谈ＧＭＡＴ阅读的规律性
GMAT考试是评价考生在管理科学方面入学资格的最权威的考试，许多国内的考生都通过它进入了美国及其它国家的各级商学院深造。然而，更多的中国学生却在GMAT的备考和考试中败下阵来。通过分析考试成绩，我们发现中国考生的逻辑和数学能力，以及句子改错能力都很强，而真正影响考试成绩的是阅读部分。那么，怎样才能在较短的时间里攻克GMAT考试的阅读部分呢？在本文中，笔者将结合多年的教学经验，深入剖析GMAT阅读部分的出题规律和解题之道，希望能对考生有所帮助。简单地说，GMAT阅读的规律性可以用20个字来概括：文章改写，题材广泛，套路统一，题型固定，解题有章。
文章的来源与题材
所有GMAT中出现的阅读文章都不是照搬照抄原有的学术论文，ETS通常先搜集大量文章，然后在尽量保证原文信息不丢失的前提下改写。
GMAT阅读文章所涉及的题材十分广泛，一般来说，文章可分为以下三类：
1. 科技类文章：此类文章涉及的主题一般是DNA、基因、厄尔尼诺、温室效应、大气污染、开采能源等。此类文章内容枯燥无味，加上通篇“游荡”着几个超长的自然科学类英文单词，往往令考生十分头疼。由于此类文章难度较大，所以题目一般比较简单，基本都是“直接事实题”，极少出现“信息题”或其它高难题型。
2. 社会科学类文章：此类文章可能涉及历史，政治或宏观经济等社会科学领域的话题，包括美国历史、弱势群体(少数民族、 黑人、女性)以及法律(法律史)等等，在GMAT阅读部分所占的比例较大。这类文章对中国学生的理解能力并未造成太大挑战，但其阅读题目的难度却不容小觑。
3. 商业类文章：此类文章数量众多，而且涉及范围十分广泛，比如市场营销、存货处理、日常管理等等。由于此类文章较简单，所以题目一般较难，会有高难度的“信息题”出现，考生在对原文进行一般理解的基础上，应尽力读出其“弦外之音”。
套路统一
虽然GMAT文章的题材广泛，却表现出极为固定的行文模式：即典型的论证文章。这里要强调的是，文章的主题与结构本身的重要性远甚于文章内容，即“套路远远高于题材”。具体而言，在GMAT阅读中，不管文章内容如何千奇百怪，都可归纳成四种演进方式：
1. 旧观点→新观点；
作者一般会在文章开头提出一个旧观点（once believed），接着提出一个新观点（recent years）， 文章的第三部分一般会对新观点进行进一步的阐述。如：“It was once believed that...”→“In recent studies, however, we have discovered that...”
2. 现象→解释
作者一般会在文章开头提出一个现象，然后对该现象进行解释（explain），最后对每个解释一一评述，并表明态度。如：“Historians of women’s labor in the United States at first largely disregarded the story of female service workers”→“To explain this unfinished revolution in the status of women, historians have recently begun to emphasize the way a prevailing definition of femininity...”
3．问题→解决
作者一般在文章开头提出一个问题(problem)，然后提出一个或几个解决方案(suggestion)，最后会对每个解决方案做出评价，并表明态度。如：“Archaeology as a profession faces two major problems” →“I would like to make an outrageous suggestion that would at one stroke provide funds...”
4. 结论→解释。
作者一般会在文章开头提出一个总观点，然后用剩余的篇幅论述此观点，这类文章一般都是明显的“总——分结构”。如：“Two modes of argumentation have been used on behalf of women’s emancipation in Western societies. Arguments in what could be called the‘relational’feminist tradition...”
另外，考生可以在每篇有特定套路的文章中找出一个统御全文的主题句（topic sentence）。例如在新旧观点对立型的文章中，新观点即为主题句；而在问题解决型或现象解释型的文章中，主题句就是作者给予正评价的解决方案或解释。
题型固定
GMAT阅读部分多年以来形成了几种固定的题型及提问，GMAT阅读题型大体可分为客观题和主观题。客观题包括直接事实题、取非题、举例作用题、逻辑题、排除题、信息题和类比题；主观题包括主题题和态度题。这些题型从GMAT诞生那一天就存在并延用至今，而且这些题型的提问和解题方法也似乎被“固化”下来，表现出极强的规律性。
解题有章
由于GMAT阅读题的提问方法固定，所以解题方式也相对固定，考生对此种关联的熟悉程度可以在很大程度上决定做题的速度和质量。比如出现频率最高的主题题，其解题章法十分明显：文章套路→文章主题句(通过同义变换)→主题题正确答案。
然而在实际阅读过程中，很多考生往往不太关注文章的套路，很少注意文章的主题句在哪里，所以在解答这类题目时遇到了不少困难，即便找到答案，也因为耗时太多，得不偿失。
探索GMAT阅读的规律性对于考生应考具有积极意义，因为只有掌握了出题规律，才谈得上在考试中“节省时间，准确无误”。针对GMAT阅读规律性的对策，简单地说就是“取舍读文套路见， 题型判定答案现”。
详读与略读之取舍
GMAT文章是议论文，可以分为论点、论据和论证过程三个部分。其中论据部分是可以略读或在第一遍阅读时直接跳过的部分，这是提高阅读速度最关键的一步。下面我们来总结一下可以略读的部分（斜体的内容是可以略读的）：
1. 例子、比喻等服务于总结和归纳的部分
因为GMAT阅读问题的答案往往出现在总结和归纳的部分，和例子没有太大的关系，所以考生只要简单了解例子的内容就行了（简单记大写人名或关键名词即可）。一般而言，例子主要出现在以下位置：
【小口诀】for example 没事干，提取主语别怠慢，直奔句号往下看。
例如：
There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being“of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,”while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.
