段首句的作用通常是用来总结文章段落大意的，朗阁海外考试研究中心的老师建议大家在第一遍浏览托福阅读文章的时候就应该读文章的段首句，以此了解托福阅读文章的段落大意和文章大意，方便后面做题。
 

　　在分析托福阅读段首句时，有两点需要大家注意：
 

　　1). 若首段很短(两三句)，首段需要全部读完，因为此时极有可能在首段介绍文章的主要脉络。若首段很长就只需要读首句。
 

　　Eg. In the late sixteenth century and into the seventeenth, Europe continued the growth that had lifted it out of the relatively less prosperous medieval period (from the mid 400s to the late 1400s). Among the key factors behind this growth were increased agricultural productivity and an expansion of trade.(摘自 Seventeenth-Century European Economic Growth)

　　这篇文章就是围绕increased agricultural productivity and an expansion of trade如何促进经济增长展开论述的。
 

　　2). 若首段首句是问句，则需要找后面一两句作为段落大意。
 

　　Eg. How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season.
 

　　显然这段的TS(Topic Sentence)不在首句，而是后面的The explanation is that...,知道了总结中心句之后，我们把每段的中心句合在一起就是对文章的总结。此时有个小技巧就是在草稿纸上用一两个词记录中心意思。我们接下来看一个具体的例子，看看知道了托福阅读文章的段落大意之后怎么去解题(以下是文章的每一段首句)。
 

　　Eg1. Young children are trusting of commercial advertisements in the media, and advertisers have sometimes been accused of taking advantage of this trusting outlook.

　　2. General concern about misleading tactics that advertisers employ is centered on the use of exaggeration.

　　3. Fantasy is one of the more common techniques in advertising that could possibly mislead a young audience.

　　4. The use of celebrities such as singers and movie stars is common in advertising.

　　5. Regarding the appearance of celebrities in advertisements that do not involve host selling, the evidence is mixed.(摘自 Children and Advertising)
 

　　以上是托福阅读文章中每段的首句，接下来我们总结一下每段的意思：

　　1. 儿童和广告关系：儿童相信广告，广告利用孩子的信任误导孩子。

　　2. 误导方法一：exaggeration

　　3. 误导方法二：fantasy

　　4. 误导方法三：celebrity

　　5. 还是围绕celebrity展开讨论
 

　　所以这篇托福阅读文章的结构非常清晰，主要在围绕广告如何误导孩子展开讨论。我们看看最后的总结题。

　　Advertisers sometimes use strategies that can mislead children.1、______2、______3、_______
 

　　Answer Choices

　　Advertisements can be misleading to children when the advertisements use audio and visual formats that are especially appealing to children.

　　Children may not be able to interpret exaggerated claims made by advertisers or understand the disclaimers used to offset claims.

　　Although the use of celebrities is not necessarily effective in advertisements aimed at children, there is evidence that host selling can positively affect their views of a product.

　　Studies show that misleading tactics are used most often in commercials for breakfast cereals, with toy commercials using such tactics only slightly less frequently.

　　The use of fantasy is especially common in advertisements for children, but children may not be able to distinguish fantasy from reality.

　　Very young children are particularly influenced by host selling, while slightly older children are more readily misled by seemingly rational claims such as “the best.”
 

　　直接看选项，可以很轻易的找出2 & 3 & 5正好说到了托福阅读文章中讲的三种方法，所以就可以大胆的选择了。

　　注意如果还有其它选项也提到了这里所说的三种方法，我们就需要进行仔细的比对，看看有没有信息错误，或者有没有细节信息。
 

　　针对总结题的这两种方法各有利弊：

　　1). 不看托福阅读原文，通过介绍句做题会比较冒险，但是相对省时间。

　　2). 仔细看托福阅读文章段首句，分析段落大意，这种方法比较保守，正确率高，但是相对耗时。所以运用这种方法时需要大量训练找中心句，总结段落大意。
 

　　纵观各种方法，笔者认为把这两种结合起来灵活运用可能效果会更好。如果托福阅读段落结构清晰，就用段首句法，如果结构不清晰就用介绍句法（介绍句法详情请点击→这里 快速查看）。简而言之，方法并不是一成不变的，而应该根据不同的托福阅读文章进行有效的调整。但是万变不离其宗，任何灵活的方法都是基于最原始的方法。只有把上面的方法运用得比较熟练了才可以去寻找更快更有效的方法。

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