托福阅读 | 失分的句子插入题

　　托福阅读的常规题型中的句子插入题，这种题型需要阅读的内容比较多，而且相关线索有的时候比较少，也被纳入了令考生头疼的题型之一。解决这个问题的关键在于如何学会“关联”：

　　①单词之间的关联；

　　②词和词之间的关联；

　　③句子之间的关联。

　　这三种关联，在解题中并不相互排除，可以一并使用帮助确认正确答案。

　　单词和单词之间的关联。

　　Paragraph 4:So, in another set of experiments,Kramerput identical food boxes around the cage, with food in only one of the boxes. ■ The boxes were stationary, and the one containing food was always at the same point of the compass. ■ However, its position with respect to the surroundings could be changed by revolving either the inner cage containing the birds or the outer walls, which served as the background. ■ As long as the birds could see the Sun, no matter how their surroundings were altered, they went directly to the correct food box. ■ Whether the box appeared in front of the right wall or the left wall, they showed no signs of confusion. On overcast days, however, the birds were disoriented and had trouble locating their food box. In experimenting with artificial suns, Kramer made another interesting discovery. If the artificial Sun remained stationary, the birds would shift their direction with respect to it at a rate of about 15 degrees per hour, the Sun's rate of movement across the sky. Apparently, the birds were assuming that the "Sun" they saw was moving at that rate. When the real Sun was visible, however, the birds maintained a constant direction as it moved across the sky. In other words, they were able to compensate for the Sun's movement. This meant that some sort of biological clock was operating-and a very precise clock at that.

　　Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

　　He arranged the feed boxes at various positions on a compass.

　　Where would the sentence best fit?

　　解析：加粗句中的he，和acompass，分别和原文第一句话中的Kramer，以及第二句话中的thecompass对应。所以自然答案应该选A。

　　单词和单词之间的关联即是指代的关系。

　　词和词之间的关联

　　Paragraph 3: ■ Watt's steam engine soon showed what it could do. ■ It liberated industry from dependence on running water. ■ The engine eliminated water in the mines by driving efficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining. ■ The ready availability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop the first new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and a half.

　　Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

　　The factories did not have to go to the streams when power could come to the factories.

　　Where would the sentence best fit?

　　解析：指代关系不能解决所有题目，在这道题目中，如果纠结于thefactories的指代关系就很难找到线索。读完加粗句和原文段落之后，我们发现了一个对应关系：原文第二句话中的表述：it liberated industry from dependence on running water对应了粗体句汇总的did not have to go to the streams.这里很明显是一个上下义词的关系。那什么是上下义词呢，简单的说就是抽象的内容对应具体的内容。原文中抽象概念：解放了对于流水的依赖，对应粗体句（具体内容）：不再需要去河边。

　　所以答案应该选择B。

　　句子和句子之间的关联

　　Paragraph 5: It has not been common at Earth’s since the very beginning of the planet’s history. Because it usually exists in a metallic state, it was preferentially incorporated in Earth’s core as the planet cooled and consolidated. lr is found in high concentrations in some meteorites, in which the solar system’s original chemical composition is preserved. Even today, microscopic meteorites continually bombard Earth, falling on both land and sea. By measuring how many of these meteorites fall to Earth over a given period of time, scientists can estimate how long it might have taken to deposit the observed amount of lr in the boundary clay. ■ These calculations suggest that a period of about one million years would have been required. ■ However, other reliable evidence suggests that the deposition of the boundary clay could not have taken one million years. ■ So the unusually high concentration of lr seems to require a special explanation. ■

　　Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

　　Consequently,the idea that the lr in the boundary clay came from microscopic meteorites cannot be accepted. Where would the sentence best fit?

　　解析：我们阅读完加粗句可以发现，有一个非常明显的线索，consequently，这表明这句话一定和上一句有因果关系。由此，我们发现原文倒数第二句话，其他可靠的证据表明隔层粘土的沉积时间不会超过100万年，和粗体句，所以隔层粘土中的铱元素是来自于小陨石的这种说法不可信，形成了明确的因果关系。

　　答案应该选择C。类似的句间关系词，还有例如also, moreover, in fact等等表并列和递进；however，nonetheless等表转折。

　　由此我们可以做一个小总结：做句子插入题时，核心思路就是各种关联。

　　步骤一：读粗体句时，我们寻找代词，上下义词，以及显示了句间关联的线索；

　　步骤二：将目标段落通读，寻找代词的对应，抽象和具体的关系，以及各种可能的句间关系。

　　步骤三：作出选择。

　　在实际的做题中，我们会发现一些题目还是无法用代词，义词以及句间关联所解决。

　　Paragraph 1: The periodic table is a chart that reflects the periodic recurrence of chemical and physical properties of the elements when the elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus). It is a monumental scientific achievement, and its development illustrates the essential interplay between observation, prediction, and testing required for scientific progress. In the 1800's scientists were searching for new elements. By the late 1860's more than 60 chemical elements had been identified, and much was known about their descriptive chemistry. Various proposals were put forth to arrange the elements into groups based on similarities in chemical and physical properties. ■ The next step was to recognize a connection between group properties (physical or chemical similarities) and atomic mass (the measured mass of an individual atom of an element). ■ When the elements known at the time were ordered by increasing atomic mass, it was found that successive elements belonged to different chemical groups and that the order of the groups in this sequence was fixed and repeated itself at regular intervals. ■ Thus when the series of elements was written so as to begin a new horizontal row with each alkali metal, elements of the same groups were automatically assembled in vertical columns in a periodic table of the elements. ■ This table was the forerunner of the modern table.

　　It was a natural idea to break up the series of elements at the points where the sequence of chemical groups to which the elements belonged began to repeat itself.

　　Where would the sentence best fit?

　　解析：这道题目读完粗体句和目标段落之后，我们会发现么有代词，义词以及句间关系的对应。在这种时候，我们还是要回到插入题的核心思路，关联。原文倒数第三句的后半部分：When the elements known at the time were ordered by increasing atomic mass, it was found that successive elements belonged to different chemical groups andthat the order of the groups in this sequence was fixed and repeated itself at regular intervals.

　　和粗体句的后半部分where the sequence of chemical groups to which the elements belonged began to repeat itself.

　　本质上就是意义的重复。如果我们把粗体句的定语从句理解成状语从句的话，这道题目会明确很多。

　　原文内容：发现元素群的序列是固定的，并且以规矩性间隔重复。

　　粗体内容：当元素群的序列开始重复时，我们….的想法是很自然的。

　　所以，答案应该选择C。

　　当线索寥寥的时候（较难的题目），作为lastresort，我们可以回到语义上去寻找关联。

　　以上就是小编为大家介绍的关于托福阅读中插入题的备考方法。更多托福考点分布、托福与雅思的区别等问题，可以咨询我们。