精讲+真题解析 | 雅思阅读题型之Matching Headings（段落大意题）
hello，各位亲爱的小伙伴们~
今天学姐给大家带来的是最典型的雅思阅读考察结构型信息题型Matching Headings（段落大意题）的精讲和真题解析。
对于部分考生而言，这是有相当难度的一种题型。
PS：学姐为此专门设置了一个专栏【雅思考试题型精讲系列】，方便各位烤鸭们阅读。
这次专栏还是想给大家一些纯干货分享，没有太多废话，直接进入正题。
一、Matching Headings的出题形式
- 考题中会给出一个选项方框
- 框中列出若干以小写罗马数字为编号的名词性短语或短句
- 方框下方为题干，给出用英文字母为编号的段落名，如“Paragraph A”
- 有时也会将几段内容合并在一起，以“Section”为编号
该题型要求同学们根据文章，在方框中选出合适的选项作为出题段落或章节的标题。
重点考察同学们段落大意的概括能力和中心主题句的寻找能力。
二、Matching Headings的题型特点
- 该题型出现在正文前面，要特别注意不要漏做
- 每个标题只使用一次，不重复选择
- 一般来说，heading的数目比题量数目多出2-3个，这些干扰项中，可能会出现与正确选项非常接近的情况，同学们一定要找出差异，加以辨别
- 有些考题中会给出例子，例子中已经选过的选项可以直接排除（但建议同学们要把排除的选项看一遍，因为往往给出的例子为首段的概括内容，我们可以通过这些排除的heading了解到文章的大体话题）
- 注意给出的出题段落，不是所有段标题都覆盖全文。
三、Matching Headings的解题步骤
Step1：浏览文章标题、副标题、图片，了解文章话题及体裁
Step2：划掉已经给出的Heading选项，并通过这些选项进一步了解文章内容
Step3：通读所有Heading, 划出关键词，并作适当记忆
Step4：分析所有Heading之间可能存在的逻辑关系，预测它们对应的段落顺序及可能呈现的段落内容
Step5：根据预测进行求证，主要每个段落主题句的判断和转换
Step6：对于无法预测或预测错误的Heading, 按段落顺序去找主题句，再与剩余Heading配对
四、真题解析
▶真题解析1
▌文章标题：
What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island?
▌Heading选项：
List of Headings i Evidence of innovative environment management practices ii An undisputed answer to a question about the moai iii The future of the moai statues iv A theory which supports a local belief v The future of Easter Island vi Two opposing views about the Rapa vii Destruction outside the inhabitants' control viii How the statues made a situation worse ix Diminishing food resources
▌考题解析：
Paragraph A
Easter Island, or Rapu Nui as it is known locally, is home to several hundred ancient human statues - the moai. After this remote Pacific island was settled by the Polynesians, it remained isolated for centuries. All the energy and resources that went into the moai - some of which are ten metres tall and weigh over 7,000 kilos - came from the island itself. Yet when Dutch explorers landed in 1722, they met a Stone Age culture. The moai were carved with stone tools, then transported for many kilometres, without the use of animals or wheels, to massive stone platforms. The identity of the moai builders was in doubt until well into the twentieth century. Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, thought the statues had been created by pre-lnca peoples from Peru. Bestselling Swiss author Erich von Däniken believed they were built by stranded extraterrestrials. Modern science - linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence - has definitively proved the moai builders were Polynesians, but not how they moved their creations. Local folklore maintains that the statues walked, while researchers have tended to assume the ancestors dragged the statues somehow, using ropes and logs.
