主旨大意题是高考英语阅读理解中常见命题形式。主要考查学生把握全文主旨和理解文章中心思想的能力。主旨大意题包括选择最佳标题（title），概括文章大意、段落大意和判断作者的写作目的（purpose）等。
常见的命题形式是：
What does the passage/author mainly discuss?
What is the first/second paragraph mainly about?
What is the main idea of the text?
What is the text mainly about?
What is the best title for the text?
What can be a suitable title for the text?
What's the purpose of the passage?
一、最佳标题
方法：
1、中心句法：根据文章中心句，提炼主题词充当文章标题。
2、当文章的写作对象特点较多时，常用写作对象的名称充当文章的标题。
3、将文章的写作对象和其主要特点、意义或影响整合充当文章的标题。
标题的特点：
概括性：抽象、准确、简短，常用一个短语或一句话。
针对性：标题外延恰当，与文章内容相符，避免以偏概全。
醒目性：新颖奇特，激发读者的阅读兴趣。
注意排除标题干扰项：
(1)片面性：概括不够。所给选项只概括了文章的一部分内容，或以文章中的细节或个别字词作为选项，或以次要信息作为标题。
(2)过于笼统或过渡概括：所给选项概括的范围过大，超出文章所述内容。
2018课标全国ⅡD篇
We ‘ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What ‘s the problem? It ‘s possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It ‘s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.
Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease(润滑剂)for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast.“Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,”he explains. “The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction(互动)with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience.“It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,”says Dunn.“But interactions with peripheral(边缘的)members of our social network matter for our well-being also.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk.“Small talk is the basis of good manners,”he says.
35.What is the best title for the text?
A.Conversation Counts
B.Ways of Making Small Talk
C.Benefits of Small Talk
D.Uncomfortable Silence
解析：中心句法。根据第二段最后一句(专家说闲聊是一种可带来巨大益处的极有价值的社交行为)以及最后一段最后一句(闲聊是良好举止的基础)可知,C项“闲聊的益处”与题干要求一致,故答案为C项。A项“会话很重要”为干扰项,错在偷换概念,conversation(会话, 交谈)和small talk(闲谈)不是一个概念;文章没有就闲聊的方式或方法做具体的解释,故排除B项“进行闲聊的方式”;D项“令人不安的沉默”只是第一段提到的现象之一, 而不是文章的主旨。
二、概括文章大意
方法：
1、借助段落主题句归纳：段首、段中、段末
2、借助文章主题段归纳：首段（新闻报道、议论文、说明文、科技文献）、末段（记叙文、议论文）（根据不同的文体定位主题句）
3、借助主题词归纳：抓住文中出现频率较高的主题词，然后对其进行概括和归纳，确定文章的主旨大意，
说明文、议论文找主题句的五个小窍门：
(1)段落中出现表转折的词语(如however, yet,but, in fact, indeed,actually等)时， 该句很可能是主题句。（行文标志词定位主题句）
(2)首段出现疑问句时，对该问题的回答很可能就是文章主旨。
(3)作者有意识地反复重复的观点，通常是主旨；反复出现的词语，一般为体现文章主旨的关键词。
(4)表示总结或结论的话常有therefore, thus, in brief, in short, all in all, in conclusion, in a word, to sum up, so等。
（行文标志词定位主题句）
(5)表示研究成果的词之后：find, show, indicate, suggest, according to, sb（权威人士）says等。（行文标志词定位主题句）
2018课标全国ⅢB篇
Cities usually have a good reason for being where they are, like a nearby port or river. People settle in these places because they are easy to get to and naturally suited to communications and trade. New York City, for example, is near a large harbour at the mouth of the Hudson River. Over 300 years its population grew gradually from 800 people to 8 million. But not all cities develop slowly over a long period of time. Boom towns grow from nothing almost overnight. In 1896, Dawson, Canada, was unmapped wilderness(荒野).But gold was discovered there in 1897, and two years later, it was one of the largest cities in the West, with a population of 30,000.（the reasonof its appearance）
Dawson did not have any of the natural conveniences of cities like London or Paris. People went there for gold. They travelled over snow-covered mountains and sailed hundreds of miles up icy rivers. The path to Dawson was covered with thirty feet of wet snow that could fall without warning. An avalanche(雪崩)once closed the path, killing 63 people. For many who made it to Dawson, however, the rewards were worth the difficult trip. Of the first 20,000 people who dug for gold, 4,000 got rich. About 100 of these stayed rich men for the rest of their lives.(its development)
But no matter how rich they were, Dawson was never comfortable. Necessities like food and wood were very expensive. But soon, the gold that Dawson depended on had all been found. The city was crowded with disappointed people with no interest in settling down, and when they heard there were new gold discoveries in Alaska, they left Dawson City as quickly as they had come. Today, people still come and go—to see where the Canadian gold rush happened. Tourism is now the chief industry of Dawson City—its present population is 762.(its decline)
