在做雅思阅读图表题时,除了常规方法寻找定位词外,还要特别注意图表里的一些隐藏关系,找到这些隐藏关系,通常可以帮我们大大节省时间去定位到答案句。现在我们拿剑桥雅思真题8 Test2 Passage1的第1-5题举例。

题目长这样:Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

拿到题目,
(1)先预判定位题目在文章中的大概位置,看标题,有"Early methods",则意味着文章可能是按照时间顺序行文,表格标题包含"早期方法",所以题目出处可能是在文章前部。通过特殊词"Ribbon"和数字"20%"定位,我们发现题目的出处在文章前两段。

(2)重点来了,表格里有没有暗含一些隐藏关系呢?当然有。首先,我们发现列"Method"下方有两个方法,第二个方法已给出,是"Ribbon"这个方法,那么就表明个方法,也就是第1题跟Ribbon 之间可能会形成对比的关系;然后注意表头,有"Advantages"和"Disadvantages",那么必然第2题和第3题以及第4题和第5题形成了一个转折关系,所以他们的答案句之间一定有表示转折的连接词。

(3)接下来,细读前两段寻找答案。

Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (°C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a ‘fire finish’. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive.

Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glass makers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive.

我们发现,第二段开头一个大大的Nevertheless(然而),由于之前已经定位到Ribbon方法在第二段,所以第1题的方法必然出现在段。我们的欣喜地发现段就有method这个定位词,所以第1题答案就是spinning。再往后细读,找到一个转折词"However","however" 前面是优点,第2题答案缺一个形容词,答案是(perfectly)unblemished, "however"后面是缺点,第2题缺一个形容词,答案是 labour intensive。

继续读第二段,找到段中有个不"but",经过推理,"but"前是优点,第4题缺一个名词,答案是thickness,"but"后是缺点,第5题缺一个形容词,答案是marked。

这道图表题里隐藏的转折对比关系在其他雅思阅读真题中也比较常见,同学们要多加注意。