2. 了解阐述主旨的事实和细节
为了准确理解每篇文章或每段文章的中心思想，我们必须要找到与中心思想有关的事实和细节。一个好的作者必然会引用事实、或分析原因、或对比事物间的关系等以论证自己的论点。常用以提问这类事实和细节的问题有两种。一种是要求找出文章中的重要事实或细节，这些常与wh0，when，where，which或why有关。另一种问题是辨认哪些细节在文章中没被提及。这些问题常有except，not(mentioned／true)，least等。例如：
1. What causes __________ ?
2. Some people do sth. because__________
3. Sb. is … because ________.
4. Why does the author mention ...?
5. Which of the following best characterizes the main feature of...?
6. Where in the passage does the author describe...?
7. Which of the following does the author want to illustrate in discussing ...?
8. What time does the writer think is ?
9. What does the author pay least attention to?
10. Which of the following is not a result of _______?
11. All of the following may be ... except ________.
12. Which of the following is not mentioned?
13. Which of the following statements is true ?
14. The author states all of the items listed except_______. 为了正确回答这一类题目，读者往往要采用各种阅读方法和解题技巧，也就是综合解题法。在通读全文、掌握文章的中心大意的基础上，首先要仔细看懂问题，明确问的是什么，然后按照题意进行寻读，找到正确答案的根据。
例1
Ours has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one out of every five Americans at work was employed, i.e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago "being employed" meant working as a factory laborer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding a professional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population --growing so fast that the industrial worker, that oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the expansion of industrial production.
Yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it will be the mechanist's trade or bookkeeping. Every one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.
1. According to the passage, with the development of modem industry, .
A. factory laborers will overtake intellectual employees in number
B. there are as many middle-class employees as factory laborers
C. employers have attached great importance to factory laborers
D. the proportion of factory laborers in the total employee population has decreased
本题具体涉及对第一段的中心意思的理解，尤其是对这段最后一句中losing in numerical importance的确切理解。这一段的大致意思是，当今的社会已经成为一个雇员的社会。大约在100年前，5个美国人中只有1个人是被雇佣为别人干活的。今天，5个人中只有l个人是为自己干而不被雇佣的。50年前，被雇佣就意味着当工厂或农场的劳动力。而今天，越来越多的雇员是接受过正规教育的中产阶层。他们承担了需要智力和技术的职业或管理工作。50年以来，美国社会的确有两个特点：中层和上层雇员成了工薪队伍中人数快速增长的一部分一—其速度之快使得作为工业革命最早的产物的产业工人在人数上相形见绌，尽管工业生产还在扩大规模。所以选项D是正确答案。选项A意思与选项D正好相反。同样，选项B和选项C都不对。
2. According to the writer, professional knowledge or skill is________.
A. less important than awareness of being a good employee
B. as important as the ability to deal with public relations
C. more important than employer--employee relations
D. as important as the ability to co-operate with others in the organization
本题考查读者对文章第二段中关于专门知识和技能的重要性的论点的理解。学生可以 从最后一句找出正确答案。这一句指出，“人们失败的原因更多的是不具备当雇员的要素，而不是缺乏本行业的专业技能”。因此选项A是正确答案。选项B说的是公共关系的能力， 是误解，因为文章说的是单位内部开展工作的能力，如内部合作的好(the ability to work within the organization)。选项C把意思颠倒了。选项D说两者同等重要，当然也不对。 例2
To prepare for career in engineerin9, a student must begin planning in high school. Mathematics and science should form the core curriculum．For example，in a school where sixteen credit hours are required for high school graduation，four should be in mathematics，one each in chemistry，biology，and physics．The remaining credits should include four in English and at least three in the humanities and social sciences．The average entering freshman in engineering should have achieved at least a 2.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale in his or her high sch001． Although deficiencies can be corrected during the first year，the student who needs additional work should expect tO spend five instead of four years completing a degree．
1．What is the average grade point that an entering freshman in engineering should have achieved in his or her high school?
答案：2．5．(看文章的第五句)
2．When should a student begin planning for a career in engineering?
答案：In high sch001．(看文章的第一句)
3．In normal situations，how many years are needed for a student to complete a degree?
答案：Four．(看文章最后一句)
4．How many credits are required for a high school diploma?
答案：Sixteen．(看文章第三句)
5．How many credits need a student have in English?
答案：Four．(看文章第四句) | 
