Text 2
Over the past decade, thousands of patents have seen granted for what are called business methods. Amazon.com received one for its “one-click” online payment system. Merrill Lynch got legal protection for an asset allocation strategy. One inventor patented a technique for lying a box。
本段是背景段，讲过去的事情。只需看懂第一句“过去的几十年中，上千个商业方法被授予专利。”
Now the nation’s top patent court appears completely-property lawyers abuzz the U.S. court of Appeals for the federal circuit said it would use a particular case to conduct a broad review of business-method patents. In the Bilski, as the case is known, is a “very big deal”， says Dennis’D Crouch of the University of Missouri School of law. It “has the potential to eliminate an entire class of patents。”
本段转折。“将会用一个案例来全面审查商业方法专利”。最后一句“它有可能排除一种专利(即上文的business-method patent)”
26. Business-method patents have recently aroused concern because of
[A] their limited value to business
[B] their connection with asset allocation
[C] the possible restriction on their granting
[D] the controversy over authorization
选[C]，根正苗红的同义替换。possible= potential ， eliminate= restriction
[A] 无中生有 [B] 用第一段的一个小例子中的细节捏造选项 [D] controversy 无中生有。
27. Which of the following is true of the Bilski case?
[A] Its ruling complies with the court decisions
[B] It involves a very big business transaction
[C] It has been dismissed by the Federal Circuit
[D] It may change the legal practices in the U.S。
选[D] potential= may ,change 对应着第一段和第二段之间的转折。从本段的review，eliminate也可以看出这是一种转折。
全文一直没有讲Bilski case的判决的结果，而 [A] [C]都是在讲其判决结果，所以与原文相反。
[B] 是从原文“ a “very big deal””字面意识出发设置的干扰选项。a big deal 其实在英文中的意思是“重要”，而不是“生意(transaction)”
本题[D]还有may ,正确答案往往语气委婉，所以更加确定选这个选项。
Curbs on business-method claims would be a dramatic about-face, because it was the federal circuit itself that introduced such patents with is 1998 decision in the so-called state Street Bank case, approving a patent on a way of pooling mutual-fund assets. That ruling produced an explosion in business-method patent filings, initially by emerging internet companies trying to stake out exclusive pinhts to specific types of online transactions. Later, move established companies raced to add such patents to their files, if only as a defensive move against rivals that might bent them to the punch. In 2005, IBM noted in a court filing that it had been issued more than 300 business-method patents despite the fact that it questioned the legal basis for granting them. Similarly, some Wall Street investment films armed themselves with patents for financial products, even as they took positions in court cases opposing the practice。
28. The word “about-face” (Line 1,Para 3) most probably means
[A] loss of good will
[B] increase of hostility
[C] change of attitude
[D] enhancement of disnity
本题是词汇题，一定要返回原文通过上下文解题。Because 之前是说对business-method 的约束(curbs)，而because之后说的是“正是联邦审判引入了business-method”，所以二者之间自然表明了是“态度的转变”。所以选[C]
The Bilski case involves a claimed patent on a method for hedging risk in the energy market. The Federal circuit issued an unusual order stating that the case would be heard by all 12 of the court’s judges, rather than a typical panel of three and that one issue it wants to evaluate is weather it should “reconsider” its state street Bank ruling。
本段第一句话没有看懂，直接跳过。第二句讲“联邦审判要求这个案子要12个法官审，而不是普通的3人小组，并且要求判断是否要重新考虑之前的Bank ruling” 由本句可以排除29 [A]
The Federal Circuit’s action comes in the wake of a series of recent decisions by the supreme Count that has narrowed the scope of protections for patent holders. Last April, for example the justices signaled that too many patents were being upheld for “inventions” that are obvious. The judges on the Federal circuit are “reacting to the anti_patent trend at the supreme court”， says Harole C.wegner, a partend attorney and professor at aeorge Washington University Law School。
in the wake of= after 。第一句：最高法院已经减少了对专利持有者的保护(protection)。而29[C] 减少了对专利持有者的尊重(esteem)。其中esteem是对protection的偷梁换柱。第二句：举例子。法官发出信号： too many (过多的专利被授予了)，表明法院认为很多business-method 不应该被授予，所以选[B] too many =often unnecessarily. [D]无中生有。
29. We learn from the last two paragraphs that business-method patents
[A] are immune to legal challenges
[B] are often unnecessarily issued
[C] lower the esteem for patent holders
[D] increase the incidence of risks
见上文的解析。本题[A] [B] 两项相反必去其一。
30. Which of the following would be the subject of the text?
[A] A looming threat to business-method patents
[B] Protection for business-method patent holders
[C] A legal case regarding business-method patents
[D] A prevailing trend against business-method patents
选择 [A] 。首先排除[B]，与原文相反。[C]大帽子。[A] [D]的选择有一定难度。用串线法解题。第一段讲过去business method很容易被授予专利。其中第一段的最后一句话已经暗含着对这种做法的反对。第二段转折：将会用一个案例来全面审查商业方法专利。第三段：对business method的约束(curbs)是法院态度的巨大转变。最后一段明确提出reacting to the anti-patent trend at the supreme court 。要注意的是原文始终没有说Bilski case的判决，因此只是一个looming (隐约地出现)的danger ，而不是已经盛行的趋势。
Text 3
① In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Aladuell argues that “social epidemics” are driven in large part by the actions of a tiny minority of special individuals, often called influentials, who are unusually informed, persuasive, or well connected. ②The idea is intuitively compelling, but it doesn’t explain how ideas actually spread。
【考点分析】① 因果常考(driven)，出31题[A]。Malcolm Aladuell 的观点“社会流行的东西在很大程度上是有一小部分有影响力的人发动的，这些人见多识广，有说服力” ②转折常考，出31题[B]。 “这个观点不能解释思想是如何传播的”。要注意：ideas actually spread= social epidemics 这就意味着作者认为influential对how ideas actually spread作用不大，不起driven(驱动)的作用。
31. By citing the book The Tipping Point, the author intends to __________。
[A]analyze the consequences of social epidemics
[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。
【考点分析】①承上启下。研究者推翻了上文的错误观点。②无需看懂。③研究者的理由来自关于社会影响的简单的观察。即使最有影响力的人也不会与太多的人交流。④是two-step-flow theory理论。⑤转折常考出33题。“每一个受影响的人必须要影响他的熟人，他的熟人再影响自己的熟人”，这也就因为是social interaction。