閱讀理解是考研英語學習中的重點，不僅因其具有實際的閱讀與理解的鍛煉能力，更因為其分值比例較大。考生在復習過程中，要注意理解文章中詞匯的語義特征。文章中的某些關鍵詞也能為考生提供線索。在選擇時，盡量往這些關鍵詞上“靠”，可以避免離題太遠。以下三類詞的作用不容忽視：

　　名詞表主題

　　When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47�瞴ear�瞣ld 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.

　　文中的這些名詞為考生提供了一條主線，即使沒完全讀懂，但通過這些名詞考生也可以確定這是一篇與經濟有關的文章，每句話都沒離開這個主題。可以設想一下，如果把其中的任何一句刪去，然后讓考生選擇后補上，在遵循以“經濟”為線索的前提下都是很容易解決的。也就是說這些名詞表明了這篇文章的主題。
動詞表變化

　　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.

　　動詞是各種變化最明顯的體現，它可以表明文中所述情況的變化、作者態度的變化以及情感的變化等。本段文字中，先不看其它文字，只看這些關鍵的動詞“caused”、“stopped”、“began to believe”、“begin to fall”、“decline”就可以表明這是一種由好到壞或由壞到好的變化，再結合其他部分可以更加肯定這一點，因為文中所述正是關于美國經濟引發的一場信任危機，以及這場危機給人們帶來的情感及經濟方面的變化。

　　形容詞表態度

　　Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long �瞭erm prospects even as they do some modest belt tightening.

　　在閱讀理解Part A部分經常會遇到表明作者態度的題，同樣，在Part B部分如果能明確把握作者的態度對解題也很關鍵，而形容詞是最能體現作者態度的關鍵詞。以此段為例，前半部分都是關于美國經濟不景氣的描述，如果只看到這些，一定會認為下文也應該是一些消極方面的描述。但其實本段的關鍵在后面，消費者的“only mildly concerned”和“not panicked”以及最明顯的一個形容詞“optimistic”都與前面的情況形成鮮明的對比，表明了作者的態度。如果在此段后設題進行選擇，考生就不得不考慮這些因素了。

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