top of page

解構雅思系列文章:突破閱讀8分,三大心法 (中)


在接下來的「解構雅思」系列文章裡頭,Jeremy老師結合了自身考試經驗與多年教學經驗,分別透過三篇文章介紹準備閱讀測驗的三大心法。我們將會帶著大家一起探討如何在第一次應試就拿到閱讀8.5分!這三大心法,經過多位學生的實證後,他們都有十分顯著的進步!因此,希望透過這些文章分享,能夠讓對於準備考取雅思,但卻還是無法突破自己理想成績的同學們有所幫助。


在上一篇文章我們介紹了雅思閱讀的第一心法,:「如何審題」。在這一篇文章裡頭,我們將會繼續介紹第二心法:「抽換詞面」(Paraphrasing)。此技巧可說是在雅思閱讀測驗裡頭非常重要的一個作答關鍵!



心法二: 理解「抽換詞面」,所有題型迎刃而解!

如果說「抽換詞面」(Paraphrasing)可說是雅思裡頭最為重要的技巧也不為過!這個技巧幾乎貫穿了四大項目的測驗,不管是聽力,甚至是寫作,這一技巧都十分重要,也是是否能夠拿高分的一大關鍵點!在閱讀測驗裡面尤其是,通常只要學生能夠掌握抽換詞面的技巧後,都能很輕鬆的克服各種難題。以下,我們便針對paraphrasing的三大重點進行說明。


重點一:為什麼雅思那麼看重「paraphrase」?


要回答這問題,首先我們得先了解究竟何謂「paraphrase」 ?在牛津詞典裡頭,對於這個單字給出了這樣的解釋:

A rewording of something written or spoken.

重點在於rewording!也就是如何透過詞句的重組或是抽換來表達原本的句子,但是意思不能改變。那為何Ielts會如此看重這樣的修辭手法呢?原因在於,許多學生要去海外留學需要考的IELTS是Academic Ielts,而在「學術英文」(Academic English)當中很重要的一大禁忌就是「抄襲」(plagiarism)。因此當我們今天想要引用別人的觀點時,我們不能直接把原文一字不變地抄上去,就必須要用自己的話來表達原文的意思,也就是paraphrase了(Keck, 2010)!而雅思做為留學門檻的英文檢定考,必定是想藉此來測試考生們是否具備未來書寫學術英文的能力。假如你在閱讀測驗裡面都無法掌握「抽換詞面」的技巧,那更遑論未來自己要使用這樣的修辭手法完成學術論文!



重點二:哪些閱讀題型會出現paraphrase?


直接講結論:全部都會!在閱讀測驗題型裡面,假如以廣義的任務來區分,可以分成兩大類:「掌握段落大意」(運用技巧為Skim)、「找出特定資訊」(運用技巧為Scan)。而在這兩大類裡面,依照答題形式,又可以再細分成五小項:選擇題(multiple choices)、配合題(matching information, headings, features and sentence endings)、完成題(sentence, summary, note, table, flowchart, diagram label completion)、簡答題(short-answer questions)與判斷題(identify information or writer’s views)。然而,不管是哪一題型,抽換詞面的技巧一直都是能否快速掌握答案的重要關鍵。我們來看看以下這兩個關於sentence completion的題目,請大家不用找出填空的答案,先專注在找出答案的出處句子即可。

1 Some food plants, including ....................... are already grown indoors.

2 Vertical farms would be located in ......................, meaning that there would be less need to take them long distances to customers.


請從以下段落找出答案出處句子:

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another three billion people. Many believe an entirely new approach to indoor farming is required, employing cutting-edge technologies. One such proposal is for the 'Vertical Farm'. The concept is of multi-storey buildings in which food crops are grown in environmentally controlled conditions. Situated in the heart of urban centres, they would drastically reduce the amount of transportation required to bring food to consumers. Vertical farms would need to be efficient, cheap to construct and safe to operate. If successfully implemented, proponents claim, vertical farms offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (through year-round production of all crops), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.


大家找到了嗎?這次,我們幫大家將這兩題所對應的答案出處句子畫了起來:

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another three billion people. Many believe an entirely new approach to indoor farming is required, employing cutting-edge technologies. One such proposal is for the 'Vertical Farm'. The concept is of multi-storey buildings in which food crops are grown in environmentally controlled conditions. Situated in the heart of urban centres, they would drastically reduce the amount of transportation required to bring food to consumers. Vertical farms would need to be efficient, cheap to construct and safe to operate. If successfully implemented, proponents claim, vertical farms offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (through year-round production of all crops), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.


再來,我們再一次看看這兩個問題:

1. Some food plants, including ....................... are already grown indoors.

2. Vertical farms would be located in ......................, meaning that there would be less need to take them long distances to customers.


現在,我們要來找出題目跟原本的句子到底抽換了哪些詞面!首先在第一題裡面,運用上一篇心法所教的,抓出句子的靈魂-動詞:’are already grown indoors’(「已被種植在室內」),對應到原本的句子就是’hothouse production…has been in vogue for some time’(「由溫室種植的農作物已經流行一段時間」)。所以抽換了哪些呢?’grown indoors’原文為’hothouse production’,而原文中的’in vogue for some time’,在題目變成僅僅’have already’。假如大家有辦法善用這樣的閱讀技巧,那答案很快就呼之欲出了!第二題就讓大家來練習看看,歡迎大家在下面留言寫下關於題目跟原文到底paraphrase了哪一些喔!


但想必這時候一定有許多學員,開始焦慮說,假如不知道’hothouse’(「溫室」)或是’in vogue’(「流行中」)是什麼意思,那這一題不就做不出來了嗎?當然,有很多技巧可能讓你去猜出不會單字的意思,但更重要的是,我們如何不斷去擴充自己的單字庫。因為說穿了,所謂的抽換詞面,其實考的就是你的單字量!這也就是我們在這篇文章要探討的最後一個重點。



重點三:擴充單字量才是掌握閱讀高分王道!

單字量之於雅思測驗,就如同食材之於料理。假如今天沒有食材,一個廚師技術再好也是枉然;如同在雅思測驗一樣,不管你的考試技巧多厲害,假如單字量不夠大那一定無法拿到高分。因此如何擴充自己的單字庫便是一大重點。我們不太推薦直接拿坊間現成的單字書拿去背,因為他人寫好的單字書不見得對每個人都是有幫助,而且背單字書這樣的行為本來就是效率不怎麼高的一個行為(Chen & Li, 2010)。我們通常會建議學生建立自己的單字庫,並且可以用主題方式(例如Environment, Psychology等大主題)來區分,同時之後看到某單字的同義詞記得要記錄在一起,這樣一來,便能夠以更有系統後的方式來擴充自己的單字量。而面對未來在閱讀測驗看到抽換詞面時,也有較高的機率能夠掌握出paraphrase的地方。記住,一旦抓住paraphrase的句型,通常答案都很快能夠掌握了!大家也可以用這個網站:Thesaurus來快速幫助自己掌握某單字的相關同義詞(synonym)與反義詞(antonym)唷!下圖為此網站查詢結果之例圖。





希望這篇文章對於各位考生有幫助,也歡迎大家在底下留言自己的考試技巧是什麼!假如想了解更多雅思高分技巧,歡迎來電或來信諮詢,也可以加入谷燈堡學院英語部的官方帳號,我們將會不定期分享考試高分技巧唷!最後一個閱讀心法敬請期待!

156 次查看0 則留言
bottom of page