Grammar and Usage
The Elements of a Paragraph
I．解析：
主旨理解题（Main Idea）：
一段文章中最重要的是中心思想，其余部分都是围绕中心思想安排的，它规定了段落的发展方向。因此，阅读时首先要区分开哪些中中心，哪些是细节，其方法是找出每段的主题句（Topic Sentence）来，然后加以归纳总结，就可以得出中心思想，主题句一般处在文章的开头、末尾或中间。
Exp. 1
Many thousands years ago, there were no houses such as people live in today. In those ancient times, men sometimes made their homes in tress, using the leaves to keep off rain and sun. Their object in building their houses in trees is to be safe from their enemies and from wild beasts. If people in those old times had more civilized, they would have had strong building materials than leaves and branches.
Topic sentence:
Exp. 2
Many changes are taking place in “food style” in the United States. Traditionally, meat and potatoes made up American food. Now they have many different kinds to choose from: various international foods, health food, and fast food, in addition to the traditional home-cooked meal. International restaurants are common, because the United States is a country of immigrants(移民). Many cities even have special sections: Chinatown, little Italy or German town. With this vast choice, people there can enjoy food from all over the world.
Health food became poplar when people began to think more seriously about their health. Health food includes natural food with minimal processing. There are no chemicals to make it last longer, taste or look better. Most health food includes: beans, cheese and eggs. Fast food restaurants are now expanding rapidly all over the country. Speed is very important factor in people’s lives. People don’t want to waste their time eating . Fast food restaurants take care of hundreds of people in a short time. There is usually very little waiting and the food is always cheap.
Topic sentence:
Exp. 3:
I like reading short stories because they are easy to read and I can finish a whole story within a few minutes. My teacher told us that aside from our regular homework, we should also do some outside reading. Thus I chose to read short stories. It doesn’t take much of my time. Books open a lot of doors for us. Aside from entertaining us we can also learn from books. When I read books I can go to places I’ve never been to and meet person I’ve never met or will never have a chance of meeting. It also broadens my mind as it tells me ways to do things that I would have never thought of doing. Finally it leads us to know ourselves better.
Topic sentence:
Exp. 4
When the Greeks reached Egypt long ago, they found many stone buildings. They named the buildings pyramids. The Greeks didn’t know how the people build these big pyramids. And we still do not know exactly how they were made. The people of Egypt believed in life after death. After a person died, they put things he might need near his body. The bodies of kings were placed inside the pyramids.
The Grand Pyramids was built for King Cheops. It was 482 feet high and covered with thick sand. It was made of 2,300,000 pieces of stone, each weighing about 5,000 pounds. The stones fit together so well that a knife can’t be pushed between them. How did the people move such big stones without much machinery? Century after century, winds blow yellow sand around the pyramids. Kings have come and gone. Everything seems to change except the pyramids. They remain a 5,000-year-old puzzle.
Topic sentence:
Exp. 5
In a strange country we might not know where to eat or what to order in a restaurant. It is not easy to decide how much to tip the waiters, or taxi drivers. When we need help, we might not know how to ask for help. It is not pleasant to have an experience like that.
Q: Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the paragraph?
A. We might not know where to eat in a strange country.
B. We might not know how to ask for help.
C. We might not know how much to tip the waiters.
D. The problem that we may meet in a strange country.
Exp. 6
A good way to pass an examination is to work hard every day in the year. You may fail in an examination if you are lazy for most of the year and work hard only a few days before the examination. If you are taking an examination, don’t only learn rules of grammar.
Try to read stories in English and speak in English whenever you can. A few day before the examination you should start going to bed early. Do not stay up late at night studying and learning things. Before you start the examination read carefully over the question before you pick up your pen to write. When you have at last finished your examination, read over your answer. Correct any mistakes which you see and make sure that you have not missed anything out.
Q: The main idea of this paragraph is______.
A. It is not easy to pass an examination
B. You have to work hard all the time to pass an exam
C. How can you do your best to pass an exam
D. You have to take a rest before taking an exam
Exp. 7
Moscow, Russia(space news) ---- “The computer is a better chess player,” insisted Viktor Prozorov, the loser. “It seemed as if it were laughing after every good move. I know I should have beaten it for the sake of mankind, but I just couldn’t win.” he announced and shook his head sadly.
Prozorov’s disappointment was shared by several grand masters who were present, some of whom were so upset that they shouted at the machine. Many chess players said that this meant the end of chess championship around the world. since the fun had been taken out of the game.
The computer walked --or rather, rolled away with 5,000 dollars in prize money and limited its remarks to a set of noise and lights.
