二、常用阅读方法1、略读（skimming）略读的目的是快速通读和浏览全文，以便获得文章的大意，并对文章的内容有个总体概念和印象。
因此，浏览时不要把注意力放在文章的细节上，同时文章中某些不重要的内容可以省略不读。
通常根据文章内容和难度可灵活选用如下三种方法：1）以一般快读的速度阅读文章每段的第一句。
文章的大意通常是由各段落中主题句表述出来，多数主题句是段落的第一句。
该法适用于主题句位于段首的文章，利于根据题目要求迅速判断、确定文章的中心、主题。
例：选出下题的正确答案：The best title for this selection is _____.A) An Ear for MusicB) Music AppreciationC) How Muscles Participate in Mental ActsD) A Psychological Definition of the Thinking Process显然，此题为主题型，可在确立了文章的主题之后做出正确的选择。
因此可以先读文章每段的第一句，再将它们综合得出全文的主题。
（1）Some psychologists maintain that mental acts such as thinking are not performed in the brain alone, but that one’s muscles also participate. It may be said that we think with our muscles in somewhat the same way that we listen to music with our bodies.（2）You surely are not surprised to be told that you usually listen to music not only with your ears but with your whole body. Few people can listen to music that is more or less familiar without moving their body or, more specifically, some part of their body. Often when one listens to a symphonic concert on the radio, he is tempted to direct the orchestra (music band ) even though he knows there is a competent conductor on the job.（3）Strange as this behavior may be, there is a very good reason for it. One cannot derive all possible enjoyment from music unless he participates, so to speak, in its performance. The listener “feels”himself into the music with more or less pronounce motions of his body.（4）The muscles of the body actually participate in the mental process of thinking in the same way, but this participation is less obvious because it is less pronounced.分析：（1）是全文的主题句，要阐述的主题是“心理活动不仅只是由大脑进行的，人的肌肉也参与了这一过程。
”（思=脑+心）（2）-（4）是论据，其中（2）用事例法支持（1）的观点。
（3）对（2）进行解释，从而得出（4）中的结论。
同时（4）紧扣（1），表述了同样的观点。
由此可得正确答案是C。
用此方法，不仅可准确地找到主题，而且可以有效地提高速度，节约时间。
2）以一般速度阅读文章第一段或最后一段, 以一般快读速度阅读文章每段的第一句。
有时作者会在第一段便写出文章将要论述的主题思想或内容梗概，也会在最后一段归纳前几段的内容。
此法适用于难度稍大的文章或主题出现在全文两端的文章。
例如：The modern sailing ship was developed by a man who never went to sea. He wasPrince Henry of Portugal, the younger son of the Portuguese king and an English princess.Prince Henry lived in the fifteenth century. As a boy he became devoted to the sea, and he dedicated (devoted ) himself to improving the design of ships and the methods of sailing them. In 1416, when he was twenty-two, Henry founded a school for mariners, to which he invited everyone who could help him—Jewish astronomers, Italian and Spanish sailors, and Arab mathematicians and map makers who knew how to use the crude compass of the day and could improve it.Henry’s goal was to design and equip vessels that would be capable of making long ocean voyages without having to hug ( keep close to ) the shore. The caravel carried more sail and was longer and slimmer than any ship then made, yet was tough enough to withstand gales at sea. He also developed the carrack , which was a slower ship, but one that was capable of carrying more cargo.To Price Henry the world owes credit for development of craft that made oceanic exploration possible. He lives in history as Henry the Navigator.Question:The best title for this selection is _____.A)The First Modern Sailing VesselsB) The Mariner PrinceC) Prince Henry’s Role in HistoryD) The First School for Sailors分析：文章首尾呼应。
作者在第一段写出文章将要论述的内容“Price Henry 发展了现代航船。
”。
在最后一段对前几段内容进行了归纳“Price Henry改良了船只，从而使远洋探险成为可能”。
中间两段分别讲述了他的生平和对船只的改良。
因此正确答案是C。
3）遇到主题句不在段首的情况，就要快速往下看，直接寻找主题句，忽略其他内容，主题句有可能在一段的中间或末尾。
此法适用于主题句不在段首的文章。
如果用该法也找不到主题句，即段落中没有出现主题句，就需要根据所读内容自行归纳主题了。
例如：When an art museum wants a new exhibit, it buys things in finished form and hangs them on its walls. When a natural history museum wants an exhibit, it often must build it realistically --- from a mass of material and evidence brought together by careful research.An animal, for example, must first be skinned. Photographs and measurements are used to determine the animal’s structure in a natural position--- fighting, resting, or feeding. Then muscle forms are built and a plaster shell is made. Finally the skin is pulled over the shell like a wet glove. This completes the animal subject.Displaying such things as stone heads, giant trees, and meteorites is basically mechanical. Most other natural history exhibits present more difficult problems. For instance, how can a creature be exhibited when it is too small to be seen clearly? In these cases, larger-than –life models are built. The American Museum of Natural History has models of fleas, houseflies, and a myriad other insects enlarged up to seventy-four times. The models show the stages of the insects’development and theworkings of their bodies.Question:The best title for this selection is _____.A)Constructing an Animal SubjectB)Natural HistoryC)Problems of Exhibiting Natural HistoryD)Building a Museum Exhibit分析：文章的第一、二段没有主题句，但根据所读内容可知：第一段是一个对比，目的是说明自然历史博物馆展品得来不易——买不到，全靠造。