Example
The American economic system is organized around a basicallyprivate-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes， that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individual are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
这篇文章中的关键短语是American economic system，在文中多次反复出现，刚好它就是全文的写作对象。抓住了这个关键信息再加上“路标”词，文章的结构一目了然。
文章首句提出了含有写作对象的主题，即美国经济体制的特点是通过私有企业和市场导向起调节作用。末句thus后面是对主题的进一步阐释，分析和指出消费者的需求、企业家对最大利润的追求和个人对收入取得最大收益的渴望，共同决定着生产什么以及如何使用资源进行生产。第二段说明市场导向型经济的重要特点之一是价格机制。第三段说明私营经济的性质和特点是财产私有和同时拥有相关权利。
(6)读“路标”词。在阅读理解中有部分“虚词”比“实词”更重要，它们就是一些表示作者思路的过渡词、短语或句子，有利于作者思想的衔接和转折。抓住它们，考生就能够对全文的结构一目了然，就不会出现“词都认识，就是不知道全文在讲什么”的情况。它们就是在阅读行进过程中起指示作用的“路标”，随时提醒考生将要读到什么。
“路标”词按照功能可以分为：
①前进型。这一类词和词组起的是顺接、递进作用，指示读者继续往下看，其前后可能存在并列、递进、因果、解释等关系，往往接下来的可能是作者要强调的重要内容。
如：and, also, more, moreover, more than that, furthermore, likewise, equally important, first, second, in addition to, thus, so, therefore, consequently, accordingly, as a result 等。
②转弯型。这一类标志着前后两个句子或段落之间的转折或对比关系，读者要敏感地意识到后面出现的是与前面截然不同的事物或观点，从而对作者的思想进行预测。
如：but, yet, while, however, nevertheless, although, though, otherwise, despite, instead, on the contrary, in contrast, notwithstanding等。
③终点型。这一类标志着下面的内容是对前面的概括和总结。
如：to conclude, to sum up, in sum, in conclusion, in short, in brief, on the whole等。
④其他。表示空间位置(near, far, beside, next to, above, on the side of, across, behind)、目的(for this purpose, so that, in order to)、强调(indeed, in fact, surely, certainly, to be sure, I am certain)、举例(for example, for instance, in particular)、条件(in that case, that being so, in these circumstance, if, unless)等。
阅读水平的提高，更多地要靠在实际阅读的积累中得到的体会和感悟。只要同学们在掌握一定阅读技巧的基础上把历年真题做熟、做精，相信一定能考出理想的成绩!
