[B]discuss influentials’ function in spreading ideas

　　[C]exemplify people’s intuitive response to social epidemics

　　[D]describe the essential characteristics of influentials。

　　【正确选项解析】[B] 本题是说明作者目的题。由上文②的分析可知选本选项。

　　【干扰选项分析】[A] 与原文相反。本文讨论的是原因(driven)，而本题是说结果(consequence)。

　　[C] 本段没有提到人们的直觉的反应(intuitive response)。②只是说“作者认为这个观点从直觉上看是吸引人的”。所以无中生有

　　[D]偏离中心：influential对social epidemics的作用。只是①中的细节。

　　①The supposed importance of influentials derives from a plausible-sounding but largely untested theory called the “two-step flow of communication”： Information flows from the media to the influentials and from them to everyone else. ② Marketers have embraced the two-step flow because it suggests that if they can just find and influence the influentials, those select people will do most of the work for them. ③The theory also seems to explain the sudden and unexpected popularity of certain looks, brands, or neighborhoods. ④In many such cases, a cursory search for causes finds that some small group of people was wearing, promoting, or developing whatever it is before anyone else paid attention. ⑤Anecdotal evidence of this kind fits nicely with the idea that only certain special people can drive trends.

　　【考点分析】①因果常考(derive from)+转折常考(but)+否定常考(untested)+段首常考+特殊标点常考(冒号)，出32题。请看supposed在《牛津高阶英语词典》的英文解释 [only before noun] used to show that you think that a claim, statement or way of describing sb/sth is not true or correct, although it is generally believed to be。这就意味着supposed后面的东西在本质上都是作者反对的。“这种influential的假象的重要性来源于一个貌似合理但是实质上未经检验的two-step flow of communication的理论”。②讲商人接受了这一错误观点。③中的seems ④中的cursory search(草率的搜索) ⑤中的Anecdotal evidence(传闻的证据)这几个词组都表明作者对这个理论持反对态度。

　　32. The author suggests that the “two-step flow theory” __________。

　　[A]serves as a solution to marketing problems

　　[B]has helped explain certain prevalent trends

　　[C]has won support from influentials

　　[D]requires solid evidence for its validity
　　【正确选项解析】[D]由①可知这个理论是未经检验的(untested)，这就意味着“需要可靠的证据证明其有效性”(requires solid evidence for its validity)。所以本题是同义替换之正话反说。

　　【干扰选项分析】[A]与作者对该理论的反对态度矛盾。

　　[B] ③这个理论似乎(seems)可以解释某些流行的趋势，seem这个词表明作者其实是反对这个说法的。

　　[C]偷换概念，偷换了②中的marketer

　　①In their recent work, however, some researchers have come up with the finding that influentials have far less impact on social epidemics than is generally supposed. ② In fact, they don’t seem to be required of all. ③ The researchers’ argument stems from a simple observation about social influence, with the exception of a few celebrities like Oprah Winfrey — whose outsize presence is primarily a function of media, not interpersonal, influence — even the most influential members of a population simply don’t interact with that many others. ④Yet it is precisely these noncelebrity influentials who, according to the two-step-flow theory, are supposed to drive social epidemics by influencing their friends and colleagues directly. ⑤ For a social epidemic to occur, however, each person so affected, must then influence his or her own acquaintances, who must in turn influence theirs, and so on; ⑥and just how many others pay attention to each of these people has little to do with the initial influential. ⑦ If people in the network just two degrees removed from the initial influential prove resistant, for example, the cascade of change won’t propagate very far or affect many people。