第五讲:篇章阅读
第一讲:4种形式考查对主旨大意的把握
把握文章的主旨大意(main idea),有一个重要的前提就是要通过略读了解文章的主题(subject)和行文的结构(structure)。常见的英语文章有四种结构:
①一般特殊型或演绎型。其结构模式是“总论+分论(分论1+分论2……)”,遵循从观点到材料、从抽象到具体的逻辑法则,各段主题句多位于段落开头。
②问题解决型。其结构模式为“陈述背景+提出问题+解决问题+适当评价或分析”,有时会舍去背景或分析的部分。
③匹配型。其段落发展主线为两种事物之间的对比,可以是两种事物相应特点之间的对比,也可以是先介绍一个事物,再接着介绍另一个事物。
④辩论型或劝说型。一般是提出一个普遍认可的或别人认可的观点,然后进行澄清,说明自己的观点和主张。
在阅读过程中,学习者如果能够把握文章的主题和行文结构,就能比较容易地对下文做出预测,从而快速而准确地把握文章的主旨。
1 文章/段落的主题
解题技巧1
在文章的开头、结尾或中间寻找主题句。文章或段落的主题常以主题句的形式出现在文章或段落的开头或结尾。在多数演绎类的说明文或议论文中,作者往往开门见山点出主题,然后加以说明,在这种文章中,主题句可以在段落或文章的开头找。在归纳性文章中主题句可能出现在最后一段或最后一句。
解题技巧2
如果文章中没有出现主题句,可通过两种方法概括主旨
①先归纳带有论点段落的要点,得出段落主旨,然后综合要点概括推断全文主旨;
②查找文中反复出现的实词,并注意总结这些实词周围的词的特点,推断主题
练习一
Educating girls quite possibly yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Women’s deucation may be unusual territory ofr economists, but enhancing women’s contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics, with its emphasis on incentives, provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived of an education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school — the prophecy become self-fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it muchi more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle.
Few will dispute that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantage as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 percent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.
Q: The passage mainly discussed __________.
A. unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries.
B. the major contributions of educated women to society
C. the economic and social benefits of educating women
D. the potential earning power of well-educated womoen
练习二
Most episodes of absent-mindedness—forgetting where you left something of wondering shy you just entered a room— are coused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remenmber something, but you haven’t encoded it deeply.”
Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did becaouse you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your wardrobe. “Your memory itself isn’t failing you,” says Schacter. “ Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”
Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. “A man who can recie sprots statistics from 30 years ago,” says Zelinski, “may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.” Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly becouse they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on just that.
Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. “But be sure the cue is clear and available,” he cautions .If you want to remember to take a medication with lunch,put the pill bottle on the kitchien table — don’t leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.
Another common episode of absent-mindedness:walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time,” says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.
Q: What is the passage mainly about?
A. The process of gradual memory loss.
B. The causes of absent-mindedness.
C. The impact of the environment on memory.
D. A way if encoding and recalling.
【解析】1
选C。第一段中作者就说在发展中国家对女性开展教育的回报绿高。中间两段对没有受过教育和受过教育的女性对家庭的影响进行对比。最后一段第一句总结说,女性受教育会带来极大的社会效益,第二句又指出会带来巨大的经济效益。本文的主题在最后一段的这两句话中得到了完全体现。
【解析】2
选B。第一段的首句说造成心不在焉的最主要原因是lack of attention。第二段说明心不在焉的机理。第三段首句说心不在焉还有另一种原因。最后两段分别介绍了防止心不在焉现象发生的方法以及发生后补救的方法。所以文章的主要内容应该是造成心不在焉的原因。
adj. 不平常的,异常的