第三节 文章各段落之间的关系
一篇文章各段落之间都存在着一定的逻辑联系，而这种逻辑联系通常情况下都体现在段落的开头和结尾。这种类型的题目一般要求考生根据所阅读的短文推测出该文章的前一段或后一段的内容。这类测试题难度较大，需要考生充分理解测试材料、分析语篇特点、仔细寻找解题依据。如果问题要求考生猜测短文之前的内容，考生就必须注意短文的开头部分；如果问题要求考生猜测短文之后的内容，考生就必须注意短文的结尾部分。
值得一提的是，在寻求解题依据时，千万不可忽视对篇章结构的分析。例如：论说文是用理由、论据来说明作者观点的，如果所选段落仅叙述其中一点，那么该段落的上、下文可能是对另一点的叙述。如果是用比较对比的手法来组织的文章，所选段落仅论述比较，则该文的上、下文可能论述对比。
例1.
By about A.D 500 the Mound Builder culture was declined, perhaps because of attacks from other tribes or perhaps because of severe climatic changes that undermined agriculture. To the west another culture, based on intensive agriculture, was beginning to flourish. Its center was beneath presentday St. Louis, and it radiated out to encompass most of the Mississippi watershed, from Wisconsin to Louisiana and from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Thousands of villages were included in its orbit.
The paragraph preceding this one most probably discussed _____ .
［A］ the Mound Builder culture
［B］ warfare in A.D 500.
［C］ the geography of the Mississippi area
［D］ agriculture near the Mississippi River
本题就是一个典型的例子。文章各段落间的逻辑关系一般情况下都体现在段落的开头或结尾。本题要求考生根据下文已知信息，对上文可能出现的信息加以推测。解答这类题型时，要充分理解所读文章，特别注意文章的开头部分，借助于标题、主题句进行推测。本篇文章一开始便谈到"By about A.D. 500 the Mound Bwilder culture was declined"。接着又告诉读者这种文化衰退的两个可能性的因素。进而又讲述了另一种文化的繁荣。因此，我们可以判断出：第一句是个过渡句，起到承上启下的作用，前一段肯定是关于the Mound Builder Culture，甚至是这种文化的繁荣景象。因此，这一题的正确答案是A项。
例2.
A hearing test that analyzes brain waves for subconscious responses to sound has recently been devised by a team of specialists at the University of Iowa. Instead of depending on the patient to indicate when he hears a laboratorycontrolled noise, as in the traditional form of testing, this new method, called electric response audiometry, enables audiologists to trace the noise's path directly from the ear to the brain while the patient relaxes or sleeps. Although brain responses have been used in other auditory tests for some time, the university of Iowa specialists are the only scientists to date who analyze simultaneously three components of hearing--the responses of the middle ear, the auditory nerve, and the brain stem. This information helps to identify the precise location of a hearing problem and, at the same time, to measure its severity. While electric response audiometry is not meant to replace conventional means of testing, it is especially effective in diagnosing hearing problems in very young children multiply handicapped individuals, and psychologically disturbed persons because it does not require the patient's active participation.
The paragraph following this one would most likely deal with _____ .
［A］ why some people can hear better than others
［B］ what can be done to help the hearing impaired
［C］ how this new auditory test is conducted
［D］ which hearing problems are the most severe
本题要求考生预测短文之后可能讲座的内容，解这类题型考生要特别注意文章结尾部分，找出作者在结尾部分埋下的伏笔，同时要根据文章的中心思想来进行推测。本文的主题是渥太华大学的一组科学家为了分析对声音下意识做出反应的脑电波听力测验。他们一改过去那种传统的测试方法，而采用"electric response audiometry"。这样，就是在病人休息的时候，听觉矫治专家就可以直接监测，跟踪声音从耳朵进入大脑的线路。接下来的内容都是关于这一重大突破的意义。在理解全文的基础上，我们再仔细体会结尾部分的内容，结尾句告诉我们这种新的方法被证明用在诊断小孩、残疾人、或是精神疾病的患者身上尤为有效，因为它并不特别要求病人的主动参与。显然，下一段作者就要叙述如何进行这种听觉测试。因此，正确答案为C项。
在判断文章上下文之间的逻辑关系时，要特别注意过渡性词语的使用。过渡性词语是一种关系指引词，用其作为连接手段，能使文章保持连贯、通顺。它们不仅能承上启下，还能转折上、下文的语气。
(常用的过渡词语请见本篇概论部分)
例3.
Dr. Trounson has gone one step further than the "testtube"fertilization(授孕)technique, first employed successfully in 1978 and since emulated in such places as the United States, South Africa, Britain, and Australia, by setting up an "embryo bank" to keep a supply of frozen, fertilized eggs available indefinitely. In case the first fertilized egg failed to lead to pregnancy when transplanted back into the mother, or possibly into another woman, another of the stored eggs, which had been taken from the mother and fertilized by the father at the same time as the first, could be withdrawn from the "bank" for a second attempt. The pioneers of successful "testtube" births, Steptoe and Edwards, had been the first to come up with this storage idea but they had been forced to withdraw their plan because of the controversy it aroused. The problem in both countries was, of course, one of morality, although that should not be taken to imply that there is necessarily more morality in Great Britain than in Australia. The concern has been that the embryo bank might be exploited by the unscrupulous, or that conception(怀孕)might precede birth by nine or even ninety years, rather than by nine months. As happened some years ago with heart transplants, and as will doubtless happen again, the present situation as far as embryo banks are concerned appears to be that "the technology has outrun the morality."
The paragraph preceding this passage probably discussed
［A］ the intended recipient
［B］ Dr. Trounson
［C］ embryo banks
［D］ Steptoe and Edwards
本题要求预测上文可能谈到的内容。判断文章上下文之间的逻辑关系时，过渡性词语也起着重要的作用，它是一种关系指引词，使文章保持连贯、通顺。我们知道，推测上文信息，文章的第一句很重要。该文第一句讲"Dr. Trounson has gone one step further than the "testtube" fertilization technique..."，句中的过渡词语"further"表示进一步说明，与上文属于递进逻辑关系。既然第一句叙述Dr. Trounson在研究试管受精技术的基础上又进一步建立了"胚胎库"或"精子库"，由此我们可以推测其前文很可能是有关Dr. Trounson和试管受精技术。故正确答案是B项。
例4.
When early humans hunted and gathered food, they were not in control of their environment. They could only interact with their surroundings as lower organisms did. When humans learned to make fire, however, they became capable of altering their environment. To provide themselves with fuel they stripped bark from trees, causing the trees to die. Clearings were burned in forests to increase the growth of grass and to provide a greater grazing area for the wild animals that humans fed upon. This development led to farming and the domestication of animals. Fire also provided the means for cooking plants which had previously been inedible. Only when the process of meeting the basic need for food reached a certain level of sophistication was it possible for humans to follow other pursuits such as the founding of cities.
The paragraph following this passage would most likely be about
［A］ fire
［B］ hunting
［C］ farming
［D］ urbanization
该题要求预测短文之后可能讨论的内容。解这种题时，可以先回顾一下全文的主题思想及相关的信息，也可以根据结尾句的过渡性词语的使用判断下文信息。文章的结尾讲"Only when the process of meeting the basic need for...was it possible for humans to follow other pursuits such as the founding of cities."(只有在满足对食物基本需求的过程达到一定的精细程度时，人类才有可能去从事建造城市等其他的追求)。该句中出现过渡词"such as"，它表示下文要引出的例子。因此，我们说本文后的段落很可能是关系人们的追求，而放在首位的，则是从事建造城市的追求。故正确答案是D项。