方法实战：情态词与报告动词强度

唯一新困难：情态词与报告动词

claim, suggest, indicate, acknowledge, demonstrate 表示不同确信程度；may, likely, apparently 也限定结论。本课只训练把动词强度排列，并阻止选项把“提示”升级为“证明”。

自拟短文

Preliminary observations suggest that shorter meetings may increase the number of decisions made. They do not demonstrate that the decisions are better. The authors acknowledge that teams facing urgent deadlines may both shorten meetings and decide more quickly, which could explain part of the pattern.

题目：What do the observations establish?

A. Short meetings certainly improve decision quality.
B. A possible association exists between shorter meetings and more decisions.
C. Deadlines have no effect on meeting length.
D. Meeting length is the only cause of decision speed.

强度阶梯

原文是 preliminary + suggest + may，支持弱结论；又用 do not demonstrate 排除质量因果。B 使用 possible association，强度匹配。

A 把数量换成质量并升级为 certainly；C 与 deadline 替代解释冲突；D 删除替代解释并添加唯一因果。

报告动词表

speculate 近于提出可能；suggest/indicate 表证据指向；show 需看上下文；demonstrate 更强；acknowledge 常引出作者承认的限制。不能只翻中文，还要让选项语气匹配。

独立练习

把 The findings indicate X 改成不增大强度的表达。

**参考答案：**The findings provide evidence consistent with X. 不能改成 The findings prove X。

独立动作验收

圈出材料中四个限制强度的词，写出 B 为什么保持强度，再指出 A、D 各升级了哪一层。