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一、做题技巧
List of headings 这类题目设置的要求可以简单的概括为给原文中的段落找最为合适的段落大意。既然是给段落找段落大意。所以，正确答案往往是原文内容的概括或是改写。和其他类型的客观题一样，用词和原文高度一致的选项都不会是正确答案。如果所有答案都是原文的照抄，那么，考察学生的就不是英语能力，而是"大家来找茬"的能力了。我们就以Cambridge IELTS 7 test 3 Passage 2 (P69)的一篇文章为例给大家讲解Lisf of headings的做题技巧。
Question 14-19
Lisf of headings
I the results of the research into blood-variants
ii Dental evidence
iii Greenberg`s analysis of the dental and linguistic evidence
iv Developments in the methods used to study early population movements
v Indian migration from Canada to U.S.A
vi Further genetic evidence relating to the three-wave theory
vii Long-standing questions about prehistoric migration to America
viii Conflicting views of the three wave theory ,based on non-genetic evidence
ix Questsions about the causes of the prehistoric migration to America
x How analysis of blood-variants measures the closeness of the relationship between different populations
14 section A
15 section B
16 section C
17 section D
18 section E
19 section F
Example Answer
20 section G vii
Population movements and genetics
A Study of the origins and distribution of human populations used to be based on archaeological and fossil evidence. A number of techniques developed since the 1950s, however, have placed the study of these subjects on a sounder and more objective footing. The best information on early population movements is now being obtained from the 'archaeology of the living body', the clues to be found in genetic material.
B Recent work on the problem of when people first entered the Americas is an example of the value of these new techniques. North-east Asia and Siberia have long been accepted as the launching ground for the first human colonizers of the New World. But was there one major wave of migration across the Bering Strait into the Americas, or several? And when did this event, or events, take place? In recent years, new clues have come from research into genetics, including the distribution of genetic markers in modern Native Americans.
C An important project, led by the biological anthropologist Robert Williams, focused on the variants (called Gm allotypes) of one particular protein - immunoglobin G- found in the fluid portion of human blood. All proteins 'drift', or produce variants, over the generations, and members of an interbreeding human population will share a set of such variants. Thus, by comparing the Gm allotypes of two different populations (e.g. two Indian tribes), one can establish their genetic 'distance', which itself can be calibrated to give an indication of the length of time since these populations last interbred.
D Williams and his colleagues sampled the blood of over 5,000 American Indians in western North America during a twenty- year period. They found that their Gm allotypes could be divided into two groups, one of which also corresponded to the genetic typing of Central and South American Indians. Other tests showed that the Inuit (or Eskimo) and Aleut formed a third group. From this evidence it was deduced that there had been three major waves of migration across the Bering Strait. The first, Paleo-lndian, wave more than 15,000 years ago was ancestral to all Central and South American Indians. The second wave, about 14,000-12,000 years ago, brought Na-Dene hunters, ancestors of the Navajo and Apache (who only migrated south from Canada about 600 or 700 years ago). The third wave, perhaps 10,000 or 9,000 years ago, saw the migration from North-east Asia of groups ancestral to the modern Eskimo and Aleut.
E How far does other research support these conclusions Geneticist Douglas Wallace has studied mitochondrial DNA in blood samples from three widely separated Native American groups: Pima- Papago Indians in Arizona, Maya Indians on the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, and Ticuna Indians in the Upper Amazon region of Brazil. As would have been predicted by Robert Williams's work, all three groups appear to be descended from the same ancestral (Paleo-lndian) population.
F There are two other kinds of research that have thrown some light on the origins of the Native American population; they involve the study of teeth and of languages. The biological anthropologist Christy Turner is an expert in the analysis of changing physical characteristics in human teeth. He argues that tooth crowns and roots have a high genetic component, minimally affected by environmental and other factors. Studies carried out by Turner of many thousands of New and Old World specimens, both ancient and modern, suggest that the majority of prehistoric Americans are linked to Northern Asian populations by crown and root traits such as incisor shoveling (a scooping out on one or both surfaces of the tooth), single-rooted upper first premolars6 and triple-rooted lower first molars.
According to Turner, this ties in with the idea of a single Paleo-lndian migration out of North Asia, which he sets at before 14,000 years ago by calibrating rates of dental micro-evolution. Tooth analyses also suggest that there were two later migrations of Na-Denes and Eskimo- Aleut.
