与掌握所读材料的主旨和大意类似，领会作者的观点、意图和态度也是阅读理解题中较难解答的问题。回答这类题首先要在阅读过程中注意体会和觉察作者的观点、意图和态度。这种信息有时是直接表达的，但更多的是间接、含蓄的流露。不过，作者的这种主观情感和态度往往和全文的主题和要点相关联。所以，在根据主题和主旨的同时，应注意揣测作者的观点、意图和态度。
下面是这类题的一些常用的提问方式：
1. The author's main purpose in this passage is
2. The author's purpose of writing this passage is __
3. In this passage the author's attitude toward ...could best be described as
4. What is the author's attitude toward
5. The author's main thought is that __
6. The author probably feels that
7. The author appears to feel that
8. Which of the following does the author want to illustrate in discussing ...?
9. In this passage the author looks on ... with an attitude of
10. What is the tone of the passage?
11. What is the author's opinion about ...?
12. The author uses the example of... to show that ________
例1
I entered the hotel manager’s office and sat down. I had just lost £50 and I felt very upset. "I left the money in my room," I said, "and it's not there now." The manager was sympathetic, but he could do nothing. "Everyone's losing money these days." he said. He started to complain about this wicked world but was interrupted by a knock at the door. A girl came in and put an envelope on his desk. It contained £50. "I found this outside this gentleman's room." she said. "Well, "I said to the manager, "there is still some honesty in this world!"
1. What did the writer believe had happened to his money?
A. He had left his money in the manager's office.
B. Someone had stolen his money.
C. The manager had the money.
D. The girl had stolen the money.
作者说：“I left the money in my room，and it’s not there now”，这句话的含义就是 “He believed that someone had stolen his money”。因此，选项B是正确答案。
例2
We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!
Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.
In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.
Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encour~/ge our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to attain this goal.
1. In the passage the author's attitude towards "mixed-ability teaching" is ________
A. critical B. questioning
C. approving D. objective
本题考核学生是否读懂作者对混合编班的态度。要回答该问题，首先要清楚四个选项的不同含义。选项A表示作者持“批评的”态度，选项B表示作者持“怀疑的”态度，选项C表示作者持“赞同的”态度，选项D表示作者持“客观的”态度。根据文章的第一段内容，可以看出作者是持“赞同的”态度，所用的人称代词也是we，因此答案是选项C。如果是持“客观的”态度的话，则人称代词不会用we。
2. The author argues that a teacher's chief concern should be the development of the student's _______.
A. personal qualities and social skills
B. total personality
C. learning ability and communicative skills
D. intellectual ability
本题要求根据文章的意思推测作者的观点。根据第二段的内容，可以看出学生的total personality(总体素质)包括了academic ability or intellectual ability, personal qualities和 social skills。也就是说这些能力都是total personality的方方面面。再看一下这一段的第二；三两句，可以得出正确的答案应该是选项8。其他几个选项的意思都不全面，都不能反映作者的充分开发学生的全面能力的主张。
3. The author’s purpose of writing this passage is to______.
A. argue for teaching bright and not—SO-bright pupils in the same class
B. recommend pair work and group work for classroom activities
C. offer advice on the proper use of the library
D. emphasize the importance of appropriate formal classroom teaching
本题要求读者了解作者写这篇文章的意图是什么。文章讨论了两种上课的方式： streaming pupils把学生按能力分班进行教学，和mixed—ability teaching把程度不齐的学生混班上课。并对比列举了前者的弊端和后者的种种优点。因此A项是正确的答案。而选项B、c、D中提到的几种做法均为mixed．ability teachin9的具体做法，都不能看做是作者写这篇文章的目的。这个题目要看懂全文才能够答对。