如何做英语阅读理解主题大意题
英国研究生留学-房屋建筑学实习报告
如何做英语阅读理解归纳概括主旨大意题
【归纳概括题】【主旨大义题】
主
旨大义题包括文章的中心思想、基本论点、文章标题、主题大意或段落大
意等。它要求我们在理解全文的
基础上对文章进行高度的概括或总结。
此题型要求考生在理解全文后归纳短文要点，概括中心思想。不
少文章一开
头便展示出文章的主题。尤其是新闻报道之类的，第一段通常是故事的更概
（lea
ding paragraph），这一段往往表达了文章的中心思想。在文章的段落中则
往往由开头的
一句作为主题句（topic sentence）来概括该段的中心思想。必须具
备一定的归纳和概括
能力，才能选出概括范围最广的符合全文主旨的答案。因
此，此类题有些属于浅层理解，但更多的是深层
理解题。
【解题指导】
弄清题目，对理顺解题思路，快速找到答案，至关重要。尤其要注意
标志性
句子，即文章或段落的主题句。请你参考此题型常见的20种问题方式。
1. The
main idea of this passage is ______.2. The passage
is mainly about ______.
3. The point of this
story is ______. 4. The passage proves that
______.
5. The passage mainly deal with
______. 6. The passage can be titled ______.
7. The best headline of the story is _____. 8.
The best title for the passage is ____.
9. The
best topic for the above passage will be ______.
10. Which title best gives the idea of that
passage?
11. Which of the following is a
suitable title for the text?
12. Which title
fits the text best?
13. Which sentence best
expresses the main idea?
14. What does the
passage mainly discuss?
15. What would be the
best title for the text?
16. What is the main
topic of the passage?
17. The writer’s main
thought is that ______.
18. By saying”……”, the
writer means that _____.
19. The information
in the …… tells shows ______.
20. Choose the
best title for the passage.
★正确选项特征：
①是主体句的同义转述。
②概括了原文各段的内容。
③不是文章中出现的某一具体细节。
④如果两个选项意思对立，则正确答案常常是其中之一。
★干扰选项特征：
①只是原文的细节信息。
②只是某一段的段落大意，以偏概全。
③过于笼统地概括，内容过于一般化，超出所阐述的内容。
④无关的信息，在文章中找不到根据或文章中只提到只言片语。
1
★典型考例一：
A Brown University sleep
researcher has some advice for people who run
high school: Don’t start classes so early in
the morning. It may not be that the
students
who nod off at their desks are lazy. And it may
not be that their parents
have failed to
enforce bedtime. Instead, it may be that
biologically these
sleepyhead students aren’t
used to the early hour.
“Maybe these kids are
being asked to rise at the wrong time for their
bodies,” says Mary Carskadon, a professor
looking at problems of adolescent
sleep at
Brown school of Medicine.
Carskadon is trying
to understand more about the effects of early
school
time on adolescents. And, at a more
basic level, she and her team are trying to
learn more about how the biological changes of
adolescence affect sleep needs
and patterns.
Carskadon says her work suggests that
adolescents may need more sleep
than they did
at childhood, not less, as commonly thought.
Sleep patterns changes during adolescence, as
any parent of an adolescent
can prove. Most
adolescents prefer to stay up later at night and
sleep later in the
morning. But it’s not just
a matter of choice------their bodies are going
through a
change of sleep patterns.
All of
this makes the transfer from middle school to high
school------which
may start one hour earlier
in the morning------all the more difficult,
Carskadon
says. With their increased need for
sleep and their biological clocks set on the
“
sleep late, rise late” pattern, adolescents are up
against difficulties when it
comes to trying
to be up by 5 or 6 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. first
bell. A short sleep on a
desktop may be their
bodies’ way of saying, “I need a timeout.”
Q:
What is the text mainly about?
A.
Adolescent health care
B. Problems in
adolescent learning
C. Adolescent sleep
difficulties
D. Changes in adolescent
sleep needs and patterns.
★典型考例一解法归纳：主旨大意题。通读全
文可知，本篇文章主要讲了青春
期的孩子需要的睡眠量比孩提时代还要多，而且睡眠模式也改变了，故只
有
D项能概括全文内容。
★典型考例二：
Why is
setting goals important? Because goals can help
you do, and
experience everything you want in
life. Instead of just letting life happen to you,
goals allow yourself to make your life happen.
Successful and happy people have a vision
of how their life should be and
they set lots
of goals to help them reach their vision. By
setting goals you are
taking control of your
life. It’s like having a map to show you where you
want to
go. Think of it this way. There are
two drivers. One has a destination in mind(his
goal) which is laid out for his on a map. He
can drive straight there without any
wasted
time or wrong turns. The other driver has no goal
or destination or map.
2
He
starts off at the same time from the same place as
the first driver, but he
drives aimlessly
around, never getting anywhere, just using up gas
and oil.
