阅读理解是学习中的重点，不仅因其具有实际的阅读与理解的锻炼能力，更因为其分值比例较大。考生在复习过程中，要注意理解文章中词汇的语义特征。文章中的某些关键词也能为考生提供线索。在选择时，尽量往这些关键词上“靠”，可以避免离题太远。以下三类词的作用不容忽视：

　　一、名词表主题

　　When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the manicurist isn't cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend ＄12 to ＄50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. I’m a good economic indicator, she says. I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars.So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too, she says.

　　文中的这些名词为考生提供了一条主线，即使没完全读懂，但通过这些名词考生也可以确定这是一篇与经济有关的文章，每句话都没离开这个主题。可以设想一下，如果把其中的任何一句删去，然后让考生选择后补上，在遵循以“经济”为线索的前提下都是很容易解决的。也就是说这些名词表明了这篇文章的主题。

　　二、动词表变化

　　All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid 1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.

【下一页】