从阅读理解的练习中增长词汇量（掌握这个小词儿能让你阅读有质的提高）

继环球小编之前的文章，这篇文章让环球颜王团杨帆老师继续为大家介绍英语中的一哥“it”，只有搞定雅思阅读中最重要的单词，才能分分钟7 ！

从阅读理解的练习中增长词汇量（掌握这个小词儿能让你阅读有质的提高）(1)

作用：对前文的指代

终于，我们要谈谈it的指代作用了。阅读中it常常对前文的可数名词单数、不可数名词甚至是整个句子进行指代。因为没有一个固定的指代规则，所以如果想弄清楚it到底是对谁的指代的话，大家需要把前后句子结合起来理解，通过含义去把握。我们来看下面几道例题：

【例句】

The sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals and then is added to fields by farmers or pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons that are located near the outer edges of the delta. So very little of it actually reaches the coastline to replace what is being washed away by the Mediterranean currents.

【分析】

我们在第二个句子中看到了代词it，那么它是对谁的指代呢？

在前一句话中有出现不可数名词sediment和water，这句话的意思是：沉淀物下降到运河底部并且被农民添加到田地中或随着水被抽取到了四个很大的淡水湖中。后一句话的意思是：因此，很少的“它”到达海边。

【杨帆老师有话说】

很多时候大家可以根据it在一个句子中所在的位置来判断它是对前一句某个成分的指代：一般如果it做主语，那么就是对前一句主语的指代；如果是做宾语就是对宾语的指代。但这不是万能的规则，有时候也会有例外。我们来看下面几个例题：

【例题】

27 Peter Derks believes that humour

A react to their own thoughts.

B helped create language in humans.

C respond instantly to whatever is happening.

D may provide valuable information about the operation of the brain.

E cope with difficult situations.

F relate to a person’s subjective views.

G led our ancestors to smile and then laugh.

【原文】

Humour may be a luxury, but the mechanism behind it is no evolutionary accident. As Peter Derks, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, says: ‘I like to think of humour as the distorted mirror of the mind. It’s creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humour, then we’ll have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.’

【分析】

题目中出现了人名Peter Derks，可以直接用于定位，到原文中看Peter Derks对于幽默的看法。原文中我们在第二句话上看到了Peter Derks，此时精读并理解他的话：我倾向于把幽默看做是一个思维的扭曲的镜子。它是创造性的、认知的、分析的、语言的。如果我们能够弄明白思维是如何处理幽默的，那么我们将会对它的普遍运转方式有很好的掌握。最后这个句子中的it指的是谁呢？是mind，还是humor？我们看到it存在于how引导的从句中，在从句中做主语，因此它是指代前一个分句中的how引导的从句中的主语mind，所以这里是想表达我们将会了解“思维”的运转原理。选项D正确，operation对应原文的work，brain对应mind。

【例题】

At first, the scientific language of choice remained 28 ………… . It allowed scientists to communicate with other socially privileged thinkers while protecting their work from unwanted exploitation.

【原文】

There were several reasons why original science continued to be written in Latin. The first was simply a matter of audience. Latin was suitable for an international audience of scholars, whereas English reached a socially wider, but more local, audience. Hence, popular science was written in English.

A second reason for writing in Latin may, perversely, have been a concern for secrecy. Open publication had dangers in putting into the public domain preliminary ideas which had not yet been fully exploited by their ‘author’. This growing concern about intellectual property rights was a feature of the period - it reflected both the humanist notion of the individual, rational scientist who invents and discovers through private intellectual labour, and the growing connection between original science and commercial exploitation.

【分析】

28题这个空所在的位置是表语（句子是主系表结构），所以单纯看这个句子是找不到的。我们看到后面的句子的主语是it，这里it是对前面所填单词的指代（前一个分句是主系表，主语跟表语实际上是相互解释的作用，比如A is B.那么A就是B，B就是A），这样的话，我们就可以利用后面句子表达的“事情”去定位：它让科学家可以跟上流社会的学者交流并且保护他们的作品以免于遭受未经许可的利用。这概念可以在原文这两个段落中都找到，socially privileged thinkers可以对应到原文的scholars，protecting their work from unwanted exploitation就是secrecy。原文一直在对Latin进行解释，这就是答案。

从阅读理解的练习中增长词汇量（掌握这个小词儿能让你阅读有质的提高）(2)

有时候，it并不都是对前面句子中相同成分的指代，所以还是要看词性和看含义。我们来看下面这个例题：

【例题】

Spriggs believes the 30_____ which was found at the site is very important since it confirms that the 31_____ found inside are Lapita.

A. data B. archaeological discovery C. burial urn D. source

【原文】

Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. ‘It’s an important discovery,’ says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, ‘for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita.’

【分析】

题目中出现了Spriggs，人名可以帮助我们直接定位；同时，我们看到所填单词后面有一个定语从句进行限定修饰，根据从句中的动词可以判断出所填单词是单数或不可数（因为后面有was）；另外，我们要填的单词“是很重要的”（不看从句，你会发现我们填的单词是做了主系表结构中的主语，表语是very important。）通过以上三点，我们得出这样一个结论：

我们需要回到原文定位找Spriggs，看他认为哪个单数或不可数名词是很重要的。

原文中我们可以很快找到Matthew Spriggs，引号中是其观点：“它是一个重要的发现。”这里我们看到了important，所以锁定答案是it，但是你怎么可能填这个代词呢？所以我们来看看it指代的是谁，在前一句话中找可数名词单数或不可数名词，可以看到单数词Lapita burial urn，这就是答案。

从阅读理解的练习中增长词汇量（掌握这个小词儿能让你阅读有质的提高）(3)

有时候，it可能会对整句话表达的事情进行指代。例如下面这个题目：

【例题】

According to the sixth paragraph, what was extraordinary about the Lapita?

A They sailed beyond the point where land was visible.

B Their cultural heritage discouraged the expression of fear.

C They were able to build canoes that withstood ocean voyages.

D Their navigational skills were passed on from one generation to the next.

【原文】

‘All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them,’ says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didn’t begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages?

【分析】

题干要求我们会原文找“关于Lapita这个民族的非凡之处”，在原文这个段落的前两句话中我们看到的是Lapita一直以来都在做的事情：能够建造独木舟、航海技能代代相传，并没有体现出“非凡”，所以可以排除C和D选项（与原文表达一致，但是不是题目要求找的）。

我们在第三句中看到了real adventure didn’t begin until …这几个关键词的出现，说明之前所讲内容都不是real adventure，直到“Lapita后代驶出了陆地可视范围之外”才开始真正的冒险。最后一句话中出现了“it distinguished them from their ancestors”（distinguish A from B表示“让A显得与B不同，比B特殊”），因此这里的distinguish就是题目中extraordinary的替换，it指代的是前面一整句话（就是第三句的内容，第四句是对第三句内容的评价，没有提到Lapita发生的事情），答案选A。

从阅读理解的练习中增长词汇量（掌握这个小词儿能让你阅读有质的提高）(4)