Keywords: problem-solving strategies for English reading comprehension in senior high school entrance examination
In the senior high school entrance examination English, the score of reading comprehension accounts for more than 40% of the total score, plus cloze 10%, and in recent years, the comprehensive fill-in-the-blank of short passages in senior high school entrance examinations in many provinces and cities accounts for 10% (Foshan senior high school entrance examination was upgraded from sentence and Chinese prompts to short comprehensive fill-in-the-blank). This shows the importance of reading comprehension in English learning. The author makes some superficial analysis on the problem-solving strategies of reading comprehension.
First, grasp the genre of English reading materials for senior high school entrance examination
There are various types of articles in reading comprehension of senior high school entrance examination, including narrative, explanatory and practical articles. A wide range of subjects, involving political economy, social culture, customs, history and geography, science and technology and other aspects. In teaching, teachers should make students consciously read articles of various styles and genres in their usual study or review. It is worth mentioning that in recent years, some practical styles, such as charts, tables and advertisements, which are closely related to daily life, such as train or plane timetables, TV program timetables, class timetables, activity timetables, scale diagrams of various situations, development and change (increase or decrease) diagrams of things, various signs and advertisements, are increasingly favored by proponents. Reading comprehension questions in senior high school entrance examination, like other questions, are strictly in accordance with the requirements of curriculum standards and exam instructions. The vocabulary and grammar involved are generally not beyond the textbook.
Second, learn the English reading comprehension test center for the senior high school entrance examination
English reading comprehension in senior high school entrance examination mainly examines the following abilities of candidates:
(a) to examine the ability to master the central idea and general idea of the materials read.
This kind of question mainly asks the theme, theme idea, title or writing purpose of the paragraph (or essay). The main ways to ask questions are:
(1) What is the best title of this article?
(2) Which of the following is this article about?
In this article, the author tries to tell us _ _ _ _ _.
(4) This passage is mainly about _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(2) Examine the ability to grasp the facts and details of the article.
This kind of question is designed for the details of the article, and its main ways of asking questions are:
(1) Which of the following is correct?
(2) Which of the following is not mentioned?
(3) In the article, which of the following is incorrect?
(4) Choose the correct order of this article.
(5) From this passage, we know _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(3) Investigate the ability to guess the meaning of new words according to the context.
This type of question requires candidates to determine the exact meaning of a specific word or phrase according to the context, or to determine the exact meaning of pronouns such as it, them and them. The main ways to ask questions are:
(1) The word "…" in the article probably means _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(2) The underlined word "It" refers to _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(3) The word underlined in paragraph 3 probably means _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(4) To examine the ability to understand the logical relationship of the whole reading material and the logical relationship between paragraphs and sentences.
The main ways to ask such questions are:
(1) Many tourists come to the writer's city for _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Westerners use "cat" to refer to (reference)
"__________".
Tom's mother bought him a clock because _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(5) According to the content of the essay and the common sense that candidates should have, examine the ability of reasoning and judgment.
There is no clear answer to this kind of question in the article, and candidates need to reason and judge on the basis of understanding the full text. The main ways to ask questions are:
(1) We can guess that the author of this letter may be a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(2) We can infer _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ from the text.
(3) Who is the expected reader of this article?
(4) From the story, we can guess _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(5) In case of fire, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(six) the ability to investigate and infer the author's views, intentions and attitudes.
The main ways to ask such questions are:
(1) The purpose of the article is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(2) The author writes this passage to _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(3) The author thinks that _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
(4) The author mainly tells us _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in the article.
Third, learn to use topic sentences to understand English reading comprehension questions.
