根据命题要求阅读理解考题可分为5类:1. 主旨题;2. 细节题;3. 词汇题;4. 推断题;5. 是非判断题。其中细节题所占比例最大,其次为主旨题、推断题、语义题。是非题判断题视具体情况可列入细节题或推断题类,我们在此就不作专题介绍了。需要特别提醒大家的是:不同的题型应采用不同的阅读方法技巧和解题思路。
1. 主旨大意题
这类考题旨在考查考生对文章主旨大意的理解和概括归纳能力。考题中往往出现下列词汇:subject, topic, theme, title, main idea, purpose等等,这类考题的设问特点可以大致归纳为以下几个
方面:
1.就文章的写作目的,或人物或事件提问;
2.就文章的标题提问;
3. 就全文或某段的中心思想或主题提问。
这类题的提问主要有以下几种:
1.What is mainly discussed in this passage?
2.What is the author’s main concern?
3.The main idea of this passage maybe best expressed as__________.
4.The selection informs us that_________.
5. Which sentence contains a statement of the theme?
6.The best title for this passage could be ___________.
7.The article was written to explain ___________.
8.The main purpose of this article is to explain __________.
9.In this passage the author tries to interpret ___________.
10.The topic of the passage is _________.
11.The passage (or paragraph) mainly deals with _________.
在阅读时应该注意文章的主旨句和每段的主题句。文章的中心思想往往是每段的主题句的综合。另外,干扰选项的特点多是以偏概全,只说到文中的某一点而不能全面概括文章的中心思想,或是范围太大,超出了文章的中心内容。所以在做主旨题时,我们先可以略读,找出每段的主题句,然后将主题句综合起来就是文章的中心思想。在选择答案时,根据自己总结的大意,就可以用排除法将干扰选项剔除。请看下面几例。
主旨大意题例1
主题句:It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and/or heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide.
问题:This passage is primarily concerned with______.
A. the greenhouse effect
B. the burning of fossil fuels
C. the potential effect of air pollution
D. the likelihood of a new ice age
主题句的大意是:人们曾认为空气污染仅限于大城市周围,因为这些地方工厂密集,交通拥挤。如今我们知道,虽然这些地方空气污染最厉害,但空气污染实际上是全球范围的。选项A:温室效应;选项B:燃烧化石燃料;选项C:空气污染的潜在影响;选项D:新冰河时期的可能性。通过对主题句的理解,我们可选定正确答案为C。
大意题例 2
主题句:The media can impact current events.
问题:The best title for the passage is ______.
A. The 1992 Los Angeles Riots
B. The Impact of Media on Current Events
C. The 1989 San Francisco Earthquake and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots
D. How Media Cover Events
主题句的大意是:媒介可以影响时事。选项A和C均与主题无关;选项B:媒介对时事的影响;选项D:媒介是怎样报道事件的。找准了主题句,我们就可选定正确答案为B.
2. 细节题
文章的作者往往要用具体事实和细节来证明、分析、解释中心思想、段落大义等主旨。细节题测试考生对文中事实和有关细节的理解程度。考生应特别注意有关who, when, where, what, whose, how why 等问题的内容。细节题的常见题干有:
1. What causes……?
2. What is special about …?
3. Why does the writer …. ?
4. It can be seen from this passage that…. . ?
5. Which of the following characterizes …. . ?
6. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?
7. Which of the following statement is (NOT) true?
8. The writer mentions all of the following EXCEPT ______.
9. According to the passage who (when, where, what, whose, how)…
10. The reason for … is ________.
11. …. can be attributed to _________.
12. …. in that _________.
