托福好康道相報 免費學托福TOEFL方法 考試技巧

托福閱讀除了詞彙量較大以外，句子結構複雜也是托福閱讀的障礙之一。面對難句，必須迅速把握其主乾和重點，因為考試時涉及答案的主要是句子的主乾和重點，對於句子簡化題(sentence simplification)尤其如此。要把握難句的主乾和重點，首先要弄清它們的類型。簡而言之，托福中的難句主要包括下列類型：

1.定語(包含後置定語與定語從句)

2.同位語

3.並列結構

4.that引導的各種從句

5.插入結構

6.獨立主格

7.倒裝句

8.強調句

9.虛擬語氣

對於不同類型的難句，把握主幹的方法也不一樣。以倒裝句為例，主要有下列情況：

1.方位副詞放在句首

Herein lay the beginning of what ultimately turned from ignorance to denial of the value of nutritional therapies in medicine。

2.介系詞放在句首

Among the species of seabirds that use the windswept cliffs of the Atlantic coast of Canada in the summer to mate, lay eggs, and rear their young are common murres, Atlantic puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and northern gannets。

3. 形容詞放在句首

Implicit in it is an aesthetic principle as well: that the medium has certain qualities of beauty and expressiveness with which sculptors must bring own aesthetic sensibilities into harmony。

4.過去分詞放在句首

Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”， the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent。

5.現在分詞放在句首

Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans。

句子倒裝的目的主要有兩個：

一是被提前的部分被強調，如上述的第四句：Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”，其中的accustomed按照正常語序應該放在are之後：Though we are accustomed to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”。之所以將accustomed提前，是為了強調它。

二是為了句子的平衡，否則將導致頭重腳輕的效果，如上述的第一句、第三句和第五句。以第五句為例，按照​​正常語序應該是：Fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans were missing until recently。但是這種句子結構比較糟糕，因為主語及其修飾語過長(從句首直到cetaceans)，而謂語部分were missing until recently較短，容易造成頭重腳輕的效果。第五句將missing提前，避免了這一現象。