我們都知道,句子是由詞組成的,但同一句中的各個詞的分量不盡相同,有的起著關(guān)鍵的作用;段落是由句子構(gòu)成的,然而同一段落中的各個句子的分量也是不盡相同的,有的是關(guān)鍵句、核心句,有的則起著輔助說明的作用,為闡述中心思想而服務(wù)。這些關(guān)鍵詞、關(guān)鍵句表達的正是段落的重要信息,我們?nèi)绻プ×怂鼈兙偷扔谧プ×硕温涞暮诵?,就知道在什么地方?yīng)該加快速度,什么地方應(yīng)該放慢速度,當(dāng)然也就掌握了閱讀節(jié)奏。
一般而言,對于關(guān)鍵詞和關(guān)鍵句應(yīng)該慢讀,做到充分理解,牢牢把握;而對非關(guān)鍵詞和非關(guān)鍵句應(yīng)加快閱讀速度,留出多于時間,用以反復(fù)閱讀重點句或歸納總結(jié)。例子如下:
例1:
A lot of people think that cultural anthropology is just about studying the special and strange aspects of a society, but anthropologists are also interested in the aspects of life that seems so ordinary that the people in the society think they are not significant.
在讀的過程中我們很容易找到關(guān)鍵詞,如:cultural anthropology, the special and strange aspects of life, but, anthropologists, interested, ordinary, significant。這些關(guān)鍵詞反映了此句的主要信息:"許多人認為文化人類學(xué)就是研究特殊而奇怪的社會現(xiàn)象,但人類學(xué)家有時還對一些人們認為不重要的、看起來很普通的生活現(xiàn)象感興趣。"通過分析關(guān)鍵詞,我們又發(fā)現(xiàn)"but"這個具有轉(zhuǎn)折意義的連接詞,它向我們顯示了此句的后半句才是整個句子的核心部分,它提示我們閱讀時應(yīng)更加留心閱讀后半句的關(guān)鍵詞,提煉關(guān)鍵信息。因此,我們可以很肯定地確認此句最重要的意義應(yīng)該是:"Anthropologists are also interested in the aspects of life so ordinary that people don’t think they are significant."并且也可以很肯定地預(yù)測,如有下文,也一定是就后半句所反映的核心信息繼續(xù)論述,而不是前半句的。這樣,在閱讀時,我們就會把目光把注意力更加有目的地集中在后半句的關(guān)鍵詞上,而對那些附加修飾、說明的部分,如:修飾people的a lot of 、in the society就可以快速閱讀,甚至略去不讀,因為它并不影響我們對中心意思的理解與把握。
例2:
Smell and Memory
Scientists are producing an increasing number of findings on the links between smell and memory.The most prominent scientist in this field is Dr. Alan Hirsch, a US neurologist who specializes in the treatment of patients who have lost their sense of smell or taste. He believes that the memories that certain smells bring back to people are not actually as important as the emotions that are associated with the smells. He also argues that our minds filter these emotions in a positive way,making past times seem better than they perhaps were.首先,我們注意到這個段落的題目是"Smell and Memory",我們從題目中還得知了中心思想。因此我們可以得知本段主要論述的應(yīng)是smell and memory之間的聯(lián)系,由此找到了關(guān)鍵詞語"the links between smell and memory"(在段首),而能說明它們之間關(guān)系的句子又是最后一句。所以,這個段落的核心信息是:"Some smells remind us of a previous thing in a way that is better than the real experience."由此判定,本段的首尾部分都需細心地、稍慢地閱讀,而對"最著名的;專門治療何種病人的"這樣相對次要的句子就可以加快閱讀速度。