How to Find the Main Idea 如何找出主旨

景一 Kelly Roell

Questions about the “main idea” of a passage are popular on reading comprehension tests， but sometimes， those questions are pretty difficult to answer， especially for students who are not completely sure they understand what the main idea really is. Finding the main idea of a paragraph or longer passage of text is one of the most important reading skills to master， along with concepts like making an inference， finding the authors purpose， or understanding vocabulary words in context.

Here are a few techniques to help understand what exactly a “main idea” is and how to identify it accurately in a passage.

關(guān)于文章“主旨”的問題在閱讀理解考試中很常見，但有時候，特別是對于那些不完全確定自己是否理解了文章主旨的學(xué)生來說，這些問題很難回答。找出一段或一篇較長的文章的主旨是需要掌握的最重要的閱讀技巧之一，同時也要掌握一些概念，比如推理，找出作者的寫作目的或在上下文中理解詞匯。

下面有一些技巧可以幫助你理解什么是“主旨”，以及如何準確地找出一篇文章的主旨。

What Is a Main Idea 什么是主旨

The main idea is the main point or concept that the author wants to communicate to the readers about the topic. Hence， in a paragraph， when the main idea is stated directly， it is expressed in what is called the topic sentence. It gives the overarching1 idea of what the paragraph is about and is supported by the details in subsequent2 sentences in the paragraph. In a multi-paragraph article， the main idea is expressed in the thesis3 statement， which is then supported by individual smaller points.

When an author does not state the main idea directly， it should still be implied4. This requires that the reader look closely at the content—at specific words， sentences， images that are used and repeated—to deduce5 what the author is communicating.

主旨是作者想向讀者傳達的關(guān)于主題的主要觀點或概念。因此，在一個段落中，直接陳述主旨的句子叫主旨句。它給出了段落內(nèi)容的首要觀點，并由隨后的句子中的細節(jié)來支撐。在一篇有多個段落的文章中，主旨會在文章的論點陳述中表達出來，然后由單獨的小論點來支撐。

當(dāng)某一作者沒有直接陳述主旨時，主旨仍會隱含在文中。這就要求讀者仔細看被反復(fù)使用的特定的詞語、句子、圖，以推斷作者所傳達的信息。

How to Find the Main Idea 怎樣找出主旨

◆Identify the Topic

Read the passage through completely， then try to identify the topic. Who or what is the paragraph about？ This part is just figuring out a topic. Dont worry yet about deciding what argument the passage is making about this topic.

◆Summarize the Passage

After reading the passage， summarize it in your own words in one sentence. Pretend you have just ten to twelve words to tell someone what the passage is about—what would you say？

◆Look at the First and Last Sentences of the Passage

Authors often put the main idea in or near either the first or last sentence of the paragraph or article， so seperate those sentences from other sentences to see if they make sense as the central theme of the passage. Be careful： sometimes the author will use words like however， in contrast， nevertheless， etc. that show that the second sentence is actually the main idea. If you see one of these words that negate6 or qualify7 the first sentence， that is a clue that the second sentence is the main idea.

◆Look for Repetition of Ideas

If you read through a paragraph and you have no idea how to summarize it because there is so much information， start looking for repeated words， phrases， or related ideas. What does this paragraph consistently8 talk about？ What is it trying to convey？ Thats the main idea！

◆確定主題

把這篇文章通讀一遍，然后試著找出主題。這一段是關(guān)于誰或關(guān)于什么的？這一步驟只是用來找出主題。現(xiàn)在不要急著找出這篇文章關(guān)于這個主題提出了什么樣的論點。

◆總結(jié)文章

讀完這篇文章后，用你自己的一句話總結(jié)一下。如果你只能用10到12個單詞來告訴別人這篇文章的內(nèi)容，你會說什么？

◆看看文章的第一句和最后一句

作者常常把主旨放在段落或文章的第一句或最后一句中或它們的附近，所以要把這些句子單獨拿出來，看看它們是不是文章的主題。……