写作目的题 (Main Purpose Questions)

　　写作目的题是考察考生是否能准确理解作者的写作意图。换句话说，为什么作者要写这

　　篇文章?他想要通过文章达到什么目的?回答这些问题，你需要整体思考这篇文章。作者是在表达对某问题的立场,还是在描述一个人或一个场景?是在创造一种情景还是证实或否定某个理论?

　　问题经常以以下形式出现：

　　The primary purpose of the passage is to……

　　Both passages are primarily concerned with the……

　　The passage as a whole serves primarily to……

　　解题技巧:

　　有时候一篇文章会有多个写作意图，但是你只需要回答主要写作意图。

　　主旨题目可以放到最后做，正确选项的中心词一定能概括文章大部分内容，体现文章主要目的。

　　例一

　　I had grown up in the United States virtually without relatives, which, in my intense desire to assimilate, was quite all right with me. But this attitude dissolved when I walked into that apartment in Beijing. I realized then that my extended family is not just a collection of accidental alliances but a living body, an entity that will welcome me for being simply who I am: the daughter of my mother, the niece of my aunts and uncles. We had never before seen each other but, in that moment, we shared a sense of connection and loyalty unlike anything I had previously experienced.

　　Question: The primary purpose of the passage is to

　　(A) describe the author’s travels to Beijing

　　(B) reveal how lonely the author often felt

　　(C) provide examples of the author’s fondness for her relatives

　　(D) convey the author’s sudden awareness of the importance of family

　　(E) illustrate the closeness that existed among the author’s mother, aunts, and uncles.

　　解析：这道题可以首先排除(B), (E)选项，因为原文从第二句就开始说明作者的孤独感已经dissolve(融化，消失)了。而文章一直在叙述自己的感觉，所以没有谈到任何关于作者自己的(E)选项也可以排除。(A)选项是内容描述，并非文章主旨，主旨要体现作者的写作意图。我们可以从文章中看出，大部分内容都在强调转变和作者的前后变化，比如句子 “but this attitude dissolved…”, “I realized then that…..”和 “in that moment, we shared a sense of connection…..unlike anything I had previously experienced.” 这些都可以判断出作者主要强调他突然意识体会到家庭的温暖，即(D)选项，其中(D)选项中的awareness是原文中关键词realize的同义复现。

　　通过阅读开头的背景介绍部分(斜体引文部分)来帮助你推断作者主要写作意图。

　　例二 This passage is adapted from a 2003 novel about a character named Gogol Ganguli, the American-born son of Indian immigrants. Just before leaving home for college, Gogol changed his name to Nikhil.

　　Question: Taken as a whole, the passage is best described as a portrayal of

　　(A) two parents’ acceptance of their son’s leaving home

　　(B) an immigrant family’s adjustment to new surroundings

　　(C) the stimulating possibilities open to a college student

　　(D) a young man’s struggle to define himself

　　(E) a young man’s success at achieving independence

　　解析：这是09年5月一道独立长篇阅读题目，从斜体字背景介绍我们可以判断出主人公出生在一个移民美国的印度家庭，接下来的文章就是关于他改名之后的经历和心理状态。题目选项中只有(D)选项提到struggle to define himself (自我挣扎，定义自己)。如果考生先做细节题目，最后做主旨题目，就会发现整篇文章都在讲述主人公适应自己新名字的心理过程，(D)肯定是正确答案。

　　选项想象法：可以按照各个选项内容想象文章内容发展，和原文符合的即是正确选项。 这种逆向思考方式往往可以帮助考生很快排除错误选项。

　　例三 A century ago, opponents of women’s suffrage in the United States scoffed at the notion that extending the vote to women would make any difference. “Women will vote with their husband” was the commonly accepted wisdom. This was an argument made in the absence of evidence, as women did not yet have the vote. Ever since women won the vote, researchers have been keeping close track of female voting behavior. A “gender gap” in voting behavior has been found in the United States as in many other countries. In the United States, the 1994 and 1996 elections showed the largest gaps ever between candidates favored by women and those favored by men.

　　Question: The primary purpose of the passage is to

　　(A) describe the evolution of a gender gap in the United States

　　(B) present a concise history of the women’s suffrage movement

　　(C) show the inaccuracy of a prediction about women’s suffrage

　　(D) discuss the resistance women faced in acquiring the vote

　　(E) explain the differences in voting behavior between men and women

　　解析：按照选项想象法，(A) 选项对应的文章应该是描写gender gap的发展情况，文章只是在后半部分提到,不是正确选项。(B)选项出现的concise history 明显不符合原文概括特点的写作方式。想象(C)选项内容，可以知道原文必定有批驳某意见的内容，而全文的发展顺序就是先摆出错误观点：女人应该和丈夫一起投票。然后在中间提出 “ this was an argument made in the absence of evidence” (这是一个没有根据的论点)，文章后面部分则是用研究数据证明女人和男人在投票的选择上是有不同的，所以(C)是正确选项。想象(D)选项中中心语resistance (抵抗)，文章应该有表示抗争的描述，不符合原文，是错误选项。想象(E)选项中心语explain the differences (解释不同)，原文应该有解释不同投票习惯原因的表述，不符合原文，所以是错误选项。

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