雅思阅读如何找主题句

理清文章框架、概括段落大意是阅读考试中重点考查的技能，而快速抓住段落的主题句，则能起到事半功倍的效果。那么雅思阅读如何找主题句呢?一起来跟小编了解下吧。

主题句的位置:

根据对剑4到剑12文章的分析，段落第一句是主题句的情况多达65%，约10%的段落是第二句为主题句，另有约5%的段落最后一句为主题句。当然也有找不出明显主题句的段落，这部分约占20%。所以阅读文章时，我们需要从每段的第一句开始，按照以下原则来确定主题句，从而概括出段落大意。

段落第一句是主题句，通常具有以下特征：

1、首句有概括性的词，如：

The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species.Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater — specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii — have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.

—剑4 Test 1 Passage 2 Paragraph 3

上述例子中，different degrees就是有概括性的词，整段都围绕着“不同鲸鱼的视觉差异”展开。

由于主题句要统领整个段落，一般无过多的细节，故而句子较短。类似的情况还可以在剑4 Test 2 Passage 1 Paragraph 1和 剑5 Test1 Passage 3 Paragraph 2 见到。

2、首句为“人名+宾语从句”的格式，大概率上也可判定为主题句，如：

Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general. Comparing measurements for fifteen orders of mammals, he and his team found larger brains (for a given body size) are linked to greater playfulness. The converse was also found to be true. Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood.‘I concluded it's to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development.' he says.

—剑4 Test 2 Passage 3 Paragraph E

剑6 Test 2 Passage 1 Paragraph A，也是类似的情况。若第一句不太明显，不足以断定是否为主题句，可快速地看一下第二句。首句后紧跟着例子或解释，也可坐实首句是主题句。如：

But volcanoes are not very predictable. That is because geological time is not like human time. During quiet periods, volcanoes cap themselves with their own lava by forming a powerful cone from the molten rocks slopping over the rim of the crater; later the lava cools slowly into a huge, hard, stable plug which blocks any further eruption until the pressure below becomes irresistible. In the case of Mount Pinatubo, this took 600 years.

—剑4 Test 3 Passage 2 Paragraph D1

上述例子中，第二句是对第一句的解释。还有一种类似的情况，第二句由for example开头的，像剑4 Test 1 Passage 1 Paragraph 1和剑4 Test 4Passage 1 Paragraph 8，也能坐实第一句是主题句。

3、首句提出了问题，如：

Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of Britain's Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. 'People lose faith in their culture,' he says. 'When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.’

—剑4 Test 2 Passage 1 Paragraph 4

哪些情况不是主题句?

如果段落第一句具有以下特征，则不是主题句：第一句只是承接上一段，没有讲新的观点/事物，如：

Here we have two radically different explanations for why so many teacher-subjects were willing to forgo their sense of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure. The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is the problem of modern sociobiology-to discover the degree to which hard-wired genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is their behaviour.

—剑5 Test 1 Passage 2 Paragraph I

此时就应该意识到这个首句仅仅起到承上启下的作用，没有概括段落的功能。虽然第一句没有承接上段，但是有让步的意味，也不适合做主题句。如

Identifying genetically talented individuals is only the first step. Michael Yessis, an emeritus professor of Sport Science at California State University at Fullerton, maintains that ‘genetics only determines about one third of what an athlete can do. But with the right training we can go much further with that one third than we've been going.’Yessis believes that U.S runners, despite their impressive achievements, are ‘running on their genetics'. By applying more specific methods, 'they're going to go much faster'. These methods include strength training that duplicates what they are doing in their running events as well as plyometrics, a technique pioneered in the former Soviet Union.

—剑4 Test 4 Passage 1 Paragraph 3

该句的“only the first step”就含有让步的意味。另外，如果在紧接着的第二句话中，看到有however，but，instead等转折词或出现否定前一句话的词，也说明第一句话不是主题句。详见下面的例子：

There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where cars are the only viable transport. The example of European cities refutes that. They are often wealthier than their American counterparts but have not generated the same level of car use. In Stockholm, car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and wealthier. A new study makes this point even more starkly. Developing cities in Asia, such as Jakarta and Bangkok, make more use of the car than wealthy Asian cities such as Tokyo and Singapore. In cities that developed later, the World Bank and Asia Development Bank discouraged the building of public transport and people have been force to rely on cars — creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.