13. What does the example of …. illustrate?
14. The example of …in the passage is used to _______.
15. The author state that_______.
16. The author quotes …. in paragraph x because _______.
这类题的题干和正确答案在含义上通常相等于原文中某部分内容,但通常表达方式不同。如:使用不同的语态句式,同义词,反义词(或词组)。也有的细节题需要在理解相关原文内容的基础上做出简单推理和计算。文中的具体事实和细节不是孤立存在的而是前后呼应,相辅相成的。这类考题在试卷中所占比例最大,其出题顺序一般和文章内容的先后顺序一致。干扰选项往往使用原文中的一些表达方式,但其陈述与原文不符或部分不符,或虽与大众常识、流行观点一致,但却与作者观点或原文内容相悖或原文根本未提及。
在一般情况下,阅读考试中遇到细节题应先通读或略读全文,了解全文和各段的主旨大意,然后再做题。要先看清考题的题干,特别注意其关键词“Where? When? Which? Who?”,然后找到相应段落,进而找出相应陈述,仔细阅读,并根据上下文思索其真实含义。最后是比较选项,排除干扰项,选择正确答案。
细节题例1
原文:As the heat increases, the young hurricane begins to swirl in a counter-clockwise motion.
The counter-clockwise swirling of the hurricane is brought about by ______.
A. the low-pressure area in the center of the storm
B. the force of waves of water
C. the trade winds
D. the increasing heat
根据原文的As the heat increases,我们知道正确答案为D:反时针方向的旋涡是因为热度加大而造成的。
细节题例 2
原文:In a barter economy it would be necessary to determine how many plates were worth one hundred weight of cotton, or how many pens should be exchanged for a ton of coal, which would be a difficult and time-consuming task.
A barter economy is one in which ___.
A. value is decided by weight
B. value is decided by number
C. goods are exchanged and money is not used
D. money is used and goods are not exchanged
根据原文的上下文,我们可猜测出barter economy就是“物物交换经济”,由此可知正确答案为C:货物被交换,而不是用货币。
3. 词汇题
此类题旨在考查考生对某些关键词语或句子在特定的语境中含义的理解能力;通过上下文或构词法猜测判断某些超纲词汇或表达方式的意义的能力。因此考生所掌握的词汇量的大小直接影响这一类题的得分率。这类考题的正确答案往往是相应词语的同义词语,或是对相应语句的解释、复述或概括。其余三个选项,往往是对原相应表达方式的不正确的改写,或故意丢三拉四,或半对半错,或曲解原意。这些干扰项有时会使用较多的原句中的表达方式,给人似是而非的误导。
语义题的常见出题形式有:
1.The phrase……. in paragraph X most probably means__________.
2.1The word ……in Line X Paragraph Y can be best replaced by ____________.
3.According to the author, the word …… means___________.
4.The sentence ……. . in paragraph X refers to__________.
5.According to this passage, the expression…… can be interpreted as___________.
6.What does the author probably mean by …… in the first paragraph?
7.The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that _________.
8.From the last sentence of the first paragraph we learn that ________.
词汇题例1
原文:A typical hurricane brings 6 to 12-inch downpours resulting in sudden floods.
Apparently the word "downpour" in the last paragraph means _____.
A. heavy rainfall B. dangerous waves
C. the progress of water to the hurricane center D. the energy produced by the hurricane
根据上下文brings 6 to 12-inch….resulting in sudden floods可知道此处的downpour为倾盆大雨,因此正确答案为A。
词汇题例2
原文:Therefore, they are continually discontented. By their remarks, they sour the pleasures of society, offend many people, and make themselves disagreeable everywhere.
The phrase “sour the pleasures of society” most nearly means _____.
A. have a good taste to the pleasures of society
B. aren’t content with the pleasures of society
C. feel happy with the pleasures of society
D. enjoy the pleasures of society
根据下文的offend many people, and make themselves disagreeable我们知道sour一词在此处为贬意词,因此可选择B:对社会的愉悦感到不满意。
词汇题例 3
原文: There are no large worthwhile reserves of potential farmland remaining, and good fertile land is continually being changed into industrial use. Moreover, erosion of the soil takes a constant toll.
“Erosion” in the last sentence of the second paragraph probably means _____.
