朗阁海外考试研究中心  张姗姗

在历年的雅思阅读考试中，标题配对题对很多考生来说是很大的难题。对于基础相对薄弱的考生，甚至会错一半甚至三分之二的题目。很多考生反映，考试时一看篇文章开始就是heading题，内心已经慌了大半，已没有耐心解题，索性直接略过篇，跳到第二篇。其实在国内的初高中英语考试中，我们曾大量考过这种标题配对题目，只不过是以单选题的形式出题，大家比较熟悉。再加上正确一般比较明显，干扰选项干扰性比较弱，因此大家一般能选对正确。但为什么同样的考题本质，到了雅思阅读中大家就会把heading题列为难题呢？下面，我们将从几个方面对此题型进行详细解读，最后颠覆传统，巧用英文逻辑，轻松解决heading题。

一、Heading题型的重要性

1. 出题位置

Heading是个题型，后面是正文及其他题型。因为考生广泛将此题型列为难题，因此如果开始就是heading题，大家在心理上会有一定的压迫感。所以考试时千万不要紧张，放松心态，逐题击破。

2. 与其他题型的关系

与heading题型搭配的一般是基础题型，如判断题或单选题。Heading考察大家对某一段落主旨大意的理解，基础题型考察大家对细节的理解，而对段落大意的理解会直接影响对细节的判断。也正因为如此，据朗阁海外考试研究中心的对此题型的总结，发现如果考生做对某一个heading题，那后面出现在这一段的基础题基本也能做对。反之，如果heading选错，那么这一段的细节题一般也会做错。所以，考生要尽量在heading题的部分拿到，才能保证后面基础题的正确率。

3. 分值

Heading属于配对题，而配对题的特点是错一道题可能会扣两分，因为可能会选到另一道题目的正确选项。所以考生要尽可能做对每一道heading题，减少失分率。

二、Heading题型为何难

1. 出题形式

前面我们提到，在传统的中国初高中英语考试中，选主旨大意的题目是以单选题的形式出题的，大家比较熟悉。另外正确选项比较明显，大家都知道要在四个选项中选择为概括的那个，另外三个干扰性都以细节为主，所以能很好排除。但在雅思的heading中，是以列表的形式，即一个list, 给出的选项数量要大于段落数量，所以有干扰项。大的难点在于，所给的选项大多不再是完整的句子，而是以短语为主，更有大量选项只有两三个单词，如the biological clock, enough food at last等。选项由句子变成短语，意味着它会高度概括。对于很多基础比较薄弱的考生来说，看懂原文段落已经比较难了，还要对其进行高度概括，更是难上加难。

2. 时间短

雅思阅读的段落，有些只有三句话，有些长达十句话，大家需要在平均一分半左右的时间内，读完段落，看完选项，再选出正确，所以时间非常紧张。而如果用通读的方式读完一个段落再做题，会发现做完heading题，所剩时间已寥寥无几。所以如果没有掌握正确的解题方法，考生很容易在heading题上浪费大量时间，影响整体做题速度。

三、解题方法

1. 传统方法之——尾句/转折词

大家都知道，短时间内看完一个段落并总结出段落大意，要观察尾句及转折词后面的内容。因此，传统上我们对于heading题的解题有两个解题原则，一是尾句，二是转折词。这个方法是有其合理性的，因为雅思阅读文章大部分为说明文，整篇及段落的结构大都比较有规律，多数为“总-分-总”式写法，因此尾句非常重要，可以让大家大致了解主旨内容。其次，转折词处一般是作者表达主要观点的地方，所以也很重要。

Eg: 剑六文章“The Advantages of Public Transport”

In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work. Trains and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.

这一段的句讲的是上班时间长短的问题，出现了关键词travel times to work, 最后一句话讲的是上班时间变长了，关键词commuting times, 因此正确的heading选项是Ⅶ increases in travelling time.

It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team's research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. 'The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.'

句话是telecommunications对人口分布的影响，但是第二句转折了，所以要看however后面的内容。主旨句是倒数两句：it is valuable to place people working in related fields together, 所以应该是Ⅲ The benefits of working together in cities。值得注意的是这一段很多同学会被句话中telecommunications这个很明显的词迷惑，容易选择干扰项Ⅵ The impact of telecommunications on population distribution, 所以一定要看转折处，尾句有一定的迷惑性，我们稍后会讲到。

Eg: 剑六文章“Motivating Employees under Adverse Conditions”

There is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs. For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within larger business, high achievers should be sought. However, if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation, a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected. Accordingly, high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback. However, it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence, variety and responsibility.

句意思为如果matching people to jobs, 即让人做合适的工作，会带来回报。所以对应选项为Ⅷ ensure employees are suited to their jobs。

The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. For those with high achievement needs, typically a minority in any organisation, the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated. The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with the employees. The answer to that depends on perceptions of goal acceptance and the organisation's culture. If resistance to goals is expected, the use of participation in goal-setting should increase acceptance. If participation is inconsistent with the culture, however, goals should be assigned. If participation and the culture are incongruous, employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.

