蔣千千

找出主題句是最有效的辦法。一篇文章（或一段文章）通常都是圍繞一個中心意思展開的，而這個中心意思往往由一個句子來概括。這個能概括文章或段落中心意思的句子叫主題句。因此，要理解一個段落或一篇文章的中心意思，首先須學(xué)會尋找主題句。

（1）主題句在段首或篇首。一般新聞報道、說明文、議論文大都采用先總述，后分述的敘事方法。如：

All living things on the earth need other living things to live. Nothing lives alone. Most animals must live in a group，and even a plant grows close together with others of the same kind. Sometimes one living thing kills another，one eats and the other is eaten. Each kind of life eats another kind of life in order to live，and together they form a food chain（食物鏈）. Some food chains become broken up if one of the links disappears.

【分析】 第一句即是主題句。這個句子概括了本段的中心意思：地球上所有的生物要生存都離不開其他的生物。后面講述了大量的事實(shí)之后，作者指出：如果這些食物鏈中的一個鏈環(huán)消失，所有的食物鏈都會斷掉。所有這些事實(shí)都是圍繞第一個句子展開的。

（2）主題句在段末或篇末。用歸納法寫文章時，往往表述細(xì)節(jié)的句子在前，概述性的句子在后，并以此結(jié)尾。這種位于段末或篇末的主題句，往往是對前面細(xì)節(jié)的歸納總結(jié)或者是所得出的結(jié)論。如：

If you buy some well-made clothes，you can save money because they can last longer. They look good even after they have been washed many times. Sometimes some clothes cost more money，but it does not mean that they are always better made，or they always fit better. In other words，some less expensive clothes look and fit better than more expensive clothes.

【分析】 這個段落前面列舉了兩個事實(shí)，最后一句是對這兩個事實(shí)的概括：有些價錢便宜的衣服比價錢貴的衣服更好看，更合身。段末這個句子就是主題句。

詞匯是閱讀理解的基礎(chǔ)。我們必須掌握教材中所學(xué)的單詞和詞組，了解構(gòu)詞法知識。如熟記一些常見的前綴、后綴以及詞語的合成和轉(zhuǎn)化等，并且要進(jìn)行大量的課外閱讀增加自己的詞匯量。要閱讀需要一定的詞匯量，大量閱讀不僅可以復(fù)習(xí)學(xué)過的詞匯，還可增加自己的詞匯量。盡管如此，在閱讀中還是不可避免會遇到生詞或者熟詞生義，在英語閱讀理解試題中猜測詞義也是必不可少的題目。因此，我們必須學(xué)會如何猜測詞義。任何一個詞語，在一定的上下文中只能表示一個確定的詞義。據(jù)此，我們可以盡可能地利用上下文來猜測詞義，即從已知推求未知，也就是用我們所熟悉的詞或短語，來猜測我們不熟悉的詞的詞義。我們可以從以下幾個方面來猜測詞義：

（1）根據(jù)定義或解釋猜測詞義。如：

A bag is useful and the word “bag” is also useful. It gives us some interesting phrases （短語）. One is “to let the cat out of the bag”. It is the same as “to tell a secret”....

Now when someone lets out （泄漏） a secret，he “l(fā)ets the cat out of the bag.”

John “l(fā)ets the cat out of the bag” means he ______.

A. makes everyone know a secret

B. tells the woman about a cat

C. buys a cat in the bag

D. sells the cat in the bag

【分析】 在這篇文章里，“l(fā)et the cat out of the bag”雖然是一個新出現(xiàn)的短語，但緊接著后面就給出解釋It is the same as “to tell a secret”。根據(jù)這一解釋，我們就可判斷出正確答案應(yīng)為A。

（2）根據(jù)情景和邏輯進(jìn)行判斷。如：

As they go around town，the police help people. Sometimes they find lost children. They take the children home. If the police see a fight，they put an end to it right away. Sometimes people will ask the police how to get to a place in town. The police can always tell the people which way to go. They know all the streets and roads well.

