高考英语:如何让阅读速度飞起来
近年来,高考英语试卷中阅读文章的篇幅有不断增加的趋势,导致很多考生在考试时要么来不及做题,要么因为见到篇幅长的文章而产生恐惧心理,进而影响发挥。那么,有没有什么方法可以提高阅读速度呢?
一、使用略读的方法提高阅读速度
如果试卷中出现很长的文章怎么办?对待这类文章,考生需要学会略读文章,在回答具体问题前能够通过略读获取文章的大意、作者的写作意图和文中所体现的态度。略读时,应该重点关注重要信息和作者的写作思路,而不要拘泥于细节内容。
略读时,只需要读文章的第一段和最后一段,如有必要也读一读每一段的开头一两句。现以2013年江苏卷阅读理解D篇为例,全文共有674词。下面是这篇文章的开头和结尾两段,我们使用略读的方法来读,看看是否能掌握文章大意。
Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel. And he surely deserves additional praise: the man who popularized the clever literary attack on racism.
Was Twain a racist? Asking the question in the 21st century is as wise as asking the same of Lincoln. If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the “wisdom” of the considered moral judgments of the present, we will find nothing but error. Lincoln, who believed the black man the inferior of the white, fought and won a war to free him. And Twain, raised in a slave state, briefly a soldier, and inventor of Jim, may have done more to anger the nation over racial injustice and awaken its collective conscience than any other novelist in the past century.
通过略读,我们可以知道,文章讨论了马克·吐温的小说中表现出的反奴隶制思想,文体是议论文。第一段是论点,最后一段是结论,指出:我们用现代的道德标准评判过去是错误的。
我们再略读一下文章中间部分段落的开头。
I say clever because anti-slavery fiction had been the important part of the literature in the years before the Civil War...
Again and again, in the postwar years, Twain seemed forced to deal with the challenge of race. Consider the most controversial, at least today, of Twain’s novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...
But the attacks were and are silly—and miss the point. The novel is strongly anti-slavery...
There is much more. Twain’s mystery novel Pudd’nhead Wilson stood as a challenge to the racial beliefs of even many of the liberals of his day...
通过略读,我们可以知道这篇文章的结构,作者用了《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)和《傻瓜威尔逊》(Pudd’nhead Wilson)两部小说来论证马克·吐温的反奴思想,并指出对他的攻击是不正确的。
要想提高整体阅读速度,考生要做大量的练习。如果方法得当,那么读得越多,速度就会越快。正确的阅读方法是以“意群”为单位阅读,一次看几个单词、一个短语或整个句子,不要逐字阅读,也不要边读边翻译。下面是上文中一个简单句子的意群划分:
Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel.
对于这个句子,要想读得快,阅读时眼睛要能够“提取”上面的三个语块。通过阅读信息语块,阅读速度至少能提高一倍。下面,看一个复杂的长句:
If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the “wisdom” of the considered moral judgments of the present, we will find nothing but error.
这是一个含有条件状语从句的主从复合句。练习通过意群进行略读时,要跳过那些不重要的词,如功能词the,of,will等,只需抓住画线部分。如果是一个主从复合句,要重点抓住句子主干,可以忽略一些次要的信息。
二、利用文体的写作结构提高阅读速度
阅读理解题有各种类型的文章,常见的文体类型有新闻报道、说明文、应用文、议论文、人物传记和记叙文。记叙文又可细分为小说、时文报道及轶闻趣事。这些文体的写作特征、逻辑结构、写作态度有明显的区别,掌握这些文体的特点,对我们更快更准地把握作者的写作思路、理解作者的写作意图有极大的帮助。
英语中常见的文章结构为“总—分—总”结构。议论文通常分为引言(introduction)、正文(body)、结论(conclusion)三部分。在引言中,作者会引出话题、阐明观点;正文部分通过阐述理由、分析利弊、提出举措、列举实例等方法进行论证;结论部分重申观点,有时作者会发出倡议。记叙文的开头部分引入话题、点明主题,正文部分以时间推移和事件发展为主线叙述事情的经过,结尾部分谈作者自己的感悟和体会。
熟悉各种文体结构不仅对快速阅读有帮助,还能帮助解题。以2010年福建卷A篇为例:
