许多考生在进行托福听力备考的过程中经常会有一种感觉就是学术讲座(lecture)的信息量较多，无法完全在短短的2-3分钟时间内记录下所需要的关键线索。
阿伦老师对托福听力高分同学们做了一次学习习惯调查，发现高分同学普遍在听力中对各类提示的关键信息的信号词有充分的了解和敏感度，而低分同学通常在这一块相对比较缺乏。
今天阿伦老师就来为大家详细解读托福听力备考中学生们需要予以关注的三大关键信号词。
解释说明类(Explanatory)信号词
常见的有同意替换和举例说明。同义替换，常见的信号词有
that is；
namely；
or rather；
to be more exact；
to put it another way；
in other words;
by definition;
在托福听力中，我们经常会听到进行定义介绍的说法如“it is called + 专有名词”， 或者“专有名词 refer(s) to …”。一般而言，这类专有名词术语某个特定的领域，如商业、教育学、考古学、地球科学。考生相对不太熟悉，因此这些信号词的前后内容能够增加考生对整体听力讲座的把握和主旨理解。
TPO 33 The Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt might be the most famous building in the world. We know exactly when it was built. Construction started in 2547 B.C.E., about 4500 years ago. We know who had it built. That was the pharaoh Khufu. We know who oversaw its construction—the pharaoh’s brother. We know so many things about it, but the funny thing is: we still don’t know exactly how it was built.
TPO 49 Montessori Method
Professor: Ok, if you did your reading for today, then you were introduced to a very influential alternative to traditional education. This educational philosophy and methodology was pioneered in Italy in the early 1900s by Doctor Maria Montessori. It's called the Montessori Method. But what made the Montessori Method for young children so different? What made it so different, so special?
TPO 26 Green Marketing
Professor: Last class someone asked about green marketing. Green marketing refers to companies promoting the products as environmentally friendly. Companies often turn to advertising experts to help them do this.
托福听力中，教授也常会进行举例说明。常见的举例信号词：
for example；
just as；
for instance,
通过举一些常见或者比较容易理解的例子，去解释某样事物或某个现象，使得其更加生动形象，通俗易懂。
TPO 42 Service Recovery
Professor: Oh, there are literally hundreds of examples. Service providers must of course constantly strive to meet customers’ needs. But, as in retail, their instances of service failure in which the customers dissatisfied, perhaps to the point not doing business with you anymore. Some service failures are beyond our organization and control, like computer mail function that leads to miss-deadlines.
这篇商业题材的讲座中，教授在开篇简单列举了服务行业(service providers)中几种失败案例(service failure)，比如miss deadlines, process problems, human error, 并且根据原文So, if you are in a service industry, as a marketer you always need some kind of service recovery plan. 可知她此次lecture的目的就是为了强调这些关于服务行业失败案例对应方案的重要性。这一部分配合原题的中的内容主旨题，考生们可以迅速掌握文章的主旨信息。
逻辑性信号词
如最常见的原因、对比、转折、并列等。
对于原因信号词，考生可以尤为注意
because (of);
so;
the reason why;
since;
as/for;
等类型的词或词组，考生在听到这些信号词的时候一定要注意听后面的解释，通过现象或定义看到问题的本质和根源，这才是考核的关键所在。
TPO 42 Service Recovery
But your customer is less concerned about this source of the failure than the solution. What you do about it? What sort of compensation, what service recovery you give? So, if you’re in the service industry, as a marketer, you always need some kind of service recovery plan. Your plan must in place before failure occurs, and it must also be communicated promptly to everyone in your organization who deals with customers, so they will know what to do.
此处教授用汽车租赁中介(Car Rental Agency)作为例子，举例说明比如顾客进行预约但是员工却记错了日期，此时应该如何对顾客进行一些补偿(sort of compensation)，这就是服务补救(service recovery)。教授借这个例子来介绍服务补救规划(service recovery plan)的这个概念。
对于对比信号词，考生除了注意比较级和最高级之外，还要多注意
compare to;
different from……l
unlike……;
(not) as ……as;
等这些间接表达对比的词或词组。
TPO 15 Distraction
Professor：
Yes, and that's one of the hypotheses that was proposed, that the brain simply doesn't admit the unimportant information.
That was quite a surprise and it proved that the second hypothesis – that we do perceive everything all the time but the brain categorizes distractions differently, well, that wasn't true either.
此处，研究者们做出了认知失败问卷(CFQ), 从中研究者们提出了两个研究假设：
第一个是大脑是否不会接受非重要信息(unimportant information)；
第二个假设是大脑会对认知的处理有所不同。这一部分是间接对比；
而考生更多是要找到相同的联系点(similarities)或者是在相似的事物中找到差异点(differences)。
转折信号词是TPO中最常见的信号词之一。常见的信号词形式如下：
however；
nevertheless；
yet；
still；
though；
anyhow；
even so；
in any case；
anyway；
after all；
in spite of that；
by the way；
这些是考生尤其应该注意的信号词。即教授最终想要强调的点，也是高频考点的地方。通过先陈述一部分事实或者抛出一个问题，然后来一个转折性的连词，提出真正的观点。因此这些转折词前后信息是考生必须要注意的地方。
TPO 49 Pottery
The form of a pot can give us same ideas about its function, the suitability of the pottery to serve a specific function. However, we have to be careful when it comes to skeuomorphs. These objects are copies of the designs of other objects, but in another material. And this can be problematic, because sometimes the new or different material is not well suited to the design.
对于并列信号词，
first；
second；
third；
for a start；
for one thing；
for another；
to begin with；
next；
则是很好的信号词，提示了两句句子之间的平等并列关系。
TPO 47 John Cage’s Music
Two experiences in particular entirely changed how he thought about music.
The first was his 1951 meeting with the avant-garde painter Robert Rauschenberg …
The second key experience in Cage’s development came when he stepped into an anechoic chamber.
这篇讲座的主旨，就是一群叫做avant-garde的音乐家，其中一个典型就是作曲家Cage. 结合后文，我们知道这整篇讲座都在讲这个Cage创作了一首全是无意收录的声音的曲子。 这里说到启发Cage的两件事，第一件是1951年他的一次会谈；第二个事件，就是绝对静音的一间屋。Cage在里面听到了自己的神经系统和血液循环的声音。
细节信息类(detailed)信号词
还有一大类也是高频出现的细节信息，就是数字、时间和人名地名这类信号词。但是尤其需要注意，不能光听数字和时间，更多的是要注意数字或时间背后所对应的内容和发生的事件，这在托福听力历史类篇章中，时间信号词对于整篇文章的时间逻辑顺序发展就显得格外重要。人名和地名也是一样，要注意该人物的特点或经历，该地点发生的事件。
TPO 6 Boom and Burst
Professor: Now when I mention the terms "boom and bust", what is that going to mind?
Student: The dotcom crash of the '90s.
Professor: Ok. The boom in the late 1990s when all those new Internet companies sprung up and then sold for huge amounts of money, then the bust around 2000…2001 when many of those same Internet companies went out of business.
从教授说人们应该从过去吸取教训得知，教授认为人们应该从所总结的规律中推测出或意识到 dot-com crash 是很有可能发生的。因此是she thinks that people should have realized it would happen
以上就是托福听力中的3大类关键信号词介绍，希望能够为大家提供一些参考帮助。更多托福干货请关注教书匠阿伦。
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