I. The possible questions about main idea:
1) What does the writer mainly tell us?
2) This passage mainly talks about___.
3) Which of the following best expresses the main idea?
4) Which is the subject discussed in the text?
5) The aim of the passage is to ___.
6) What’s the best title for this passage?
II. Methods to organize the main idea.
1. Smoking cigarettes is harmful to your health. Experiments show that cigarette smoking can cause cancer. Besides the most serious and terrible disease(illness), cancer, cigarette smoking also can cause other health problems. For example, it can give one a “smoker’s cough”. Finally, studies have shown it is easy for cigarette smokers to catch colds. Whether you get an unimportant cold or terrible killer, cancer, smoking is harmful. Is it worth it?
2 Often no one looks more guilty than the innocent. On the other hand, nobody may look more innocent than a professional criminal. And the man who knows “everything” may really only be trying to hide his own weakness. So, it is foolish to try to judge a person only by his appearance.
3.If you were planning to buy a television set, the following advertisement would certainly draw your attention: “Color TV. Only ＄79. Two days sale. Hurry.” However, when you go to the store ready to buy. You may discover that they are sold out. But the shop assistant is quick to tell you that he has another model. A much better set which is “just right for you” It costs ＄395. This sales method is called “bait and switch”. Buyers are baited with a sales advertisement, and then they are switched to another more expensive one. Buying things on sale needs careful consideration of the goods and the reason for the sale.
The paragraph could be entitled _________.
A. Buying A TV Set B. A Selling Method C. Buyer Beware D. TV On Sale
4.Tom studied four years at the University of Paris and decided to leave before his graduation. He transferred to the University of Berlin and graduated with honors. Harvard Law School and, later, Boston College provided him with an excellent legal background. He is presently a corporation lawyer in Miami, Florida.
The main idea of this paragraph is that ______.
A. Tom, who had studied at Paris Universities for four years, moved to another university.
B. Tom became a lawyer since his graduation from Harvard Law School and later from Boston College.
C. Tom was an excellent student when he studied at Berlin university.
D. Tom received an excellent education.
III. Practice
1.The panda is a popular animal. Stories about the panda in the Washington Zoo are always front page news and important features on television newscasts. Stuffed pandas are among the most popular toys for children, and panda postcards are always in demand in zoo gift shops.
2.Today the problem of environment has become more and more serious. The world population is rising, so quickly that the world has become too crowded. We are using up our natural resources too quickly and at the same time we are polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals. If we continue to do this, human life on earth will not survive.
3.A human body appears to be rather soft and delicate, compared with that of a wild animal, but it is actually surprisingly strong. In deed, its very softness and looseness is an advantage; it makes man good at moving about movement of all living things of his own size, because he can do so many different things with his limbs. Man’s games show how he can control his own body. No other land creature can swim as skillfully as man; more has such varied grace; very few lives as long as he; none is so strong in its natural resistance to disease. Therefore man has a great advantage in his battle against the risks of damage and death that threaten him.
4.Nothing is as useful as a flashlight in a dark night if a tire goes flat. Few inventions are so helpful to a child who is afraid of the dark. In fact, the modern flashlight brings light to many dark situations. Finding something in the back of a closet is easy with a flashlight in hand a camper also needs one after the light of the campfire has been out. (the importance of flashlight)
5.（首段）Shu Pulong has helped at least 1000 people bitten by snakes, “ It was seeing people with snakes bites that led me to the career.“she said…
（尾段）“The sad story touched me so much that I decided to devote myself to helping people bitten by snakes.”Shu said. (Why Shu Pulong helped people bitten by snakes. )
6. Joshua Bingham studied 4 years at the University of Paris and decided to leave his graduation. He transferred to the University of Berlin and graduated with honors. Harvard Law School and, later, Boston College provided him with an excellent legal background. He is presently a corporation lawyer in Miami, Florida.
Q: What is the main idea of the passage? ＿＿＿＿
A. How Joshua Bingham became a lawyer. B. Bingham is a diligent student.
C. Joshua Bingham received an excellent education.
D. A good lawyer needs good education.
7 In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
…
What does this passage mainly talk about?
A. Competition helps to set up self-respect.
B. Opinions about competition are different among people.
C. Competition is harmful to personal quality development.
D. Failures are necessary experience in competition.
Passage A
①It was assumed generally that behavior was “caused” and that the causes of and the cures for crime would be discovered. Sick societies and sick individuals were the causes of crime. The traditional criminal justice system could be described as a band-aid and an ineffective “home remedy) “. The new, scientific approach, however, would cure the underlying causes of crime rather than concentrate on the symptom: criminal behavior.
②But does poverty cause crime? It is certainly true that there is a very close link between low socioeconomic status and the sort of violent street crime that worries urban America so much. Furthermore, we must agree with Judge Bazelon that persons of low socioeconomic status probably find it easier than others to true to violent street crime for money, excitement, or release. Yet it is also true that the majority of poor people are not violent criminals. Judge Bazelon is simply wrong in his belief that poverty “causes” crime.
③People sometimes think of crime as a combination of poverty and bad characteristics of a criminal. But this is hard to predict, and sometimes we observe some criminals are rich enough but they may still have the desire for more wealth. In this aspect, crime seems no more related with poverty than with the behavioral features of the person involved in a case. Cyber-crimes and white-collar
crimes can serve as good examples, the criminals are not short of money, they simply
need more than they can gather and they will be happy to get more without having to work.
