在学习托福阅读的时候，大多数同学都会有一个疑问，到底是先读文章呢还是直接看题。如果先读读文章的话，同学们会发现很多时候其实读的时候压根没有记住文章在说什么，只是由于惯性记住了一些比较好懂的句子和奇怪的知识点。比如说曾经有一段文字说到恐龙会便秘，大多数同学读完之后只记得了这个点。但如果直接做题目的话，会发现直接阅读又容易不知所措。

一般我给同学的建议都是阅读的时候先找到本段主旨，这样既不会被过多的细节干扰也能够更快的在脑中梳理逻辑以便对整篇文章框架有一个更好的理解。

那么，如何快速寻找段落主旨呢？托福阅读整体来说是非常规律的，文章科普性强，作者不带有个人观点。这种文章，段落结构相对来说是比较清晰的，一般在段落开始时作者就会阐述观点，并在后续通过细节描写来解释这一观点。我们来看一个例子：

The region of Memphis must have also served as an important node for transport and communications, even before the unification of Egypt. The region probably acted as a conduit for much, if not all, of the river-based trade between northern and southern Egypt. Moreover, commodities (such as wine, precious oils, and metals) imported from the Near East by the royal courts of predynastic Upper Egypt would have been channeled through the Memphis region on their way south. In short, therefore, the site of Memphis offered the rulers of the Early Dynastic Period an ideal location for controlling internal trade within their realm, an essential requirement for a state-directed economy that depended on the movement of goods.

让我们看这一段，句话是在讲孟菲斯在埃及统一前就是交通和通讯的重要枢纽了。是一个高度概括的句子，并且我们粗略看一下后面也确实都在讲交通和通讯的重要性。这就是很明显的句话是主旨的情况并且在最后一句话还出现了therefore这个表示总结的逻辑词再一次论证。但是还有很多时候句话让我们无法判定，或者段落很长，应该如何处理呢？让我们再来一个例子：

Reduction in numbers of game should have boded ill for their survival in later times. A worsening of the plight of deer was to be expected as settlers encroached on the land, logging, burning, and clearing, eventually replacing a wilderness landscape with roads, cities, towns, and factories. No doubt the numbers of deer declined still further. Recall the fate of the Columbian white-tailed deer, now in a protected status. But for the black-tailed deer, human pressure has had just the opposite effect. Wildlife zoologist Helmut Buechner(1953), in reviewing the nature of biotic changes in Washington through recorded time, says that "since the early 1940s, the state has had more deer than at any other time in its history, the winter population fluctuating around approximately 320,000 deer (mule and black-tailed deer), which will yield about 65,000 of either sex and any age annually for an indefinite period."

我们看这一段，句话是在讲猎物（注意game在这里是猎物的意思）数量的减少预示了后续它们很难生存。看上去是一个蛮概括的句子，然后我们再看后面不难发现在段落中间是有一个but的，转折关系在段落中是一个很重要的点。But这句话在讲，但是对于黑尾鹿来说，人类的压力正好产生了一个相反的作用。结合前面说的鹿在减少的事情，这个相反的作用不言而喻也就是增加了。后面的例子也可以不难发现是在说增加。所以这是一个典型的转折关系引导主旨出现在段落中间的情况。

大多数同学对于长段落是排斥的，觉得不好抓住重点，这种时候就特别需要注意段落结构，句话和转折和总结关系都是段落中重要的分界点来帮我们整理归纳一个段落。这种地方也会更好的抓住主旨。大家需要在做题的时候多注意，这样对最后一题也是很有帮助的。