The most effective way is to find the topic sentence. An article (or a paragraph of an article) usually revolves around a central meaning. And this central meaning is often summed up in one sentence. This kind of sentence that can summarize the central meaning of an article or paragraph is called a topic sentence. Therefore, to understand the central meaning of a paragraph or an article, we must first learn to find topic sentences. Topic sentences generally have three characteristics: (1) strong generality, and the meaning expressed is relatively general. (2) The structure is simple, the sentence structure is relatively simple, and most of them do not adopt the form of long and difficult sentences. (3) With its support, other sentences in the paragraph are used to explain, support or develop the theme expressed in this sentence. In a short passage or a paragraph, most topic sentences have three positions:
(1) The topic sentence is at the beginning of a paragraph or article.
Topic sentences are quite common at the beginning of paragraphs or articles. General news reports, expository articles and argumentative articles mostly adopt the narrative mode of general narration first and then separate narration. For example (2008 mid-term exam):
Teabag is the favorite way for most westerners to drink tea. Do you know how this happened?
Teabag was invented in 1908 by Thomas Sullivan, an American tea merchant. He is distributing free tea leaves in silk bags for people to taste. People put tea leaves and bags in cups. Add hot water. Tea tastes so good that people think it's easy to clean cups. When Sullivan started delivering loose tea again, they were unhappy. ...
The first paragraph is a topic sentence. This sentence summarizes the central meaning of this article: the history of tea bags. Later, there was a story to illustrate the emergence of "tea bags".
(2) The topic sentence is at the end of the paragraph or article.
When writing an article by induction, the detailed sentence usually comes first, and the general sentence comes last, thus ending. The topic sentence at the end of this paragraph or article is often a summary or induction of the previous details. For example (Xuzhou Middle School Examination in 2008):
Reading is a good habit, but the problem is that there are too many things to read these days, but there is no time to read every word. There are hundreds of skills that can help you read more books in less time. Here are two skills that I think are particularly good.
At the beginning of this article, it is affirmed that reading is a good habit. The second sentence raises the question of reading time. Therefore, the author puts forward a solution to this problem. The sentence "Here are two skills that I think are particularly good." At the end of the first paragraph is a topic sentence.
(3) Untitled sentences.
Sometimes, there is no obvious topic sentence in an article at this time. How should candidates determine the theme or central meaning of the article? Actually, it's not difficult You can find out the central meaning of each paragraph first. The central meaning of each paragraph is often around a center or to explain a problem. This center or this question is the theme or central meaning of this article.
Fourth, learn to guess the meaning of new words in reading comprehension questions.
Vocabulary is the basis of reading comprehension. Candidates must master all the words and phrases they have learned in textbooks, understand the knowledge of word formation, such as memorizing some commonly used prefixes and suffixes, and synthesizing and transforming words, and do a lot of extracurricular reading to expand their vocabulary. Reading needs a certain vocabulary, and at the same time, while reading a lot, you can not only review the vocabulary you have learned, but also expand your vocabulary. Nevertheless, it is inevitable to encounter new words or familiar words in reading, so it is essential to guess the meaning in English reading comprehension questions. So candidates must learn how to guess the meaning. Any word can only express a certain meaning in a certain context. Accordingly, candidates can guess the meaning of words by using the context as much as possible, that is, infer the unknown from the known, that is, guess the meaning of unfamiliar words with familiar words or phrases. When guessing the meaning of a word, we can consider the following aspects:
(1) Guess the meaning of a word according to the definition or explanation (for example, the senior high school entrance examination in Maoming in 2008).
When I first learned English, I was told that when people say "How are you?" Sometimes say "I'm fine" but in America, I find people will say "I'm fine" or "I'm tired".
One day, someone greeted me, "What's the matter?" This makes me very confused. I thought for a moment, then smiled, because I didn't know what to say.
57. What does the word "confused" in the fourth paragraph mean in Chinese?
A. Confusion B. Desire C. Sadness D. Regret
In this article, although "confusion" is a new word, it is followed by an explanation: "I thought for a while, and then I smiled, because I didn't know what to say." According to this explanation, we can judge that the correct answer should be A.
(B) according to the situation and logic to judge (such as Enshi in 2008).
A recent survey shows that in modern society, most people choose practical goals, such as "making money to buy a house and a car", "improving the quality of life" and "finding a good job".
