从小到大，无论是英文还是中文，老师都会告诉我们 “但是”很重要。在托福听力中，大家也都知道无论在对话还是讲座中都要对“but”一类的词提高警惕，但有时转折冷不丁的出现却会让人有些措手不及。那么今天我们就来谈一下如何预判转折信息，为重点的出现做好准备。
转折相关的信号词比如：but; yet; however; though; as a matter of fact; actually; while; on the other hand; 这些想必大家都很熟悉，在此就不一一赘述了。
那么在哪些情况下我们可以合理地预判到这些 “但是”的出现呢？
01
当教授解释或回答某一问题时可能会先抛出一个错误信息或看似正确实际上错误的信息，此时我们就可以等待之后跟着转折出现的正确信息。
常见表达：*Whatisnot…,but/instead…;*you may think that…, But actually….;*It appears/seems…,But…;*wethought/ assumed…, but…
e.g.（tpo16 L3）
Another critical issue and it’s related to the first, to the size issue, is how far from the water should it go to get trees. …… Will it travel farther For a larger tree than It will for a smaller tree?
Now I would have thought (先给出看似有道理的错误信息，预判后文会有转折出现引出正确信息) the bigger the tree, the farther the beaver would be willing to travel for it. That would make sense, right?…… But actually, the opposite is true.
02
当讲座中讨论的话题没有明确定论时， 教授可能会先提出某种可能性猜测、假设或理论， 那么之后就很有可能通过转折引出对之前理论的驳斥或提出理论中存在的问题（注意：这种情况也常与种情况相结合一起出现）。
常见表达：*one theory is that…/ the first hypothesis is…, but….
e.g. （tpo35 L3)
…By about 10,000 B.C.E., all those giant creatures, the Megafauna of North America were gone. We don't know exactly what happened to them, but there are some theories（提出理论的不确定性）.
One theory(提出种可能性理论，听的过程中要准备好后面可能会出现该理论的驳斥信息) is that they were hunted to extinction by humans. The humans who coexisted with these giant species in North America at that time were what we today called the Clovis People. And there is a Clovis site in a valley in southern California where the remains of thirteen mammoths were found.…That would appear to be some pretty compelling evidences.But then(提出质疑：Clovis一般猎杀小型动物，可能不具备猎杀猛犸象等大型动物的能力) at other Clovis sites, there's also a lot of evidence that the Clovis people mostly gather plants and hunted small game, like rabbits and wild turkeys…
03
让步。这点大家应该都很熟悉， 让步的存在就是为转折做准备，尽管although与but可能不会同时出现，我们依然要知道although的后半句是转折，即是重点。
常见表达：although/ though….,(but)….; there is no denying that…., but….
e.g. （tpo47 L1）
…Let’s look at a play by Victor Hugo called Hernani…Although Hugo was a truly brilliant writer of essays, poems, novels and plays, uh…, his play, Hernani, isn’t a great play in and of itself（尽管雨果了不起，重点：但他的这个作品却没有很成功）.
以上便是几种听力中常见的我们可以预见到转折的情况。托福听力重重的玄机下隐藏的是满满的套路，走心地听一套题或许比你机械盲目地刷十套题来得更有效。 最后祝大家早日与托福分手成功！
