朗阁海外考试研究中心丁小莉
在近几年的雅思考试中，填空题一直都是雅思阅读的主角。本着“我是主角，我不能死”的信条，填空题对于很多基础相对薄弱的考生来说无疑是最后一根稻草，而对于那些基础相对不错的考生来说，填空题取得100%全对，是拿到高分的必杀技。本文中，朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师将和大家谈谈，如何快速攻克雅思阅读中的填空类题型。
顾名思义，填空题就是从原文中挑选一个单词，一个短语或者一个数字填到题目的空格当中。填空题在雅思阅读中的体现主要是以下几种形式：1.填空型summary; 2.填空型sentence
completion; 3.简答题short-answer
questions。朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师将就以上三大种不同的类型，为考生们讲解考试中应对的策略。
一、填空型摘要summary
何为摘要题呢？考生们遇到的摘要通常是在essay刚开始的时候，出现的只言片语，而这样的只言片语可以对你之后的文章进行一个有效的概括。所以，摘要部分不会很长，以小的段落为主。
E.g.1 C4T2P1
Questions 1-4
Complete the summary below. Choose No More Than Two Words from the passagefor each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
There are currently approximately 6,800 language in the world. This greatvariety of languages came about largely as a result of geographical 1….. But intoday’s world, factors such as government initiatives and 2…… are contributingto a huge decrease in the number of languages. One factor which may help toensure that some endangered languages do not die out completely is people’sincreasing appreciation of their 3…. This has been encouraged though programmesof languages classes for children and through ‘apprentice’ schemes, in whichthe endangered language is used as the medium of instruction to teach people a4….. Some speakers of endangered languages have even produced writing systemsin order to help secure the survival of their mother tongue.
E.g. 2 C4T3P3
Questions 37-40
Complete the summary of paragraph G below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for
each answer.
A linguist can use a corpus to comment objectively on
37______. Some corpora include a wide range of language while others are used
to focus on a 38_______. The length of time the process takes will affect the
39_______ of the corpus. No corpus can ever cover the whole language and so
linguists often find themselves relying on the additional information that can
be gained from the 40________ of those who speak the language concerned.
看到以上两个例子，不难发现，填空型summary就是根据原文内容，选填词汇或者短语到段落当中。而考生们最纠结的问题无非是：此类题型如何进行快速定位？定位之后如何快速获取正确答案？以下朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师将一一为你解答。
1.如何进行快速定位？
考生们在进行详细定位时，可以对该段落的大致定位范围作出预判，例如定位到原文中的位置大概是某个段落，还是整篇文章，这也就是我们经常说的“大定位”。一般来说，有这样几点可以帮助考生定位：summary的题目要求，summary是否分段，summary是否具有小标题，summary题目数量的多少，特殊名词的标记，核心名词。具体来说：
A. Summary题目要求中直接给出段落的题目自然是最好。如以上e.g.2,直接告知考生定位到原文中的范围--G段。类似的还有C4T4P2的24-27题，直接告知考生定位到原文中的最后两段。遇到这种情况，暗自偷笑的同时，考生们应该静下心来，准备划取关键词进行下一步的小定位了。
B.可惜的是，绝大多数题目都是没有直接告知你定位段落的，这个时候只能更进一步去看一些细节。第二点，建议考生关注的是summary是否存在分段？如果摘要部分分成多段进行，一般在原文中对应着原文中的多个段落，考生们在定位时注意该规律，如：C5T2P1的1-3题就是这样一个例子。
C.再者，除了以上两条规律之外，考生们还可以关注一下，该summary段落是不是具有小标题。一般来说，如若summary含有小标题，则其topic与该passage不完全吻合，只是文章中的一小部分。所以，定位到原文中的位置，一般也就是某个或者某几个段落了。
D.如若上文提到的条件，summary均不符合，这个时候考生可以大致看一下题目数量：题目数量较多(≥4)，一般定位范围是整篇文章，而如果题目数量较少，一般定位范围也是文章中的某个段落。
E.除此之外，考生们可以观察该段落中是否含有特殊词汇，如数字，大写，斜体，引号之类的词，帮助大致圈定定位范围。
F.基本上，根据以上五条规律已经能够帮助大家快速定位了。如果真有那么“变态”—难以定位的题目的话，考生们只能“老老实实”地划取核心词，去文章中寻读(scanning)了。
2.定位之后如何快速获取答案？
一旦你在原文中找到所对应的句子的时候，你需要把题目中的带有空格的句子与原文中的句子进行比较，寻找突破口。根据朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师研究发现，我们在summary中所填单词一般为名词或者名词短语，所以你在原文中寻找的突破口一般来讲都是名词。而当你再次回顾到题目要求的时候，不难发现这样的字眼：Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for
each answer.也就是说，对于你到原文中寻找的答案又给了限定：如字数要求，如原文挑选（即不需考虑替换的问题）。一句话总结：所缺即所得，忽略动介词。
3.真题演练：
E.g. C4T3P3 Questions 37-40
Complete the summary of paragraph G below. Choose NO
MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
A linguist can use a corpus tocomment objectively on 37______. Some corpora include
a wide range of language while others are used to focus on a 38_______. The
length of time the process takes will affect the 39_______ of the corpus. No
corpus can ever cover the whole language and so linguists often find themselves
relying on the additional information that can be gained from the 40________ of
those who speak the language concerned.
