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【本文已发表于《高中生学习》2011年第2期高二文、理科版，并被作为封面文章。谢谢编辑！】
阅读理解主旨大意题是英语考试必有的题目，凡是问文章标题（the best title）、大意（the main idea）和写作意图（the purpose, the aim）的题目都属于此类。由于其对考生的综合概括能力要求比较高，所以也成了难点，考生常失分较多。 如何解决此类问题呢？笔者总结了以下五种方法，希望对同学们有所帮助。 一、文章结构识别法； 很多文章的结构，例如议论文、科普文，都是总-分-分或者分-分-总。还有提建议类、广告类的文章通常使用平行结构，新闻类通常使用倒金字塔结构…… 了解文章的结构能够帮助我们迅速找出文章的主旨大意，特别是新闻，主旨大意通常出现在文章的第一段。 操作实例：2005全国卷I B MONTREAL (Reuters) – Crossing the US-Canada border（边界）to go to church on a Sunday cost a US citizen ＄10,000 for breaking Washington's strict new security（安全）rules. The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Like the other half-dozen people of Township 15, crossing the border is a daily occurrence for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church. There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US-which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings. As a result, Albert says he did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual. The US customs（海关）station in this are is closed on Sundays, so be just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later. Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally（非法）. Ottawa has given out special passes to some 300 US citizens in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-mile detour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint. Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. “I feel like I’m living in a prison,” he said. 62．What would be the best title for the text? A．A Cross-country
Trip C．An Unguarded
Border 简析：这是一篇讲述了一个美国人为了去教堂而违犯美国安全法被罚款一万美元的新闻。了解新闻类文章的结构特点我们就可以从文章开头识别出正确的答案D。 二、主题句认定法； 不仅文章的结构作者喜欢用总-分-分或分-分-总的模式，对于每一个段落作者也喜欢采用这样的模式。作者往往是先提出观点再展开论述，或者先论述再作总结。熟悉这种写作思路，我们就会发现很多文章、特别是论说文，常常有表明作者观点的主题句。如果能找出这些主题句，必将极大地帮助我们解决主旨大意题。 需要强调的是，不是每一篇文章都有主题句，主题句既可能出现在文章的开头，也可能在中间，还可能在末尾。 操作实例：2007年陕西卷A篇： Louis Armstrong had two famous nicknames (绰号). Some people called him Bagama. They said his mouth looked like a large bag, Musicians often called him Pops, as a sign of respect for his influence (影响) on the world of music. Born in 1901 in New Orleans, be grew up poor, but lived among great musicians. Jazz was invented in the city a few years before his birth. Armstrong often said,“Jazz and I grew up together.” Armstrong showed a great talent (天赋) for music when he was taught to play the cornet (短号) at a boy's home. In his late teens, Armstrong began to live the life of a musician. He played in parades, clubs, and on the steamboats that traveled on the Mississippi River. At that time, New Orleans was famous for the new music of jazz and was home to many great musicians. Armstrong learned from the older musicians and soon became respected as their equal. In 1922 he went to Chicago. There, the tale of Louis Armstrong begins. From then until the end of his life, Armstrong was celebrated and loved wherever be went Armstrong had no equal when it came to playing the American popular song. His cornet playing had a deep humanity (仁爱) and warmth that caused many listeners to say, “Listening to Pops just makes you feel good all over.”He was the father of the jazz style(风格) and also one of the best-known and most admired people in the world. His death, on July 6, 1971, was headline news around the world. 44. Which would be the best title for the text? A. The Invention of the Jazz Music B. The Father of the Jazz Style C. The Making of a Musician D. The Spread of Popular Music 简析：这篇文章讲述了Armstrong称为爵士音乐之父的过程，文章最后一段中“He was the father of the jazz style(风格) and also one of the best-known and most admired people in the world.”点明了文章的主题，是总结全文的主题句，由此我们可以选出正确答案B。 另外，有的文章有一个统领全文的主题句，有的文章则没有。对于后一种情况，难度更大，我们可以把各段的主题大意串联起来，再从中提炼出一个主旨大意。 