大学英语四级阅读文章结构特点.doc

大学英语四级阅读文章结构特点林明金（节选自大学英语四级精讲与测试林明金主编，2005年清华大学出版社出版）英语文章有其固定的结构：引言、正文、和结尾三大部分。通常，引言的作用是点明主题、陈述文章的中心思想。正文部分则阐述引言中的中心思想（即作者的观点）或对所提出的论点进行讨论，用事实、实验结果或例子来说明 或证实。段与段之间有必然的联系和一定的逻辑性。每个段落都围绕引言中提出的中心思想来展开。结尾部分将正文里阐述或论证的观点归纳起来，得出结论。且多数情况下，结尾部分是对主题句的重述，但措辞可能不同。文 引言主题、中心思想章 段1 (论点1)结 正文 段2 (论点2)构 段3 (论点3) 结尾结论由于四级阅读测试的文章体裁主要为议论文和说明文，故考生应当重点掌握该类别的文章结构特点。一、议论文的结构特点和论证方法一) 议论文的结构：论点、论据、结论三要素。议论文重在“说服” 即作者要力图说服读者赞同并支持其观点或驳斥某一观点。例如：（2000年6月）中心思想There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal combustion engine(内燃机) has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞) being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the computers impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy (读写能力)；it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art. 段首句Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities, A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have c hosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin making. 段首句Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more“user friendly”. Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase “learning to use a computer”mean? It sounds like learning to drive a car”, that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once结论 In fact,“learning to use a computer”is much more like“learning to play a game”, but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a acquired, enable one to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished. 这是一篇较典型的议论文，具备了议论文的三大要素。主题论点：学生应学习电脑知识。论证的论据：学习电脑知识指学会使用电脑；学会使用电脑并不难；因为学会使用电脑如同学会玩一种游戏。结论：学会使用电脑就是学会使软件。二）议论文的两种主要论证方式1）归纳法：从一系列个别事例中综合她们的共同的本质，归纳出一般的结论和规律的方法。2）演绎法与归纳法相反，它是从一般规律推论到个别事物的方法。 分析19952000年前真阅读短文中的26片议论文，采用演绎法推理的共18篇，约占69%。其余的8篇中采用归纳法的6篇：1995年1月 Passage Four 1996年6月 Passage Three 1997年6月 Passage One1998年1月 Passage Three 2000年 6 月 Passage Two 2000年 12 月 Passage One 此外有两篇采用归纳+演绎法：1995年6月 Passage Four 1996年1月 Passage Four 二、说明文的结构特点和说明方法典型的说明文同样具备文章的典型结构：（说明的）主题、（说明的）事实和实例、（得出的）结论。说明文的目的侧重于“告知”，即告诉人们某事并对其 加以解释，以便读者了解。它与议论文的根本区别在于客观、真实，重细节描述，轻抽象评论。其语言多采用客观性词语，较少使用主观判断性词汇。说明文的说明方法与议论文的论证方法大致相同，亦采用归纳法和演绎法，但相比较而言，归纳法在说明文中使用的更多些。例如：（1998年6月）Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland,中心思想 decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived (被剥夺) of cigarettes through a series of tests. In the first test, each subject sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well. The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster， but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers. In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers. The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non-smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but al so had trouble separating important information from insignificant details. “As our tests became more complex.”Sums up Spilich,“non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins”He predicts,结论句“smokers might per form adequately at many jobs until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.” 这是一篇典型的说明文：有说明的主题decided to find out whether smoking helps them to “think and concentrate”。 随后作者以四次实验来验证、说明该主题;最后得出结论smoking might damage mental capacity。了解并掌握上述两种体裁的篇章结构的特点和表达方法，对考生在解题过程中把握主线，理清作者的思路，从而克服忙乱和盲目的心理，增强做题的理性和逻辑性。段落结构特点前文提到四级阅读总量大约10001200词，由于字数的限制和四篇短文的要求，一般所选择的材料大部分是从更长的文章或书籍中来的，故它们的文章结构多数时候并不完整，因此考察段落结构特点的意义远胜于文章的结构。可以说英语段落是英语文章结构的微缩，通常也有三部分构成：主题句（topic sentence 又称段首句）、辅助句（supporting sentences / developing sentences又称扩展句）和结论句 （concluding /ending sentence 又称结尾句）。1) 主题句：段落的主旨，表明作者的观点、态度或写作意图，是段落发展的依据。另一方面，各段落的主题句构成一篇文章的骨架，自始自终贯穿着文章的中心思想。2) 辅助句：说明主题句或为主题句提供论据。它们只有一个目的服务主题句，因此所提供的事实或论据必须紧扣主题句。3) 结论句：对一个段落内容的总结、归纳或概括。结论句实际上是主题句的重述。应当注意的是，在许多情况下，结论句可以省略。常见的段落类型有如下三种：例如：（1998年1月）主题句A good modern newspaper is an extraordinary piece of reading. It is辅助句1 remarkable first for what it contains: the range of news from local crime to international politics, from sport to business to fashion to science, and the range of comment and special features (特定) as well, from editorial page to feature articles and interviews to criticism of books, art, theatre and music. A newspaper is even more辅助句2 remarkable for the way one reads it: never completely, never straight through, but always by jumping from here to there, in and out, glancing at one piece, reading another article all the way through, reading just a few paragraphs of the next.辅助句3 A good modern newspaper offers a variety to attract many different readers, but far more than any one reader is interested in. What brings this variety together in one place is its topicality (时事性), its immediate relation to what is happening in your world and your locality now.辅助句4 But immediacy and the speed of production that goes with it mean also that much of what appears in a newspaper has no more than transient(短暂的) value. For all these reasons,结论1 no two people really read the same paper: what each person does is to put together out of the pages of that days paper, his own selection and sequence, his own news paper. For all these reasons,结论2 reading newspapers efficiently, which means getting what you want from them without missing things you need but without wasting time, demands skill and self awareness as you modify and apply the techniques of reading . 这是一种典型的段落特征：主题句 一份出色的现代报纸。辅助句说明一份出色的现代报纸的特征内容无所不包；阅读方法独特；提供多样性；出版速度快。结论句引出下面两种结果没有两个人在真正意义上阅读相同的报纸；有效阅读报纸需要技巧。例如：（1997年6月） In the past, making structures quake-resistant meant firm yet flexible materials, such as steel and wood, that bend without breaking. Later, people tried to lift a building off its foundation, and insert rubber and steel between the building and its foundation to reduce the impact of ground vibrations. The most recent designs give buildings brains as well as concrete and steel supports, called smart buildings, the structures respond like living organisms to an earthquakes vibrations. When the ground shakes and the building tips forward, the computer would force the building to shift in the opposite direction.结论句/主题句 The new smart structures could be very expensive to build. However, t