一、文章一般来源

1、西方报刊杂志

2、西方中学或大学教科书

3、中国的英语报刊杂志

四篇文章全部选自英语国家文献资料，而且主要是报刊杂志，所以这些文章较有时效性，如两三年前的杂志文章常被选做考试文章。这类杂志包括Economist， Newsweek，Time和 US News and World Report等，其中Economist为重点杂志。以2005年的文章为例，其中第一篇选自Economist，第三篇选自Newsweek，第四篇选自Economist。第三个来源派生于前两个来源，即原文来自前两种，但是中国的英语杂志，如《英语文摘》、《英语世界》等刊出了原文的英汉对照版本。例如，2006年考研英语阅读部分的第四篇文章 The Art of Unhappiness发表于《时代》（2005年1月17日），但 《英语文摘》05年第7期上刊出了此文英汉对照的版本。由此可知，如果无时间读原文刊物，读一些相关文章的英汉对照版本也可以。

二、近年文章来源汇总

2006

Text 2 Inside Meaning. Michael Swan. Cambridge University Press. The Observer.（《观察家报》）

Text 3 Ocean’s eleventh hour. Economist. （《经济学人》，2003年5月15日）

Text 4 The Art of Unhappiness. Time. （《时代》，2005年1月17日）

2005

Text 1 Fair and Square. Economist. （《经济学人》，2003年9月18日）

Text 2 Washington Post.（《华盛顿邮报》时事评论）

Text 3 Taking Control. Newsweek. （《新闻周刊》，2002年7月15日）

Text 4 Talking Down. Economist.（《经济学人》，2004年1月29日）

2004

Text 1 Putting the Net to Work. US News & World Report.（《美国新闻与世界报道》，1997年10月27日）

Text 2 As easy as ZYX. Economist. （《经济学人》，2001年8月30日）

Text 3 What’s a Shopper to Do? Newsweek. （《新闻周刊》，2000年12月18日美国版）

Text 4 Nurturing the Life of the Mind. ASBJ（2001年1月美国学校董事会杂志）

2003

Text 1 Spies Like Us. Time. （《时代》，1999年1月25日）

Text 2 Scientist. （《科学家》，1998年11月20日）

Text 4 The Best Health Care Goes Only So Far. Newsweek（《新闻周刊》，2001年8月27日）

2002

Text 3 Oil’s Pleasant Surprise. Economist.（《经济学人》，1999年11月27日）

Text 4 High Point Enterprise.（1999年9月13日）

由上可知，Economist、Newsweek和Time等是比较重要的杂志，因为它们常成为考研阅读文章的来源。

三、题材偏重

四篇文章的内容涉及社会科学、自然科学和人文科目各个领域的知识，其中社会科学所占比重较大，自然科学所占比重不大，人文科学近来有增加的趋势。社会科学常涉及的领域有经济学、心理学、社会学、教育学、传播学等，但政治科学、国际政治一般不涉及。自然科学主要涉及医学、生物学、工程和科学史等。人文科学主要涉及文学评论、语言、杂文和散文等。

四、06阅读文章特点

1．时效性强。06年所选文章距离考试的时间比前几年的文章更新。所以要多关注上述杂志上近两三年以及考前一年的时文。

2．结构清晰。由于结构清晰，问题的数量和顺序与原文对应较好。

3．具体内容。06年阅读理解文章的内容和结构如下：

Text 1社会科学。文章结构：一枝独秀型。本文主要论述了美国文化的同化（homogenizing/assimilation）力。

Text 2 社会科学（经济类）。 文章结构：花开两朵型。本文主要论述了莎士比亚故居当地居民与皇家莎士比亚公司（RSC）之间在经济发展和地方产业方面的矛盾。

Text 3 自然科学（科技类）。文章结构：一枝独秀型。本文主要论述海洋鱼类的过度捕捞使得大型鱼类锐减这一问题。

Text 4 人文科学。文章结构：花开两朵型。文中对比了过去和现在人们的处境以及对快乐的感觉。

注：本文撰写时参考了李传伟编著的《2007年考研英语阅读真题全方位突破》（中国广播电视出版社出版）。

Fair and square

Some monkeys seem to have a highly developed sense of fairness

EVERYBODY loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.

The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys, which have all the necessary ingredients to capture the public imagination. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their finicky female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males (although why this is so remains a mystery).

Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr Brosnan’s and Dr de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to swap pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.

In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (in the absence of an actual monkey able to eat it) was enough to induce sullen behaviour in a female capuchin.

Dr Brosnan and Dr de Waal report that such behaviour is unusual in their trained monkeys. During two years of bartering prior to these experiments, failure to exchange tokens for food occurred in fewer than 5% of trials. And what made the behaviour even more extraordinary was that these monkeys forfeited food that they could see—and which they would have readily accepted in almost any other set of circumstances.

The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35m years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

总体介绍

这是2003年9月18日刊登在《经济学家》（The Economist）杂志上的一篇科技类文章。文中主要论述猴子的公平感---像人一样，对不公平待遇有怨恨。从文章的题材上讲，科技类的文章是考研英语阅读的四大题材之一(另外三类是经济评论、文化教育和社会生活)，而且这篇文章谈论的是较新的科学研究成果（《自然》杂志刚发表的文章），以简介的形式出现于《经济学家》杂志，自然很适合做考研英语阅读的出题文章。从体裁上看，这是一篇典型的说明文，属于考研英语阅读的常见体裁之一。这篇文章共有6段，520词，如果用作考研英语阅读理解的一篇，则段落和字数都有些偏多。因为该部分的文章一般要求将字数控制在400词左右；文章段落数一般为4-5段，便于出题。

这篇文章被用于2005年的考研英语阅读理解部分第一篇，距发表时间仅一年多，试题序号为21-25。文中加下划线的部分是被删除的内容。改编后的文章共5段，426词。

原文改编

命题人主要对原文进行以下几方面的改编：

一、删去文章标题。文章标题概括文章的主题，如果出现，文章大意就未睹先知。为了测试对文章主题和其他内容的理解，阅读理解原文的标题都要删去，让考生根据文章的内容去总结和把握。如这篇文章的副标题Some monkeys seem to have a highly developed sense of fairness在考题中就未出现。

二、压缩文章字数。为了把文章字数控制在要求的范围内，可有可无的细节、不影响文章总体结构的细节内容都要删除。这篇文章第二段的划线部分和第五段全段被删去的原因就是如此。

三、替换超纲词汇。为了将超纲词汇控制在要求的范围内（全文的3%），也为了便于考生真正发挥阅读水平，有些超纲词汇被替换。如这篇文章第四段末句中的sullen behaviour（sullen为超纲词汇）在考题中被替换为纲内词汇resentment。

四、改编其他方面。有时，为了使文章语言更加精炼，结构更加严谨，在删去部分内容后，相邻段落被合并。为了使上下文连贯起来，有时也改写原文。

改编后的文章不仅没有破坏原文的结构和内容，反而显得更加精炼：结构严谨，层次清晰。第一段以人为类比---人对于不公平待遇的反应是非常愤怒，接着指出研究者最近通过对僧帽猴的分组实验证明这不仅仅是人类的特性，也是猴子的特性。这是研究结论。后面是对有关实验的各个方面的叙述：如第二段的实验对象的选定，第三段和第四段的实验的具体内容。末段与第一段相呼应，并指出僧帽猴的公平感在进化上的起源还无法确定。

试题设计

命题人是这样设计试题的：

21.In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by

[A] posing a contrast.

[B] justifying an assumption.

[C] making a comparison.

[D] explaining a phenomenon.

[剖析] 这是一道主旨题，难度很大。难度系数为0.246(即只有24.6%的考生答对此题)。问题是“作者一段引出主题的方式”是什么，这等于问一段的写作方法和文章结构。一段先给出一个现象：一个人了解到懒散的（slack）同事比自己得到的加薪更多时，会大发雷霆（outraged），而且一般人认为只有人对于这种不公平待遇有怨恨感（sense of grievance）。作者接着指出一个研究表明猴子也有这种心理（it is all too monkey, as well）。由此可见作者通过人和猴子的类比引出文章的主题。C“比较（人和猴子）二者的相似之处”符合此意，为正确答案。A“提出一个对比”与作者的写作方法相反。B“证明一个假设合理”和D“解释一个现象”都与作者在一段运用的写作方法不符，所以都是干扰选项。

22.The statement “it is all too monkey” (Last line, Paragraph 1) implies that

[A] monkeys are also outraged by slack rivals.

[B] resenting unfairness is also monkeys’ nature.

