相信不少同學有以下這兩個閱讀常見問題：
1. 從左讀到右，逐字翻譯
2. 因此單字看懂，但抓不到句子重點
前幾天顧問時間一個同學來找我問閱讀，她說她單字都看得懂，但湊在一起 就不知道在說什麼，為了確定她的狀況，直接跟她一起看一篇，發現了幾個 主要的問題，特此分享給版上其他考生，可以測試看看你/妳有沒有類似問題喔！
我隨便挑了TPO一篇 (TPO 7 Agriculture, Iron, and the Bantu Peoples), 看其中一句There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world. 當這位同學在看第二句時，他看到the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world. 這句話時已經頭昏 了，並且很努力的一個字一個字翻譯給我聽，然後試圖告訴我她理解的意 思。但其實這句話就算她搞懂了，還是忽略了最主要要先抓的結構應該是 It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that… 但因為這位同學一直試圖去理解後面的意思，完全忽略了這句話最 主要的架構。簡單來說，這句話只看了一半，最重要的概念完全沒看到。
看到這裡如果你覺得這句子好簡單，怎麼會有問題，你可以考慮左轉了XD 但這個問題在很多同學身上發生，如果你看這句沒有剛剛抓到這架構，歡迎 繼續看下去。
另外一句比較長的句子： These peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations.
如果覺得複雜，也是先嘗試抓架構，會簡單一點：
These peoples settled at first in…, although in some places…, people lived in….
有了這樣的架構：「這些人一開始是居住的方式是…, 雖然在有些地方, 他 們是住在…。」
先這樣看，再去把剩下的資訊補齊，才不會只侷限在片段的資訊。 這位同學在看這句也是一直執著在 “in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations.” 並沒有看到主要的架構。
順帶一提，同學如果之後看到像上述這種although子句在後面的話，其實把 他搬到前面比較容易懂，往前搬一下這句話變成： Although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations, these peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands.
以下幾句話大家也可以嘗試抓一下主要架構： Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since the first domesticated crops were millets and sorghums whose origins are not African but west Asian.
→Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since…
Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans began to develop their own crops, such as certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated a continued receptiveness to new imports.
→Once…, Africans began to….
其實如果能抓住架構，剛好就也能回答 “sentence simplification” question了, 或是一般常說的highlight題，其實考的就是上述的概念。拿 這篇的Q10 當例子，原句是Unlike in the Americas, where metallurgy was a very late and limited development, Africans had iron from a relatively early date, developing ingenious furnaces to produce the high heat needed for production and to control the amount of air that reached the carbon and iron ore necessary for making iron.
如果同學已經熟悉上述的方法，應該很快能抓到最重要的架構是Unlike the Americans, Africans had…
所以這句話最重要的是要「對比」美洲跟非洲的差別，在句子簡化題當中， 要選的答案是會刪去相對不重要的細節、資訊，但重要的概念一定還是要留 著，以這句話來說，就是對比美洲跟非洲的關係，再加上Africans因此發明 了一個很厲害的火爐怎樣怎樣的。 所以答案要選B) Africans produced iron much earlier than Americans, inventing technologically sophisticated heating systems. 可以再試試看這句TPO26 Sumer And The First Cities Of The Ancient Near East 的句子簡化題： A major development was the discovery, again about 3000 B.C.E., that if copper, which had been known in Mesopotamia since about 3500 B.C.E., was mixed with tin, a much harder metal, bronze, would result. 簡化資訊後→ A major development was the discovery that… （最重要 的發現是…）抓到最重要架構後，再去看這個最重要的發現是什麼？ 即 “If copper was mixed with tin, a much harder metal, bronze, would result.” 所以原句作者最重要的重點是：在3000 B.C.E. 最重要的發現是，如果把銅 跟錫混合在一起，會變成更堅硬的金屬黃銅。 所以選到答案Also around 3000 B.C.E. , it was discovered that mixing copper, known from about 3500 B.C.E. , with tin would create a much harder metal known as bronze. 所以抓到句子架構不只能幫助理解，也能確定句子簡化題最重要資訊，同學 不妨在之後看每句話覺得很複雜，抓不到重點時，試試看上述方法！ Cheers, J2