操作实例：2009年全国卷I D It's not easy being a teenager (13至19岁青少年) – nor is it easy being the parent of a teenager. You can make your child feel angry, hurt, or misunderstood by what you say without realizing it yourself. It is important to give your child the space he needs to grow while gently letting him know that you’ll still be there for him when he needs you. Expect a lot from your child, just not everything. Except for health and safety problems, such as drug use or careless driving, consider everything else open to discussion. If your child is unwilling to discuss something, don’t insist he tell you what’s on his mind. The more you insist, the more likely that he’ll clam up. Instead, let him attempt to solve (解决) things by himself. At the same time, remind him that you’re always there for his should he seek advice or help. Show respect for your teenager's privacy (隐私). Never read his mail or listen in on personal conversations. Teach your teenager that the family phone is for the whole family. If your child talks on the family’s telephone for too long, tell him he can talk for 15 minutes, but then he must stay off the phone for at least an equal period of time. This not only frees up the line so that other family members can make and receive calls, but teaches your teenager moderation (节制). Or if you are open to the idea, allow your teenager his own phone that he pays for with his own pocket money or a part-time job. 68. The main purpose of the text is to tell parents ______. A. how to get along with a
teenager C. how to understand a
teenager 简析：这篇文章是作者向父母们介绍一些教育青少年的可行的做法，文章结构平行。第一段的大意是要给孩子一定的空间；第二段的大意是对孩子要有期望但不能期望一切，要让孩子自己去解决问题，教孩子遇到问题时向父母求助；第三段的大意是要教育孩子和家人分享电话。将三段的大意串联起来我们可以发现，文章的写作目的是提建议，帮助父母教育青少年子女，从而选出正确答案D。 三、排除法； 每一道主旨大意题总有比较容易判断出是错误的选项，将这样的选项排除掉有助于我们排除干扰、缩小范围，提高命中率。 操作实例：2009年四川卷E篇 All too often，a choice that seems sustainable(可持续的)turns out on closer examination to be problematic. Probably the best example is the rush to produce ethanol(乙醇)for fuel from corn. Corn is a renewable resource—you can harvest it and grow more，almost limitlessly. So replacing gas with corn ethanol seems like a great idea. One might get a bit more energy out of the ethanol than that used to make it，which could still make ethanol more sustainable than gas generally，but that's not the end of the problem. Using corn to make ethanol means less corn is left to feed animals and people，which drives up the cost of food. That result leads to turning the fallow land—including，in some cases，rain forest in places such as Brazil—into farmland，which in turn gives off lots of carbon dioxide(CO2)into the air. Finally，over many years，the energy benefit from burning ethanol would make up for the forest loss. But by then，climate change would have progresses so far that it might not help. You cannot really declare any practice“sustainable”until you have done a complete life-cycle analysis of its environmental(环境的)costs. Even then，technology and public policy keep developing，and that development can lead to unforeseen and undesired results. The admirable goal of living sustainably requires plenty of thought on an ongoing basis. 60．What does the author mainly discuss in the text? A．Technology. B．Sustainability. C．Ethanol energy. D．Environmental protection. 简析：很明显，这篇文章并不是讲环境保护问题，我们首先可以排除D项；再进一步分析，答案A过于笼统，也不是文章所主要讲述的，也排除。剩下B和C，通过阅读我们知道，用玉米制造乙醇，这样的“可持续发展”会引起其他方面的问题，是不实际的，从而可以选出正确的答案：B。 四、假定标题写作法； 这是一种逆向思维的方法。这种方法就是先设定某一个选项为正确的文章标题，那么，按照这个标题文章通常应该怎么写、写什么呢？ 根据标题里的核心词，我们可以在头脑里大致确定一下文章的结构和内容，如果二者与阅读短文基本相同，就可以判断该项正确；如果与短文大相径庭，就可以判断该项不对。 使用这种方法的关键是找出标题中的核心词。 操作实例：2009年浙江英语卷E篇： Four people in England, back in 1953, stared at photo 51. It wasn’t much –a picture showing a black X. But three of these people won the Nobel Prize for figuring out what the photo really showed—the shape of DNA. The discovery brought fame and fortune to scientists James Watson, Francis crick, and Maurice Wilkins. The fourth, the one who actually made the picture, was left out. Her name was Rosalind Franklin. “She should have been up there,” says historian Mary Bowden. ”if her photo hadn’t been there, the others couldn’t have come up with the structure.” one reason Franklin was missing was that she had died of cancer four years before the Nobel