4、文章的结构与阅读
刚才我反复强调在这本教材的学习中大家要以抓住文章的中心思想为阅读的宗旨，那么，具体怎样来做呢？下面，我想结合不同结构的文章来谈一下如何把握文章的篇章结构和中心思想。
1)篇章组织结构
文章的组织结构是指作者为达到写作目的、实现写作意图，对不同材料、信息和论据的安排方法。不同类型的文章会有各自的篇章结构。记叙文、描写文、说明文和议论文的目的不尽相同，文章的组织结构也会千差万别。比如：描写文着重于人物、事物或情境方面的描绘和刻画；而议论文着重于对事物、事情的解析和说明。不同类型的文章有不同的谋篇布局的方式和方法，而不同结构的文章又有其不同的阅读方法。因此作为阅读者，我们应该掌握不同类型文章的不同篇章结构的形式和特点，从而指导我们更好地理解这些文章。
就一般而言，文章通常有三个部分组成，即，文章的开头(opening/introduction)、主体(main body)和结尾(conclusion)。在记叙文中通常在开头部分交代事件的时间、地点、人物等背景内容；中间的主体部分通常对事件的发生、发展过程加以叙述；结尾部分通常交代事件的结局并解释或暗示事件的寓意。在议论文中，开头部分通常交代背景并提出自己的论点或摆出反方的论点；中间的主体部分提出论据来证明或反驳论点；最后的结尾部分概括、总结或申明论点。这是一般文章的谋篇布局方式，也是最常见的文章结构形式，称为“总分总”式的结构。这种结构在文章的开头做一个总括性的交代，统领全文，然后再作具体地记叙、描写、说明或分析论证，最后再进行概括，给人以层次分明、结构完整之感，所以，记叙文、描写文、说明文和议论文常用这种形式。当然，根据文章的不同题材、作者的不同目的，“总分总”结构也会有一些变化，如“总分”式或“分总”式。下面，咱们看一篇“总分”结构的例子。
Every student who attends university needs three types of education: general education（大众教育）, liberal education（通才教育）, and specialized education. By general education I mean the education which is required to become an effective member of the human race; it provides us with the means of communication with one another, with an understanding of the relationships between human beings and the institutions which they establish, with an analytical（分析的）approach toward the physical universe of which we are all a part, and with a concept（概念）of the position which we hold in the stream of time an history. By liberal education I mean the education that frees us from the confines（限制）of the group, the patterns, the conventions（习俗、惯例）, and enables us to become truly an individual; it is therefore the education which discovers our greatest abilities and interests and then develops them to the highest capacities which we can achieve. By specialized education I mean the education which will enable us to make a living in a competitive economic world; especially in America there is very little leisure class, and every educated person is expected to have some place in which to render a valuable service.
与“总分总”结构出现频率相当的还有“并列”和“递进”等文章的结构形式。并列结构在记叙文中类似“分叙”；在描写文中类似“并列描写”；在说明文中根据事物、现象的多角度、多侧面的特点组织文章，多方位对事物进行说明；在议论文体中以中心论点为核心，呈放射状，四面展开论证，使议论文井然有序，便于人们对问题有全面的、透彻的了解和认识。递进式常用于议论文，层层深入、步步推进，有严密的逻辑性，环环相扣，最终把问题论述得淋漓尽致。由于，我们在平时阅读和考试中接触到的文章比较多的是议论文，而且对于同学来讲，议论文的理解也比其它类型的文章的理解更难一些，所以，我在这里举的例子多是以议论文为主。
另外，在不同类型的文章中，也有常用的文章所展开的顺序方法，如：时间顺序、空间顺序、过程（程序）顺序等。我们举一个过程顺序的例子。
Kroc cooked his first batch, carefully duplicating（模仿）the brothers’ method. He peeled the potatoes, saving a bit of skin for flavor, then cut Idaho shoestring strips and soaked them in cold water. After the water was white with starch（淀粉）he rinsed off the potatoes and then fried them in fresh oil. Out of the grease（油脂）the batch looked just right, golden brown. But something was amiss. The McDonald’s fries were always crispy（脆的）, but this batch was mushy（粘糊糊的）, Kroc struggled to reproduce the perfect fries.
After several phone calls to California he learned that the McDonald brothers stored their potatoes in bins where they naturally cured in the dry desert air. Kroc put an electric fan in the basement of his Illinois store, blowing on the potatoes to produce the desert drying effect. After three months of trying he achieved the correct formula.
2) 段落结构
要把握一篇文章的中心思想和有关细节，除了要了解文章的总体谋篇布局的形式之外，对于文章的段落结构也要有个明确的认识。因为了解了文章的段落形式及其相关内容，对于文章的中心思想和有关细节才能把握得更准确。
段落的中心意思或主题思想成为主旨或主题。揭示或点明主题的句子称为主题句。主题句起到统领全段的作用，明确地告诉读者这一段的中心思想是什么。从阅读的角度来说，一个善于阅读的人总是很会寻找段落中的主题句。主题句最常出现在段首，因为段首的位置最醒目，最能引起读者的注意。如：
People who lived in pioneer days（拓荒时代）would never have believed that world news could be received as quickly as it is today. In early days newspapers were often several months old by the time they reached a settlement. Letters were carried by travelers who happened to be going in the right direction and often were received months after they were sent, or not at all. Today by radio, television, newspapers and computers, we get world news almost at once. Airmail letters are carried to distant countries in just a few days. It is hard to believe that such changes have taken place in less than one hundred years.
主题句有时也会出现在段尾，因为大多数作者喜欢在段尾总结和归纳自己的中心思想，因此，大家在阅读时也应该特别注意段尾。另外，主题句也有可能出现在段落中间，这样就不能一眼看出来。有时一个段落开头的句子承接上文的含义，在段落中起到承上启下的过渡作用，这时，主题句自然会放在段落中间。当然，并不是所有的段落都有主题句。
In the immediate post-war year, the city of Birmingham scheduled some 50,000 small working class cottages as slums due for demolition（拆除）. Today that process is nearly complete. Yet it is clear that, quite apart from any question of race, an environmental problem remains. The expectation built into the planning policies of 1945 was that in the foreseeable（可预见的）future the city would be a better place to live in. But now that slum clearance has run its course, there seems to be universal agreement that the total environment where the slums once stood is more depressing than ever.
3) 转承词语
要把握文章的细节内容，对于文章中出现的表示转承的词语的语用也要注意，在不少情况下，转承词起到表示文章细节的作用。
Chronological Order
first, second, third, before, after, next, later, finally, at last, as soon as, until, when, while, then, during, early, afterwards, just as, meanwhile, suddenly, immediately, after a while, at noon, on Monday, in December, last night, the next day, throughout the day
Spatial Order
near to far --- left, right, in front of, behind, next to, to the south
near to far --- close by, beyond, around, farther, across, behind, in the distance
top to bottom --- at the top, in the middle, lower, below, at the bottom, above, higher
side to side --- at the left (right), in the middle, next to, at one end to the west
inside to outside --- within, in the center, on the inside, the next layer, on the outside
