预测

　　在对付难文的阅读时，一定要善于在理解已知信息的基础上对随之可能出现的信息进行积极预测。预测时，应学会借助主题句、关联词语等篇章信息来提高预测的准确性。如，有一篇短文以这样一句开头：

　　Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindness. Yet…这里根据表示转折的关联词Yet，预测到下面可能出现的是主题句，又必然要否定本句中许多人的观点，即snowblindness(雪盲)可能由glare from snow以外的其它原因引起。原文紧接着的是：Yet，dark glasses or not，they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes，and even snowblindness，when exposed to several hours of “snow light”.

　　据此主题，我们可以比较有把握地预测到下文将着墨于引起“雪盲”的真正原因，原文如下：

　　The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather，a man’s eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing hour after hour，the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and more fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs，then is obscured，and the result is total，even though temporary，snowblindness.

　　但预测不一定总是正确，它需要在继续阅读中予以肯定、否定或修正。上例中下文的内容与预测相近，表示理解过程正确。如预测与下文不一致，则可能：①对前面内容的理解有偏差；②据以预测的那部分语言信息可能有多种不同理解，因而可据以作出多种不同的预测。

　　预测有顺向预测和逆向预测两种，上面提到的为顺向预测。所谓逆向预测，实为预测的一种特殊形式，应用于已知下文要推知上文的场合。阅读中积极运用顺向和逆向预测，除了上面谈到的能提高对文章的理解深度外，还可帮助我们读懂本来难以读懂的章节。

　　判断

　　在阅读中，我们有时需要对文章内容的正误作出判断，有时需要借助上下文对个别词语的大意作出判断，有时需要根据关联，对上下文进行预测性判断，有时需要在综合分析的基础上，通过判断得出结论，有时还需要对作者语气态度、思想倾向等等作出判断。判断贯穿于阅读的全过程，也渗透在各种阅读微技能中。例：

　　(1) 判断推测句中omnivorous一词的大意

　　She has a wide interest and is an omnivorous reader.

　　根据句中她“兴趣广”这一上文和被修饰的reader一词，可大概判断omnivorous具有“兴趣广、什么书都喜欢读”等含义。

　　(2) 根据前文，判断下文

　　Laziness is a sin, everyone knows that. Nevertheless…

　　A) laziness can actually be helpful

　　B) laziness is a sign of mental illness

　　C) laziness is immoral and wasteful

　　D) you must be careful when you see someone lazy

　　根据第一分句的语义倾向和Nevertheless一词，我们可得出这样的判断，即下文要谈的内容必然与之相反，即谈论Laziness也有其有利、肯定的一面，故A最有可能。

　　(3) 判断作者观点

　　Which of the following statements was written by someone who prefers small cars to large ones?

　　A) Their excellent gas mileage and even their improved interior design notwithstanding，today’s compact cars simply fail to provide the feel a traditional motorist yearns for.

　　B) They lack some of the size and even the character of the full-sized autos we were accustomed to; but today’s compacts more than make up for this with their excellent gas mileage.

　　本题要求我们对A、B中哪种观点赞成小汽车作出判断。A句中主句对小汽车予以否定，句首对小汽车的肯定性陈述又被notwithstanding一词否定。答案是B，第一分句讲到小汽车的缺陷：缺乏大汽车的空间和气派；第二分句则认为小汽车的紧凑及其优秀的低耗油特征能远远弥补上述不足，前面以转折连词将作者观点转向第二分句。

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