托福阅读难点解析：修辞目的题怎么破解

### 修辞目的题考查的能力 在修辞目的题中，考生将被考查的是：理解作者为什么在文章中某个特别位置或者以某种特殊的方式陈述一个特别的信息，是否理解一句话或者一个段落在与文章的其他部分相联系时所起到的修辞性作用。(以上内容来自《托福考试官方指南》) 根据《托福考试官方指南》的对修辞目的题的介绍，我们清楚地知道这类题型考查的重点：<u>目的和意图，即对作者态度的判断</u>。 ### 修辞目的题的题目特点（怎样判断是否为修辞目的题）及提问方式 修辞目的题的题干中经常会出现 definition、exmaple、to illustrate、to explain、to contrast、to refute、to note、to criticize 及 function of 这类用来描述修辞目的的单词或词组。 > The author discusses X in passage 2 in order to...? > Why does the author mention X? > The author uses X as an example of...? ### 修辞目的题的解题要点 根据真题分析，我们将托福修辞目的题分为两类：段落关系的判断和作者意图的判断。如下图：  简单来说，修辞目的题有时候会要求考生「确定一个段落与另一个段落之间的联系」。例如，文章的第二段可能给出例子来支持第一段中的论断，而答案的选项可能是针对整篇文章以总结性的语言出现的（例如，a theory is explained and the illustrated），也可能是针对文章中的一个句意细节出现的（例如，The author explains the categories of adaption to deserts by mammal and then gives an example.）。修辞目的类问题也可能「考查作者提到某一条特别信息的原因」（例如：Why does the author mention “the ability to grasp a penci”?，正确答案：It is an example of a motor skill developed by children at 10 to 11 months of age.），或者是考查作者引用某一个人的例子的原因。 **示例：「Railroads and Commercial Agriculture In Nineteenth-Century United States」** > 原文：As railroad lines fanned out from Chicago, farmers began to acquire open prairie land in Illinois and then Iowa, putting the fertile, deep black soil into production. Commercial agriculture transformed this remarkable treeless environment. To settlers accustomed to eastern woodlands, the thousands of square miles of tall grass were an awesome sight. <u>Indian grass, Canada wild rye, and native big bluestem all grew higher than a person.</u> Because eastern plows could not penetrate the densely tangled roots of prairie grass, the earliest settlers erected farms along the boundary separating the forest from the prairie. In 1837, however, John Deere patented a sharp-cutting steel plow that sliced through the sod without soil sticking to the blade. Cyrus McCormick refined a mechanical reaper that harvested fourteen times more wheat with the same amount of labor. By the 1850s McCormick was selling 1,000 reapers a year and could not keep up with demand, while Deere turned out 10,000 plows annually. > > 题目：Why does author point out that “Indian grass, Canada wild rye, and native big bluestem all grew higher than a person”? > > A. To provide a reason why people from the eastern woodlands of the United States were impressed when they saw the prairie > B. To identify an obstacles to the development of the railroad lines fanning out from Chicago > C. To explain why the transformation of the prairies by commercial agriculture was so remarkable > D. To provide evidence supporting the claim that the prairies had fertile, deep black soil 根据题干中的「Why does author point out」，我们可以明确判断出这是一道修辞目的题，这里「考查作者提到某一条特别信息的原因」，即考查的是作者的意图。根据题干可定位第五段第四句，这句话讲的是「印度草，加拿大野黑麦，当地的大须芒草都长得比人还高」。我们在前文提到，考查作者意图分为两种情况：原文有明显举例词时，答案在举例词之前出现；原文无明显举例词，答案在当前句中出现。但这个原则并不是一成不变的，这句话中并无明显举例词，但只靠这句话本身，我们还是不知道作者提到这句话的原因是什么。所以，我们还是要看前面的内容，看到本段第三句话「To settlers accustomed to eastern woodlands, the thousands of square miles of tall grass were an awesome sight.」，这句话说的是「对于那些习惯了东部林地的环境的定居者来说，一望无际的高高生长的野草是一种壮观的风景」。题干所涉及到的句子和这句话之间存在因果关系，即草长得比人还高，这对于那些习惯了东部林地的定居者来说，肯定是比较惊讶的，觉得这个景象比较壮观。