A. “washing away” B. “taking away”
C. “digging up” D. “picking up”
根据上下文可知erosion为“侵蚀”之意,所以正确答案为A.
解词汇题除了需要扎实的词汇基本功之外,前一节中所讲的利用上下文、利用构词法、利用语法知识、根据同/反义关系、利用逻辑/常识猜测词义都不失为解题的好办法。尤其是上下文和构词法,这两个方法是解词汇题的最常用的法宝。
请看下面这段文字:
The vertebrates can be divided into five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
FISH. These live in water. Most of them have a body covered in scales. They breathe with gills in the neck and their shape is often pointed so that they can move easily through the water. The tail is flattened from side to side to push against the water as they swim. Most fish lay eggs and do not look after their young.
AMPHIBIANS. These can live on land or in the water. Their bodies are often smooth and their skin is damp. They breathe with lungs or through their skins but some also breathe with their mouth. They have two pairs of limbs and lay their eggs in water. These eggs hatch to produce a larva or tadpole which looks very different from the parents. The tadpole grows and then changes to look like the parent.
REPTILES. These live on land or in the water. Their bodies are covered with scales. They breathe with lungs and have two pairs of legs (except the snakes and some lizards). They lay their eggs in warm places on land and the eggs hatch to produce a small animal just like the parent.
BIRDS. These live on land. Some can swim on the water. A few, like the penguin and puffin, can also swim under water. Their bodies are covered with feathers. Birds breathe with lungs and have two pairs of limbs. The front limbs are the wings used for flying. They lay eggs and keep them warm with their bodies until they hatch. Then they look after the young chicks until they can fend for themselves.
MAMMALS. This group includes Man. Mammals can live on land or in the water. The whale and the dolphin live in the sea. The bats have wings and can fly. All mammals breathe with lungs and often have bodies covered with hair. They have two pairs of limbs. They produce live young (there are two exceptions: the duck— billed platypus and the spiny ant-eater, who both lay eggs) and feed them with milk that the mother makes in her special glands. The parent animals look after their young until they are old enough to look after themselves.
其中的斜体字词语vertebrates脊椎动物, amphibians两栖动物, reptiles爬行动物, mammals哺乳动物, scales鳞, gills鳃, flattened扁平的, larva幼虫, tadpole蝌蚪, lizards蜥蜴, penguin 企鹅,puffin海雀, chicks雏鸟, fend照料, dolphin海豚, platypus鸭嘴兽, ant-eater食蚁兽, glands 腺等,都是超纲词和专业术语,但通过上下文,我们都能理解其大致意思。
另外,掌握一些必要的词根、词缀,对词加深的理解,扩大词汇量都大有裨益。下面是常用的一些英语词根及其例词,考生不妨接着往后面补充添加自己所熟悉的例词。
ambula = walk例词:ambulance; ambulant
ann=year 例词:annual; anniversary
audi = hearing 例词:audience; audible
auto = self 例词:automation; autobiography;