In the text，“put an end to” means “______”.

A. stop B. cut

C. kill D. fly

【分析】 根據(jù)文章所提供的情景，如果警察看到有人在打架，他們肯定會去制止。因?yàn)橹浦勾蚣芏窔蔷斓穆氊?zé)。根據(jù)這一推理，答案應(yīng)該是A。

（3）根據(jù)并列、同位關(guān)系猜測詞義。如：

There is a place on our earth where hot water and steam come up under the ground. It is on a large island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is North Island in New Zealand.

What does the word “steam” mean in Chinese？

A. 自來水 B. 大氣

C. 冰川 D. 蒸汽

【分析】 從語法上看，steam和hot water是并列關(guān)系，我們就可以斷定這兩種東西是相關(guān)的，是同一類物質(zhì)。在所給第四個選項(xiàng)中只有“蒸汽”有這種可能。

（4）根據(jù)背景和常識判斷。如：

The following morning when I went to see how my captive （caged） bird was doing，I discovered it on the floor of the cage，dead. I was terribly surprised！ What had happened！ I had taken extremely care of my little bird. Arthur Wayne，the famous ornithologist，who happened to be visiting my father at the time，hearing me crying over the death of my bird，explained what had happened. “A mother mockingbird，finding her young in a cage，will sometimes bring it poison berries （毒莓）. She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in captivity.”

An ornithologist is probably a person who ______.

A. studies birds

B. loves creatures

C. majors in habits

D. takes care of trees

【分析】 Ornithologist 這個詞從來沒有見到過，但是通過他的語言我們可以判斷出這是一個對鳥很有研究的人?！拔摇焙軔埒B，把鳥關(guān)在籠子里，并細(xì)心照料，而且鳥的母親也飛過來喂這只鳥，但這只鳥卻死了，“我”很不理解。到“我”家來的這個人給“我”詳細(xì)解釋了鳥死亡的原因，說明這個人非常懂鳥。據(jù)此，我們可以斷定答案是A。

事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題相對來說是比較容易的。這類題主要考查考生對文章事實(shí)和細(xì)節(jié)的掌握是否正確。在閱讀文章時，除了要抓住文章的主旨大意之外，還應(yīng)該弄清楚文中的一些重要事實(shí)或細(xì)節(jié)，因?yàn)樗鼈兪亲髡叩贸鼋Y(jié)論或闡明論點(diǎn)的依據(jù)。了解這些事實(shí)或細(xì)節(jié)，有助于領(lǐng)會并確定文章的主題思想。對于這種題型，考生可以首先在題目中找到關(guān)鍵詞，然后以此為線索，運(yùn)用查讀的方法到文章中尋找這一細(xì)節(jié)，找到后再把這一部分內(nèi)容仔細(xì)閱讀一遍，從而保證對這一細(xì)節(jié)的正確理解，最后確定最佳答案。

Last Sunday afternoon，I was having dinner in a restaurant when my friend Poor came in. Poor is working in a bank and is quite rich，but he is always borrowing money from his friends and never pays it back. Poor saw me and came to sit at my table. He had never borrowed any money from me. When he was eating，I asked him to lend me two dollars. To my surprise，he gave me the money at once. “I have never borrowed any money from you，” Poor said. “So you can pay for my dinner.”

