三、了解常见的句际关系及语篇标识词

　　句际关系主要是考察空白处与前后句子之间的逻辑关系。句子与句子之间的关系可能是显性的，也可能是隐性的。显性的句际关系有明显的标志词出现，这会给考生理解文章的发展脉络带来很大方便。句际关系主要有以下几种：

　　1.顺接关系(顺承关系或并列关系)：后句是前句的延续或补充，标识词主要有then, after that, furthermore, also, when(this happens)等。

　　2.转折关系：前后两句意思相反，标识词通常有but, however, nevertheless, (al)though, in fact等。

3.例证关系：即论据对于论点的论证关系。典型标识词是for example, for instance， take……as an example等。　　

　　4.因果关系：前因后果，或前果后因。可能出现的标识词有for, as a result, as a consequence, consequently, therefore, accordingly等。

　　5.对比、对照关系：对比关系说明前后内容的相同之处，可能出现similarly, like等标志词；对照关系则说明前后内容的不同之处，标识词通常有as a contrast, on the contrary, on the one hand……on the other hand等。

　　四、理解文章中词汇的语义特征上文提到了从整体把握文章的命脉。另外，文章中的某些关键词也能为考生提供线索。在选择时，尽量往这些关键词上"靠"，可以避免离题太远。

　　以下三类词的作用不容忽视：

　　(一)名词表主题　When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend ＄12 to ＄50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator", she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too,"she says.文中的这些名词为考生提供了一条主线，即使没完全读懂，但通过这些名词考生也可以确定这是一篇与经济有关的文章，每句话都没离开这个主题。可以设想一下，如果把其中的任何一句删去，然后让考生选择后补上，在遵循以"经济"为线索的前提下都是很容易解决的。也就是说这些名词表明了这篇文章的主题。

　　(二)动词表变化All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid 1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.动词是各种变化最明显的体现，它可以表明文中所述情况的变化、作者态度的变化以及情感的变化等。本段文字中，先不看其它文字，只看这些关键的动词"caused"、"stopped"、"began to believe"、"begin to fall"、"decline"就可以表明这是一种由好到坏或由坏到好的变化，再结合其他部分可以更加肯定这一点，因为文中所述正是关于美国经济引发的一场信任危机，以及这场危机给人们带来的情感及经济方面的变化。

　　(三)形容

责任编辑:zhaotingting