2) 紧跟结论的例子可以不看（要注意提取主语）
3) 出现在多个段落中的“例子”必须做标记
2. 具体的理论分析内容
因为第一遍阅读时是要抓主干、略细节，所以对于文中具体的理论分析这种细节内容可以快速地处理。
3. 让步语气
在GMAT阅读文章中大量使用让步语气，在阅读这一部分时要注意以下三点：
1) 让步之后必有转折，让步和转折互取非，阅读重点为转折部分。
2) 如果转折句没有读懂，则对让步部分取非即可。
3) 态度题——混合评价。
例如：
Although Bailyn goes on to apply his approach to some thousands of indentured servants who migrated just prior to the revolution, he fails to link their experience with the political development of the United States.
Although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration，no one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities.
【小口诀】Although表让步，直奔逗号往下看。
4. 阅读时要重点把握各段的前半部分，后半部分是否仔细阅读取决于文中是否有强转折、强对比
因为在GMAT阅读文章中开门见山的段落居多。所以考生在阅读时要把主要的时间和精力放在前半段。
5. 单独出现的数字可以省略不看（除非隐含比较的意思），多个数字连续出现可以不看
例如：
But since the mid-1970’s, a different strategy has emerged. In 1977, 34 percent of government clerical workers were represented by a labor organization, compared with 46 percent of government professionals, 44 percent of government blue-collar workers, and 41 percent of government service workers,
【小口诀】单个数字放， 多个数字弃。
6. 列举
1） 小列举：出现在一句话中，无任何数字标志。
The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries—tobacco, lumber, coal and iron manufacture, and railroads.
【小口诀】记住位置比记住内容更重要。
2） 大列举：内容分布在数句当中，有标志词分开。
① 定位列举标志词，读出层次。
先将first, second等词找出。
② 优先看是否有表总结的词汇(thus, hence, therefore, in short)，如没有则提取各个列举中的KW(常见的列举标志词有：first，second， and, also, in addition, additionally, furthermore, moreover等)。
例如：
First, more women have entered the work force in the past few years... are probably more concerned than their predecessors were about job security and economic benefits. Also, the women’s movement has succeeded in legitimizing the economic and political activism of women on their own behalf, thereby producing a more positive attitude toward unions.
7. 史实内容要找出人物和时间（找出大写字母、和时间状语以及弄清楚该历史事实的服务对象）
In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened and the first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed. An extensive network of telegraph and telephone communications was spun: Europe was connected by submarine cable with the United States in 1866 and with South America in 1874... As a consequence, agrarian depressions no longer were local or national in scope, and they struck several nations whose internal frontiers had not vanished or were not about to vanish.
【小口诀】提取大写字母和时间状语。这里由As a consequence 读出逻辑关系：史实是为As a consequence 这句话服务。
8. 老观点的原因、论据和假定可以不看
在新老观点对比型文章中，老观点不是作者的重点，于是可以忽略。
例如：
Traditionally, pollination by wind has been viewed as a reproductive process marked by random events in which the vagaries of the wind are compensated for by the generation of vast quantities of pollen, so that the ultimate production of new seeds is assured at the expense of producing much more pollen than is actually used. Because the potential hazards pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous, wind-pollinated plants have, in the view above, compensated for the ensuing loss of pollen through happenstance by virtue of producing an amount of pollen that is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the amount produced by species pollinated by insects.
9. 顺接连词后面的部分
在读懂前句的前提下，后句可以略读。常见的顺接连词有：in addition, more-over, further, furthermore, also, what’smore和indeed等等。
例如：
They believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. In addition many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that Native American manners and customs were rapidly disappearing, and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.
【小口诀】顺接连词较广泛，直奔句号往下看。
10. 任何原因都可以快速阅读，因为结论以及作者所持态度才是我们的Focus
These historians focused instead on factory work, primarily because it seemed so different from traditional, unpaid“women’s work”in the home, and because the underlying economic forces of industrialism were presumed to be gender-blind and hence emancipatory in effect.
11. 冒号及分号后的内容可以略读
在GMAT阅读中，冒号后面的内容要么表示列举，要么是在解释原因；而分号后面的内容与前面则是并列内容。
But compass sense alone cannot explain how birds navigate the ocean: after a flock traveling east is blown far south by a storm, it will assume the proper northeasterly course to compensate.
【小口诀】冒号分号不用看，直奔句号往下看。
以上是笔者总结的在阅读GMAT文章时可以省略不读的内容，考生可以在在复习备考阶段反复练习，直到养成看到以上内容就自动略读的阅读习惯，这样可以大大提高阅读和答题的效率，节省考试时间。
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