今天新东方老师给大家带来考研英语主题句的识别技巧，供各位考生参考学习！

考研英语文章主题句识别技巧

主题句（topic sentence）是概括说明段落主旨的句子，它通常具有三个特点：①最具概括性；②引出整个段落所要阐述的主旨；③能够归纳全段的内容或涵盖段落之中所讨论的内容。抓住主题句就等于抓住了段落的中心，因此，准确地判断并找出主题句相当重要。主题句通常位于段首或段尾，间或也会出现在段落中间。由于它这样的特点，主题句也被称为umbrella sentence，也就是说它能包含段落之中其他句子的内容。有时，段落中并没有明显的主题句，主题隐于段落内容之中，这时，考生需要自己总结提炼。判断整篇文章主旨句的方法与判断段落主题句的方法类似。

① 如果段落首句之后的句子是对第一句所述内容的阐发，那么段落首句就是主题句；如果段落其他句子是对第二句进行阐发，那么第二句就可能是主题句；如果段尾句是对整个段落内容的概括总结，那么段尾句就可能是主题句。

Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.          【2011年Text 2】

[分析] 本段第一句说明一个事实：那些还没有找到新工作便离职的人并不总是很快就能谋得高位。接下来的几句分别以Ellen和Robert为例，说明了这一事实。第一句之后的几句都是对第一句的具体阐述，因此第一句为全段的主题句。

② 如果段落在第一句之后出现however，unfortunately，yet等转折性的过渡词，那么转折词所在的句子往往是主题句。但当这种转折词出现在段尾时，该句不是主题句。

这种通过转折词引出主题句的方式在英语文章中比较常见，其他类似的转折词还有： but, conversely, despite, in contrast, nevertheless, nonetheless, on the other hand, still, whereas等。

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.

                                                             【2004年Text 2】

[分析] 本段第一句指出，过去各种歧视现象都受人谴责或被视为违法。第二句以but引起转折，指出有一种歧视却长盛不衰，即字母排序法引起的不公。接着第三句对这种歧视进行解释。第二句所述内容正是本段的重点所在，故为主题句。

③ 如果段首出现设问句，并且该问题涉及文章主题，那么问题的答语就是主题句。

Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.                                                             【2010年Text 1】

[分析] 第一句提问卡达斯的评论是否还有重新流行的可能，第二句回答其复兴前景渺茫。第三、四两句道出了前景渺茫的原因：如今新闻业的品位发生变化，评论家过去的写作风格已不再适应如今的读者；业余人士撰写音乐评论的传统一直在迅猛地衰退。故本段主题句为第二句。

④ 如果首段通过类比、引用、举例等手法作导引，那么这些手法之后的结论或观点就是主题句。

Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.                      【2005年Text 1】

[分析] 本段以人类加薪不公引起不满的事例引出猴子像人类一样也有公平意识这一话题。尾句以but转折，提出主题句：研究发现猴子也有公平意识。