托福阅读考前点睛系列(七)：推理题

　　在新托福考试当中，阅读是第一个部分，一共会考到3篇或者4篇文章，每篇文章700-800字左右，每篇文章之后会有13-14个题目。很多同学面对这样托福阅读文章，感觉无从下手，甚至有时即使看懂了文章，题目也无法选对，那么应该如何应对这种情况呢?在这个系列中，给大家就托福阅读的具体解题技巧进行剖析讲解，作为考前冲刺，给大家考试助力，点睛指导!

　　这里我们继续介绍新托福的另外一种题型：

　　Inference questions ( 0 to 2 questions per set )

　　Inference questions 推理题

　　推理题的标志是在题干中出现infer/imply/suggest/indicate/most likely 这样的词汇，它和细节题属于同源题目，都需要定位并且根据文中信息来选择答案。与细节题不同的是，推理题在找到原文中定位点之后考察的是学生对于文中信息的总结概括，或者反向推理的能力。我们来看一道例题，

　　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 fluke3 and blowhole4 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?

　　○It is not difficult to imagine what they looked like

　　○There were great numbers of them.

　　○They lived in the sea only.

　　○They did not leave many fossil remains.

　　首先我们来对题目的出题范围进行定位，题干的blowhole可以作为定位词汇，定位到原文的第四句话：“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.”在这句话里交代了“unlike the casess of sea otters”，即与sea otters不一样的是，whales的陈述是：it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like.即，不容易看出第一头鲸长什么样子。而sea ottter是和鲸鱼相反，所以选择A选项，即不难看出第一头sea otter长什么样子。所以实际上，这种题目虽然叫做推理题，但是并不需要同学们在做题的时候推的过远，基本考察的还是对原文信息概括和总结的能力。