句意思为管理者应该确保员工有明确目标并收到对自己工作表现的评价，所以对应选项为Ⅶ establish targets and give feedback。

从以上例子不难看出，尾句和转折词还是非常重要的解题技巧。所以对于分数要求不高的同学，heading题采取这个传统方法还是有一定的便利性的。但很多时候大家会发现，仅仅根据这两个方面，并不能总是得到正确，这是因为不是所有段落的主旨句都出现在尾句（如上述telecommunications的例子），并且很多时候尾句关键词会成为干扰选项（详见下文例子）。另外，转折处固然很重要，但如果只看转折处并不能理解整段在说什么。所以，一个严峻的问题摆在大家面前，就是如果想在heading题上获得比较大的正确率，通读全段变得不可避免。但如果逐字逐词地读，时间肯定是不够的。好在雅思阅读的一个特点是段落在遣词造句方面非常有逻辑，这就意味着句与句之间的关系非常清楚，如果我们能搞懂句与句的逻辑关系，那整段的主旨就很明显了。特别是对于难度较大、仅靠尾句无法判断甚至选错选项的题目，打破尾句的传统，巧用句与句之间的逻辑关系，就变得特别重要，能保证大家基本拿到。

2. 读懂大概，利用逻辑

Eg: 剑八文章“Land of the Rising Sum”

It is remarkable that large, mixed-ability classes could be kept together for Maths throughout all their compulsory schooling from 6 to 15. Teachers say that they give individual help at the end of a lesson or after school, setting extra work if necessary. In observed lessons, any strugglers would be assisted by the teacher or quietly seek help from their neighbour. Carefully fostered class identity makes pupils keen to help each other - anyway, it is in their interests since the class progresses together.

This scarcely seems adequate help to enable slow learners to keep up. However, the Japanese attitude towards education runs along the lines of 'if you work hard enough, you can do almost anything'. Parents are kept closely informed of their children's progress and will play a part in helping their children to keep up with class, sending them to 'Juku' (private evening tuition) if extra help is needed and encouraging them to work harder. It seems to work, at least for 95 per cent of the school population.

如果只看句，大家很容易被compulsory schooling迷惑，错选Ⅲ The success of compulsory education。但是我们扫一遍每一句话，在注意到没有转折词（即不会出现重要意思改变）的情况下，我们发现几乎每一句话都有help这个单词或者其近义词assist等，所以整段都跟help others有关，正确应为Ⅱ Helping less successful students。

Eg: 剑九文章“Is anybody out there?”

Ever when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms.

句主要意思为人类对于其他生命了解还非常有限，如果只看句，很容易选择干扰项Ⅵ Knowledge of extra-terrestrial intelligence。我们观察一下句与句之间的关系，第二句话是for example, 是对句举例子，起支持作用的，因此可忽略，因为没有出现重大意思改变。第三句话转折，通过分析长难句得到主句：it seems inconceivable that at least one of these plants does have a life form on it, 讲其他星球存在生命的可能性。后面in fact表示递进关系，可以忽略。最后一句话容易让大家选择干扰项Ⅲ vast distances to Earth’s closest neighbors。所以通过这样很快浏览原文每句话的大意，以及句与句之间的关系，我们很快将一篇难度较大、篇幅较长的段落缩成两个大意思，即“知之甚少”和“生命存在可能性”。又因为however后面比较重要，因此正确选项为Ⅶ likelihood of life on other planets。

Eg: 剑九文章“The development of museums”

It could be claimed that in order to make everything in heritage more ‘real’, historical accuracy must be increasingly altered. For example, Pithecanthropus erectus is depicted in an Indonesian museum with Malay facial features, because this corresponds to public perceptions. Similarly, in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, Neanderthal man is shown making a dominant gesture to his wife. Such presentations tell us more about contemporary perceptions of the world than about our ancestors. There is one compensation, however, for the professionals who make these interpretations: if they did not provide the interpretation, visitors would do it for themselves, based on their own ideas, misconceptions and prejudices. And no matter how exciting the result, it would contain a lot more bias than the presentations provided by experts.

句是为了看起来更真实，要改变准确性。后面第二句和第三句因为出现了for example和地点或人名，所以都是例子，可忽略不计。第四句话是总结句。后面的转折句大意为提供解释比游客自己解释更好。所以通过观察句与句之间的逻辑，我们很快将一个长段落总结成几个小意思，很容易选出来：interpreting the facts to meet visitor expectations。

For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what's happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country's newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.

只看句得知主旨与Inuit有关，但无法选择，因为两个选项都出现了关键词。扫第二、三两句，无转折，是对句的支持，可忽略。读到第四句，可在两个选项中选出正确选项The reaction of the Inuit community to climate change。

Heading的解题，不只要看尾句或转折词，因为很多时候尾句出现的关键词会成为干扰项，只看转折词并不能准确判断上下文讨论的内容，因此好的方法是每句都看，但只看重点，然后分析句与句之间的关系，结合转折处。如果某一句是上一句的并列、举例、递进等平行关系，可忽略不计。如果是重大意思转折处，要仔细看。这样，我们既在短的时间内浏览了全段，又能搞清楚句与句之间的关系从而总结出主要内容，保证heading题的正确率。