代词，往往是我们英语学习中容易忽视的一类单词，因为它们本身并没有太多色彩，太多意义。但是代词的正确使用会让我们的英语表达更加地道，在英语写作方面，它们也让我们的句子结构更加紧凑。
在托福阅读中，指代题虽然题量不大，但是除了指代题之外，事实信息题、句子插入题以及推断题的很多考点就是清楚地知道代词的指代。如果我们准确领悟代词的指代，很多题目都可以迎刃而解。
下面将从指代题、事实信息题和推断题入手，逐一分析代词指代的重要性。
1、指代题
例题1：
Paragraph 3: At the upper timberline the trees begin to become twisted and deformed. This is particularly true for trees in the middle and upper latitudes, which tend to attain greater heights on ridges, whereas in the tropics the trees reach their greater heights in the valleys. This is because middle- and upper- latitude timberlines are strongly influenced by the duration and depth of the snow cover. As the snow is deeper and lasts longer in the valleys, trees tend to attain greater heights on the ridges, even though they are more exposed to high-velocity winds and poor, thin soils there. In the tropics, the valleys appear to be more favorable because they are less prone to dry out, they have less frost, and they have deeper soils.
The word they in the passage refers to
○valleys
○trees
○heights
○ridges
首先，在考察指代题时，代词“they”在题干中打上阴影，并且原文中代词“they”也打上了阴影，所以指代题不需要定位。
其次，在解答指代题时，我们只需要看两句话，一是代词所在的这句，二是前面一句。以这道题为例，我们这句话是由since引导的原因状语从句，主句的主语是trees, 然后trees所在的这句话又接了个even though引导的让步状语从句，而从句中的主语是代词，很明显它指代的就是主句中的主语，所以答案是“trees”。所以我们得出了一条规律：在主从复合句中，主语应该是一致的。
例题2：
Paragraph 6: Workers were united in resenting the industrial system and their loss of status, but they were divided by ethnic and racial antagonisms, gender, conflicting religious perspectives, occupational differences, political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics. For them, the factory and industrialism were not agents of opportunity but reminders of their loss of independence and a measure of control over their lives. As United States society became more specialized and differentiated, greater extremes of wealth began to appear. And as the new markets created fortunes for the few, the factory system lowered the wages of workers by dividing labor into smaller, less skilled tasks.
The word them in the passage refers to
○workers
○political party loyalties
○disagreements over tactics
○agents of opportunity
拿到这道题，我们发现代词“them”在这句话的句首，for them对他们来说，所以这道题的指代在上一句中。我们不难发现，上一句话中出现了大量的名词短语的并列，而选项中B和C在原文中是以并列形式出现的，表明重要性一致，所以优先排除这两个选项，那么上句话中一提到的名词又在选项中出现的，只有A。
提醒广大托儿们，当两个选项在文中是以并列或列举形式出现，那么我们首先先排除这两个选项。
2、事实信息题
例题1：
Paragraph 3: The subjects of the paintings are mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare walls, with no backdrops or environmental trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women believed that the drawing of a human image could cause death of injury, and if that were indeed their belief, it might explain why human figures are rarely depicted in cave art. Another explanation for the focus on animals might be that these people sought to improve their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested by evidence of chips in the painted figures, perhaps made by spears thrown at the drawings. But if improving their hunting luck was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is difficult to explain why only a few show signs of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals.
According to paragraph 3, scholars explained chips in the painted figures of animals by proposing that
○Upper Paleolithic artists used marks to record the animals they had seen
○the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals for hunting
○the artists had removed rough spots on the cave walls
○Upper Paleolithic people used the paintings to increase their luck at hunting
事实信息题主要考察的就是准确定位和同义转换的能力，所以只需要带着题干中的信息到文章定位，阅读相关的一两句话，找到同义改写，即能选出答案。但是对众多考生来说，准确定位不难，但是到底我们应该阅读定位信息的什么地方，前面还是后面，亦或是该句本身?
首先，题干中的名词：chips是解题关键，到文中定位到第七行倒数第二个单词，我们发现这句话的主语是this theory, 所以chips想要提出的理论，应该在上句话中。往前看一句，我们发现该句的主语是another explanation, 很明显这是段落的分论点二，所以答案就是这一句，画动物的理由是improve their luck at hunting, 选项D地表达了这个概念。
3、推断题
推断题一直都被很多学生“嫌弃”，因为它太难了，正确率总是提不上来，要不就是不知道怎么推断，要不就是过度臆想，反正就是想不通答案的来源。而今天小编将从代词指代的角度帮助大家解决推断题。
例题1：
Paragraph 1: When it comes to physiology, the leatherback turtle is, in some ways, more like a reptilian whale than a turtle. It swims farther into the cold of the northern and southern oceans than any other sea turtle, and it deals with the chilly waters in a way unique among reptiles.
What can be inferred about whales from paragraph 1?
○They are considered by some to be reptiles.
○Their bodies are built in a way that helps them manage extremely cold temperatures.
○They are distantly related to leatherback turtles.
○They can swim farther than leatherback turtles.
首先：题干中出现“infer”、“imply”和“indicate”表明它是推断题，顾名思义，推断题的答案文中没有明确给出，但是答案一定基于原文，一定是原文的合理推断，不能妄自联想和猜想。我们通过题干中的一名词“whale”定位，发现它在第二行，我们很快也发现这句话的主语是：leatherback turtle, whale只是和它有类比关系，他们很相像，因为文中出现了“the leatherback turtle is more like a reptilian whale.” 紧接着我们看到下一句：it swims farther into the cold of the northern and southern oceans, 这句话中出现代词it, 很明显指代的是上句话中：leatherback turtle, 但是turtle和whale是类比关系，所以turtle能做的事，whale也可以，所以答案和在冰冷的海水中可以游得很远有关，所以答案是B。
通过上述三个题型的讲解，我们不难发现很多托福阅读的题型的解题方法都离不开代词的指代，这就要求我们以后在阅读文章时，多问问自己这些代词的指代，加以时日的练习，我们一定能在托福阅读的题型解法上有突飞猛进的进步。
