新东方李溯：如何在文章中迅速找到答案的证据
大家好，我是新东方大学听说读写拔高项目老师李溯。在阅读课程的授课过程中很多同学有着这样的疑问，在一篇篇幅超长的文章中如何更快速更有效地找到其重要信息呢？在某种意义上完成阅读题就好像是办案抓坏人，每个人都像办案的福尔摩斯，即要凭证据，而不是仅仅凭印象，或是靠感觉。读了一遍，就凭印象和感觉做出选择，多半是错的。因此，要对自己做出的选择有把握，有信心，就一定要有确凿的证据。那么，怎样在文章材料中找到证明自己答案正确的证据--答案的相关句子呢?首先就要从问题开始。读问题就如写作中审题一样，一定要仔细，要弄清问什么。在大学听说读写拔高的阅读课堂上，我经常会准备一些典型的阅读考题来培养学生的阅读技能和应试技能，从中发现了他们在做阅读题中普遍出现的错误做法或是不良的阅读习惯。比如有些学生为了抢时间，往往跳过问题直接去看四个选择项。他们认为四个选择项中只有一个是正确的，和原文意思是一致的，其他三个选择项是错的，和文章意思冲突的，或文章中根本没有的。这种概念是错误的。现在无论是国内或国外阅读文章所出的题目，在许多情况下，四个选择项在文章中都可能说到过，意思也符合文章的，但对问题来说只有一个是正确的。现在让我们举一个例子，下面是一篇大学英语四级的阅读文章：
Nursing at Beth Israel Hospital produces the best patient care possible. If we are to solve the nursing shortage (不足), hospital administration and doctors everywhere would do well to follow Beth Israel's example.
At Beth Israel each patient is assigned to a primary nurse who visits at length with the patient and constructs a full-scale health account that covers everything from his medical history to his emotional state. Then she writes a care plan centered on the patient's illness but which also includes everything else that is necessary.
The primary nurse stays with the patient through his hospitalization, keeping track with his progress and seeking further advice from his doctor. If a patient at Beth Israel is not responding to treatment, it is not uncommon for his nurse to propose another approach to his doctor. What the-doctor. at Beth Israel has in the primary nurse is a true colleague.
Nursing at Beth Israel also involves a decentralized (感染) nursing administration, every floor, every unit is a self-contained organization. There are nurse-managers instead of head nurses; in addition to their medical duties they do all their own hiring and dismissing, employee advising, and they make salary recommendations. Each unit's nurses decide among themselves who will work what shifts and when.
Beth Israel's nurse-in-chief ranks as an equal with other vice presidents of the hospital. She also is a member of the Medical Executive Committee, which in most hospitals includes only doctors.
Which of the following best characterizes the main feature of the nursing system at Beth Israel Hospital?
A) The doctor gets more active professional support from the primary nurse.
B) Each patient is taken care of by a primary nurse day and night.
C) The primary nurse writes care plans for every patient.
D) The primary nurse keeps records of the patient's health conditions every day.
这道题就是英语阅读中一个特别具有代表性的题型，即，它的四个选择项就文章来说都对的，它们均在文章的第二段提到。如果不读问题，A,B,C,D都是正确答案。无怪乎这一题，学生的选择"最平均"：分别是27%, 37%, 24%, 12%。但是细读问题，就可知道问的是Which of the following best characterizes the main feature of nursing system?哪一句才最能概括这家医院护理制度的主要特征。显然 A,B,C,D都是护理制度的常规工作，是一般的特点，而只有A)才归纳了B)、C)、D)的特点，道出护理工作的本质特征，是该题要问的。因而是正确的。有的学生问题也读的，但可能问题比较长，时间紧，读得很粗心，没有注意到比如像best, almost, mainly, only, seem to be, prove to be这些词给问题在意思上带来的细微变化。
细读问题不仅仅在干审题，弄清问什么，而且还要从问题中得到线索。要在文章中找到证明自己选择正确的证据，要在有限的时间里快速确定答案的相关句在哪一段，甚至在哪一旬，就要善于利用问题中的一些词、词组，一些对这篇阅读理解文章较有特点的词，包括人名、地名、日期等，因为这些词不同于文章中的其他词，它们是大写，或写法不同，或只出现一次，因而在文章中比较醒目，容易找到。找到了，说明答案就在附近，这时只需要细读这个相关的句子，用这个句子的意思来衡量和比较问题下面的四个选择项，哪一个选项的意思和这个相关句的意思一致，哪一个就是正确的。
当然不是所有问题都能提供线索的，如下列问题从其本身来看是读不出什么的。
Which of the following statements is true?
Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?
From the passage we may infer that ________.
The author believes/suggests that ________.
加上这种问题不是按文章发展顺序问的，更难在文章中找到相关句。看到这种问题简直无从下手。在这种情况下，只有弃问题不顾，直接去看四个选择项，希望从中找到一些线索。首先我们要注意四个选择项中有没有相同的词和词组。如有相同的词或词组，这就是线索，说明答案就在和这些相同词或词组有关的句子里。我们再来看一个典型例题：
The use of the word imitation reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime or violence. First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous. For example I remember a woman who was head of an infants school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were in the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree ', fortunately she was in time to intervene before the child was hung. I remember a film in particular, in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting (通电触死) his guard, the technique of doing this being shown in detail. This was the kind of scene which we would cut for these reasons.
In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen any details of criminal techniques, such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe； if we were consulted before production I used to advise that the details should not be shown. When I gave talks in prisons about film censorship I invariably had full support for this, since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to embark on crime.
Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi made by Jules Dassin in 1954. This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweler's shop, the robbery sequence lasting about half an hour and being backed only by natural sound---one of the most brilliant film sequences of all time. I remember our discussions at the time. We took into account the fact that the robbery was accomplished only with the use of elaborate and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possible imitate it; we believed therefore that it was relatively safe. When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied. So perhaps we were wrong.
The writer thinks that ________.
A) the details of the criminal technique should be kept
B) the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen
C) children should not imitate what they saw on the screen
D) it was dangerous to imitate what they had seen on the screen
显然，这一题问题没有线索可以提供。而在四个选择项中，三个有screen一词，两个有imitate, criminal (crime)，和details，因此可断定答案的相关句就是有这些词的句子里。我们可以从头开始阅读该篇文章的第一段，马上发现screen，imitating, crime这些词: The use of the word imitation reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime or violence.把这个相关句与四个选择项比较一下，B) the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen意思上比较接近。
综上所述，无论是国内考试的阅读题还是国外考试的阅读题都属于任务型阅读，那么就需要我们明确阅读任务，通过有效的方法高效地完成阅读题目。不要因为文章长或时间短而出现厌难情绪，心想"管它，随便选一个得了"。这时千万不能主动放弃，坚持读完所有题干和分析所有的选项，就会有"蓦然回首"的惊喜，或者至少能把明显的错误选项排除掉，而增加正确几率。
当然，英语阅读能力的培养需要我们持之以恒，每天进步一点点，量变引起质变，祝大家能取得进步！
最后，希望能在大学听说读写拔高的课堂上跟大家一起学英语！
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