第三章阅读理解

    第三节阅读理解的应试技巧与策略

    从考试角度考虑，阅读理解的关键要抓两点：一是准确无误，二是答题迅速。因此工程硕士阅读需要解决的一个根本问题就是如何在有限的时间内高效率地完成阅读题。换言之，怎样才能做的又好又快——这就少不了快速阅读的方法技巧。常见的快读方法有计时阅读（Timed Reading）、略读（Skimming）、寻读（Scanning）、意群阅读(Sense Group Reading) 等。我们在此向大家一一介绍这些方法技巧。

    1. 计时阅读

    计时阅读是提高阅读速度最有效的方法之一。其具体的方法是：先记下起读时间（starting time），阅读完毕记，读完时间（finishing time），即可计算出本次阅读速度。以下面一道工程硕士阅读样题为例：

    Elephants who paint aren´t new. Paintings by Ruby, an Asian elephant who lived at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, sold for up to $5,000 in the late 1980s, said Dick George, a consultant with the zoo.

    "Ruby was about seven months old when she first came to the zoo," said George. "She lived with a goat and some chickens, but she didn´t have an elephant companion for a number of years. She spent a lot of time drawing in the dirt with a stick to make her days more stimulating. Her keeper bought her some art supplies. ” George said, “Ruby was excited about painting right from the beginning. ”

    The elephants at the art academies in the Southeast Asia are taught to hold a paintbrush with the tip of their trunks. Initially, the keeper guides the elephant´ s trunk over the canvas (画布) and offers rewards for good performance.

    "It only takes a few hours to a day to teach them," said Mia Fineman, an art historian whose book When Elephants Paint is an illustrated history of the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project. 188

    11. Ruby was an Asian elephant_____.

    A. who was sold for a price as high as $ 5,000

    B. ho was famous for being the first painting elephant

    C. hose paintings sold for as high as $5,000

    D. ho started painting in the late 1980s.

    12. Why did Ruby start painting according to Dick George?

    A. Because she was seven years old.

    B. Because she was the first to come to the zoo.

    C. Because she learned a lot from the goat and the chickens.

    D. Because she had no elephant partners to play with.

    13. How did Ruby paint at the very beginning?

    A. She used a stick to draw in the dirt.

    B. She spent much time in the dirt.

    C. She stimulated herself every day.

    D. She painted with her keeper´ s art supplies.

    14. To encourage the elephants to paint well, the keeper_____.

    A. bought them a lot of art supplies

    B. made them excited at the beginning

    C. taught them to hold a paintbrush with their trunks

    D. reinforced the desired behaviors with rewards

    15. When Elephants Paint is a book_____.

    A. on the history of arts

    B. about the painting elephants in Asia

    C. explaining how to teach elephants to paint

    D. chiefly theorizing about elephant art

    全文正文为188个词，5个问题209个词，总共397词。按每分钟70个词的速度，限时在5分半钟内完成阅读，再加上3分钟选择答案的时间，总共8分钟完成此题

    要是限时不能完成怎么办？不要延长时间。无论如何，需要养成快速阅读的习惯。可考虑适当降低阅读材料的难度，从四级阅读题开始训练，以后逐渐加大阅读的难度。这样坚持一段时间，速度也就随之上去了。来源：www.examda.com

    由于快速阅读时精力高度集中，因此阅读时间不宜太长，一次半小时就行了。因为时间一长容易产生疲劳，精力分散，起不到强化训练的作用。每次练习后应及时总结，发现问题随手记下。这样长期坚持下去，必能收到明显的效果。
2. 略读法

    略读又称浏览或掠读，就是迅速地阅读，以求抓住文章的梗概。略读的目的是为获得大意或者总体印象而进行阅读。略读作为一种快速阅读技巧对我们来说并不陌生。这就像我们看报纸时，几版、十几版的页面不可能一字不漏地往下看，只能用最快的速度找出主题，略掉一些无关紧要的细节或与主题不甚相干的部分，知道其中的大概内容即可。这种方法要求我们不要把眼睛盯在具体的每个单词上，而是要看篇章中的主题句或者是从篇章的结构着手，利用自己的推理能力，对文章的信息进行分析，从而归纳总结出主题。善于略读的人会有选择地阅读，跳过一些无关的句子、段落甚至是整页的内容，只看自己感兴趣的东西。训练有素的略读者的阅读速度可以达到每分钟1000个词以上。略读的关键在于一个“略”字，注意力应该集中在大意，而不是细节上。试以下文为例：

    Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me here and there.

    I have sought love, first because it brings ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what at last I have found.

    With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.

    Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberated in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

    This has been my life, I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

    使用略读法，我们的目光只去捕捉以下关键的字眼：

    第一段：Three passions,. . . , have governed my life: (l)the longing for love, (2)the search for knowledge, (3) unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind;

    第二段：I have sought love because (l) it brings ecstasy… ; (2) it relieves loneliness…; (3) I have seen…. the vision of the heaven;

    第三段：With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to (l) understand …; (2) to know why the stars shine…. And I have tried to apprehend ….

    第四段