27. What is the text mainly about?
A. The rise and fall of a city. B. The gold rush in Canada.
C. Journeys into the wilderness. D. Tourism in Dawson.
解析：这篇记叙文没有主题段，但是每一段的大意很清楚，很容易归纳出全文的main idea。第一段讲Dawson城市出现的原因。第二段讲Dawson城市的发展。第三段but一转折讲Dawson城市的衰落。所以答案是A。
2018全国I卷C篇
Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.
Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.
At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number (中位数) of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world’s languages are spoken by fewer people than that.
Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.
31. What is the main idea of the text?
A. New languages will be created.
B. People’s lifestyles are reflected in languages.
C. Human development results in fewer languages.
D. Geography determines language evolution.
解析：这是一篇说明文。借助段落主题句很容易选正确答案C项。
三、概括段落的主旨大意
方法：
段落有主题句（说明文和议论文），没有主题句就按前面总结文章大意的方法归纳段落大意。
总分式/总分总式:段落首句为主题句，段落其他各句是举例或论证。
分总式：段尾是主题句，段落开头是举例子或者层层推进。
分总分式：主题句在中间。开头引出话题→论述主题→解释
2019全国高考I卷D篇
During the rosy years of elementary school (小学), I enjoyed sharing my dolls and jokes, which allowed me to keep my high social status. I was the queen of the playground. Then came my tweens and teens, and mean girls and cool kids. They rose in the ranks not by being friendly but by smoking cigarettes, breaking rules and playing jokes on others, among whom I soon found myself.
Popularity is a well-explored subject in social psychology. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of clinical psychology sorts the popular into two categories: the likable and the status seekers. The likables’ plays-well-with-others qualities strengthen schoolyard friendships, jump-start interpersonal skills and, when tapped early, are employed ever after in life and work. Then there’s the kind of popularity that appears in adolescence: status born of power and even dishonorable behavior.
Enviable as the cool kids may have seemed, Dr. Prinstein’s studies show unpleasant consequences. Those who were highest in status in high school, as well as those least liked in elementary school, are “most likely to engage (从事) in dangerous and risky behavior.”
In one study, Dr. Prinstein examined the two types of popularity in 235 adolescents, scoring the least liked, the most liked and the highest in status based on student surveys (调查研究). “We found that the least well-liked teens had become more aggressive over time toward their classmates. But so had those who were high in status. It clearly showed that while likability can lead to healthy adjustment, high status has just the opposite effect on us.”
Dr. Prinstein has also found that the qualities that made the neighbors want you on a play date — sharing, kindness, openness — carry over to later years and make you better able to relate and connect with others.
In analyzing his and other research, Dr. Prinstein came to another conclusion: Not only is likability related to positive life outcomes, but it is also responsible for those outcomes, too. “Being liked creates opportunities for learning and for new kinds of life experiences that help somebody gain an advantage, ” he said.