[C] monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other.

[D] no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions.

[剖析] 这是一道句子理解题。问题对应一段末句：但是一个研究…表明这种情感（指上文所说的sense of grievance---不平感）也是“猴之常情”（it is all too monkey）。作者在文章开始指出人对不公平待遇有委屈感，接着指出猴子也具有这种感觉。B“怨恨不公平也是猴子的本性”符合此意，为正确答案。A“猴子对于懒散的对手也会狂怒”只是说到了表面现象，并未指出与人的类比所揭示的更深的道理---这也是猴子的本性。C“猴子像人一样，也常常相互嫉妒”与原文不符，因为原文说的是委屈感，而不是嫉妒这种心理。D选项与原文相矛盾，因为人也有这种感觉。本题较难，难度系数为0.368。

23.Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are

[A] more inclined to weigh what they get.

[B] attentive to researchers’ instructions.

[C] nice in both appearance and temperament.

[D] more generous than their male companions.

[剖析] 这是一道事实细节题。问题是“选用female capuchin monkeys做研究，最有可能是因为它们具有什么特点”。根据问题中的关键词female capuchin monkeys定位原文二段，二段描述了female capuchin monkeys适合于做研究的特点，其中二段末句指出了它们最重要的特点：最重要的是，它们像人类的雌性一样，比雄性更仔细地关注“产品和服务”的价值。A“更倾向于权衡它们所获得的东西”符合此意，为正确答案。注意：A选项中的more inclined对应二段末句中的tend to，weigh对应原文中的pay attention to，what they get 对应原文中的goods and services。C“外表和脾气都很好”在二段中提过，但不是female capuchin monkeys的主要特点，与题意不符，所以是干扰选项。本题难度也较大，难度系数为0.383。

24.Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys

[A] prefer grapes to cucumbers.

[B] can be taught to exchange things.

[C] will not be co-operative if feeling cheated.

[D] are unhappy when separated from others.

[剖析] 这是一道事实细节题。问题是“Dr. Brosnan和Dr. De Waal最终在研究中发现了猴子的什么特点”。eventually（最终）这个词提示这道题实际上是问该研究的结论。本文三段和四段论述研究的具体内容，末段总结了研究结论。C“猴子如果感觉被骗就不再合作”对应末段第三句“只有当每只猴子感觉没有被骗时，这类合作才有可能保持稳定”，为正确答案。A选项和B选项都不是研究人员的发现，而是作者在四段陈述的事实。D选项在原文没有明确提到，更不是研究人员的发现。本题难度较小，难度系数为0.805（即有80.5%的考生答对此题）。

25.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

[A] Monkeys can be trained to develop social emotions.

[B] Human indignation evolved from an uncertain source.

[C] Animals usually show their feelings openly as humans do.

[D] Cooperation among monkeys remains stable only in the wild.

[剖析] 这是一道推理题。问题对应末段。针对文章一段提出的猴子也有公平感（sense of fairness）这一点，作者在中间三段以实验加以证明，末段指出这种公平感是进化而来的。末段最后一句指出这种公平感的进化过程尚未确定（an unanswered question）。B“人类的义愤感（indignation）的进化来源不确定”符合此意，为正确答案。注意：B选项中的indignation（义愤感）对应末句中的sense of fairness（公平感），uncertain source对应末句中的unanswered question。A“可以训练猴子培养社会情感”与原文不符，因为原文末段指出猴子的社会情感是进化而来的。C选项在原文没有提到。D“猴子之间的合作只有在野外时才保持稳定”与原文不符，因为末段第三句明确指出猴子之间的合作只有在感觉受到公平对待时才保持稳定。本题难度一般，难度系数为0.584。

注：本文撰写时参考了李传伟编著的《2007年考研英语阅读真题全方位突破》（中国广播电视出版社出版）。

词汇的理解对考研阅读的意义不言而喻。但个别词不认识并不妨碍理解，有时遇到生词还要学会跳过去。除了其他破解词义的方法外，根据上下文的线索寻找等价或反义结构是一个很有效的方法。所谓等价结构，就是意义相同的结构。而反义结构就是意义相反的结构。对文章中的一个部分不理解时，可以根据这一部分的上下文判断意义。上下文有时和不理解的部分构成同义关系，不理解部分的意义就是上下文的意义。反之，上下文有时和不理解部分构成反义关系，那么，不理解部分的意义就是上下文意义的反面。等价结构包含多种，本文主要介绍并列结构。一般而言，并列结构常表示并列的两部分意义相同。本文讨论的反义结构主要是包含连词如but, while等的结构，它们常表示两部分意义相反。下面以2005年考研阅读的文章为例说明如何根据等价结构或反义结构把握句子意义。

一、等价结构

Text 1(2005)

Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behavior is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance.

