对于一篇完整的英文说明文或者议论文来说，不论其形式看上去有多么复杂多样，但是套用一句老话："万变不离其宗。"一般考研阅读的文章都是采取传统的三段论形式：即提出问题(提出说明的事物或者现象)、分析问题(对事物或者现象进行说明)、解决问题(对说明的事物或者现象进行总结)。当然这里所说的"三段论"不是指所有的文章都分为三个段落，但是大部分文章基本上都是由这三个部分组成的。下面我们列举几种具体的情况来进行简单的分析，并在每种模式后面都举出了一篇考研真题的文章以帮助具体考生理解这些模式的特点，考生在平时的复习中也应该自己注意训练相关的判断力。
模式1
第一部分：提出问题，可以开门见山地提出问题或者先阐述他人的观点然后揭示自己与之相左的观点;
第二部分：层层递进地进行分析，段落之间的逻辑联系非常强，每一段的论述都之前一段为依据，这些段落经常以moreover, further, furthermore, besides, in addition 等词语或者词组开头;
第三部分：在第二部分逻辑推理的基础上得出结论。
例文：95年Passage 3
In such a changing, complex society formerly simple solutions to informational needs become complicated. Many of life' s problems which were solved by asking family members, friends or colleagues are beyond the capability of the extended family to resolve. Where to turn for expert information and how to determine which expert advice to accept are questions facing many people today.
In addition to this, there is the growing mobility of people since World War Ⅱ. As families move away from their stable community, their friends of many years, their extended family relationships, the informal flow of information is cut off, and with it the confidence that information will be available when needed and will be trustworthy and reliable. The almost unconscious flow of information about the simplest aspects of living can be cut off. Thus, things once learned subconsciously through the casual communications of the extended family must be consciously learned.
Adding to societal changes today is an enormous stockpile of information. The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated , time-consuming and sometimes even overwhelming .
Coupled with the growing quantity of information is the development of technologies which enable the storage and delivery of more information with greater speed to more locations than has ever been possible before. Computer technology makes it possible to store vast amounts of data in machine-readable files, and to program computers to locate specific information. Telecommunications developments enable the sending of messages via television, radio, and very shortly, electronic mail to bombard people with multitudes of messages. Satellites have extended the power of communications to report events at the instant of occurrence. Expertise can be shared world wide through teleconferencing, and problems in dispute can be settled without the participants leaving their homes and/or jobs to travel to a distant conference site. Technology has facilitated the sharing of information and the storage and delivery of information, thus making more information available to more people.
In this world of change and complexity, the need for information is of greatest importance. Those people who have accurate, reliable up-to-date information to solve the day-to-day problems, the critical problems of their business, social and family life, will survive and succeed. "Knowledge is power" may well be the truest saying and access to information may be the most critical requirement of all people.
其中中间三段的第一句话都是对上文的承接并引出新的话题，分别为"In addition to this..."、"Adding to societal changes is an enormous stockpile of information"、"Coupled with the growing quantity of information is..."。
模式2
第一部分：开头提出一个概念、一个中心思想或者一种现象;
第二部分：围绕着这个概念、中心思想或者现象，从各个方面进行分析和解释说明，这种文章比较容易定位其主旨;
第三部分：对文章进行总结，并再一次对该概念、中心思想进行阐述，或对相关现象进行说明。
例文：2000年Passage 5
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition health, distinction, control over one's destiny must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition's behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, However, it is the educated who have claimed to have give up on have give up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition-if not always their own the that of their parents and grandparents. There is heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped with the educated themselves riding on them.
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs. The locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is," Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious."
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
这篇文章主要围绕着地质活动的热点(hot pot)理论这个概念进行讨论。
模式3
第一部分：提出问题，该问题涵盖了两个方面(或者更多);
第二部分：分别对这两(或更多)个方面进行分析和论述;
第三部分：总结全文，其中包含了对以上所涉及的各个方面的概括。
例文：2001年Passage1
Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialisation was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.
A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.
Although the process of professionalisation and specialisation was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
文章开头就提出了问题的两个方面，即科学发展的specialization(专业化)和professionalization(职业化)。
模式4
第一部分：提出一个现存的需要解决问题;
第二部分：分析问题产生的原因，存在的因素以及可能的解决方案，作者可能提到几个不同的解决方案，但是之后作者自己认可的那种方案才是文章的重点和主题
第三部分：对问题进行总结说明并进一步强调作者支持的那种解决办法。
例文：1999年Passage 2
In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company' s private internet .
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
模式5
第一部分：把开头分为两段，第一段不直接进入要论述的问题和作者的观点，而是通过一个引子展开，或讲述一个有趣的故事、或交待一些背景知识，到了第二段才正式提出问题，因此在这种情况下考生要避免直接去第一段找主旨，而是要通过阅读全文正确地定位主题所在段落;
第二部分：对提出的问题进行论述;
第三部分：得出结论，总结全文。
例文：1994年Passage 2
One hundred and thirteen million Americans have at least one bank-issued credit card. They give their owners automatic credit in stores, restaurants, and hotels, at home, across the country, and even abroad, and they make many banking services available as well. More and more of these credit cards can be read automatically, making it possible to withdraw or deposit money in scattered locations, whether or not the local branch bank is open. For many of us the "cashless society" is not on the horizon-it's already here.
While computers offer these conveniences to consumers, they have many advantages for sellers too. Electronic cash registers can do much more than simply ring up sales. They can keep a wide range of records, including who sold what, when, and to whom. This information allows businessmen to keep track of their list of goods by showing which items are being sold and how fast they are moving. Decisions to reorder or return goods to suppliers can then be made. At the same time these computers record which hours are busiest and which employees are the most efficient, allowing personnel and staffing assignments to be made accordingly. And they also identify preferred customers for promotional campaigns. Computers are relied on by manufacturers for similar reasons. Computer-analyzed marketing reports can help to decide which products to emphasize now, which to develop for the future, and which to drop. Computers keep track of goods in stock, of raw materials on hand, and even of the production process itself.
Numerous other commercial enterprise, from theaters to magazine publishers, from gas and electric utilities to milk processors, bring better and more efficient services to consumers through the use of computers.
文章第一段通篇在谈论信用卡服务的优点，而第二段的第一句话才是主题句，指出了使用计算机的便利，因为信用卡的便利正式由于计算机技术的发展和普及带来的。
模式6
第一部分：提出问题，作者将要对该问题的存在进行指责和批判;
第二部分：从各个方面或者各个层次对问题进行反驳;
第三部分：指出问题存在根本原因、可能带来的后果、相应的改进措施、或者正确的看法和观点等。
例文：这类反证类的文章至今还没有在考研真题中出现过，但是考生应该对这种模式有所了解。
此外，考研阅读理解的文章一般都会有比较清晰的行文脉络，掌握这些规律也会有助于对文章整体的把握，甚至还可以帮助考生预见文章中可能会出现的观点和发展方向。
常见的行文脉络有以下几种：
一般--具体：文章开头先提出一个总的抽象的概念或者观点，接下来的各个段落具体说明第一段的观点，把抽象的概念具体化到一些事件上。
具体--一般：文章开头提出一个具体的问题或者事件，接下来几段从各个方面分别说明，最后一点进行总结并把观点抽象到一般的层面。
时间顺序：这种行文脉络出现在自然科学类的文章中比较多，一般通过时间先后顺序来说明某一种理论的发展或者某一项研究的进展程度。
对比：这类文章的主要目的目的在于对比两种观点、两个事物的共同点或者差异等。