G The linguist Joseph Greenberg has, since the 1950s, argued that all Native American languages belong to a single 'Amerind' family, except for Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut - a view that gives credence to the idea of three main migrations. Greenberg is in a minority among fellow linguists, most of whom favour the notion of a great many waves of migration to account for the more than 1,000 languages spoken at one time by American Indians. But there is no doubt that the new genetic and dental evidence provides strong backing for Greenberg's view. Dates given for the migrations should nevertheless be treated with caution, except where supported by hard archaeological evidence. section F
经过多年的实践和反馈，一般比较推荐大家采取先看文章标题，再看选项，再看文章段落，再比较文章和选项，最终选出答案的顺序。值得提醒的是，list of headings与其他雅思阅读题目不同，这类题型的练习题的位置在文章的前面。也就是每道list of headings所对应的文章都在题目的后面。如果找错了对应的文章不但会使考生无法解题更会浪费大量考试时间。
首先大家需要看的是文章的标题。标题是对文章高度的概括，可以帮助大家在短时间内快速了解文章的大意。本文的标题为Population movements and genetics， 大家对于genetics可能相对不太熟悉，genetics的意思为遗传学。对于阅读中遇到的较为生疏的单词，词汇基础较好的同学可以采取词根词缀法，对于词汇基础较为薄弱的可以采用联想法。例如genetics这个单词的前一半是gene，大家可以很快的联想到这个词和中文中"基因"的发音很像。很快可以想到这个词和基因会有一定关系，也就能大致猜出单词的意思了。
对于选项的信息处理往往会决定考生是否可以很顺利的完成本套试题。 此类题型在考察中往往会给考生们一个或多个例子，也就是说其中有一道题或者多道题目的答案是已经选好的。本类题目中每个答案都只会使用一次。所以考生在做题中的第一步就是应该划掉其中已经给出答案的题目。在本题中，首先需要做的事情就是确定20题所对应的VII选项和文章的G段在本题中是不要重点阅读的部分。但是值得提醒考生的是，一般在整套阅读试卷中list of headings 题目不考察的段落往往会在其他题目中考察，以尽量扩大考生的阅读量。
接下来，在阅读选项中大家需要将选项中的关键词适当画出并且识别出选项中的一些特定成分。我们就以此题为例,给大家一一分析。首先，如果大家纵览选项会发现，其中有些选项是很类似的，例如II Dental evidence 和iii Greenberg`s analysis of the dental and linguistic evidence 以及vii Long-standing questions about prehistoric migration to America 和ix Questions about the causes of the prehistoric migration to America。 考生可以有这样的经验，在本类题目中一般相类似的选项上都会有一个是对的。根据以往的经验，这两个相似的选项中较为概括的一个，成为正确选项的可能性往往更大一些。
其次，为了便于阅读文章后检索答案，考生需要在阅读试题时将试题中题干的主体部分重要信息做出标示。同时根据list of headings题目的设置原则，有些选项中出现的特定内容也会给考生一些很重要的线索。List of headings 这类题目设置的要求是给原文中的段落找最为合适的段落大意。那么选项中的一些过于具体的信息，例如：人名，地名，时间等肯定信息不应该出现在正确选项中，除非整篇文章的主题就是某人、某地、某物。如Cambridge IELTS 5 P64页 的 the disappearing delta中首段中正确答案包含Egypt这一地名，但是由于全文都是在说发生在Egypt的事情，所以也就可以接受了。同时，由于是概括大意，不同于其他细节类题，例TURE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN，需要精确到某一个单词，本题的最终答案只是段落代号，只需要精确到段落。所以选项中如果包含了很好定位的词也不太可能是正确答案。试想一下，如果每个选项都可以轻易地定位到某一段，考生只需要在做题时根据题目的定位词就可以确定文章中哪一段是答案，那么题目就过于简单了。所以大家可以根据这个原则，将题目中有具体信息的选项优先排除，本题中的III V VII IX四个选项都因为还有较为明显的地名而大大降低了候选的概率。但考虑到VII IX都较为类似，同时排除的可能性不大。对于一般选项，考生可以将选项中的核心词稍作记号，一般优先考虑非标题含有名词，其次是形容词。
接下来，考生需要做的就是对文章的分析。雅思考试中阅读文章的长度大约在850-1200字之间，大多数的考生无法将整篇文章全部认真读完。考生可以根据学术写作的文章结构有的放矢的阅读。学术文章的段落结构较为固定，一般为：topic sentence( main idea) -reasons-facts(example and evidence)的结构。所以，考生如果希望在短时间内快速找到文章的段落大意，文章中的首句、第二句、末句是需要重点阅读的。之所以还需要阅读第二句是因为部分文章中会在第一句topic sentence的后边加上一句转折，较为常见的标志有But Yet However. 极少的文章会将主题句放在最后一句中，一般会出现总结、转折词，例如：But So Thus 所以部分文章需要看最后一句。 除此之外，段落中一些特殊符号也是值得大家关注的，最为常见的特殊符号为：问号，冒号，破折号。