④Poverty is neither a sufficient nor a necessary cause of crime. Poverty may make the choice to obey the law more difficult, but the poor have choice whether to engage in crime, and the majority choose to obey the law. Is it true that no poverty, no crime? Improvement in the economic conditions of poor persons does not reduce the level of violent panics in periods of rising wealth. The “poverty cure” does not work . Attempting to get rid of poverty is a worthy social goal, but it is one that should be cherished (珍爱) for its own sake and not in the belief that it will cure crime.
The most appropriate title for the essay would be ____ .
A. Economics and Crime B. Wealth and Violence
C. Causes and Cures for Crime D. Poverty and Crime
Passage B
It seems that some people go out of their way to get into trouble. That’s more or less what happened the night that Nashville Police Officer Floyd Hyde was on duty.
“I was on the way to a personal-injury accident in West Nashville. As I got onto Highway 40, blue lights and sirens(警笛) going, I fell in behind a gold Pontiac Firebird that suddenly seemed to take off quickly down the highway. The driver somehow panicked at the sight of me. He was going more than a hundred miles an hour and began passing cars on the shoulder.”
But Hyde couldn’t go after him. Taking care of injured people is always more important than worrying about speeders, so the officer had to stay on his way to the accident. But he did try to keep the Firebird in shight as he drove, hoping another nearby unit would be able to step in and stop the speeding car. As it turned out, keeping the Firebird in sight was not that difficult. Every turn the Pontiac made was the very turn the officer needed to get to the accident scene.
Hyde followed the Pontiac all the way to his destination(目的地). At that point he found another unit had already arrived at the accident scene. His help wasn’t needed. Now he was free to try to stop the driver of the Firebird, who by this time had developed something new to panick about.
“ Just about that time,” Hyde said, “ I saw fire coming out from under that car, with blue smoke and oil going everywhere. He’s blown his engine. Now he had to stop.”
“After I arrested him, I asked him why he was running. He told me he didn’t have a driving license(执照).”
That accident cost the driver of the Firebird plenty-a thousand dollars for the new engine--- not to mention the charges for driving without a license, attempting to run away, and dangerous driving.
5. What is probably the best title for the article?
A. Losing His Way? B. Going My Way? C. Fun All the Way? D. Help on the Way?Passage C
Reading is very important to help you learn English. To learn as much as you can from reading, you need to read different kinds of English. This book provides not only different kinds of English but also a good way to check your reading ability.
There are four parts in the book:
Part 1 is Messages: In this part somebody wants to send information in writing to somebody else. There is a test on timetables and a test on text messages.
Part 2 is People: In this part all the tests are about people. For example, there is an informal letter between friends. There is formal(正式的)English in biography(传记). There is a job application as a model to help with your writing, as well as testing your reading.
Part 3 is Places: In this part, too many different kinds of English are shown, some informal and some formal. There is the informal English of a holiday postcard. There is also the formal English in a letter of complaint.
Part 4 is Things: You will find some descriptive writing in this part. There are descriptions of clothes and of a computer.
You can do these tests in any order you like, or you can do all the tests with a formal or informal text. I enjoyed writing this book and I hope you enjoy using it.
What is the best title of the book?
A. Test Your Reading B. Help with Your Writing
C. Learn Different Kinds of English D. Practise English in Different Ways
Passage D
To get cash out in the 21st century, you won’t need a bank card, a PIN(个人识别编号) or even have to move a finger. You will simply have to look the cash machine straight in the eye, declares National Cash Registers, a multinational company that makes automated teller machines, or ATMs. NCR has shown its first example machine that is believed to be the future of banking. Instead of asking you for your PIN on a screen, the Super Teller-Stella for short, asks you orally through a loudspeaker to look straight ahead while an infrared camera turns to your head, then your eye, and finally takes an infrared photograph of your iris(虹膜). For identification(识别) purposes, an iris picture is better than a fingerprint, with around 256 noticeable characteristics compared with 40 for fingerprints. This means that the chances of someone else being recognized in your place is about 1 in 1020. Once you’ve been identified, Stella greets you by name and says: “Would you like cash or a statement?” An infrared port allows the machine to send a bank statement straight to your pocket computer.
What does this passage mainly talk about?
A. A new medical instrument B. A new type of talking machine.
C. A new type of cash machine. D. National Cash Register
Passage E
Have you ever received a gift that was so clearly not your taste that you wondered if perhaps it had been handed to you by mistake? Worse, have you ever given a present and watched your friend look as though she had opened the wrong box? Maybe she responded with a polite “ Why, thank you,” but you knew you had missed the mark. Why do presents sometimes go wrong? And what do your choices( good and bad ) reflect（反映） about your personal qualities?（素质，品质）
Choosing the right gift is an art, I believe. It calls for empathy--- the ability to put yourself into someone else’s head and heart. We’re all able to do this; in fact, we’re born with a kind of natural empathy. After the earliest period of childhood, however, it needs to be reinforced ( 加强)--- by our parents, teachers, friends. When it isn’t, we’re not able to understand other people’s feelings as sharply（敏锐地）. This can show in the gifts we select, and so can many other emotional (情感) qualities.
Think back to the presents you’ve given over the past year, the time and effort（努力） you put into your selection（选择）, how much you spent, your thoughts while you were shopping, and your feelings when the receiver opened the package（包装）. Keep in mind that what you choose shows your inner world. Of course, you may express yourself differently with different friends, relatives, and other people you know.
We live in a society where exchanging presents is an important part of communication（交际）. Ignoring（忽视） the tradition （传统）won’t make it go away. If you really dislike such a tradition, tell your friends ahead of time.
The best possible title for this passage is “____________”
A. Ways of Choosing Gifts B. An Important Tradition
C. Exchanging Presents D. Message in a Gift