—剑6 Test 2 Passage 1 Paragraph C

若第二句具备“提及新观点/事物且有概括性的词”或“句中有转折词”的特征，基本上可判定为主题句，如：

Stories about the problems of tourism have become legion in the last few years. Yet it does not have to be a problem. Although tourism inevitably affects the region in which it takes place, the costs to these fragile environments and their local cultures can be minimized. Indeed, it can even be a vehicle for reinvigorating local cultures, as has happened with the Sherpas of Nepal's Khumbu Valley and in some Alpine villages. And a growing number of adventure tourism operators are trying to ensure that their activities benefit the local population and environment over the long term.

—剑5 Test 4 Passage 1 Paragraph C1

但是，如果第二句依然在讲细节，或者第二句话与第一句构成并列的关系，说明第二句也不是主题句。此时，我们不要去看第三句，应该直接跳至段尾，看段落的最后一句话。

段落的最后一句，如果具备以下特征，则可以判定为主题句：1)该句有概括性的词语;2)尾句与本段前面的其他句子形成“例子 — 总结”的关系，如：

All our subjects deemed the circle soft and the square hard. A full 94% ascribed happy to the circle, instead of sad. But other pairs revealed less agreement: 79% matched fast to slow and weak to strong, respectively. And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square. When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects. One man, who had been blind since birth, scored extremely well. He made only one match differing from the consensus, assigning 'far' to square and 'near' to circle. In fact, only a small majority of sighted subject — 53% — had paired far and near to the opposite partners. Thus, we conclude that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do.

—剑4 Test 1 Passage 3 Paragraph 8

当然，也有可能该段落本身就没有主题句。如果大家读完了第一句、第二句和最后一句，都没法找到主题句的话，就要自己动手概括段落大意了。大体说来，具备 “介绍背景”、“叙事性强”、“时间/年份多”等特征的段落会比较难找到主题句。

段落主题句出现得最多的位置就是段首。

英语文章中最多的就是演绎型的写法，因为西方人喜欢开门见山，所以他们常常在每一段的第一句话就先交代出这段话的主旨。这是最简单的，也是最常见的主题句位置，如下面这个例子：

As a child grows up，he learns how to behave in ways that is appropriate to the society into which he is born. That is to say，he acquires the patterns of behavior that are accepted as normal in his society. This process of social learning is generally referred to as socialization. By socialization，then，we mean the process whereby individuals learn the rules，values and practices of the society in which they live.

上面这段话中的第一句就是对整体段落大意的一个介绍;从第二句话中的“That is to say”可以看出来，第二句话是对第一句话的解释;第三句话中的“This process”也是代指的前一句话中的学习，成熟过程。而最后一句话也是对社会化的一个解释，所以也可以确定第一句话就是段落的主题句。

除了第一句之外，主题句也可能出现在段首位置的第二句。那什么时候会出现这种情况呢?分成三种情况：

(1)当首句是问句时;

(2)当首句是过渡句时;

(3)当次句为转折句时。

在这些情况下，第二句话都会比第一句话更重要，所以主题句也更可能出现在第二句话中。例如下面这句话：

What then makes people left-handed if it is not simply genetic?Other factors must be at work and researchers have turned to the brain for clues. In the 1860s the French surgeon and anthropologist，Dr Paul Broca，made the remarkable finding that patients who had lost their powers of speech as a result of a stroke (a blood clot(凝结) in the brain) had paralysis(麻痹) of the right half of their body. He noted that since the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right half of the body，and vice versa(反之亦然)，the brain damage must have been in the brain's left hemisphere，Psychologists now believe that among right handed people，probably 95 percent have their language centre in the left hemisphere，while 5 percent have right-sided language.

第一句话提问：“如果不仅是基因让人们习惯于用左手，那还有什么原因呢?”我们能预测出，接下来这段话应该就会给我们介绍除了基因以外的其他原因。正好第二句话说：“其他的因素也起到了作用，研究者将线索转向人类大脑方面。”所以能确定，所谓的“其他原因”就是指的“人类大脑”，所以主题句也就是第二句话。

另外一个常出现段落主题句的位置则是段尾。

这种现象常出现在归纳型的文章里。所谓归纳型，则是先陈述现象，最后总结规律。因此这类的文章通常会出现一些总结性的词：Therefore/ Hence/ Thus/ So/ Consequently/ Accordingly/ As a result/ As a consequence;或者会出现一些研究报告类的词组The research findings/ the study/ the investigation/ the analysis/ the evidences show/ reveal/ imply/ indicate/ suggest/ demonstrate / prove that…;甚至有的会直接出现总结型主题句：In short/ In general/ All in all/ To sum up/ In summary/ On the whole…我们一起分析下面这个例句：

The only species which demonstrated(证明，证实) near normal productivity(生产力) was Cassin's Auklet(卡森的海雀)，in which the value for 1998 exceeded the long-term mean by 16 percent. However， given that very few Cassin's Auklets attempted to breed(生产，繁衍)，island-wide offspring(后代) production was extremely low. In short，these observations were quite similar，with slight variations，to observations made on the Farallon(法拉龙) seabird community in other severe E1 Nino years.