附上原文G段内容：
G. A representative sample of language, complied for
the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus.①A
corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of
usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers.
Its range and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as
a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text;②others
are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only
with a particular linguistic feature. The size of the corpus depends on
practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the
data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a
few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to
decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects
can total millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora,
whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need
to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of
the language, though either introspection or experimentation.
解析：该题首先根据题目预判定位范围--G段，然后划取核心名词回到原文进行定位。37题中很容易可以划取关键词linguist和corpus两个名词，回到原文中定位到G段①句，而把两句话进行比较时，你会发现所填内容均为动介词短语，且两个短语之间相互同义替换，原文中的make statement about和题目中的comment on都可以表示评价，评判的含义，而它们的修饰词unbiased表示没有偏见的，则与objective（客观的）交相呼应。而接下来的38题则更为容易，题目中出现的以some…others…相连接的句子，两者之间形成对比，而定位到原文之后发现所对应内容为句②，而根据空格是单数或者单数名词（通过冠词A来判断），名词短语范围缩小到：collection of material和particular linguistic feature,再根据动介词短语，focus on与deal only with的同义替换，确定答案为后者。39题和40题道理类似，考生们可以先自行练习，等待朗阁老师的下回分解。
二、其他填空类题型（如句子填空sentence completion,简答题short-answer questions）
有了以上summary的解题技巧，其他类型的填空题就很容易了。因为所谓的句子填空(sentence completion)就是把summary中的句子单独列出来出题。我们先前讲的技巧，仍然适用，而题目与题目之间的顺序原则也是适用的。所以，该类题目，考生们可以一起练习，总结做题经验。
下面，朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师各举几个例子，带考生们再次去分析一下，雅思考试中常出现的“填空题”。
e.g. sentence completion
C5T4P3
Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Q34 Day length is a useful cue for breeding in areas
where ______ are predictable.
原文对应内容：Breeding in most organisms occurs during a part of the
year only, and so a reliable cue is needed to trigger breeding behavior. Day
length is an excellent cue, because it provides a perfectly pattern of change
within the year. In the temperate zone in spring, temperatures fluctuate
greatly from day to day, but day length increases steadily by a predictable
amount.
解析：所填空格内容充当的是从句中的主语，且谓语动词为are,因而所填的空格内容一定为复数名词或者名词短语。划取核心名词为关键词，如day length,如cue,确定原文中对应的句子为：Day length is an excellent cue, because it provides a
perfectly pattern of change within the year.答案应该在该句附近。“不幸”的是，该句中不存在复数名词。所以，这个时候考场中的你只能继续往下读，寻找答案。“幸运”的是，在下一句中，你就会遇见“柳暗花明又一村”：temperatures fluctuate greatly from day to day。复数名词出现了，且其状态为fluctuate波动，与题目中的predictable相得益彰。
e.g.简答题short-answer questions
C4T1P2 Q22-23
Q22 Which of the senses is described here as being
involved in mating?
解析：根据mating定位到第二段，“This contact may help to maintain order within a
group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most
species.” Courtship ritual即mating,因此往前看到这段的主题是sense of touch,因此答案为sense of touch。
Q23 Which species swims upside down while eating?
解析：根据upside down while eating定位到第四段，“Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim
on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have
is stereoscopic forward and upward.”而这句话中的species就是freshwater dolphins,只用eating替换了feeding,很容易找到答案。在这里一定要记住雅思高频词汇species,意思为物种。
相信考生们读完笔者的这篇文章之后，对于填空类题型的恐惧应该早已抛到九霄云外了吧。当然，有了技巧之后，进行具体的真题演练就变得尤为重要了。
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