Which driver do you want to be?
Winners in life set goals and follow through
on them. Winners decide what
they want in life
and then get there by making plans and setting
goals.
Unsuccessful people just let life
happen by accident. Goals aren’t difficult to set.
And they aren’t difficult to reach. It’s up to
you to find out what your goals,
ideals and
visions really are. You are the one who must
decide what to pursue
and in what direction to
aim your life.
Research tells us when we write
a goal down, we are more likely to achieve it.
Written goals can be reviewed regularly, and
have more power. Like a contract
with
yourself, they are harder to neglect or forget.
Also when you write your goals in a particular
fashion, you are able to
stimulate yourself to
be continuously alert to situations that will
further your
goals.
Q: What is the main
idea of this passage?
A. Failure always
accompanies the people who give up easily.
B. Whenever you set goals, you will success.
C. Winners never stop their efforts for success.
D. Success is possible only when a person
has clearly set his or her goal.
★典型考例二解法归纳：主旨
大意题。文章开门见山地指出了制定目标的重要
性，然后分析了成功人士和胜利者都有明确的奋斗目标，
接着建议读者写下
自己的目标并付诸实施，所以D项是文章的主题。
★典型考例三：
JINTAN JIANGSU: The 20
students ------ 18 boys and two girls ------ had a
thousand reasons to be proud of themselves.
They had just climbed their way to
the top
rung(阶梯) out of 4 million students taking part in
the Fifth National Hua
Luogeng Gold Cup
Mathematics Contest on Tuesday evening.
The 20
gold medal winners are all primary and middle
school students
under the age 14.
“Many of
the problems are of college level and these pupils
can figure them
out. It is just unbelievable！”
said a teacher from Guangdong Province.
Named
after China’s most famous mathematician, Hua
Luogeng, the contest
started in 1986, one year
after his death. In less than 10 years, it has
been
recognized by the State Education
Commission as the country’s biggest and best
contest of its kind.
Q: This news is
mainly about ______.
A. when the contest
started. B. how the contest got its name.
C. the 20 pupils who have won gold medals
in the contest.
D. the 5
th
National
Hua Luogeng Gold Cup Mathematics Contest.
★典型考
例三解法归纳：归纳概括题。A、B两项只是具体事实，C项虽提到了
20个获奖者，但是也不包括文章
的全部，只有D项能概括全文主旨大意。
3
★
典型考例四：
In Mount Berry, Georgia people find a
group of schools built specially for
mountain
children. The schools, as well as the mountain
itself, are named after
Martha Berry, herself
a daughter of a Georgian mountaineer.
Martha
Berry was born in 1866. Luckier than most Georgian
mountain
children, she received an education.
But she never forgot other children of the
mountains whose parents couldn’t afford to
send them to school. In 1902 Martha
Berry
started a school for these children. It was housed
in a single small log
cabin and was attended
by only five pupils. Now, eighty years later,
there are a
score of Berry schools in the
area, with a total of over one thousand students
and
a waiting list of about five thousand.
Martha Berry in her later years received many
medals and honors for what
she had done for
the poor mountain children of Georgia, and in 1931
she was
named one of the most important women
in the United States. She never stopped
working for the mountain children till her
death in 1942.
Q: The passage mainly tells us
______?
A. the history of the Berry schools
B. about a poor area in the United States
C. Mount Berry’s development in education
D. Martha Berry’s work and achievement
★ 典型考例五：
Early in the
18
th
century, Captain Cook, a famous
explorer of Australia,
unexpectedly caught
sight of an unusual animal during his first visit
to Australia.
The animal had a large mouselike
head and jumped along on its large legs. To his
great surprise, the unusual animal carried its
young in a special pocket of flesh.
Captain
Cook pointed to the animal which was eating grass
in the distance and
asked his native guide
what the animal was referred to. The guide seemed
not to
know what he was pointed at and finally
said “Kang-a-roo”, which Cook
carefully wrote
down as the animal’s name in his word book. The
Europeans
who later got to Australia were
anxious to see the unusual animal “Kang-a-roo”,
but their requests were met with puzzled looks
of the native people. Before long
they got to
discover that the native guide who made the answer
to Cook’s
question really meant, “I don’t know
what you are pointing at.” Funny enough,
the
name “Kang-a-roo” stuck and it is still in use
today.
Q: Which of the following sentences
best expresses the main idea?
A. Captain
Cook’s guide had a sense of humour.
B.
Native Australians could not speak English in
Cook’s time.
C. Some words have rather
funny origins.
D. Captain Cook was a lover
of wild animals.
★典型考例四解法归纳：主旨大意题。通读全文可知，本篇文章主要讲的是
Martha
Berry为山里的孩子能上学受教育而做出的贡献。故答案是：D
★典型考例五解法归纳：主旨大意
题。A、D两答案均从文中找不到依据。B答
案虽符合文中事实，但远非文章主旨，故选C。
4