decision. But now scholar doubt that Franklin was not only robbed of her life by disease but robbed of credit by her competitions. At Cambridge University in the 1950s, Watson and Crick tried to make models by cutting up shapes of DNA’s parts and then putting them together. In the meantime, at king's college in London, Franklin and Wilkins shone X-rays at the molecule(分子). The rays produced patterns reflecting the shape. But Wilkins and Franklin’s relationship was a lot rockier than the celebrated teamwork of Watson and Crick. Wilkins thought Franklin was hired to be his assistant. But the college actually employed her to take over the DNA project. What she did was produce X-ray pictures that told Watson and Crick that one of their early models was inside out. And she was not shy about saying so. That angered Watson, who attacked her in return,” Mere inspection suggested that she would not easily bend. Clearly she had to go or be put in her place. As Franklin’s competitors, Wilkins, Watson and Crick had much to gain by cutting her out of the little group of researchers, says historian Pnina Abir-Am. In 1962 at the Nobel Prize awarding ceremony, Wilkins thanked 13 colleagues by name before he mentioned Franklin. Watson wrote his book laughing at her. Crick wrote in 1974 that “Franklins was only two steps away from the solution.” No, Franklin was the solution.” She contributed more than any other player to solving the structure of DNA. She must be considered a co-discoverer,” Abir-Am says. This was backed up by Aaron Klug, who worked with Franklin and later won a Nobel Prize himself. Once described as the “Dark Lady of DNA”, Franklin is finally coming into the light. 57. What is the text mainly about? A. The disagreements among DNA researchers. B. The unfair treatment of Franklin. C. The process of discovering DNA. D The race between two teams of scientists. 简析：假如A项正确的话，那么核心词是disagreements，重点应写DNA 研究人员们的分歧；假如B项正确的话，重点应写对富兰克林的不公正，核心词unfair；假如C项正确的话，那么重点应写发现DNA的进程，核心词progress；假如D项正确的话，重点应写两组科学家们的竞争，核心词是race。 通过以上重新构思写作法，再与原文进行比较，发现B项与原文最一致，从而可以选出正确答案：B。 五、不大不小具体法。 文章标题通常有如下要求：不能过大、过于笼统，放之四海皆适用；也不能过小、以偏概全，挂一漏万。好的文章标题具有较强的针对性、独特性，能够准确地概括出这篇短文的主旨大意，而不是其它文章的大意。 掌握标题的这些特点，可以帮助我们识别出正确的标题来。 操作实例：2009年全国卷I： A I suddenly heard an elephant crying as though frightened. Looking down, I immediately recognized that something was wrong, and ran down to the edge of the near bank. There I saw Ma Shwe with her three-month-old calf struggling in the fast-rising water, and it was a life-and-death struggle. Her calf was floating and screaming with fear. Ma Shwe was as near to the far bank as she could get, holding her whole body against the rushing water, and keeping the calf pressed against her huge body. Every now and then the rushing water would sweep the calf away. There was a sudden rise in the water and the calf was washed clean over the mother’s body and was gone. Ma Shwe turned quickly to reach it and pressed the calf with her head and trunk(象鼻) against the rocky bank. Then with a huge effort, she picked it up in her trunk and tried until she was able to place it on a narrow shelf of rock. Just at this moment she fell back into the river. If she were carried down, it would be certain death. I knew, as well as she did, that there was one spot(地点) where she could get up the bank, but it was on the other side from where she had put her calf. While I was wondering what I could do next, I heard the sound of a mother’s love. Ma Shwe had crossed the river and got up the bank and was making her way back as fast as she could, roaring (吼叫) all the time, but to her calf it was music. 59. What can be the best title for the text? A. A Mother’s
Love C. A Deadly
River 简析：本文讲述一头母象不顾自身安危营救一头小象的经过，赞美了母爱的力量。通过分析，选项B（一件勇敢的事）和D（一件生与死的事）就犯了标题过于空泛的毛病；而选项C又明显犯了片面的错误，从而可以选出A，准确地表述了文章的主旨大意。 总而言之，以上五种方法并不是孤立存在的，针对一道题目，我们可以把五种方法结合起来，融会贯通，灵活使用。例如最后一篇阅读，我们先可以用排除法去掉C选项，再用第五种方法作出正确选择。五招一出，必将有效击破阅读理解主旨大意题。
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