四级考试中阅读理解的题型，以细节性题为主。然而，每次考试四篇文章中对主题题的考察还是有2-3道，如何把这4-6分得到是很多同学感到很棘手的问题。希望通过本文对四级文章主题的分析，同学们能对这种题型有更好的把握。

通常，在做主题题时，大家一般会在文章首段和尾端找答案。或者说认为一般文章中心出现在第一段首。其实，这种情况在四级文章的几率顶多是三分之一。而文章主题出现的方式（即地点）起码有四种（此处所说的主题虽不一定就是主题题的答案，但其中必然含有整个文章所说的中心话题或主体词，或者可以看出作者的褒贬态度。把此句话读懂，在做主题题时可迅速排除至少2个答案）。在此分作细说：

一，开门见山。这种文章的主题最好找。一般来说，开头是个陈述句或者判断句。其后没有对其进行否定。最典型的要算下定义型的文章了。比如90年1月的关于海洋学以及97年1月关于身份的文章。开头都是对海洋学和身份进行了定义，其后展开论述。对于这类文章，大部分同学在做主题题时还是比较好把握的。不过，有两点要注意的地方：

（一），首句作出陈述后，后面的论述有转折，但该转折不是对首句的否定。比如98年1月关于Violin Prodigies(神童)那篇文章，第一段快到末尾处出现转折，但细心的读者会发现，这只是对一个例子内部的转折。不影响整个文章的态度。再如02年1月的老年学那篇文章以及02年6月的absent-mindedness那篇文章，也是这种情况。但一旦读出中心话题，主题题就很好做了，以这篇文章为例稍作说明。

Most episodes of absent-mindedness - forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room - are caused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter. "You're supposed to remember something, but you haven't encoded it deeply."

Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don't pay attention to what you did because you're involved in a conversation, you'll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in you wardrobe (衣柜). "Your memory itself isn't failing you," says Schacter. "Rather, you didn't give your memory system the information it needed."

Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. "A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago," says Zelinski, "may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox." Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on just that.

Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. "But be sure the cue is clear and available," he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication (药物) with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table - don't leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.

Another common episode of absent-mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you're there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. "Everyone does this from time to time," says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you'll likely remember.

第一句话就是文章主题所在，虽然第二句有转折，但并不是对第一句的否定。再看本文的最后一道题：

30. What is the passage mainly about?

A) The process of gradual memory loss.

B) The causes of absent-mindedness.

C) The impact of the environment on memory.

D) A way if encoding and recalling.

只要把开头的主题把握住了，这道题就很容易做出来了。

（二），开头提出话题，其后展开论述，虽然答案不一定就是开头那句话的同义转述，但正确答案中一定要包含开头那句话中的关键词（或者叫主体词，一般在后文中反复出现）典型的例子就是99年一月关于广告及2000年6月关于美国人喜欢制服这两篇文章。