bio=life 例词: biology; biography
capit=head 例词:capital; decapitate
ced, cess = go; move 例词:unprecedented; process
chron=time 例词:chronology; synchronal
cide = kill; cut 例词:suicide; bactericide
confid= trust 例词: confide; confidential
cred = trust; belief 例词:credit; credulous
cur = run; move 例词:current; incursion
dic/dict = say; speak 例词:indicate; dictate
duce/duct = lead; take 例词:introduce; conduct
equ = same; equal 例词:equality; equator
fact = make; do例词:manufacture; factory
fer = carry; bring 例词:ferry; transfer
frag = break 例词:fragile, fragment
gen = produce 例词:genetics; generate
ject= throw 例词:eject; injection
mit/miss = send 例词:emit; vomit
port = carry 例词:porter; passport
pose = put; place 例词:propose; dispose
simil = like 例词:similarity; simile, similar
spec(t) = see; look at 例词:inspect; expect; retrospect
tarn = hold 例词:maintain, attain, retain
tract = draw 例词:attract; tractor; distract
vent = come 例词:advent; convent; contravention
vert /vers = turn 例词:version; convert; subvert
vid /vis=see 例词:visit; vision; invisible
volv = roll 例词:evolve; revolution
4. 正误判断题
正误判断题常用提问方式
1. Which of the following statements is (not) true?
2. Which of the following is (not) mentioned in the article?
3. Which of the following does not explain. . . ?
4. Which of the following statements is wrong according to the author?
5. Which of the following is not listed as . . . ?
6. All of the following fire true except. . .
7. The author mentions al 1 Of the items listed below except. . .
8. The author(passage)does not tell us . . .
正误判断题答题策略
1 正确理解4个判断选项,分辨出其间的差异;
2 确定各个判断句在原文中的大致位置,将其与原文进行比较;
3 避免以偏概全,同样也须避免极端;
4 最后对照原文通过比较鉴别,选出正确答案。
正误判断例1
原文:In addition to genetics, they say, intelligence depends on an adequate diet, a good home environment, parental attention, and education
Which of the following statements is not true?
A. The whole world is raced with the problem of the increasing population.
B. Some scientists argued that birth control can affect the level of intelligence.
C. Genetics is one of the main factors to intelligence.
D. Food, family attention and education have nothing to do with intelligence.
对照原文,通过比较鉴别,我们可知正确答案为C:遗传基因是影响智力的主要原因之一。
A和B与原文无关,D太极端,因此只有C符合题意。
正误判断例2
原文:Hydroponics was once a complicated and expensive business, now it is well out of the experimental stage.
Which of the following statements is not true of hydroponics?
A. Hydroponics is still too complicated and expensive for practical use.
B. Hydroponics is considered a revolutionary method of agriculture.
C. Hydroponics has created wonders in agriculture.
D. Hydroponics has already been employed in food production.
根据now it is well out of the experimental stage早就走出了试验阶段,可知正确答案为D:水栽法已经用于食物生产。
5. 推断、引申题
在一篇文章中,作者有时没有将某一个问题、观点直接或正面陈述出来,而是隐含在字里行间,这就要求考生对所隐含的意义作推断。这类考题要求考生在深刻理解原文的基础上从正面或反面进行推理和判断下述东西:作者的写作意图或思路、观点倾向、文章来源、文章标题、上文或下文应涉及内容或主题,某些数字或细节等。在做这种题型的过程中,除了需要考生准确、透彻地理解原文外,还要求考生有一定的推理能力。推断题的题干中常见词语包括:imply, suggest, infer, conclude, infer, author’s point of view等;
这类题常见的题干有:
1 The first sentence of paragraph 3 implies that ___________________.
2. From the last paragraph we can infer that_______________________.
3. The passage suggests that_______________________-.
4. The paragraph following the last paragraph of this passage would most likely deal with_____________________.
5. What is the author’s attitude toward the future of ______________________?
6. The author’s attitude towards the issue seems to be ____.
7. The author’s attitude towards the issue of “…” is ______.
8. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.
9. The author implies that ______.
10. It can be concluded that _____等等。
推断、引申题1
原文:Do you forget to turn off die lights and heaters when you go out of a room? In 2040 it will not matter. They will turn themselves off—and on again when you return.
The author intends to tell the readers that in year 2040 _____.
A. they win live without lights and heaters
B. they will me much more lights and beaten
C. lights and heaters will be on and off automatically
D. there will be no switches of lights and beaten
根据原文的They will turn themselves off—and on again when you return我们可以大致推论出答案为C:灯和加热器会自动打开和关闭。
推断、引申题2
原文:All this activity did not prevent Robert Spring from dying in poverty, leaving sharp-eyed experts the difficult task of separating his forgeries from the originals.
The author in the passage implied that _____.