[分析] 等价结构一：fat 呼应bigger

等价结构二：outraged=grievance（两句之间是递进结构）。

等价结构三：“all too human”=other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance（逗号之后为解释）

And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.

[分析] 等价结构：resentment=Indeed之前句子所表达的意思，因为Indeed表示递进。

Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone.

[分析] 等价结构：preserve= alone（由not…alone结构可知）。

However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

[分析] 等价结构：stems from=evolved（or连接并列结构）。

Text 3(2005)

And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful mental events can be not only harnessed but actually brought under conscious control, to help us sleep and feel better.

[分析] 等价结构：harnessed=brought under conscious control（not only…but连接递进结构）。

Text 4(2005)

Mr. McWhorter’s academic specialty is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of “whom”, for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.

[分析] 等价结构：no more regrettable=natural （and连接并列结构）

Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness.

[分析] 等价结构：genre=form（表语结构提示意义相同；实际上，genre与form之间是种属关系，genre是一种form）

he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful

[分析] 等价结构：grieving=loss of something beautiful（对美丽事物的消失，一般应该感到惋惜，由此可知grieving的意思就是“惋惜”）。

二、反义结构

Text 1(2005)

when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers

[分析] 反义结构：separate 与adjoining意思相反（二者由but连接）

Text 4(2005)

While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s

[分析] 反义结构：elevated 与modestly意思相反（句首的while even提示相反意义）。

In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.

[分析] 反义结构：spontaneity 与craft意思相反（over连接两个相对或相反的方面）。

注：本文撰写时参考了李传伟编著的《2007年考研英语阅读真题全方位突破》（中国广播电视出版社出版）。

一、复合句

1.When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal.（2000年第三篇）

2.What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar.（2000年第五篇）

二、并列句

While talking to you, your could-be employer is deciding whether your education, your experience, and other qualifications will pay him to employ you and your “wares” and abilities must be displayed in an orderly and reasonably connected manner.（1996年第一篇）

三、定语从句

1.The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most.（1994年第一篇）

2.The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic founders. （1996年第三篇）

四、名词性从句

1.That experiences influence subsequent behavior is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. （1995年第五篇）

2.What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real. （1998年第二篇）

3.Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. （1999年第二篇）

4.Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they’re less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community. （2001年第三篇）

五、状语从句

Consumers seem only concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt tightening. （2004年第三篇）

六、特殊结构

1. While the leading actor on the stage captures our attention, we are aware of the importance of the supporting players and the scenery of the play itself. （1994年第三篇）

2.Discoveries in sciences and technology are thought by “untaught minds” to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents. （1994年第五篇）

3. How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is essential to our ability to grow. （1995年第二篇）

4. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: “This book stands for reason itself.” And so it does—and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate. （1996年第五篇）

5. Perhaps it is humankind’s long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. （1998年第一篇）

6. Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West. （1998年第四篇）

7. But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not. （1999年第三篇）

8. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs—the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. （2000年第五篇）

七、分隔结构

1.Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. （1994年第五篇）

2. With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for whatever Futurist poetry may be—even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right—it can hardly be classed as Literature. （2000年第三篇）

3. Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. （2002年第一篇）

八、关联结构

1.A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research. （1998年第三篇）

2.The astonishing distrust of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers. （2001年第三篇）

九、难词与词组

1.Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. （1995年第一篇）

2.The merits of competition by examination are somewhat questionable, but competition in the certain knowledge of failure is positively harmful. （1995年第四篇）

3. Mr. McWhorter’s academic specialty is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of “whom”, for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-endings of Old English. （2005年第四篇）

十、指代

“The term ‘antiscience’ can lump together too many, quite different things,” notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science, “They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened.” （1998年第三篇）

注：本文撰写时参考了李传伟编著的《2007年考研英语真题长难句突破》（中国广播电视出版社出版）和《2007年考研英语阅读真题全方位突破》（中国广播电视出版社出版）。