Methods of reading articles
Step 1: spend two or three minutes browsing the first sentence or two of each article to locate the difficulty of the article. Although the average time for each article is 1 1 minute, some articles can be easily completed in seven or eight minutes, while others take about 15 minutes. Generally speaking, two of the five articles are more difficult. For example, the last article was difficult, and there were 12- 14 questions. In this case, if you do the questions step by step, you may make several mistakes because of lack of time, which will bring huge losses. Therefore, first of all, it is helpful to locate the difficulty of the article, intuitively observe the gold content of the article (that is, the distribution of the number of questions), and scientifically allocate the time for doing the questions in the reading part.
Step 2: Read a specific article through "structural scanning". The so-called structure is the skeleton of the article. TOEFL articles are purely academic, and they are textbook articles that North American students can come into contact with every day in universities. These articles involve humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, and they are all argumentative and expository. The most striking feature is that they are plate-like structures.
The TOEFL article is composed of several natural paragraphs. The correct way to read an article should be to thoroughly understand the first sentence of the article, which is often the theme of the article. Then browse other sentences in the first paragraph as soon as possible, and read other paragraphs in the article in the same way. Generally speaking, the other sentences in each paragraph are used to explain the topic sentences in each paragraph. You don't have to work hard to understand every sentence, and it doesn't involve examination questions. It is undoubtedly a waste of time to stay in this sentence. Therefore, the method of "structural scanning" is to understand the general idea of the article in the fastest way, so as to correctly guide the next step to do specific questions without misunderstanding in the general direction.
The way to do this problem
1. General rules for solving problems:
After reading the article roughly, you can start to do the problem. When doing this problem, you should remember the following points:
(1) The topic of each article basically moves forward step by step according to the layout of the article. Even if individual topics disrupt the layout of the article, there will always be keywords to provide information in the subject stem and bring candidates into specific parts of the article.
(2) When doing the questions, return to the article according to the keywords of the questions or options, find the language area where the keywords or their definitions are reproduced, and exclude the corresponding options.
(3) When encountering difficult sentences, the most direct and effective way is to analyze the sentence structure and quickly grasp the meaning of the whole sentence. Don't just stare at one word, or you will lose a lot because of small things.
(4) The four options in each question are either a correct interpretation of the relevant part of the article, a distortion of the original text, or irrelevant to the original text. In other words, proposition experts will play some word games when they give questions, and use various forms of expression to confuse candidates. Candidates should understand that their duty is to identify the authenticity and find the options that match the meaning of the article and the meaning of the question.
2. Treat several issues differently:
(1) Main topic. There are three main topics: a, the author's intention; B. the title of the article; C. the central idea of the article. This kind of question is generally the first question, so it is recommended that candidates put this question at the end, because when doing other questions, candidates will gradually understand the details of the article, have a general understanding of the article in the process of doing the question, and finally deal with the theme. It can be said that it is natural and foolproof.
(2) List the problems. There are two kinds of enumerated questions: a, one pair of three mistakes; B, three right and three wrong. It can also be divided into four categories. The first category: list in one sentence. According to the language prompt of an option, return to the article to find a sentence, which contains the contents of three options; The second category: partial enumeration. According to the meaning of the question, the regression article finds that two or three consecutive sentences involve three options; The third category: paragraph enumeration. Stem language appears in the first sentence of a natural paragraph. This sentence is a paragraph topic sentence, that is, the contents of the three options appear in this paragraph and do not involve other paragraphs; The fourth category: article enumeration. The content of the option involves the whole article. An enumeration question and a paragraph enumeration question have obvious signal words to help answer the questions. Do the questions in the order of the questions, there is no need to treat them differently. Article enumeration questions and local enumeration questions should be handled after other questions are completed.
(3) The conclusion of the article. The conclusion of the article is that according to the article, it can be inferred which of the following conclusions is correct, and there are no language signal words in the stem. This kind of question has the following layouts: when it is the first question of the article, it is equivalent to the theme of the article, and it should be placed in the last question, which can be aimed at the last part of the article or the whole article, but it is unlikely to involve the details of other parts of the article. Therefore, the conclusion of the article should be analyzed in detail, not necessarily facing the whole article.
(4) the author's attitude. There are two kinds of author's attitude questions: a, some author's attitude questions; B, the overall author's attitude. When the last question of the article asks the author's attitude, it is the attitude of the whole author, which involves the whole article and should be answered according to a main line of several language points in the whole article, that is, the tone of the author's writing. Candidates must not answer questions according to a certain language point, because the overall author attitude question is not to assess a certain point, but to test the overall feeling. Some authors' attitude questions are flexible and often ask the author's opinion on a specific content in the article. These questions usually indicate that candidates should return to a certain area of the article to test their understanding of a certain language point. Sometimes, an option is contrary to the author's expression. Therefore, candidates must be careful not to impose their own analysis and opinions as readers on the author when doing the author's attitude questions.
(5) The article tries to solve the problem. There are three kinds of structural problems in the article: a. What are the paragraphs in front of the article? B, what will the article say next C. what is the organizational structure of the article? It is inferred that the content in front of the article is based on the first sentence of the article, because the first sentence of the article connects the preceding with the following, paying special attention to such things as this, so and other in the first sentence.
Structural words like than. Predicting the following contents is divided into two steps: first, read the first sentence of each paragraph of the article, and the first sentence of each paragraph shows the logical trend of the article. If the article is about two stages or two aspects of one thing, let's introduce the third stage or the third aspect of this thing. We call the topic of predicting the following content sitting, that is, looking at the first sentence of each paragraph vertically and the last sentence horizontally. Other sentences are said in the article, not what will be said below, and often interfere with what the article says. As for the organizational structure of the article, you only need to look at the first sentence of each paragraph, because these sentences are the framework of the article.