托福阅读推理题型必备套路

　　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。