如何区分段落的主旨与细节？ ---从本质上搞定LoH

作者：李凤彩  新航道英联邦考试院雅思阅读讲师，211工程重点大学英语专业硕士，校级毕业研究生，研究生国家奖学金获得者，曾在中国修辞学会，中国话语协会等国际学术团体举办的学术会议上宣读学术论文。

如果询问考鸭们在备战雅思阅读考试的过程中，最怕遇到哪种题目，多数会答含配对二字的题目。这其中就有段落标题匹配题。考生在经历这种题的炼狱后往往会有这样的吐槽“我读不完，没时间” 、“老师，我读了全段，选对标题了，但是花的时间长”、或者“老师我很快读完了全段，但是还是没选对标题”等等。其实无论是哪种吐槽，问题的本质在于没有认识到段落标题匹配题考查的本质—区分主旨和细节。下面我们来详细了解如何区分主旨和细节。

在雅思官方OG第7页对雅思考试情况介绍中写到“the tests are authentic and academic in nature”，也就是雅思阅读的文章是学术类文章。学术文章的段落由主旨句（topic sentence）和支撑句（supporting sentence）两部分构成。如果我们要给段落正确匹配标题，则需要准确找出段落主旨，因而则需要我们熟悉段落主旨和支撑细节的特点，从而快速区分主旨和细节。

1. 主旨句（topic sentence）的特点：
1）A topic sentence is the most important sentence in a paragraph. 主旨句是段落中最重要的句子。
    2）A topic sentence contains both a topic and a controlling idea. 
主旨句包含一个话题（主语）以及主语相关的中心意思。
3）A topic sentence is the most general statement in the paragraph because it gives only the main idea。
中心句是文中最概括的句子，段落只有一个中心。

比如：
The first approach would consist of focusing on road transport solely through pricing. (c10t1p2 paragraph G)

In a related development, the sharp distinction between museum and heritage sites on the one hand, and theme parks on the other, is gradually evaporating. (c9t1p3 paragraph C)

It follows from the above that sparing use of energy reserves should tend to extend life. (c8t3p3 paragraph G)

The climatic events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. (c8t2p2 paragraph B)

There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. (c6t1p2 paragraph G)

可以看出以上主旨句都比较概括，体现了该段的中心意思。

其次从以上特点中还得知中心句是段落中最重要的句子，然而什么叫最重要呢？下面我们给出这些逻辑信号，当它们出现的时候表明是重点内容的地方：but, yet, however, still, instead, while, whereas, although, even though, even if, despite, in spite of 等。

比如：
We all know how it feels一it's impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches out, and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But defining boredom so that it can be studied in the lab has proved difficult. For a start, it can include a lot of other mental states, such as frustration, apathy, depression and indifference. There isn't even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy, flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too. In his book, Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares it to disgust - an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. ‘If disgust protects humans from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious” social situations，’he suggests. (c13t1p2 paragraph A)

在本段中，划线部分的句子在转折处并且最概括（其后是比较明显的细节解释）所以是中心句。

2.支撑句（supporting sentence）的特点:
1）facts：客观陈述的事实（观点-主观-是不能当支撑句的）
      2）statistics：数据、例子
3）quotations：引用（间接引用或直接引用）

从以上对主旨句和中心句的特点的总结中，我们归纳出识别主旨句的方法：
      1）验证该句是否符合主旨句的特点（参考以上特点）
      2）验证该句之后是否是支撑句的特点（参考以上特点）
3）如果两种特点的句子能区分，则可以确定中心句。

下面来到沙场练兵环节，我们来找出下面段落的中心：

例1
 (TS) However, a new imperative-sustainable development-offers an opportunity for adapting the EU’s common transport policy. (SS-fact-事实陈述) This objective, agreed by the Gothenburg European Council, has to be achieved by integrating environmental considerations into Community policies, and shifting the balance between modes of transport lies at the heart of its strategy. (SS-statistics-数据统计) The ambitious objective can only be fully achieved by 2020, but propose measures are nonetheless a first essential step towards a sustainable transport system which will ideally be in place in 30 years’ time, that is by 2040.（c10t1p2 paragraphD）

在本段中我们可以看出，首句为转折后又具备概括性，并且之后即是事实的解释以及数据的支撑，所以首句为该段的主旨句。

例2：
(SS--引用--间接转述) Many people think that ATC consists of a row of controllers sitting in front of their radar screens at the nation’s airports, telling arriving and departing traffic what to do. (TS)This is a very incomplete part of the picture. (SS--引用--间接转述) The FAA realised that the airspace over the United States would at any time have many different kinds of planes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of weather conditions, and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them. (c8t1p2 paragraph D)

在本段中，首尾句都是间接转述细节（解释），只有第二句（即粗体部分的字比较概括，所以第二句是该段落的主旨句。在备选标题中选an oversimplified(=incomplete) view（本句话this回指上句，所以可知view指上句观点）。

经过以上的讲解，各位考鸭在之后找段落中心的时候，要熟悉中心句和支撑句的特点，训练区分主旨和细节的思维，提高做题的速度和准确度。最后，祝各位考鸭在备战雅思的路上顺风顺水。

备注：TS=topic sentence      
SS=supporting sentences
LoH=list of headings

参考文献：雅思真题（4-13）书籍Writing Academic English