有很多學生學了語法後做閱讀仍舊是讀不懂讀不快，甚至是一遇到長點的句子就發怵， 總是糾結於是不是自己的語法知識沒學好， 然後就永遠把重心放在學語法或是即將去學語法的道路中， 其實對於這些同學，我想說的是他們中的很多有可能並不是自己的語法知識沒學好而是不知道怎樣把語法中學到的知識運用到咱們的託福閱讀中來。所以從今天開始呢咱們就來講幾個語法中的「小詞」，這些小詞可以幫助咱們提高一下閱讀的速度。
首先，咱們先來看一下名詞。
名詞，幾乎在所有語法書裡都是放在第一位去講的，在咱們中學的英語課本中也是這樣，可見它的重要性。那小小的名詞在咱們託福閱讀中到底有什麼作用呢?首先同學們，咱們先來想一下名詞都分成哪幾大類?很簡單，名詞分成了專有名詞和普通名詞兩大類。普通名詞按照它的可數性我們還可以分成可數名詞和不可數名詞。可能這個時候有的同學會說了：「我印象中只記得可數名詞和不可數名詞了，對專有名詞怎麼完全沒有印象呢?」是的，在咱們的語法學習中相比較專有名詞來說，普通名詞中的可數和不可數我們更加熟悉，因為我們所涉及的與語法有關的考試中都會對單複數這塊進行考察，而往往是不是專有名詞這塊我們因為認為太過於簡單所以在考察語法的考試中是不會出現的。但是在咱們的託福閱讀中情況有點小變化，專有名詞更值得說一下，因為專有名詞顯得更加重要一些，它在閱讀中的特點會多一些，我們只要掌握好了它的這幾個小特點就可以幫助我們加快閱讀速度。
那麼咱們先來看一下專有名詞的概念：專有名詞是特定的某人、地方或機構的名稱，即：人名，地名，月份等等。專有名詞的第一個字母必須大寫。看完專有名詞的概念後我們抓到的它的一個非常重要的特點就是它的首字母一定會大寫。或許有的學生會問：這點有那麼重要嗎?我的答案是：非常重要!因為我們想一下，咱們的託福閱讀文章首先是科普類的文章，在科普類文章中會出現一些我們比較陌生的專有名詞，一旦出現這種詞的時候往往有些同學因為看到單詞不認識就不敢繼續讀下去了， 其實這個時候我們只要記住專有名詞的第一個閱讀技巧就可以幫助我們越過這個讀句子的障礙，這個技巧就是在句子中遇到專有名詞的時候即使不認識也不要緊，直接用首字母代替這個詞，快速掃過，繼續接著讀後面的內容，這些大寫的專有名詞並不會妨礙我們理解整個句子的意思。比如： The New Deal was designed by President Roosevelt in the 1930s. (選自《新託福考試專項進階-初級》)在這句話中我們只需要把專有名詞用首字母代替就可以簡化整句，變成 ND was designed by PR in the 1930s. 這句話我們就可以非常簡單的理解成「在20世紀30年代的時候某個東西被某個總統提出來了」。另外的一個特點就是在一篇科普類的文章中除了數字之外就是專有名詞會比較讓我們一眼就能找到，而找顯眼的詞這個技巧在咱們的很多題型中，比如細節題、推斷題都是需要掌握的一點也就是我們經常會說到的定位， 而對於我們來說如果在題幹中我們看到了專有名詞既大寫的單詞的時候就比較容易用這些詞來去定位， 因為大寫的名詞在原段落中很容易一眼就能找到，還有就是它的樣子是不會發生改變的。
我們來看一道TPO中的題：
How had Fort Vancouver changed by the time David Douglas returned in 1832? ( 選自TPO4 Deer population of the Puget Sound )
