如何读懂雅思文章(二)

　　在上一讲中，我们介绍了有效地找出段落主题句的重要性。那么具体怎样操作呢?

　　我们先来看一下主题句的特点：

　　² 内容：一般比较抽象概括

　　² 位置：一般出现在两个位置的可能性最大：每段话的开头和结尾。

　　通常而言，主题句就是一段话的第一句。后面的句子一般为支持性的细节，以解释、发展或是支持主题句所表现的主要论点。

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　　The recent string of corporate scandals provided a rude awakening to the importance of these internal checks. In the case of WorldCom, it was internal auditor Cynthia Cooper who blew the whistle on the company for inflating profits by $3.8 billion. She didn’t intend to be a hero, she said to Time magazine when it named her one of its Persons of the Year. She was just doing her job.

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　　Chief constables had disapproved of the use of league tables. They complained that they provoked unfair criticism because they did not compare like with like. Mr. Denham said the graphs were easier to comprehend than tables. “As people get familiar” with this type of graphical presentation they will realize it contains a lot of data that can be understood after an initial glance. “ The spidergrams are based on five indicators: reducing crime, investigation crime, public safety, deployment of resources and the view of a focus group of local citizens.

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　　有时候主题句也会出现在整段话的最后。这样的结构安排，通常出现在一个讨论困难的、不为大众所接受的话题或者文章的主要目的是为了说服读者接受某种结论的段落中。因为先把道理说清楚，那么读者就会比较容易接受新的观点和看法。

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　　If the wind becomes gusty after a period of calm, you should seek shelter. The sky needs careful watching too. Gradual darkening and “boiling” clouds should quicken your pace. Lightening and thunder are common enough storm indicators, but few people realize that the brightness of the lightening is not nearly as important as the number of lightning flashes. The signs of an oncoming storm are many, and a person’s life may depend on his ability to interpret them,

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　　主题句也可能在段落当中:

　　From one perspective, this huge customer base represents a hair-raising social liability. Surgical and hospital costs fro regular heart transplants run as high as $500,000. these procedures haven’t burdened the medical system so far – but only because the supply of transplantable hearts has been limited to about 2000 a year. Abiomed plans to price its heart between $75000 and $10000 initially, and with volume production, the price could fall as low as $10000. However, even at the lower price, artificial hearts are an issue that will lead into moral quicksands, says medical ethicist David Steinberg of the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. What happens, Steinberg muses, “if heart replacement – and intervention directly and visibly linked to who will live and who will die—becomes available only to those who can afford it?”

　　雅思阅读的题型一直是考生比较关注的问题，分析认为主要有以下两个原因：

　　1. 有相对简单和相对费时的题型;

　　2.每个考生都有自己擅长的和较害怕的题型。具体来说：对于词汇不足的考生可能最害怕段落标题匹配题及摘要归纳填空题;对于词汇量较大的考生来说，是非无判断题，段落标题匹配题和摘要归纳填空题可能是比较简单的。选择题和其它匹配题是相对来说比较费时的，所以大部分考生都很害怕这类题型。

　　那么，面对上面所提到的这些情况，考生应该在题型方面怎样备考呢?

　　首先，专家认为考生必须从心理上准备迎接所有的题型，在备考中要尽可能喜欢所有题型。有的考生会一次次地祈祷：“希望这次考试不要有选择题或段落细节信息定位题!”这样做，其实是无形中给自己制造了负面的影响。考试题型不是我们所能预料和控制的，一旦有了上述心理，很有可能一看到题型就慌了，一开始就没有一个好的状态。还有一部份考生喜欢跟着考题回忆和机经走，看到上次考了什么题就在备考中只关注那些题型。考题回忆和机经可以看看，但只能做参考，考生千万不要被它们所左右。否则就是自己给自己制造障碍。

　　其次，考生必须对各类题型的题型特点和答题注意事项了如指掌。雅思阅读考试时间之短，文章之学术性，题量之大，题型之多等特点决定了考生势必会感觉时间不够。考生要在有限的时间内答完所有的题并尽可能地保证较高的正确率确实不是一件容易的事情。考生除了要有一定的词汇量和阅读速度之外，常见的雅思阅读技巧和解题策略是必须的。而解题策略很多时候是建立在考生熟悉题型特点的基础之上的。比如说，考生拿到一篇文章绝不是从第1题接到13题，而是应该分析各组题型的特点和难易，由易到难。同样，考生也可以根据3篇各自的题型来初步判断哪一篇的题型可能对自己比较有利，那篇可能较难，以便能灵活地采取合适的策略。

　　最后，专家建议考生在考前进行练习时，不要光做套题，而应该偶尔穿插一些专题的练习，重点练习自己没什么把握的题型。注意练习时时间的掌控是很重要的，不要给自己30分钟完成6道是非无，那样不能达到训练的目的，不能保证良好的效果。