科普类阅读的解题技巧

刘静

科普类文章是高考英语的常考题材。文章中词汇的意思比较单一、稳定、简明，不带感情色彩，具有单一性和准确性的特点。为了描述一个客观事物，严密地表达自己的观点，作者经常会使用集多种语法现象于一体的长句。所以，文中出现的句子结构通常较复杂，语法分析较困难。

近几年，高考的阅读理解以考查同学们的语言运用能力为主，语言知识为辅，选材贴近生活，重视实用和语言文化背景的渗透。考查的题型以细节理解题为主，推理判断题的比例逐步提高，主旨大意题及词义猜测题占有重要地位。下面我们以一篇科普阅读为例对这类题目进行具体分析。

A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally， the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.

“Its extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components （元件），” said Robert Wood， the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago， his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own，” he said.

They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components， each of which individually has to perform well， but then has to be matched well to everything its connected to，” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power， computation， sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.

While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small， off-board power source， the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source， so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites， in farmers fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off， land and fly around，” he said.

Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet， the power， sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions， you know， to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals，” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”

1. It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly .

A. consists of a flight device and a control system

B. can just fly in limited areas at the present time

C. can collect information from many sources

D. has been put into wide application

2. Which of the following can be learned from the passage？

A. The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.

B. Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.

C. There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.

D. Woods design can replace animals in some experiments.

3. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage？

A. Father of Robotic Fly

B. Inspiration from Engineering Science

C. Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect

D. Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

解析 1～3 BDC。

以第1题为例，这是一道细节推理题，是科普文中最常见的题型，要求从细节中整理或推断出相关信息，并作出判断。第三段的The flight device was built into a set of power， computation， sensing and control systems.和A选项有出入，A选项中没有全面包括原句的信息，属于信息遗漏。B答案和第四段中的so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites， in farmers fields or on the battlefield是一致的，尤其是划线部分的语气与答案B中的at the present time刚好吻合。所以同学们在做科普文章时，注意语气方面的细节也同样重要。与此同时，这个句子也暗示了答案C和D是错误的。

第2题是一道信息量较大的题目。它要求同学们对每一个选项都有相关的记忆和了解。比如A，涉及到文章作者的写作意图，这是在阅读科普文时同学们应贯彻始终的一个问题：作者为什么要介绍这种科学或者技术？想提供给我们什么样的信息或者启示？仔细搜索会发现找到相关信息并不难，比如通过to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals， 我们就可以知道答案D是对的。

最后一题是常见的最佳标题的选择，做这类题目通常有多种方法，但在科普文中，最重要的还是“关键词法”。通读全文，找到文章的关键词：Robotic Fly，再结合文章的内容和作者的写作目的不难得知，文章讲的是这个产品的特性和它的用途。因此C选项正确。

综上，科普类文章无非也是主流的阅读理解题，同学们大可不必过于紧张。我们应该拓展知识面，从提高能力入手，养成良好的阅读习惯，以不变应万变。这里我有以下几点建议给大家：

1. 如果想做好科普类阅读理解题，同学们平时就应该多注意阅读科普知识类文章，学习科普知识，积累常见的科普词汇，从根本上提高科普英语的阅读能力；

2. 科普类文章最常考查的是细节理解题。细节理解题一般针对原文中的某句话或某部分的具体内容设置问题，但干扰项通常也包括文章中的某个细节。常见的干扰项有以下特点：将原文内容扩大或缩小，把未然当已然，无中生有等。因此同学们应熟悉题型，稳定心态，从容应对；

3. 要熟悉科普类文章的结构特点。科普类文章一般由标题（Headlines）、导语（Introductions）、背景（Background）、主体（Main body）和结尾（Ends）五部分构成。标题是文章中心思想高度而又精辟的概括，但根据历年的高考真题情况来看，这类阅读理解材料一般不给标题，而要同学们选择标题。导语一般位于整篇文章的首段。背景交待一个事实的起因。主体则对导语概括的事实进行详细叙述，这一部分命题往往最多，因此，阅读时，同学们要把这部分作为重点。结尾往往也是中心思想的概括，并与导语相呼应，命题者常在此要设计一道推理判断题；

4. 在进行推理判断时，同学们一定要以阅读材料所提供的科学事实为依据，同时得出的结论还应符合基本的科普常识。

大家可以试着做一做下面的模拟训练。

A Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it is steamy， warm， damp and thick. But if you had been around 15， 000 years ago， during the last ice age， would it have been the same？ For more than 30 years， scientists have been arguing about how rainforests like the Amazon might have reacted （反应） to the cold， dry climates of the ice ages， but until now， no one has reached a satisfying answer.

Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to slow global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year： equal to the total amount of CO2 giving off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to future climate change？ If it gets drier， will it still survive and continue to draw down CO2？ Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past. Unfortunately， getting into the Amazon rainforest and collecting information are very difficult. To study past climate， scientists need to look at fossilized pollen， kept in lake muds. Going back to the last ice age means drilling deep down into lake sediments （沉淀物） which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery. There are very few roads and paths， or places to land helicopters and aero planes.

Rivers tend to the easiest way to enter the forest， but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled （未取样）. So far， only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon rainforest reacts to climate change.

1. The underlined phrase “mopping up” in the second paragraph means “ ”.

A. cleaning up B. taking in

C. wiping out D. giving out

2. How will the Amazon rainforest react to future climate change？

A. Itll get drier and continue to remove CO2.

B. Itll remain steamy， warm， damp and thick.

C. Itll get warmer and then colder and drier.

D. There is no exact answer up to present.

3. Whats the main idea of the last paragraph？

A. Its important to drill deep down into lake sediments to collect information.

B. Its impossible to prove how climate changes in the Amazon rainforest.

C. Its hard to collect information for studies of the past climate in the Amazon rainforest.

D. Its necessary to have specialized equipment and machinery to study the past climate.

4. The best title for this passage may probably be .

A. Studies of the Amazon

B. Climates of the Amazon

C. Secrets of the Rainforests

D. Changes of the Rainforests

解析 本文主要介绍了热带雨林对气候的影响。

1. B。词义猜测题。根据第二段中的helping to slow global warming，同时结合生物常识可推知mopping up的意思是“吸入”。另外，文章中的currently the trees in Amazon take in around 500 million tones of CO2 each year也暗示mop up和take in的意思相同。

2. D。事实细节题。根据文章第3段的内容（尤其是最后一句话）尤其是最后一句话可推知此题最佳答案为D。

3. C。主旨大意题。根据文章最后一段中的So far， only a handful of cores have been drilled可知资料收集不容易。

4. C。主旨大意题。文章主要讲的是亚马孙热带雨林难以预料的变化，所以选C为佳。