A. The fort had become the headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company.
B. Deer had begun populating the meadows around the fort.
C. Deer populations near the fort had been destroyed.
D. Crop yields in the area around the fort had decreased.
The numbers of deer have fluctuated markedly since the entry of Europeans into Puget Sound country. The early explorers and settlers told of abundant deer in the early 1800s and yet almost in the same breath bemoaned the lack of this succulent game animal. Famous explorers of the north American frontier, Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River on November 14, 1805, in nearly starved circumstances. They had experienced great difficulty finding game west of the Rockies and not until the second of December did they kill their first elk. To keep 40 people alive that winter, they consumed approximately 150 elk and 20 deer. And when game moved out of the lowlands in early spring, the expedition decided to return east rather than face possible starvation. Later on in the early years of the nineteenth century, when Fort Vancouver became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, deer populations continued to fluctuate. David Douglas, Scottish botanical explorer of the 1830s, found a disturbing change in the animal life around the fort during the period between his first visit in 1825 and his final contact with the fort in 1832. A recent Douglas biographer states:" The deer which once picturesquely dotted the meadows around the fort were gone [in 1832], hunted to extermination in order to protect the crops."
這是這篇文章中的一個細節題，那我們解題的方法就是先從題幹中找關鍵詞來定位，而這個題特別明顯的一點就是通過這兩個專有名詞來定位，我們只需要把FV和DD這兩個詞所在的句子在段落中找出來讀一下就可以找到這個題的答案，既快速讀完段落中的這部分文字： when Fort Vancouver became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, deer populations continued to fluctuate. David Douglas, Scottish botanical explorer of the 1830s, found a disturbing change in the animal life around the fort during the period between his first visit in 1825 and his final contact with the fort in 1832. A recent Douglas biographer states:" The deer which once picturesquely dotted the meadows around the fort were gone [in 1832], hunted to extermination in order to protect the crops." 我們得到的信息是：鹿群的數量減少了，所以綜合四個選項我們就能夠得出這個題的答案是C選項。
說完了專有名詞之後當然要說一下普通名詞了。普通名詞在咱們閱讀中需要注意的一個很重要的一點是它的同義替換，甚至是一個名詞短語用一個動詞詞組來代替，比如在TPO4 Petroleum Resources這篇文章中有道細節題是這樣問的：
which of the following strategies for oil exploration is described in paragraph 4 and paragraph5 ?
如果我們按照從題幹定位關鍵詞oil exploration來代入原段落:
As oil becomes increasingly difficult to find, the search for it is extended into more-hostile environments. The development of the oil field on the North Slope of Alaska and the construction of the Alaska pipeline are examples of the great expense and difficulty involved in new oil discoveries. Offshore drilling platforms extend the search for oil to the ocean’s continental shelves—those gently sloping submarine regions at the edges of the continents. More than one-quarter of the world’s oil and almost one-fifth of the world’s natural gas come from offshore, even though offshore drilling is six to seven times more expensive than drilling on land. A significant part of this oil and gas comes from under the North Sea between Great Britain and Norway.
Of course, there is far more oil underground than can be recovered. It may be in a pool too small or too far from a potential market to justify the expense of drilling. Some oil lies under regions where drilling is forbidden, such as national parks or other public lands. Even given the best extraction techniques, only about 30 to 40 percent of the oil in a given pool can be brought to the surface. The rest is far too difficult to extract and has to remain underground.
我們會發現在原段落中是沒有oil exploration這個詞的，但是如果我們能夠知道exploration就等於search for 的話我們就能夠在原段落中找到search for oil這個詞，然後再根據這個詞來讀相應的句子就可以得出這個題的答案了。
所以說，對於普通名詞來說我們需要在記憶單詞的時候多記憶一些詞的同義詞替換才可以，相比較專有名詞來說，普通名詞沒有技巧只有多多努力擴充自己的詞彙儲備才可以。
好了，有關名詞在咱們託福閱讀中怎樣去掌握今天我就先說到這裡，其他的語法小詞如何在閱讀中運用我會在今後的文章中繼續幫助同學們進行補充。
(實習編輯：羅偉)