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华慧考博:阅读理解时读文章需结合“上下文”
最近有不少学员向华慧考博老师反馈到，阅读文章的时候，也没几个单词不认识，自己也认为自己看懂了，但是看了参考译文和解析才发现自己理解地并不到位。这是什么原因呢？为了找出原因，华慧考博老师尝试拿出一篇文章，当场阅读，才发现其根源。原来是阅读文章缺乏上下文的意识，每个句子几乎当做单句来看，这样理解得也都是字面含义，因此无法体会作者真正想要表达什么。那么怎么才能具备所谓的上下文意识呢？一般而言，抓住以下几点有助于理解上下文。以下，华慧考博老师结合一篇文章来具体讲解（该文章是《阅读理解220篇上册》基础80篇的P12）一 、代词指代、冠词不定代词等限定
A white kid sells a bag of cocaine at his suburban high school. A Latino kid does the same in his inner-city neighborhood. Both get caught. Both are first-time offenders. The white kid walks into juvenile court with his parents, his priest, a good lawyer-and medical coverage. The Latino kid walks into court with his mom, no legal resources and no insurance. The judge lets the white kid go with his family; he's placed in a private treatment program. The minority kid has no such option. He's detained.
以上一段中，一二句首先介绍A white kid和A Latino kid；后面的代词Both指代两者；冠词+名词The white kid指代前面提到的A white kid；和The Latino kid和The minority kid指代前面提到的A Latino kid；而such option指代前一句的内容。
Instead, adult prisons tend to brutalize juveniles. They are eight times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually abused than offenders held in juvenile detention. "Once they get out, they tend to commit more crimes and more violent crimes," says Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Sentencing Project, a reform group in Washington. The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it's doing its worst work among minorities.
以上的一段中，第二句和第三句的They指代前一句说的juveniles，具体应该是juveniles in adult prisons，与后面的offenders held in juvenile detention进行对比。最后一句的it指代上一句的The system，具体应该是the prison system, 而the prison system属于the justice system。
二 、名词替换
There, in a nutshell, is what happens more and more often in the juvenile-court system. Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco. Once they are in adult courts, young black offenders are 18 times more likely to be jailed-and Hispanics seven times more likely-than are young white offenders. "Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are tried as adults," says Dan Macallair, a co-author of the new study. "California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind bars, but .rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable crimes."
以上的一段中，Minority youths和young black offenders和kids of color都是属于一类，而white counterparts和young white offenders是属于一类，这段对两者进行比较。
值得注意的而是，整篇文章中，表达和adult对立词的有很多，如kid/youths/young offenders/minors/juveniles虽然有区别，但在这篇文章的语境中统统属于一个范畴。此外，倒数第二句的Discrimination和最后一句的double standard呼应。
三、 表示逻辑关系的词
A white kid sells a bag of cocaine at his suburban high school. A Latino kid does the same in his inner-city neighborhood. Both get caught. Both are first-time offenders. The white kid walks into juvenile court with his parents, his priest, a good lawyer-and medical coverage. The Latino kid walks into court with his mom, no legal resources and no insurance. The judge lets the white kid go with his family; he's placed in a private treatment program. The minority kid has no such option. He's detained.
There, in a nutshell, is what happens more and more often in the juvenile-court system. Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco. Once they are in adult courts, young black offenders are 18 times more likely to be jailed-and Hispanics seven times more likely-than are young white offenders. "Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are tried as adults," says Dan Macallair, a co-author of the new study. "California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind bars, but .rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable crimes."
Even as juvenile crime has declined from its peak in the early 1990s, headline grabbing violence by minors has intensified a get-tough attitude. Over the past six years, 43 states have passed laws that make it easier to try juveniles as adults. In Texas and Connecticut in 1996, the latest year for which figures are available, all the juveniles in jails were minorities. Vincent Schiraldi, the Justice Policy Institute's director, concedes that "some kids need to be tried as adults. But most can be rehabilitated."
Instead, adult prisons tend to brutalize juveniles. They are eight times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually abused than offenders held in juvenile detention. "Once they get out, they tend to commit more crimes and more violent crimes," says Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Sentencing Project, a reform group in Washington. The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it's doing its worst work among minorities.
这篇文章的逻辑关系词导师不多，第一段注意那个分号“；”，表示前后是并列关系，he's placed in a private treatment program是对The judge lets the white kid go with his family另一种说法。第二段的in a nutshell，解释了上一段和这一段的关系，上一段是具体的例子，这一句是概括的说法。第三段第一句的Instead表示与上一段后部分内容的转折。最后一段倒数第二句的in essence揭示出对上一句内容的本质概括。
四、区分中心和细节：识别中心句和关键词
A white kid sells a bag of cocaine at his suburban high school. A Latino kid does the same in his inner-city neighborhood. Both get caught. Both are first-time offenders. The white kid walks into juvenile court with his parents, his priest, a good lawyer-and medical coverage. The Latino kid walks into court with his mom, no legal resources and no insurance. The judge lets the white kid go with his family; he's placed in a private treatment program. The minority kid has no such option. He's detained.
There, in a nutshell, is what happens more and more often in the juvenile-court system. Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco. Once they are in adult courts, young black offenders are 18 times more likely to be jailed-and Hispanics seven times more likely-than are young white offenders. "Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are tried as adults," says Dan Macallair, a co-author of the new study. "California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind bars, but .rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable crimes."
Even as juvenile crime has declined from its peak in the early 1990s, headline grabbing violence by minors has intensified a get-tough attitude. Over the past six years, 43 states have passed laws that make it easier to try juveniles as adults. In Texas and Connecticut in 1996, the latest year for which figures are available, all the juveniles in jails were minorities. Vincent Schiraldi, the Justice Policy Institute's director, concedes that "some kids need to be tried as adults. But most can be rehabilitated."
Instead, adult prisons tend to brutalize juveniles. They are eight times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually abused than offenders held in juvenile detention. "Once they get out, they tend to commit more crimes and more violent crimes," says Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Sentencing Project, a reform group in Washington. The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it's doing its worst work among minorities.
这篇文章中，第一段没有中心句，但通过代词指代等冠词很容易可以知道是围绕A white kid和A white kid展开的；第二段的第一句和导师第二句是概括 性的句子，其他熟悉细节。第三段是围绕a get-tough attitude展开论述。第四段很明显是第一句和最后一句是中心意思的表达。
综合以上可见，读文章如果抓住以上几个方面，上下文的意思就变得容易把握。不过，最后还是补充一点，那就是并不在文章中直接体现的，但是又是无处不在的“常识”，也就是我们常说的“背景知识”。比如以上的这篇文章是一篇关于“法律”的文章，需要有一点法律常识，方能更好地理解。结合背景，一些一词多义的单词不难判断其确切的含义。如court （法庭）judge （法官）try（审判）。结合背景，一些句子的意思也容易理解。如Both get caught.是因为前文说的cocaine是毒品。he's placed in a private treatment program是对前面的The judge lets the white kid go with his family从司法角度的具体解读。总之，读文章一定要具备上下文（语境）意识，才能更快更好地理解文章。
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