Q: Which of the following best gives the main idea of this newspaper article?
A. 5,000 dollars goes to a computer. B. New invention: a laughing computer.
C. World’s best chess player beaten. D. Computer defeats man in chess.
II． 典型练习:
(1) The other day, I heard an American say to a Chinese student of English. “You speak very good English.” The foreigner was quite surprised at the answer. Thinking he had not made himself understood or the student had not heard him clearly, he said , “Yes, indeed, you speak English very well.” But the Chinese student still kept saying “No.” In the end the foreigner gave up and was at a loss what to say. What is wrong with the student’s answer? It is because he did not accept a compliment(赞美的话) as the English people do. He should have said “ Thank you” instead of “No”. He actually understood what the American had said. But he thought he should be modest. If he said “Thank you”, that would mean he was too proud. According to the western culture, if someone says the dishes you have cooked are very delicious, you should say “Thank you”. If someone says to a woman “You look so beautiful with the new clothes on”, she should be very happy and answer “Thank you”. In our country we think being modest is a virtue(优点) and showing off a bad thing. But in the west, if you are modest and say “No, I can’t do it well”, then the others will take it for granted that you really can’t do it. If you often say “no”, you will certainly be looked down upon by others. If asking for a job, one says something like “Let me have a try on the job” instead of “Yes, I can certainly do it”, he will never expect to get it. So in the west one should always be confident(自信)
Q: What does the passage tell us?
A. The Chinese people are modest while westerners are confident.
B. Confidence is more important than modesty.
C. How to accept compliments given by westerners
D. About the western culture.
(2) There is an old Japanese fairy tale that tells of the time when the Sun Goddess was very angry with man and hid in a cave. There was no sunlight for men to enjoy. People prayed to her, but the goddess would not come out of the cave.
At last one man took six hunting bows and started to pluck(拔) the strings of the bows. As he played, the Sun Goddess listened. At last she came out.
She danced to the sound of the plucked bow strings. In this way sunlight came back to the world. And the first stringed musical instrument was born.
Q: The main idea of the story is that _________
A. the working people are strong and brave. B. sunlight is very important.
C. music has great moving power D. people should not fear gods and goddesses.
(3) It doesn’t matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard Al Herpin.
Al Herpin, it was said, never slept. He was 90 years old when doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They expected to find out that he needed sleep of some kind. But they were surprised. Though they watched him every hour of the day, they never saw Herpin sleeping. He did not even own a bed. He never need one.
The closest that Herpin came to resting was to sit in a rocking chair and read some newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. Herpin offered the only probable explanation of his condition. He remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born.
Q: What is the point of the article?
A. How much a person sleeps does not influence his health.
B. Every one needs some rest to stay alive.
C. Herpin’s sleeplessness is due to his mother’s injury.
D. One person was found who never sleep.
(4) When Ben Franklin was only a boy, he always wanted to know about things. He was always asking his father and brothers, “What?” and “How?” and “Why?”.
They couldn’t always tell him what he wanted to know. When they couldn’t tell him, Ben tried to find out for himself.
Many times Ben did find out things that no one knew before. The other boys would say, “That Ben Franklin! He’s always finding out something new!”
Ben lived close to the water. He liked to go there to see the boats. He saw how the wind blew them across the water.
One day Ben said to himself, “Why can’t the wind help me float across the water? I know something I’m going to try.” Ben got his big kite. He took hold of the kite string and ran with it. The wind took the kite up into the air. Then Ben jumped into the water.
The wind blew the kite high into the air. Ben began to float across the water. Soon he was on the other side, and he hadn’t worked at all. One boy yelled, “Look at Ben floating across the water! His kite is taking him to the other side without work!” “Yes,” said another, “He’s always finding new ways to do things!”
Q: The point of the whole passage is _______.
A. Franklin found a new way to make the wind take him across the water
B. Franklin’s friends admired him very much
C. He was always curious to know things
D. His friends often couldn’t answer his questions
(5) In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeastern corner of the country, which is called New England.
New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyone who has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The first job has been cutting down trees. The next job has been digging the stumps(树桩) of the trees out of the soil. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from his land.
This work of removing stones never really ends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thin soil from the rock below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from the fields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for 200 years keep producing more stones.
That is why stone walls are used instead of fences around New England fields. The stone walls are not high; a man can easily climb over them. But they keep the farmers’ cows from joining his neighbor’s cows.
Q: In this article, the author wants to tell us ______.