59. The passage is probably followed by a concluding paragraph about_______.
A. Zelda’s personal life B. Zelda’s illness and treatment
C. Fitzgerald’s friendship with Graham D. Fitzgerald’s contributions to the literary world
人物传记的第一段通常总体介绍人物(姓名、身份、地位、主要成就等);正文部分一般按时间先后顺序介绍人物的成长经历、教育情况、兴趣爱好、性格品质、工作生涯、突出成绩等,其中穿插他人的评论;最后一段总体指出人物的影响和给我们的启示。
这篇文章是关于美国作家菲兹杰拉德的人物传记,文章的第一句“F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St. Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton University for a short while”就介绍了文章要写的人物——菲兹杰拉德以及他的职业(美国小说家)。文章的第二、三、四段介绍了他的简单生平和主要作品。从人物传记的写作文体看,文章还不完整,缺少对人物的评论,所以还应该有结束段落——关于菲兹杰拉德的评论。第59题迎刃而解,答案应该是“菲兹杰拉德对文学界的贡献”。
三、利用句子之间的逻辑关系提高阅读速度
语言是思维的工具,作者在写作时如何组织安排句子、段落,反映了他的思维过程。如果考生在阅读时能关注句子之间的逻辑关系,就可以更准确地了解作者想表达的意思。
英语中句子间的逻辑主要通过连接词(transition word)来体现,连接词给出了句子间的逻辑信号。在一句话中,如果用and来连接,那么前后的语意是单向的,作者表达的内容是并列、递进、趋同的。because,since,so,therefore,thus,either ... or ...,not only ... but also ...等也是单向的连接词。另一种逻辑关系是双向的。例如“John prefers coffee with milk while Tony prefers black coffee”一句,连接词but改变了句子的方向。这一类连接词还有however,though,rather,instead,despite等。
了解这些表示句子间逻辑关系的信号词,阅读时就知道哪些句子需要重点看,哪些句子可以略看甚至不看,这样就能“长句短读”,阅读速度自然就会大大提高。例如,碰到表示转折关系的连接词but,however,yet 等,考生应该有这样的意识:句子的前一部分不是作者想要表达的重点,需要仔细读的是连接词后面的内容。例如:In those days, IP rights were easily protected since it was very difficult to obtain intellectual property without paying for it. However, a lot of IP, including songs, films, books and artwork, can be downloaded today free of charge using the Internet.(NMET2008江西卷D篇)在这里,作者要强调的是现在许多知识产品,包括歌曲、电影、书籍和艺术品,通过使用因特网都可以免费下载。考生阅读时只需详读后半句,对于前半句只需简单扫过。
再如,阅读时读到信号词“for example”,这时所举的例子就不需要详读,考生只需重点关注例子前面的理论或观点,因为例子是用来说明的。以2012年全国卷IIC篇的第一段为例:
Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture(文化) the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion(困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian culture, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
这里,考生读完第一句后,看到“for example”,就可把后面的内容先略去不看,答题时如果碰到与该部分内容相关的题目,再详细读。这样自然节省了阅读时间。
四、学会处理生词和陌生的专业术语
近年来高考英语阅读理解的生词比例较以前有所上升。以往的生词比例为3%左右,现在的生词比例可以达到4.5%。考生在努力扩大词汇量的同时,要学会利用正确的方法来处理考试中碰到的陌生词汇和短语,这样生词就不再是“拦路虎”了。
方法一:从上下文中寻找有关情景或线索。例如“The technology is great. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to put a man on the moon, explore the ocean’s depths or eat microwave sausages”一句中的eat和microwave两个词,可以帮助我们推断出sausage(香肠)是一种食物。
方法二:利用已知词汇推测陌生词汇的意思。比如,如果看到句子“The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems”,我们完全可以从已知词汇computer推断computation是“计算”的意思。
方法三:寻找上下文中的注释以及隐藏在文章中的提示。例如句子“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear”(2013年四川卷E篇),根据后面的定语从句可知,通过mechanism,心脏和大脑可以相互“交流”,以改变我们的感觉和减少恐惧。因此,mechanism是指心脏与大脑交流的系统。
方法四:寻找段落中的重复信息,注意发现作者使用了哪些不同的词来表示相同的事物。例如:
Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.
该段的第一句中,“work day in and day out”与 “consistent, hard work”是重复内容,从而可以推断consistent的意思是“坚持的、连贯的”。
方法五:忽略专业术语。在许多情况下,文章中出现的专业术语并不影响对文章的理解,这时考生不要纠缠于这些术语的意思,可以大胆忽略它们。
本文讨论了四个提高英语阅读速度的技巧。此外,多了解文化背景、有效预测下文等方法对提高阅读速度也很有帮助。总之,英语阅读速度的快慢对阅读理解题的成绩影响巨大,只要考生能够有意识地进行训练,在高考阅读理解题拿高分自然不在话下。
本文转载自老杨工作室《高考英语:如何让阅读速度飞起来》
联系客服