与做阅读理解题一样，做完形填空题，首先要弄清短文的主旨，而找准主题句则是重中之重。一般来说，主题句通常位于段落的开头或结尾，也有少数放在段落中间，还有的则需要考生自己归纳。下面分别举例说明。

　　1.主题句在段首

　　Rather than a punishment or a burden,work is the opportunity to realize one's potential.Many psychiatrists heading mental health clinics have observed its healing effect.A good many patients who feel depressed in clinics gain renewed self-confidence when gainfully employed and lose some,if not all,of their most acute symptoms.Increasingly, institutions dealing with mental health problems are establishing workshops where those sick to get a job on"outside"industry can work,while every effect is exerted to arrange"real"jobs for those well enough to work outside.

　　2.主题句在段尾

　　Albert Einstein,one of the world's geniuses,failed his university entrance examination on his first attempt.William Faulkner,one of American's noted writers,never finished college because he could not pass his English courses.Sir Winston Churchill,who is considered one of the masters of the English language,had to have special tutoring in English during elementary school.These few examples show that failure in school does not always predict failure in life.

　　3.主题句在段中

　　Discoveries in science and techno- logy are thought by"untaught minds"to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents.Sir Alexander Fleming did not,as legend would have it,look at the mold on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then.He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery.Inventions and innovations almost come out of laborious trial and error.Innovation is like soccer,even the players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.

　　4.概括出的主题句

　　Having no language,infants cannot be told what they need to learn.Yet by the age of three they will have mastered the basic structure of their language and will be well on their way to communicative competence. Acquiring their language is a most impressive intellectual feat.Studies of how children learn language generally agree that the most remarkable aspect of this feat is the rapid acquisition of gram- mar.Nevertheless, the ability of children to conform to grammatical rules is only slightly more wonderful than their ability to learn words.It has been reckoned that the average high school graduate in the United States has a reading vocabulary of 80,000 words,which includes idiomatic expressions and proper names of people and places.This vocabulary must have been learned over a period of 16 years. From the figures,it can be calculated that the average child learns at a rate of about 13 new words per day.Clearly a learning process of great complexity goes on at a rapid rate in children.

　　此段落没有明显的主题句，需要考生通过阅读，对文中细节进行归纳总结，推理出主题句：It mainly talks about the methods,characteristics and procedures of language learning of children.

　　(文/山东临沂邢驰鸿;英语辅导报大学一年级版03~04学年第15期;版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)