阅读过程中常见的几类“信号词”:
1.以下词组提示下文所涉及的重要信息:
The main / important point / conclusion / reason….
The point to note here…
2.以下词组提示了下文的结构框架:
There are three major reasons…
3.but 和 however表示对比,常常用来提示重要信息,例如:
The rising birth rate is not due to increased fertility, but to a sharp decline in the death rate.
4.在文中提问可以突出问题后的答案,提示读者答案中有重要信息,例如:
Why is a piped water supply so important? Disease due to contaminated water is a common cause of death in childhood.
5.有时,为了保证读者完全理解自己的观点,作者会在文中反复提出自己的观点,例如:
Death control can be achieved autonomously. In other words, the death rate can be cut without anything else changing.
6.文章的结论通常是非常重要的,因此,读者要在文中寻找提示结论的“信号词”,例如:
Thereforethe result
In conclusionwe can conclude
One of the primary conclusions
7.举例是为了帮助读者理解某一个观点,因此,文中的例子不是浏览文章时的重要信息。在阅读过程中,以下词组提示读者下文是举例部分信息。
For example/instancelike
Such asthese include
To illustrateamong these are
有时,作者也会用破折号或括号来提示举例信息,例如:
The developing countries are dependent on cash crops – sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton.
Precipitating/violent/unexpected factors are those which reduce the food supply (droughts, floods, wars, epidemics)…
在段落浏览时,读者在看到信号词后,应不断对下文信息作出相应的判断,例如:
The main reason for (提示:下文信息重要) the reduction in the death rate in the developing world has been improved public health measures. For example, (提示:下文信息不重要,仅仅是为了用来证明前面的观点) in Sri Lanka the death rate was halved over ten years by spraying the mosquitoes which carry malaria.
Why (提示:问题的答案中有读者应该关注的重点) is it so easy to cut the death rate in this way and yet so hard to reduce the birth rate? One answer (提示:这只是众多答案中的一种,并不是最重要的。) is that public health measures can be very cheap. Anti-malarial spraying is inexpensive. But this is not the important point (提示:but后面的是非常重要的信息).
For birth control programmes to be successful, a change in attitude is required, whereas death control can be achieved autonomously. In other words, (提示:这里是作者想要强调的重要信息) the death rate can be cut without anything else changing.
adj. 主要的,初期的,根本的,初等教育的