推理引申题主要测试考生理清上下文逻辑关系的能力，要求考生领悟所读材料中句子之间的逻辑关系，并且根据材料提供的已知信息进行分析、归纳和推理。判断推理能力对深刻理解一篇文章十分重要，特别是理解作者字里行间的言外之意、作者的观点、写作意图和态度。命题专家在命制此类试题时通常要求考生对文章或段落进行深层推理和理解，不可能把试题的答案非常直接地暴露于选项中。因此考生应该注意把它与事实细节题区别开来，推理引申题必须以事实为依据，但是得出的结果又绝对不是事实本身，即不能“就事论事”。
跨考教育英语教研室吴老师在多年教学经验中发现，推理引申题对一些基础比较薄弱的考生而言是一个难点，考生似乎对文章读懂了(可称之为“自我感觉良好”)，然而在解题时却始终不知如何下手，试题也做得不好。这是考生没有领会命题专家设置推理引申试题的用意的缘故。事实上推理引申题考查的不仅是考生对字面意义的理解，更要求考生透过文章的字里行间去推测作者未明说而又意欲表达的含义。解此类题，考生应该根据文中的材料进行有关的判断、推理和引申。接下来跨考教育英语教研室吴老师就为考生详细讲解推理题的解题技巧。
广义的推理引申题涵盖的范围极其广泛。它既可以就总体信息也可以就具体或特定信息提问。总体提问通常包括文章主旨题、作者观点态度题;局部提问通常指段落主旨题、猜测词义/句意题。但是为了突出这四种出现频率很高且带有典型性的题型，我们下面谈到的推理引申题是排除以上情况的狭义概念。
1命题模式
狭义的推理引申题题干中常有infer，imply，suggest，deduce，conclude等词出现，常见的命题模式有：
(1)It can be inferred from the text/the last paragraph/the first sentence that...
(2)We can infer (assume, deduce) that .
(3)Which of the following can (not) be inferred from the passage? (4)It is implied (indicated, suggested) in the passage/the first paragraph/the second sentence/the example that .
(5)By... the author implies (suggests, indicates )that .
(6)The passage implies in the passage that .
(7)The author suggests(indicates)in the passage that .
(8)It can be concluded from the passage that .
(9)From the passage /the third paragraph/the last sentence/the example that... we can draw the conclusion that .
(10)What conclusion can be drawn from the passage (the first paragraph, the last paragraph)?
引申推理题按照解题思路主要可以分为暗指题、推理题和结论题。
暗指题的特点是要求读者体味“言外之意”，信息只能从字里行间获得。对于这类试题，考生首先要分清是明述还是暗指，即言内还是言外;其次，要尽最大可能与命题者达成“共识”，因为命题人事先确定的答案不允许考生的认识有任何偏差;最后，要对文章中的有关事实和观点进行分析和研究，按照事实发展的逻辑次序，总结出合情合理的结论。
Example 1
If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. (1999年 Passage 5)
The author implies that the results of scientific research .
[A] may not be as profitable as they are expected
[B] can be measured in dollars and cents
[C] rely on conformity to a standard pattern
[D] are mostly underestimated by management
原句是个假设条件句，指出“假如科学实验像科学杂志登载的科学报告显示的那样完全按事先的计划去规划和实施，那么，对管理层来说，期待研究能够产生可以用金钱衡量的结果是完全合理的”。此处正话反说，作者的言外之意是，科学实验总有不可预测的现象，产生的结果也难以预测，因此不能肯定有效益。[A]选项“可能不像预料的那样有利可图”才是作者真正想要表达的含义。
Example 2
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”(1996年 Passage 4 )
It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics .
[A] benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge
[B] shed light on disciplined school management
[C] was brought about by privileged home training
[D] owed a lot to the technological development
这里第二段的首句指出：敏锐的外国观察家将美国人的适应能力和创新能力与这个教育优势联系在一起。this往回复指前述的最后内容，也就是前一段末句谈到的“技工们有文化并且熟知算术、几何学、三角学”，从而可知这种教育优势就是熟练掌握数学。因而作者暗指的意思是[A]选项“它们很大程度上得益于数学”。
推理题与暗指题虽然有许多相似之处，但是其思路与方法更侧重于推理，主要测试考生的思维判断能力，即由已知的事实为依据去获得未知的信息。考生解题时首先要把握推理范围——大至段落或全文，小至词语或句子;其次要严格遵循逻辑规律，保持正确的思维过程和严密的逻辑;再次可以利用相关部分提供的事实、背景知识和常识去推理。
干扰项的特点：根据文章中某些事实亦可以推导，然而又答非所问。
(1)推断文章内容的含义和引申意思
Example
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U. S., when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing-witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.(2001年 Passage 4)
From Paragraph 4 we can infer that .
[A] the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers
[B] WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs
[C] the costs of the globalization process are enormous
[D] the Standard Oil Trust might have threatened competition
命题者设置的难点是第二句中定语从句的理解。原文谈到“目前难以预料，数家石油公司的合并是否会再次对竞争造成威胁。100年前美国的标准石油联合公司(Standard Oil Trust)被解散，就是因为当时人们担心它会对竞争构成威胁”，由此引申推理可知[D]项“标准石油联合公司可能曾对竞争形成过威胁”。此外，考生还需要注意，might have threatened是虚拟语气，表示对过去的推测。
(2)运用数字进行推理
Example
Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.
This development—and its strong implication for US politics and economy in years ahead—has enthroned the South as America’s most densely populated region for the first time in the history of the nation’s head counting.
Altogether, the Us population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people—numerically the third-largest growth ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records except for the Depression years.
Americans have been migrating south and west in larger numbers since World War Ⅱ, and the pattern still prevails. (1998年 Passage 4)
Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s .
[A] enjoyed the lowest net growth of population in history
[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population
[C] underwent an unparalleled period of population growth
[D] brought to a standstill its pattern of migration since World War Ⅱ
这是一道涉及数字的题目，从标志词1970s可以定位为文章第三段，本段指出：“20世纪70年代，美国人口总共增长了2 320万——从数字上看，这是有纪录以来10年期人口增长的第三高峰。即使如此，人口总数也只增加了11.4%，除了大萧条时期，这是美国年度记录最低的增长率。”因此，[A]选项和[C]选项与文意不符。接着文章第四段谈到人口普查显示出“第二次世界大战以来，美国人不断移居西部和南部，现在这种趋势依然存在”。因此可以得出[B]选项是正确答案，而[D]选项与该段内容正好相反。
(3)用类比的例子，要求考生进行推理演绎
Example1
There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external result or product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a promotion, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language-all these are examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts.
By contrast, the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since by definition it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way. The process is not the road itself, but rather the attitudes and feelings people have, their caution or courage, as they encounter new experiences and unexpected obstacles. In this process, the journey never really ends; there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept. (1995年 Passage 2)
A person is generally believed to achieve personal growth when .
[A] he has given up his smoking habit
[B] he has made great efforts in his work
[C] he is keen on learning anything new
[D] he has tried to determine where he is on his journey
本文指出看待人的成长有两个观点：一是视为结果，一是视为过程。第一段具体讲到第一种观点的详细内容。它是大部分人都持有的观点，看重外在结果因为其可以量化，可以通过具体事例反映出来，如：工人得到升迁、学生成绩提高和外国人学会了一门新的语言。第二段讲第二种观点的详细内容：成长是人在遇到新的经历和意外险阻时表现出来的态度和情感，而不是实在的结果。问的是根据第一种观点，以下哪一种是成长表现。通过文中类比的例子可知只有[A]选项是实在的结果。
