1.1.1 破解主題

聽懂文章的主題關鍵在于從講座的開頭段中尋找關鍵信息，即主題詞和其定義。從歷年的真題來看，講座的開頭一般有兩種類型：一、開門見山型。二、駁斥傳統(tǒng)觀點引出新觀點型。第一種類型的講座在開篇直接給出主題及對關鍵名詞的定義。第二種類型首先會介紹與主題相關的觀點或者背景知識，需要準確鑒別信息，定位真正的講座主題是什么。

第一種即開門見山型的好處是簡單明了，但也存在難點，即信息量密集，給考生的反應時間縮短。

比如 2010年的講座：

Good morning, everyone. Today we'll continue our discussion on describing language. Last week we examined such features of language as grammar, vocabulary, the sounds of language, etc. In this lecture, we'll look at another important aspect of language. Perhaps some of you may wonder what is this important aspect of language. Let me tell you. It refers to features of communication that takes place without the use of grammar or vocabulary. They are called“paralinguistic features of language”. These features fall into two broad categories: those that involve voice and those that involve the body.

講座在簡單回顧了前一周的課程內容后，直接進入本周要討論的內容。此篇講座首先以一個過渡句引起學生的注意，即“In this lecture, we'll look at another important aspect of language”，使學生做好筆記的準備。接下來首先提供了一個重要的定義，“features of communication that takes place without the use of grammar or vocabulary”，然后再提出名詞，即“paralinguistic features of language”。至此可知，文章的主題為語言的副語言特征，全文將對其進行詳細論述。

另外，開門見山型的題目有時會使用設問句來引導主題，比如 2008年的講座：

As we all know, English is widely used in the world. Although English is not the language with the largest number of native orfirst language speakers, it has really become a lingua franca. Then what is a lingua franca? The term refers to a language which is widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose native languages are different from each others and where one or both speakers are using it as a second language. For example, when an Indian talks to a Singaporean using English, then English is the lingua franca.

在首先引出一個比較生僻的詞組，lingua franca即通用語后，用一個設問句“Then what is a lingua franca?”引出定義，即“The term refers to a language which is widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose native languages are different from each others and where one or both speakers are using it as a second language.”并隨后舉例說明，此時即可掌握文章的主題并預測隨后論述的重點。

第二種類型的講座一般由一個傳統(tǒng)的或者普遍的觀點引入，講座通過對這個觀點的分析及駁斥引出真正的觀點，往往是截然相反的態(tài)度，因此要注意識別講座的真正觀點。這種類型的題目提供了更多的理解時間，以及關鍵名詞的記錄時間。比如 2011年的講座：

Good morning everyone, today we'll look at culture or rather classifications of cultures. Usually when we deal with different people, we deal with them as if we were all members of the same culture. However, it's possible that people from different cultures have different assumptions about the world, regarding such important and basic ideas as time, personal space. And this is the view of Edward Hall. And Edward Hall is an anthropologist who spent a large part of his life studying American Indians, their culture, their language, but he was different from a lot of other anthropologists who just study one culture. He was interested in the relations between cultures, how cultures interact, what Hall believes is that cultures can be classified by placing them on a continuum, ranging from what he called high-context to low-context.

講座雖然在一開始就提出了文化的分類 (classification of cultures)的主題，但并沒有直接進入講座的重點內容，而是通過“usually”這個關鍵詞介紹了普遍流行的觀點，即“we deal with them as if we were all members of the same culture”。真正的觀點出現在“however”后，即“it's possible that people from different cultures have different assumptions about the world, regarding such important and basic ideas as time, personal space”。之后引導出 Edward Hall的觀點并進行深入解釋。

因此，正確識別這兩種常見的開頭有助于準確抓住文章的中心論點，并初步理解生僻的概念性詞匯。初步理解后，也能大膽預測后文的論述內容，并有選擇地做筆記。