A. Robert Spring was highly skilled in coping handwriting and imitating signature
B. Robert Spring died in poverty
C. Robert established a bookstore in Philadelphia in 1858
D. forgeries are casually sold to persons who aren't experts
根据原文的All this activity did not prevent Robert Spring from dying in poverty可以论出答案为B:Robert Spring死于贫困。
推断、引申题 3
原文:One such investigation led to the arrest of the man accused of sending the extremely dangerous Melissa virus, a computer virus that destroyed files in computers around the world in the spring of 1999.
How dangerous was Melissa virus back in 1999?
A. It destroyed computer files worldwide.
B. Many agents took up the case.
C. Technicians, experts, and a student were investigated
D. Telephone lines and computers were destroyed.
根据原文的a computer virus that destroyed files in computers around the world可以论出答案为A:它摧毁了全世界的电脑文档。
推断题的特点是:其正确答案无法从原文的表面意义中找到,考生必须从字里行间寻找推断深层含义。对作者的总的态度和倾向,必须在通读全文、掌握了主题思想和主要事实后,才能做出判断。因此从某种意义上说,推断题是最难做的题。做这类题应注意深刻理解原文,找出相关的关键词语或句子,再由此采用归纳、演绎等逻辑思维方法推断从而排除错误答案,找出正确答案。需要指出的是,推理时应以原文中相关的关键词语或句子为基础或依据,且忌凭空或按考生自己的常识瞎推断。
阅读理解题中推断作者态度是最难的部分,得分档次也在这方面拉开了差距。因此,我们提出以下几点供考生在阅读中领会作者的观点、意图和态度。
1. 要学会辨别清楚文章的文体。工程硕士阅读试题多为议论文,文章的主题句、核心句往往会直接或间接地表明作者的态度立场;阅读理解中也有说明文、描述文。前者因为其体裁的客观性,所以作者的态度也往往采取中立。而后者因为其文章观点往往不直接提出,而且作者写作时也常带有某种倾向性,所以,要求考生在读这种文体时要细心捕捉表达或暗示情感态度的词式短语,捕捉那些烘托气氛,渲染情感的词句。
2. 对于综合性判断情感态度的题,需要分析段落大意,分析文章的走向,理解文章中心思想、段落大意,而后才能判断出作者的情感态度。
3. 要学会区分不同的观点——尤其要善于找出作者的观点。考生要注意文中出现的直接引语和间接引语,出现的观点(一般是当事人的观点,而不是作者的观点)。作者的观点一般用in my view, in my opinion, personally, I think, I hold等词语表现。
4. 对于选项而言,要分清选项中的褒义词、中性词和贬义词,以此对照全文。下面是一些常见的有关作者态度的褒贬词语。
1)表示褒义的词语
positive赞成的,supporting支持的,praising赞扬的,optimistic乐观的,admiring羡慕的, interesting有趣的,humorous幽默的,serious严肃的,enthusiastic热情的,pleasant愉快的,polite礼貌的,concerned关切的,sober冷静的,等;
2)表示中性的词语
indifferent冷淡的,不关心的;impassive冷淡的,不动感情的;uninterested无兴趣的,不感兴趣的;ambivalent情绪矛盾的;neutral中立的;impersonal不带个人感情的;subjective主观的;objective客观的;informative提供信息的;impartial不偏袒的;apathetic漠不关心的,等;
3)表示贬义的词语
disgusted感到恶心的,厌恶的;critical批评的;negative 否定的,反对的;suspicious怀疑的;tolerant容忍的,忍让的;worried 担忧的;pessimistic悲观的;depressed沮丧的;disappointed 失望的;ironic讽刺的;sarcastic挖苦的;bitter痛苦的;cynical 玩世不恭的;sentimental 感伤的;emotional激动的;angry气愤的,等。
最后需要着重提醒广大考生的是:阅读理解的种种方法技巧,对不同英语水平的考生有不同的指导作用,但归根到底,最重要一点还是要建筑在准确理解的基础上加之大量的有针对性的练习。我们可以归纳出这样三个要点:工程硕士阅读要过关一是思想重视,二是方法得当,三是要有足够的训练保证。
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