如何抓住托福听力主旨题的关键?考托福的同学们都知道，托福听力的每篇lecture和conversation之后的第一道题必考听力文章的主旨，而很多同学听到主旨这个词都以为是main idea，然而，根据托福官方指南(Official Guide)的说明，主旨题并不仅仅如此。下面就和澎博英语教育的老师们一起来详细了解下如何抓住托福听力主旨题的关键：

　　托福考试官方指南(The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test)第五版对于主旨题(Gist Questions)的表述如下(Pg122-125)：

如何抓住托福听力主旨题的关键

　　听力主旨题分为两种类型：

　　内容主旨(Gist-Content)

　　内容主旨题的典型问法：

　　What problem does the man have?

　　What are the speakers mainly discussing?

　　What is the main topic of the lecture?

　　What is the lecture mainly about?

　　What aspect of X does the professor mainly discuss?

　　目的主旨(Gist-Purpose)

　　目的主旨题的典型问法：

　　Why does the student visit the professor?

　　Why does the student visit the registrar’s office?

　　Why did the professor ask to see the student?

　　What does the professor explain X?

　　通过上面的描述，同学们现在应该清楚了并不是所有的主旨题都是在问main idea，目的主旨不等于内容主旨，下面就让我们分别来说说这两种主旨题可能出现的题目陷阱。

　　内容主旨题(Gist-Content Questions)

　　托福考试涉及的语言能力考查都是在校园学术的环境下，因此听力考试中的lecture就是模拟大学课堂里教授介绍某个学科的知识概念的情景。通常来讲，教授主要有这么几种方式来引出主旨，这也是在真实的校园课堂情境中，教授会用到的方式。

　　开门见山

　　讲座开头教授就直接点明了主要内容，而正确的选项就是对讲座中教授所说内容的同义转述(paraphrase)。例如TPO41Lecture1 Desert plants。

　　听力原文：

　　Many organisms have developed the ability to survive in harsh environmental conditions: extreme heat or cold, or very dry conditions. Like plants in the desert. Your textbook doesn't have much about the specifics on desert plants, but I think that desert plants are great examples of specialized adaptations to extreme environmental conditions.So, with desert plants, there are basically three different adaptive strategies. And I should point out that these strategies are not specific to any particular species. Many different species have developed each of the adaptations.

　　题目：

　　What is the lecture mainly about?

　　A. The growth rates of plants in different geographical regions

　　B. Different ways that plants have adapted to desert environments

　　C. The different mechanisms that plant roots use to absorb water

　　D. Different kinds of succulent plants

　　答案：B

　　这篇讲座的开头教授通过一个强转折“but”来强调后面的内容更重要，然后直接就说了沙漠植物有三种适应的方式，接着整篇讲座分别介绍了这三种方式，正好对应主旨题中的B选项。而其他三个选项内容，都是讲座中提到的局部信息，也就是细节，因此不能概括全文的主要内容，应排除。

　　导入式介绍

　　当然，在大多数的情况下，教授对于主要内容的引入并不会这么直接(ETS也不会用这么简单的方式来考)，更多的情况是先对上节课的内容进行回顾，或者先介绍一下所讲主题的背景再展开主题。这就要求同学们需要注意听信号词提示，再根据听到的内容来对应正确选项。如TPO14Lecture1 Cognition。

　　听力原文：

　　We’ve said that the term “cognition” refers to mental states like knowing and believing, and to mental processes we use to arrive at those states. So, for example, reasoning is a cognitive process, so is perception. We use information that we perceive through our senses to help us make decisions, to arrive at beliefs and so on. And then there are memory and imagination which relate to the knowledge of things that happen in the past or may happen in the future. So, perceiving, remembering, imagining are all internal mental processes that lead to knowing or believing. Yet, each of these processes has limitations and can lead us to hold mistaken beliefs or make false predictions.

　　题目：

　　What is the lecture mainly about?

　　A. The differences between imagination and perception.

　　B. Cognitive functions that improve decision making.

　　C. Cognitive functions that assist in problem solving.

　　D. Common limitations with regard to several cognitive functions.

　　答案：D

　　教授在讲座开头先解释了什么是“cognition”，还举了“reasoning，perception”的例子来说明这个概念，接着教授用了“Yet”来表示转折强调，说这些过程都有局限性(limitations)，然后分别举例讲了三种认知过程的局限性。因此，只有D选项提到了limitations，B，C两个选项用improve，assist，与原文的信息不符;原文分别讲了imagination和perception，却没有提到A选项所说的两者的differences。

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