The identification of topic questions is generally very simple. Ask the examinee directly what is the central idea of the full text, which usually includes three forms: theme, writing purpose and article title. Frequently asked questions are as follows:
The central idea of this article is …
The main point of this article is …
3. This article is mainly about …
4. This article mainly talks about/discusses …
This article gives a general description of ...
The purpose of the author's writing this article is …
The title of this article is …
This article can be named …
How to determine the central idea of an article? We know that in the intensive reading part of the new CET-4, candidates are required to complete two articles and ten questions in the selected topic type, which takes about 7-8 minutes on average and 3-4 minutes on average. It is unrealistic to read an article of 300-350 words in such a short time and read the whole text word by word to find the main idea, which inevitably requires candidates to adopt appropriate reading skills. Therefore, the author suggests that candidates adopt the method of skimming and skipping.
Skimming is a browsing reading method, its main purpose is to grasp the main idea of the article quickly and effectively, and it is a particularly commonly used and extremely important reading method for obtaining a lot of information and various English exam-oriented reading. This method mainly refers to paying attention to the theme information closely related to the general idea of the full text while ignoring other auxiliary details. In CET-4, articles are mainly expository and argumentative, and the theme information of an article usually appears in the following places: 1. The first and last sentences of each paragraph of the article. These sentences in obvious special positions are often the topic sentences of paragraphs and articles, which are of great significance; Second, a strong turning point. It is usually marked by words such as but, anyway, quite, however, and the opposite. The sentences after these words are subject information; Third, causality. It is usually marked by words or sentence patterns such as there, result, that, so, that is why … and the sentences after these words or sentence patterns are the subject information; Fourth, the place for progress. It is usually marked by words or phrases such as more, farther, what is more important, what is the most important, what is the most important, what is the most important, the most important, and so on. The information that appears after these words or phrases is the emphasis information, that is, the place where the subject information appears; V. Examples. It is usually marked by words, phrases or sentence patterns, for example, for example, let's take …, consider … and so on. These words, phrases or sentence patterns represent examples and supporting details, and the sentences before and after the examples are generally the themes to be explained by the examples; Sixth, juxtaposition. Usually, it is marked by the combination of first, second, last, some, others, for one thing, for another thing, on the one hand, on the other hand and so on. These combinations are supporting details, and the sentences before and after these combinations are generally the themes to be supported by these details.
Skipping rope can be used to assist skimming. Skipping aims to grasp the whole picture and main points of the article, but it is not necessary to read all the words and phrases in the article. If the sentence is supplemented and modified in the middle, it can be omitted in the process of skipping. Therefore, skipping rope is mainly to grasp the main part of the sentence and ignore the secondary part. This way of reading does not affect readers' grasp of the theme information of the article. This method is especially effective when the subject information is long and difficult. Skip reading can be divided into the following three forms: First, according to the special punctuation, skip reading method is adopted. The punctuation in the article has its own meaning. For example, there are intervening elements or appositives between two commas; Parentheses indicate examples or supplementary explanations; Colons are usually used to list things and attach explanatory content; Dashes are usually placed before explanatory clauses or sentences, or used to list some of the contents summarized above, or before or after explanatory brackets. When reading, you can omit the part between two commas, the part in brackets, the part after colon, the part after dash and the part between two dashes. Secondly, according to the syntactic structure, skip reading method is adopted. When encountering a long and difficult sentence, we should grasp the main part of the sentence, that is, the subject part, the predicate part and the object part, and other supplementary components, that is, the attributive (clause), adverbial (clause) and complement part can be omitted. Thirdly, according to the structure and organizational form of the article, the logical relationship between paragraphs and topic sentences. , using skip reading method. When reading, focus on topic sentences and words that show the author's point of view, and skip examples, quotations, data, pros and cons, metaphors and other parts.
When we find the theme information of an article by skimming and skipping, where is the main idea of the full text? Is it simple to add up the topic information sentences you read? We know that a good article is an organic whole, and its internal information is logically combined according to a certain way of thinking. This close combination is the structure of the article. The final determination of the theme of the full text is inseparable from the structure of the article, because the theme is the author's logical thinking mode.
According to the article structure in the real questions of CET-4 over the years, the author divides the methods of obtaining the central idea of the article in CET-4 into five categories. Here are some examples:
1, comprehensive type
Faces are as unique as fingerprints. Have you ever wondered how we could possibly know anyone? Even a skilled writer can't describe all the features that make one face different from another. However, a very young child-even an animal, such as a pigeon-can learn to recognize faces, and we all take this ability for granted.
We also distinguish people by their behavior. When we talk about someone's personality, we mean the way he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels, which makes this person different.
Just like a person's face, a person's personality is very complicated. But it is easier to describe a person's personality in words than his face. If you are asked to describe what a "good-looking face" looks like, it may be difficult for you to do it. But if you are asked to describe a "good man", you may start to think of a kind, considerate, friendly, enthusiastic and so on.
There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon allport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18000 English words, which describe the differences of people's behaviors. Many of us use this information as a basis to describe or classify his personality. Nerds, conservatives, soldiers-people are all described like this.
People always try to "type" each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show their villains (bad guys) to the audience. Or the role of the hero. In fact, the words "person" and "personality" come from Latin persona, which means "mask". Today, most TV and movie actors don't wear masks. But we can easily distinguish "good guys" from "bad guys" because these two kinds of people are different in appearance and action. (1June 1996)
70. Which of the following is the main point of this article?
A) Why is it necessary to identify people's personality?
B) Why can you describe people?
C) how to get to know others
D) how to best identify people