答案：ii An undisputed answer to a question about the moai
解析：本段主题句是隐藏在段落之中的。段落中的倒数第二句话Modern science - linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence - has definitively proved the moai builders were Polynesians, but not how they moved their creations.点明这段的主旨。definitively proved对应选项中的词an undisputed answer。
Paragraph B
When the Europeans arrived, Rapa Nui was grassland, with only a few scrawny trees. In the 1970s and 1980s, though, researchers found pollen preserved in lake sediments, which proved the island had been covered in lush palm forests for thousands of years. Only after the Polynesians arrived did those forests disappear. US scientist Jared Diamond believes that the Rapanui people - descendants of Polynesian settlers - wrecked their own environment. They had unfortunately settled on an extremely fragile island - dry, cool, and too remote to be properly fertilised by windblown volcanic ash. When the islanders cleared the forests for firewood and farming, the forests didn't grow back. As trees became scarce and they could no longer construct wooden canoes for fishing, they ate birds. Soil erosion decreased their crop yields. Before Europeans arrived, the Rapanui had descended into civil war and cannibalism, he maintains. The collapse of their isolated civilisation, Diamond writes, is a 'worst-case scenario for what may lie ahead of us in our own future'.
答案：ix Diminishing food resources
解析：本段前几句话先写森林消失，然后提到脆弱的环境是如何遭到破坏的。然后再写到森里消失后对当地人食物的影响。所以本段的主旨也是隐含在段落之中，需要把整段看完才能有直观的理解。特别是段落中提到的As trees became scarce and they could no longer construct wooden canoes for fishing, they ate birds. Soil erosion decreased their crop yields.能够对应选项的diminishing food resources。
Paragraph C
The moai, he thinks, accelerated the self-destruction. Diamond interprets them as power displays by rival chieftains who, trapped on a remote little island, lacked other ways of asserting their dominance. They competed by building ever bigger figures. Diamond thinks they laid the moai on wooden sledges, hauled over log rails, but that required both a lot of wood and a lot of people. To feed the people, even more land had to be cleared. When the wood was gone and civil war began, the islanders began toppling the moai. By the nineteenth century none were standing.
答案：viii How the statues made a situation worse
解析：本段主题句The moai, he thinks, accelerated the self-destruction中的accelerated the self-destruction，意思是“加速自我毁灭”，对应选项中的made a situation worse。选项中的statues对应文章中的figures。
Paragraph D
Archaeologists Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo of California State University agree that Easter Island lost its lush forests and that it was an ecological catastrophe' - but they believe the islanders themselves weren't to blame. And the moai certainly weren't. Archaeological excavations indicate that the Rapanui went to heroic efforts to protect the resources of their wind-lashed, infertile fields. They built thousands of circular stone windbreaks and gardened inside them, and used broken volcanic rocks to keep the soil moist. In short, Hunt and Lipo argue, the prehistoric Rapanui were pioneers of sustainable farming.
答案：i Evidence of innovative environment management practices
解析：本段第一句话中有个but转折词，说明之后的内容是重点。段落第三局话Archaeological excavations indicate that the Rapanui went to heroic efforts to protect the resources of their wind-lashed, infertile fields.中的protect the resources对应选项中的environment management practices。
Paragraph E
Hunt and Lipo contend that moai-building was an activity that helped keep the peace between islanders. They also believe that moving the moai required few people and no wood, because they were walked upright. On that issue, Hunt and Lipo say, archaeological evidence backs up Rapanui folklore. Recent experiments indicate that as few as 18 people could, with three strong ropes and a bit of practice, easily manoeuvre a 1,000 kg moai replica a few hundred metres. The figures' fat bellies tilted them forward, and a D-shaped base allowed handlers to roll and rock them side to side.
答案：iv A theory which supports a local belief
解析：本段中有很多表示观点和理论的词汇，比如contend，believe，on that issue，indicate。另外，段落中的backs up Rapanui folklore等同于选项中的backs up Rapanui folklore。
▶真题解析 2
▌文章标题：
Tea and the Industrial Revolution
▌Heading选项：
List of Headings i The search for the reasons for an increase in population ii Industrialisation and the fear of unemployment iii The development of cities in Japan iv The time and place of the Industrial Revolution v The cases of Holland, France and China vi Changes in drinking habits in Britain vii Two keys to Britain's industrial revolution viii Conditions required for industrialisation ix Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer
▌考题解析：
Paragraph A
Alan Macfarlane, professor of anthropological science at King’s College, Cambridge, has, like other historians, spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big Bang - the world-changing birth of industry - happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?
