第二个层面是，读文章时，应该采用什么样的阅读方式。基于对试题的研究，我们发现，在读文章的时候，应该把握重点：对于文章来讲，首段、各段首句、末句是重点；对于句子来讲，转折句、因果句、长难句、比较句和“绝对话意义”的句子往往是出题的方向。读完一篇文章后要问问自己：文章主要围绕什么问题阐述？作者对文章的态度大体方向是什么？读懂文章虽然不是做题正确的核心，但却是做题正确的前提。
第三个层面是：以什么样的思路去应付考题。从阅读材料后面的题目来看，问题可以分为以下几大类：主旨题、推理题、细节题、例证题、态度题、原因题、举例题和猜词题。每个大题型又可以继续细分。考生应该对这些题型的正解特征加以归纳总结。例如：考研英语中多次涉及的主要原因题，其题目形式是：
üThe passage (author)………….mainly because____?
üWhich of the following is chiefly responsible for……..?
ü…………is largely due to________?
üWhat is the main reason for ________?
由上述真题题目我们可以看出，题目特征相当明显，都出现了表示“主要的”标识词。那么题目特征会引发我们怎样的思考呢？既然是主要原因，就表明在原文中原因的阐述是不唯一的，至少有两个以上的原因才具备出主要原因题的前提。在四个选项中，可能同时会有若干个选项都是正确的原因，但正确答案是最主要的原因。那么，什么样的原因才是主要原因呢？我们可以从原文对应句中找到规律：主要原因题正确选项在原文中的对应句往往含有如下标识词：比较级、最高级、转折词、above all等。我们一起看一下以往的例题：
1. 原文：Yet the BBC will have to change, because the broadcasting world round it is changing. The commercial TV channels—ITV and Channel 4—were required by the Thatcher Government’s Broadcasting Act to become more commercial, competing with each other for advertisers, and cutting costs and jobs. But it is the arrival of new satellite channels—funded partly by advertising and partly by viewers’ subscriptions—which will bring about the biggest changes in the long term.
The foremost reason why the BBC has to readjust itself is no other than ______________.
(1996年passage2第4题)
A. the emergence of commercial TV channel
B. the enforcement of Broadcasting Act by the government
C. the urgent necessity to reduce costs and jobs
D. the challenge of new satellite channels
2. 原文：Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors: and above all the American genius for nonverbal, “spatial” thinking about things technological.
According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large due to _______. (1996年passage4第1题)
A. elementary schoolsB. enthusiastic workers
C. the attractive premium systemD. a special way of thinking
3. 原文：But that may have more to do with Japanese lifestyle.