33. What is the second paragraph mainly about？
A. The classification of the popular. B. The characteristics of adolescents.
C. The importance of interpersonal skills. D. The causes of dishonorable behavior.
解析：找主题句法。
2016·浙江高考阅读C篇
Viewing childhood development as a scientific investigation throws light on how children learn, but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists. Why do young children and scientists seem to be so much alike? Psychologists have suggested that science as an effort — the desire to explore, explain, and understand our world — is simply something that comes from our babyhood. Perhaps evolution (进化) provided human babies with curiosity and a natural drive to explain their worlds, and adult scientists simply make use of the same drive that served them as children. The same cognitive (认知的) systems that make young children feel good about figuring something out may have been adopted by adult scientists. As some psychologists put it，“It is not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children.”
53．What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A．The world may be more clearly explained through children’s play.
B．Studying babies’ play may lead to a better understanding of science.
C．Children may have greater ability to figure out things than scientists.
D．One’s drive for scientific research may become stronger as he grows.
解析：找主题句法。根据读文关注点定位到原文中的第一句话“Viewing childhood development as a ... look at science and scientists.”；再由关注点——转折信息处定位到本句话的后半部分“but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists”，此处用到了转折连词but强调本部分内容，故可知本段主要强调研究孩子们的天性可能有助于更好地理解科学家。所以B项正确。A项表述不够确切，属于过于笼统，不知所云；C、D两项文中未提及，属于无中生有，生搬硬套。
四、判断作者的写作意图
各种文体的常见写作目的：
记叙文：tell a story/ teach a lesson/ share an experience/ entertain readers
广告: advertise or promote products/ attract readers
议论文: argue/persuade/show the writer's opinion on
说明文/新闻报道：inform readers of sth./introduce sth/provide some information/report an event/present the findings of a study/stress sth
2017年高考北京卷C篇
Measles(麻疹), which once killed 450 children each year and disabled even more, was nearly wiped out in the United States 14 years ago by the universal use of the MMR vaccine(疫苗). But the disease is making a comeback, caused by a growing anti-vaccine movement and misinformation that is spreading quickly. Already this year, 115 measles cases have been reported in the USA, compared with 189 for all of last year.（引出话题）
The numbers might sound small, but they are the leading edge of a dangerous trend. When vaccination rates are very high, as they still are in the nation as a whole, everyone is protected. This is called ＂herd immunity＂, which protects the people who get hurt easily, including those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons, babies too young to get vaccinated and people on whom the vaccine doesn’t work.（不接种疫苗的危害）
But herd immunity works only when nearly the whole herd joins in. When some refuse vaccination and seek a free ride, immunity breaks down and everyone is in even bigger danger.
That’s exactly what is happening in small neighborhoods around the country from Orange County, California, where 22 measles cases were reported this month, to Brooklyn, N.Y., where a 17-year-old caused an outbreak last year.
The resistance to vaccine has continued for decades, and it is driven by a real but very small risk. Those who refuse to take that risk selfishly make others suffer.
Making things worse are state laws that make it too easy to opt out(决定不参加) of what are supposed to be required vaccines for all children entering kindergarten. Seventeen states allow parents to get an exemption（豁免）, sometimes just by signing a paper saying they personally object to a vaccine.
Now, several states are moving to tighten laws by adding new regulations for opting out. But no one does enough to limit exemptions.
Parents ought to be able to opt out only for limited medical or religious reasons. But personal opinions? Not good enough. Everyone enjoys the life-saving benefits vaccines provide, but they’ll exist only as long as everyone shares in the risks.（进一步举例说明不接种疫苗的危害及原因）
66. What is the purpose of the passage?
A. To introduce the idea of exemption.
B. To discuss methods to cure measles.
C. To stress the importance of vaccination.
D. To appeal for equal rights in medical treatment.
解析：第一段通过but引出话题。第二段通过but说明不接种疫苗的危害。最后，进一步举例说明不接种疫苗的危害及原因。通过分析，很快就能选定答案C。
【附】思维导图
转自：“初高中英语学科教研”微信公众号
如有侵权，请联系本站删除！