A. Farming is not easy in many parts of the United States
B. Farming is not easy in New England
C. Farmers in New England build stone walls around their farms
D. New England farms are often faced with the difficult task of removing stones from their land.
(6) Two Americans: Tom Brown and Susan Green, who are each unmarried. Tom and Susan are their first names given by their parents. when were born. Brown and Green are their last names or their family names which are the same as their fathers’
When we first meet them, we always call them “Mr. Brown”and “Miss Green”, which are always correct. If we know that Tom Brown has a Ph. D. degree(= Doctor of Philosophy), we can say “Doctor Brown” to show our appreciation for all the study he did to earn the degree. If we know that he has an official appointment at a university, which includes the word “professor”, we could call him “Professor Brown”. The Chinese use the word “teacher” as a title with a surname, like “Teacher Zhang”, but this isn’t correct English. Americans don’t use “teacher” as a title.
If Miss Green has married a person, say, Tom Brown, she’ll no longer have her father’s last name “Green”. Her full name is now “Susan Brown”, so when we first meet her we call her “Mrs. Brown”. Whenever we use a title, we must always use the last name or the family name.
We usually use the title, Mr., Mrs., Miss, Doctor, or whatever and the last name until the person gives us permission to use his or he first name, or until we get to know him or her better. That’s the usual custom. Using just the first name is more informal, but more friendly-- so most Americans like to be called by their first names. They prefer to be less formal with people they meet. They begin to use first names and act informally within just a few minutes of meeting people if they like the person.
Sometimes the other person may ask an American, “May I call you Tom?” or “May I call you Susan?” If the person asks right away after he or she has just met an American, it usually means that he or she is a good friend of somebody the American always knows. Or the person might be a salesperson trying to be very informal and friendly ---- just so he can sell you something --- at least that happens a lot between men.
Q: (1) Which of the following best expresses the main idea of paragraph 2?
A. How we should address(speak to) an American when we meet him or her the first time.
B. To say Teacher Zhang is not correct.
C. If someone has an official appointment, we should use the title and his first name.
D. When we say “Doctor Brown”, we show our respect to him.
(2) Choose the best main idea for Par. 4 .
A. We usually call people by their titles.
B. Calling the first name is impolite.
C. Americans prefer to be less formal by calling first names.
D. There is a big difference in addressing each other between Americana and an Englishman.
(3) What’s the main idea of the article?
A. How we should call an Americana by his title.
B. We should call an American by his first name.
C. Calling first names means a lot between men.
D. The ways in which we call Americans.
(7) People like smoking. One reason is that people become addicted to cigarettes. To be addicted means that your body comes to need them. The addictive substance in cigarettes is nicotine. When people smoke the nicotine goes into the blood stream and makes people feel relaxed. Many smokers try to stop smoking, but because of the addiction to nicotine they feel so uncomfortable that they often find it too difficult to stop.
Another reason is that many people simply enjoy smoking. Having a cigarette for many people means taking a rest. For some people smoking has become part of certain social rituals, for example, the cigarette after dinner. Many people enjoy smoking because it gives them something to do with their hands. Reaching for a cigarette, lighting it., flicking(弹) the ashes are especially comforting in situations where a person feels tense(紧张).
Many people also like the taste of tar in cigarettes. However, it is the tar that cause cancer. While governments have tried to keep selling them by producing cigarettes with less tar. Many people in western countries have welcomed these cigarettes since they find it hard to stop smoking but want to reduce the risk to their health.
Q: (1) Which of the following best expresses the main idea of Par. 1?
A. Many people are unwilling to stop smoking.
B. Nicotine is helpful to the body.
C. people are so addicted that they are not able to stop smoking even if they are willing to.
D. Smoking is good to our health.
(2) Which of the following expresses the main idea of Par. 2?
A. People simply enjoy smoking.
B. Smoking enables people to take a rest.
C. Smoking gives people something to do with their hands
D. Smoking becomes a social ritual.
(3) The main idea of Par. 3 is:
A. the tar in cigarettes is dangerous to smokers.
B. many people like cigarettes with less tar.
C. cigarettes producers outwitted(智胜) their government.
D. it is the taste of tar that keeps people smoking.
(4) The main idea of the whole article is :
A. the reasons why people like smoking.
B. the advantages and disadvantages of smoking.
C. how smoking habits are formed.
D. many people enjoy smoking very much.
key: exp1: the first sentence exp2: the first sentence exp3: we should also... exp4: the last sentence exp5: D exp6: C exp7: DDCDB III (1) C (2)C (3) D (4) C (5)B (6) ACD (7)CADA
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