托福阅读怎样扫清障碍

　　“直”的原则

　　所谓“直”，是指托福阅读出题思路直接，所有题目的答案几乎都可以在文章中找到非常明显的对应点。这一特点告诉考生，在解题时，考生一定要根据原文内容来解题，避免“小题大做”，人为地把题目想象得太复杂，否则就是自己给自己找麻烦。就拿考生最熟悉的细节题来说，托福阅读细节题的解题要点有两个要点：一是根据题干关键词回原文定位答案范围;二是将题目选项与原文语句相对照，正确选项往往是原文语句的同义替换。因此，考生在解题时，一定要对照选项与原文语句之间的异同，找出与原文语句意思最相似的选项，也就找到了正确答案。

　　“细”的原则

　　所谓“细”，是指考生在利用题干关键词回原文定位答案范围时一定要细心。我们知道，考生在解答托福阅读题时，最常用到的解题方法就是利用题干中出现的关键词回原文定位答案范围，然后根据定位到的内容选出正确答案。由于题干中有些关键词(尤其是专有名词)在原文中不止出现一次，因而考生一定要细心，找出原文中所有含该关键词的句子，然后再从中选择与题干要求最接近的句子来定位答案范围，进而选出正确答案。很多考生由于没有注意到这一点，导致定位错误，进而与正确答案失之交臂，实在是非常可惜。

　　以TPO (托福在线考试练习)的一道例题为例。

　　The question of ecosystem stability is complicated, however. The first problem is that ecologists do not all agree what “stability” means. Stability can be defined as simply lack of change. In that case, the climax community would be considered the most stable, since, by definition, it changes the least over time. Alternatively, stability can be defined as the speed with which an ecosystem returns to a particular form following a major disturbance, such as a fire. This kind of stability is also called resilience. In that case, climax communities would be the most fragile and the least stable, since they can require hundreds of years to return to the climax state. (TPO3“The Long-Term Stability of Ecosystems”的第四段)

　　6. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true of climax communities?

　　A. They are more resilient than pioneer communities.

　　B. They can be considered both the most and the least stable communities.

　　C. They are stable because they recover quickly after major disturbances.

　　D. They are the most resilient communities because they change the least over time.

　　解析：这道题是一道细节题，考生可利用题干中的关键词climax communities将答案范围定位到原文第四段。定位时，考生可能会根据该段第四句话“In that case, the climax community would be considered the most stable, since, by definition, it changes the least over time”而认为选项C是正确答案。事实上，考生如果细心的话，会发现climax community在该段共出现了不止一次，第二次出现在该段最后一句话中，且形式也是复数，与题干表述一致，而最后一句话的意思恰恰与第四句话的意思相反。所以，根据精确定位的原则，考生应该依据该段的最后一句话选出本题的答案，即选项B。

　　“巧”的原则

　　所谓“巧”，是指考生在回原文定位答案范围时应该选择最恰当的题干关键词，并从托福阅读考试的特点出发，巧妙而又精确地定位答案范围。“巧”的原则具体体现在以下几个方面：

　　①用于定位的题干关键词一般包括人名、地名、数字、关键名词或动词等，考生在回原文定位答案范围时，可同时利用多个关键词进行定位，原文中包含题干绝大多数关键词的部分最有可能是答案所在;②在利用关键词回原文定位时，考生可根据原文中出现的特殊标点符号(如破折号、连字符、引号、括号等)、数字、专有名词等这些比较明显的提示进行跳读，题干的关键词以及题目的答案范围往往就出现在这些有明显提示信息的表达附近;③由于阅读部分的考查点经常与转折、比较、否定、因果等逻辑密切相关，因而考生在定位答案范围时可根据这些重要的考点来进行精确定位。结合这三点，考生便能又快又准地找到出题人设计答案所依据的句子，最后再按照“直”的原则选择答案。

　　实战演练

　　考生在解答托福阅读题目时，应将上文所述三字箴言结合起来使用，做到“直”来“直”去、“细”中有“巧”、“巧”中有“细”。下面就以《新托福考试官方指南》阅读部分Practice Set 5 里面的第8题为例，来讲解如何使用这三字箴言来解题。

　　Paragraph 5: In this newly emerging economic order, workers sometimes organized to protect their rights and traditional ways of life. Craft workers such as carpenters, printers, and tailors formed unions, and in 1834 individual unions came together in the National Trades’ Union. The labor movement gathered some momentum in the decade before the Panic of 1837, but in the depression that followed, labor’s strength collapsed. During hard times, few workers were willing to strike* or engage in collective action. And skilled craft workers, who spearheaded the union movement, did not feel a particularly strong bond with semiskilled factory workers and unskilled laborers. More than a decade of agitation did finally bring a workday shortened to 10 hours to most industries by the 1850’s, and the courts also recognized workers’ right to strike, but these gains had little immediate impact.

　　8. Which of the following statements about the labor movement of the 1800’s is supported by paragraph 5?

　　A. It was most successful during times of economic crisis.

　　B. Its primary purpose was to benefit unskilled laborers.

　　C. It was slow to improve conditions for workers.

　　D. It helped workers of all skill levels form a strong bond with each other.

　　解析：针对这一道题，考生首先要做的是选定题干关键词，回原文定位答案范围。这里考生可以同时结合“细”和“巧”这两点来帮助定位。考生可以“巧”选题干中的数字1800’s作为定位关键词;由于1800’s是一个笼统的时间范围，是指19世纪，因此考生在定位答案范围时要注意“细”的原则，关注原文第五段所有在19世纪范围内的表时间的词。原文第五段出现了三个在19世纪范围内的时间点——1834、1837和1850’s。

　　因此，题目的答案范围就包含在含有这些词的句子中。到此，考生可以开始第二步了，即研究答案范围中的句子和题目选项，选出正确答案。通读含有上述三个时间词的三个句子，考生可以发现，后面两个句子都包含转折关系词but。根据上面讲述的“巧”的原则，考生要特别关注这两个含有转折词的句子，答案往往就是对最后出现的这个转折词后面内容的同义替换。考生会注意到，最后一个but后面的句子是“these gains had little immediate impact”，表明“工人运动所取得的成果十分有限”。然后根据“直”的原则，考生会发现，选项C中的句子正是对这一句话的同义替换，因而此题的正确答案是选项C。