了美国的前列。(但是在很多时候这样的表达在其他题目中又是正确的，且本来这篇文章主要就是在说美国的数据泄露问题，笔者不认为这样的表述有问题)，B选项中的决定只是重要而已而不是essential (这就更是不懂出题人的又一佐证了，essential和important在很多时候都是可以替换的)。
这就是考研出题人为了体现考研选拔性考试特征而动用的潜规则了：主题为王，结论为王;在文中第一句是论点和结论，而二、三、四句都是论据， 之所以选择D是源自结论而由于B和C是源自论据，出生和血统就不一样，一切的挣扎都是徒劳。答案只能是D。
这样的题目在段落推理中很是常见，再如：
47. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoë Zysman.
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies' names.
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoë Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush's predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi). The world's three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world's five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).
这三个段落中，第一段是结论，而二三段是论据。
A、B、C选项且不去讨论其表述正确与否，只需从In both East and West，Zoë Zysman，companies' names这样的字词中即可判定出其源自论据的出生，他们一开始就注定了不能成为正确答案的宿命，无需步步惊心。
段落性的推理题在按照常规的解题思路完成后，和主题相关选项大于和细节相关的选项，和结论相关的选项大于和论据相关的选项。这就是又一考研的特色。因此在解题的过程中一定要关注观点和结论，和观点表达相关的动词在必杀技一中已经列出。
2006年26题
From the first two paragraphs, we learn that_________.
[A]the townsfolk deny the RSC‘s contribution to the town’s revenue
[B] the actors of the RSC imitate Shakespeare on and off stage
[C] the two branches of the RSC are not on good terms
[D] the townsfolk earn little from tourism
答案为A选项，解题思路就是第一段是事实的论述，而第二段第一句就出现了观点，对应A选项。
2008年37题
We may infer from the second paragraph that____________.
[A] DNA technology has been widely applied to history research
[B] in its early days the U.S. was confronted with delicate situations
[C] historians deliberately made up some stories of Jefferson’s life
[D] political compromises are easily found throughout the U.S. history
答案为B选项，正是对应于历史学家们著作中的结论，而其他几个选项都是从论据入手的，且是错误的表述。
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