根据历年考研英语大纲规定可知，考查考生理解作者的意图、观点或态度。这种题型要求考生把握作者写作某篇文章的目的，搞清作者对文章所论述的观点和中心是什么态度。考研英语试卷对这一部分的考查主要表现为情感态度题。海文考研提醒大家，该题型常问作者对某事是什么态度：主观（subjective）还是客观（objective） ；肯定（positive）还是否定（negative） ；赞成（approval）还是反对（opposition）等等。解题的关键是要看作者在文中用了什么样的口气。若用褒义词，显然是赞成。若用贬义词，显然是反对。若客观陈述，则是中性的立场，不偏不倚。注意：作者态度常常在转折词后表明出来。所以，but一词至关重要（还有类似的yet， however， although，nevertheless等）。
这种题目对考生而言难度较大，迷惑性也较强，因为命题专家是针对整篇文章设问，考生很难找到具体对应的语言点，所以要把握整篇文章。例如作者在谈一件事时是用反讽的口气，还是赞成的语气，此类题所给的答案选项一般是四个形容词，考生应在审题时就把握好这四个形容词所表达的意思，然后返回文章去寻找信息。特别提醒考生要牢记所遇到的构成作者态度题选项的每一个形容词。做文章作者态度题时，千万不要把考生自己的态度揉进文章中，同时要注意区分作者本人的态度与作者引用的观点态度。
理解作者的意图、观点和态度是近几年考试的热点题目，考生在做此类题时要把握这样的判断原则：既纵观全文，掌握主题思想有要注意文章的措辞，把握文章的基调或主旨（tenor），又要分清文章的话语范围（field）及话语方式（mode）。
该题型常见的提问形式有：
1） The tone of the passage can best be described as ____
2） The tone of the passage would be _____
3） Which of the following best describes the tone of thepassage____
4） What is the attitude of the author towards____
5） How does the writer feel about______
6） The writer is of the opinion that_____
7） The author seems to be _____
情感和态度在考研中大致可分为三类：happy/unhappy；security/insecurity； satisfaction/dissatisfaction， 它们作为标记语反映出作者对某个现象采取的姿态，并从情感的角度评价该现象。因此，考生既要依靠文章的中心思想作为前提，又要注意作者的措辞，尤其是作为修饰语的形容词。
我们以2003年的阅读Text 4为例具体说明这一点：
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit.As a physician， I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffectiveand painful. I also know that people in Japanand Sweden，countries that spend far less on medical care， have achieved longer， healthierlives than we have. As a nation， we may be overfunding the quest for unlikelycures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improvepeople‘s lives.
59. In contras to the U.S.，Japan and Sweden are funding their medicalcare .
[A] more flexibly
[B] more extravagantly
[C] more cautiously
[D] more reasonably
作者用limits，ineffective， painful这些消极的词语暗示了美国医疗卫生系统的缺憾，通过把握这些词语，我们就能得出D为正确选项。所以我们对语言的理解是有一定差异的，又如尼克松签订1972年公报时，对“一个中国”原则，他手下的修辞专家用了acknowledge 而不用recognize.因为后者是正式的，外交的，打心底里的承认，而前者是一种模糊，对某种既成事实的有限度接受，但在中文里出现的就是我们理解的“承认”。
可见考生在平时的单词理解中要结合不同的语境，不同的文章体裁，综合地认知寓意，才能透彻地理解作者的意图。
另外，判断作者情感态度除了关注作者的措辞，还要可以通过关注作者的举例角度和讲解角度，来判断文章作者的态度倾向：如果作者的一直论述某事物的积极地向上的方面，其态度基本上是积极乐观的；如果作者举例论证某观点时，给的例子是正面的，那么我们同样可以判断作者的态度是积极乐观的；如果作者的论述有好有坏，举例有正面有反面，我基本上可以判断作者的态度是客观的。同样，我们通过具体的真题案例进一步解释这一点。
再例1997年第54题：
It was 3：45 in the morning when the vote was finallytaken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentarydebates， Australia‘s Northern Territorybecame the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the livesof incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincingvote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and waspicked up， half a world away， by John Hofsess， executive director of the Rightto Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s on-line service， DeathNET. Says Hofsess： “We posted bulletins all day long， because of course thisisn‘t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”
The full import may take awhile to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally IIIlaw has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral andpractical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief， others， includingchurches， right to life groups and the Australian Medical Association， bitterlyattacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely toturn back. In Australia—— where an aging population， life extending technology and changing communityattitudes have all played their part —— other states are going to considermaking a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the USand Canada，where the right to die movement is gathering strength， observers are waitingfor the dominoes to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law，an adult patient can request death —— probably by a deadly injection or pill ——to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill bytwo doctors. After a “cooling off” period of seven days， the patient can sign acertificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For LloydNickson， a 54 year old Darwinresident suffering from lung cancer， the NT Rights of Terminally III law meanshe can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering： aterrifying death from his breathing condition. “I‘m not afraid of dying from aspiritual point of view， but what I was afraid of was how I’d go， because I‘vewatched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at theirmasks，” he says.
54.The author‘s attitude towards euthanasiaseems to be that of ________.
[A]opposition
[B]suspicion
[C]approval
[D]indifference
我们通过阅读该文，不难发现文章首段记述了安乐死法案通过以及当时在全球引起的反响，首段作者使用“it is world history”，来表达他对该事件的态度，认为它意义重大；紧接着在第二段，作者首先讨论世人对此态度不一，但是作者通过转折，指出这个潮流不太可能被逆转了。第三段，作者用一个肺癌病人为例，该病人认为安乐死法案的通过意味着自己可以平静地度过最后的时光，不用担心临死前要遭受的折磨。很明显这个事例是认识安乐死法案的通过是一件好事。那么文章就作者的态度命题，答案肯定是approval.