答案： iv The time and place of the Industrial Revolution
解析：Why ……happen in Britain对应标题的place; why did it strike at the end of the 18th century对应标题的time。
Paragraph B
Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock. 'There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,' he says. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising. 'All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution,' says Macfarlane. 'After all, Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors. Most historians arc convinced there arc one or two missing factors that you need to open the lock.'
答案：viii Conditions required for industrialisation
解析：20 different factors对应的就是标题中的conditions，B段剩下的内容都是factor是的具体举例。
▌Paragraph C
The missing Factors, he proposes, are to be found in almost every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation’s favourite drinks, fuelled the revolution. The antiseptic properties of tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and of hops in beer - plus the fact that both are made with boiled water - allowed urban communities to flourish at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne diseases such as dysentery. The theory sounds eccentric but once he starts to explain the detective work that went into his deduction, the scepticism gives way to wary admiration. Macfarlane's case has been strengthened by support from notable quarters - Roy Porter, the distinguished medical historian, recently wrote a favourable appraisal of his research.
答案：vii Two keys to Britain's industrial revolution
解析：tea and beer对应的是标题中的two keys。
Paragraph D
Macfarlane had wondered for a long time how the Industrial Revolution came about. Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740, the population in Britain was static. But then there was a burst in population growth. Macfarlane says: 'The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes. People suggested four possible causes. Was there a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria around? Unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister's revolution*. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left is food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food must have got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.'
答案：i The search for the reasons for an increase in population
解析：burst in population growth对应的标题是increase in population；four possible causes对应的是reasons。
Paragraph E
This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labour for the Industrial Revolution. 'When you start moving towards an industrial revolution, it is economically efficient to have people living close together,' says Macfarlane. 'But then you get disease, particularly from human waste.' Some digging around in historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of water-borne disease at that time, especially dysentery. Macfarlane deduced that whatever the British were drinking must have been important in regulating disease. He says, 'We drank beer. For a long time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to help preserve the beer. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt, the basic ingredient of beer. The poor turned to water and gin and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again. Then it suddenly dropped again. What caused this?'
答案：vi Changes in drinking habits in Britain
解析：这段开头说人口增长为工业革命提供了劳动力，人们住在一起非常经济高效，但是也很容易生病，翻开历史记录，发现与水有关疾病的发病率有所改变，这和人们喝茶有关，但是政府开始对麦芽收税时，穷人们转向水和杜松子酒，死亡率就开始上升了。
Paragraph F
Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time, and also had no sanitation. Water-borne diseases had a much looser grip on the Japanese population than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? Macfarlane then noted that the history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started a direct clipper trade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was dipping, the drink was common. Macfarlane guessed that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation sipped tea like the British, which, by Macfarlane's logic, pushed these other countries out of contention for the revolution.
答案：ix Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer
解析：英国和日本的比较得出茶叶是让死亡率降低的原因。
Paragraph G
But, if tea is a factor in the combination lock, why didn't Japan forge ahead in a tea-soaked industrial revolution of its own? Macfarlane notes that even though 17th-century Japan had large cities, high literacy rates, even a futures market, it had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution by giving up labour-saving devices such as animals, afraid that they would put people out of work. So, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced entered the 19th century having abandoned the wheel'.
答案：ii Industrialisation and the fear of unemployment
解析：日本有茶叶，有大型的城市，有高的读书识字率，甚至还有期货市场，为什么没有发展工业化？因为日本放弃了节省了劳动力的设备，因为他们担心这些设备会让人们没有工作。the fear of unemployment对应文章中的afraid that they would put people out of work.
OK，第一种雅思阅读题型Matching Headings（段落大意题）今天就讲到这里了。
后期学姐将会以连更的形式对每类阅读进行精讲和真题解析~
相信只要你认认真真追下去，雅思阅读肯定有质的提高!