The Chinese meaning of the phrase "quality of life" is _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
According to the facts provided in the article, in today's society, most people choose realistic life goals, such as "making money to buy a house, a car and a good job", which can introduce "improving their quality of life", meaning "improving their quality of life".
(3) Guess the meaning of a word according to the relationship between synonyms or antonyms (such as the senior high school entrance examination in Zigong, Sichuan in 2008).
If you want to be a musician, you usually have to move to a place with a lot of jobs, such as new york City. The cost of living in these areas is usually high. The third disadvantage is that you can't have a stable family life. Different jobs will take musicians to different places, so most musicians can't have a normal family.
63. What does the underlined word "stable" mean in Chinese?
A. Happiness B. Stability C. Health
From the last sentence, "different jobs will bring a musical to different places, so it is impossible for most musicians to have a formal family." The clauses "different places" and "regular" can judge that B is the correct answer.
Fifth, learn to deal with detailed questions and reasoning questions in reading comprehension.
(A) the method of making detailed facts.
In reading comprehension, there are quite a few topics that examine details and facts. This kind of topic is relatively easy. These questions have two * * * characteristics: (1) The correct answers to specific details can be found in the reading materials for verification. This part may be a word or phrase, or a sentence or related sentences, but the sentence pattern, words and expressions are different. (2) Interference items are often mixed with the thoughts and details of the subject, the details of the correct answer and the details of the wrong answer, and even true and false. Therefore, in order to determine the details and facts in reading comprehension, we must first find out the corresponding information points in the article, and then eliminate the interference items.
(2) Methods of reasoning and judging problems.
Inference refers to inferring unknown information from the information provided by reading materials. That is, take the relevant text as the known part and infer the unknown part from it. The related words inferred from it may be words or sentences, several sentences or even the full text. Inference questions in the English test questions of the senior high school entrance examination mainly include the following:
1. Factual reasoning
This kind of inference is often aimed at one or several specific details, which is a relatively simple inference. To make such an inference, we must first find out the relevant words in the article and then analyze them, especially to understand the meaning between the lines. For example (Henan Province in 2008):
We can infer from this story. __________.
A. Kitty lost her mother.
B.the baby eagle fell and died.
C.the baby eagle can feed by itself.
D. Kitty is still angry with her mother.
In the reading material, there is such a passage:
The baby eagle falls faster and faster. He looked up at his mother. "Why did you abandon me?" He looked down at the earth. The ground is closer. Then something strange happened. The air grabbed his arm and he began to fly! He stopped moving to the ground. Instead, his eyes looked up at the sun.
"You're flying! You can do it! " His mother smiled.
According to this passage, it can be inferred that the baby eagle can fly, never land again, and can feed on its own. Therefore, the correct answer should be C.
2. Referential reasoning
Determining the meaning and reference of pronouns is a common topic in reading comprehension. A correct understanding of context is the key to determine the target of demonstrative pronouns. In addition, the singular and plural forms of pronouns referring to nouns are the same as the singular and plural forms of the referred words, so the form of numbers can be used as the first auxiliary sign to identify the referred objects.
3. Logical reasoning
This kind of topic often needs to infer the attitude or feelings of the characters according to the background, expression, action and language provided by the article.
4. Inference of the author's intention and attitude
Most of these questions require candidates to infer the author's attitude towards the object of discussion, such as whether the author agrees, opposes or hesitates about the stated views, and whether he praises, sympathizes, is indifferent or hates the people, things or events described or described. The author's ideological tendency and emotional color are not necessarily directly expressed, but often implied between the lines. Therefore, when making this inference, candidates should not only rely on the theme of the essay as the premise of reasoning, but also pay attention to the author's wording, especially adjectives and other modifiers.
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To master the above strategies, teachers need to guide students to continuously strengthen training and accumulate relevant knowledge in the usual reading teaching, so as to continuously improve students' reading ability and achieve excellent results in the senior high school entrance examination.