四六级考试阅读的备考:课堂笔记(5)

　　3. A necessary cause is ____.

　　A) one without which it is impossible for the effect to occur

　　B) one of the causes that can produce the effect

　　C) one that is enough to make the effect occur

　　D) none of them

　　4. Your refrigerator is not working and you have found that the electric power has been cut off.

　　The power failure is a ____.

　　A) necessary cause B) sufficient cause

　　C) contributory cause D) none of them

　　5. This passage mainly discusses ____.

　　A) causal reasoning B) classification of cause

　　C) various types of reasoning D) the causal process

　　Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

　　Another common type of reasoning is the search for causes and results. We want to know whether cigarettes really do cause lung cancer, what cause malnutrition(营养不良), the decay of cities, or the decay of teeth. We are equally interested in effects: what is the effect of sulphur or lead in the atmosphere, of oil spills and raw sewage to the cause and then relate that cause to another effect. This kind of reasoning is called, for short, effect to effect. It is quite common to reason through an extensive chain of causal relations. When the lights go out we might reason in the following causal chain: lights out-power off-refrigerator not working -temperature will rise-milk will sour. In other words, we diagnose (判定)a succession of effects from the power failure, each becoming the cause of the next.

　　注：1.causal 原因的，因果关系的

　　2.三种推理方式：从原因到结果、从结果到原因、从结果到原因再到另一个结果，第三种更重要

　　3.extensive 广泛的，来自extend延伸 extensive reading 泛读

　　4.In other words 换而言之 a succession of 一系列

　　5.本段讲关系链

　　Causes are classified as necessary, sufficient, or contributory(起辅助作用的). A necessary cause is one which must be present for the effect to occur, as combustion ，is necessary to drive a gasoline engine. A sufficient cause is one which can produce an effect unaided , though there may be more than one sufficient cause: a dead battery is enough to keep a car from starting, but faulty spark plugs(火花塞)or an empty gas tank will have the same effect. A contributory cause is one which helps to produce an effect but cannot do so by itself, as running through a red light may help cause an accident, though other factors --- pedestrians or other cars in the intersection-must also be present.

　　注：intersection 交叉路口 inter+section

　　In establishing or refuting a causal relation it is usually necessary to show the process by which the alleged cause produces the effect. Such an explanation is called a causal process.

　　注：在证实或驳斥因果关系需要把推理过程显示出来，如灯灭了，牛奶变酸：灯灭了-停电-冰箱不工作-温度上升-牛奶变酸