在这段话的第一句中，我们就发现了刚刚总结过的一个关键词“demonstrated”，但是我们不难发现，这个地方是“demonstrated”是属于which这个定语从句中的，所以不是对整段话，甚至整篇文章的总结。所以排除了第一句话是主题句的可能性。第二句出现了转折，那我们又知道转折句后面的肯定比前面重要，所以接着往下看这句话。但是，看完这句话之后，我们不难发现，最后一句话用了一个总结型的句子：“In short”，所以一下就能确定该段话的主题句就是最后一句话。

在做阅读题的时候我们的原则是，先看段落的首句，第二句以及最后一句，因为主旨句最后可能出现在这三句中。如果我们可以通过这三句中的任何一句选择出段落大意，那么剩下的部分就可以略过不读，以节省时间。

之所以要这样做是与西方人的写作习惯密切相关的，他们在写作的时候通常使用inductive和deductive两种方法。Deductive即演绎法，也就是先给出一个观点或者概念，然后再举出例子支持自己的观点，即总分的写作方法。在这种段落中，主旨句则为段落的第一句。

但有时候，文章的第一句会先对上一段内容进行总结，这种情况下，第一句就成为了承上启下句，主旨句就变成了段落的第二句。另一种常用的写作逻辑为inductive的写作方法，即先举出例子，最后提出总结性的观点。在这种情况下，主题句则通常会出现在段落的最后一句。

因此当我们阅读段落时，应该首先对首句，第二句和最后一句进行重点阅读，争取从这三句中找出段落大意。若这三句无法使我们确认段落大意，我们要再注意例子前的总结概括句，表示下定义的主系表结构句子，用细节帮助我们确定答案。

我们以剑七Test 1，Passage 2为例，在这篇文章中，E段首句“At the outset of the new millennium, however, the way resource planners think about water is beginning to change。”Change一词对应i选项中的revision，都是表示改变，剩下的选项没有相关的意思，因此可以通过首句确定段落大意为i.

Scientists' call for a revision of policy. F段首句”Fortunately – and unexpectedly- the demand for water is not rising as rapidly as some predicted。”unecpectedly对应选项ix中的surprising，not rising对应downward trend,很容易看出答案为ix. A surprising downward trend in demand for water。

G段同理，首句“What explains this remarkable turn of events?”即此段要解释这样一种现象的原因，很容易看到ii中的同意转换词explanation。而D段首句“The consequence of our water policies extend beyond jeopardizing human health。”

很明显是在总结上一段的段落大意，即承上启下，这时我们可以通过这句来验证上一个段落的大意，并从剩下的内容中去寻找段落大意。B段虽然给出了答案，但我们还是可以来自己分析一下，B段开头给出的都是新时期我们面临的种种问题，而最后一句“Nearly one fifth of all the electricity generated worldwide is produced by turbines spun by the power of falling water。”为我们指出了这些问题是被怎样解决的，即对应Headings中的iii. How a global challenge was met。

因此以后在做list of headings类题目是，一定要仔细看段落的首句，二句以及末句，争取通过这三句话弄清段落大意。

第一个方法：段落主题句出现得最多的位置就是段首

英语文章中最多的其实就是演绎型的写法，因为西方人往往都喜欢开门见山，所以他们常常在每一段的第一句话就会立即交代出这段话的主旨。这是最简单的，同时也是最常见的一个主题句位置，

第二个方法：主题句也可能会出现在段首位置的第二句

雅思阅读真题及答案是备考阅读材料的不二之选，那什么到底时候会出现这种情况呢?分成三种情况：

(1)当首句是问句时;

(2)当首句是过渡句时;

(3)当次句为转折句时

在这些情况下，其实第二句话都会比第一句话要更加重要，所以主题句也很有可能会出现在第二句话中。

第三个方法：另外一个常出现段落主题句的位置可能会是段尾

这种现象经常会出现在归纳型的文章里。所谓归纳型，其实起先是陈述现象，最后再去总结规律的。因此这类的文章通常都是会出现一些总结性的词。