1. The story happened ______.

A. at home B. in a restaurant

C. in a bank D. in an office

2. Poor is the name of a man and the writer ______.

A. knows him well

B. doesnt know him

C. often lends him some money

D. often borrows money from him

3. Poor is a ______ man.

A. busy B. clever

C. rich D. poor

4. Why was Poor glad to lend the writer two dollars？

A. Because they are brothers.

B. Because Poor is rich.

C. Because the writer is rich.

D. Because Poor wanted the writer to pay for the dinner.

【分析】 這四道題均為事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。第1題選B，由第1句I was having dinner in a restaurant可知。第2題選A，由my friend Poor和下文可知作者對Poor很了解。第3題選C，由第2句Poor...is quite rich可知。第4題選D，由短文末句Poor所說的話可知。

這類題目要求考生根據(jù)所讀材料進(jìn)行一定的推理、判斷和引申，領(lǐng)會作者的觀點(diǎn)、意圖和態(tài)度。一篇文章往往包含字面含義和內(nèi)在含義。內(nèi)在含義指的是由于某種原因，文章的作者不直接說出其意，而是把要表達(dá)的意思隱藏在字里行間。推理判斷題就是要求考生依據(jù)文章所提供的事實(shí)，透過表面的文字信息去推測文章深層的內(nèi)在含義。這類題目難度較大，既有以局部內(nèi)容為基礎(chǔ)的簡單推理，也有以某一段落甚至整篇文章為基礎(chǔ)，判斷作者（或文中某人物）的態(tài)度、觀點(diǎn)、意圖、語氣、身份及文章文體等的復(fù)雜推理。解答此類題須從以下幾方面入手：

（1）根據(jù)已知的知識來推理判斷。解題時應(yīng)結(jié)合運(yùn)用一些已知的知識，如天文、地理、文學(xué)、藝術(shù)、醫(yī)學(xué)、科技等自然科學(xué)和社會科學(xué)知識，以提高推理的準(zhǔn)確性。

（2）根據(jù)常識來推理判斷。解題時，除了弄清大意外，還須借助各方面的常識進(jìn)行判斷，如生活常識、風(fēng)土人情、傳說故事等。

（3）根據(jù)故事情節(jié)來推理判斷。解題時，應(yīng)從故事情節(jié)提供的事實(shí)出發(fā)，充分利用文中的時間關(guān)系、條件關(guān)系、因果關(guān)系、比較關(guān)系、轉(zhuǎn)折關(guān)系等作為推理根據(jù)。

（4）根據(jù)所給選項(xiàng)進(jìn)行反推。有些題目利用反推法往往很有效。假設(shè)某一選擇為正確答案，那么要得出這樣的結(jié)論需要什么樣的條件，文章中是否有這樣的條件。如果文章恰好有符合要求的條件，那么那個選項(xiàng)就是供選答案。

（5）根據(jù)事實(shí)來推理判斷。這種推斷常常針對某一個或幾個具體細(xì)節(jié)，是比較簡單的推斷。進(jìn)行這種推斷，要首先在文章中找出相關(guān)的信息，然后加以分析，尤其要悟出字里行間的意思。如：

Finally，little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise，little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity （好奇心） . She went to his room and asked，“Son，what was it？ Was it the nuns （修女）？”

Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head，“No.”

“Well then，” she asked again，“What was it？”

Little Tommy looked at her and said，“Well，on the first day of school，when I saw that man nailed （釘） to the plus sign （加號），I knew they werent joking.”

The last sentence in the passage shows that ______.

A. Tommy felt sorry for the mail

B. Tommy was afraid of being nailed

C. Tommy didnt like the plus sign

D. Tommy liked playing jokes on others

【分析】 通過閱讀這一段文字內(nèi)容，可知這里講述Tommy的媽媽對Tommy的數(shù)學(xué)成績得到A后的異常表現(xiàn)感到很好奇，于是就問Tommy其中的原因。而文章的最后一句話，其字面意思為“Tommy在上學(xué)的第一天就看到了一個被釘在加號上的人，從此他就覺得學(xué)校里的人不是在開玩笑”。因此根據(jù)文段內(nèi)容，再經(jīng)過邏輯推理，可得出這句話反映了Tommy覺得如果數(shù)學(xué)成績不好，就會像那個人一樣被釘在加號上，所以答案應(yīng)選B。

（編輯 陳根花）