在文章的瀏覽(即略讀，skimming)過程中，對文中信息重要性的判斷可以幫助讀者快速有效地了解段落的大意。在瀏覽過程中，讀者可以通過尋找“信號詞”來區分重要信息和非重要信息。以下列出的是閱讀過程中常見的幾類“信號詞”。

　　1.以下詞組提示下文所涉及的重要信息：

　　The main / important point / conclusion / reason….

　　The point to note here…

　　2.以下詞組提示了下文的結構框架：

　　There are three major reasons…

　　3.but 和 however表示對比，常常用來提示重要信息，例如：

　　The rising birth rate is not due to increased fertility, but to a sharp decline in the death rate.

　　4.在文中提問可以突出問題后的答案，提示讀者答案中有重要信息，例如：

　　Why is a piped water supply so important? Disease due to contaminated water is a common cause of death in childhood.

　　5.有時，為了保證讀者完全理解自己的觀點，作者會在文中反復提出自己的觀點，例如：

　　Death control can be achieved autonomously. In other words, the death rate can be cut without anything else changing.

　　6.文章的結論通常是非常重要的，因此，讀者要在文中尋找提示結論的“信號詞”，例如：

　　Thereforethe result

　　In conclusionwe can conclude

　　One of the primary conclusions

　　7.舉例是為了幫助讀者理解某一個觀點，因此，文中的例子不是瀏覽文章時的重要信息。在閱讀過程中，以下詞組提示讀者下文是舉例部分信息。

　　For example/instancelike

　　Such asthese include

　　To illustrateamong these are

　　有時，作者也會用破折號或括號來提示舉例信息，例如：

　　The developing countries are dependent on cash crops – sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton.

　　Precipitating/violent/unexpected factors are those which reduce the food supply (droughts, floods, wars, epidemics)…

　　在段落瀏覽時，讀者在看到信號詞后，應不斷對下文信息作出相應的判斷，例如：

　　The main reason for (提示：下文信息重要) the reduction in the death rate in the developing world has been improved public health measures. For example, (提示：下文信息不重要，僅僅是為了用來證明前面的觀點) in Sri Lanka the death rate was halved over ten years by spraying the mosquitoes which carry malaria.

　　Why (提示：問題的答案中有讀者應該關注的重點) is it so easy to cut the death rate in this way and yet so hard to reduce the birth rate? One answer (提示：這只是眾多答案中的一種，并不是最重要的。) is that public health measures can be very cheap. Anti-malarial spraying is inexpensive. But this is not the important point (提示：but后面的是非常重要的信息). For birth control programmes to be successful, a change in attitude is required, whereas death control can be achieved autonomously. In other words, (提示：這里是作者想要強調的重要信息) the death rate can be cut without anything else changing.

　　本文選自《彭鑫課堂》