特殊标点符号
有一些特殊的标点符号也经常成为出题的对象，因此考生应该对以下标点符号的用法较为熟悉：逗号、冒号、括号、破折号、引号以及问号。
(1)逗号：两个逗号之间的内容、或者一个逗号后面的内容，通常都起到补充说明第一个逗号前面内容的作用。
【真题回放2000-Text5】
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs — the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”
69. Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because ________.
[A] they think of it as immoral
[B] their pursuits are not fame or wealth
[C] ambition is not closely related to material benefits
[D] they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
(2)冒号：其解释说明或者高度概括。
【真题回放2007-Text4】
① It never rains but it pours. ② Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles, and improved their feeble corporation governance, a new problem threatens to earn them – especially in America – the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite: data insecurity. ③ Left, until now, to odd, low-level IT staff to put right, and seen as a concern only of data-rich industries such as banking, telecoms and air travel, information protection is now high on the boss's agenda in businesses of every variety.
36. The statement “It never rains but it pours” is used to introduce
[A] the fierce business competition.
[B] the feeble boss-board relations.
[C] the threat from news reports.
[D] the severity of data leakage.
(3)括号：其解释说明作用。
【真题回放2006-Text2】
① Anyway, the townsfolk can't understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (②The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row.③ Last year its 1,431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and this year they'll do better.)④ The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have stayed low.
29. According to the townsfolk, the RSC deserves no subsidy because ________.
[A] ticket prices can be raised to cover the spending
[B] the company is financially ill-managed
[C] the behavior of the actors is not socially acceptable
[D] the theatre attendance is on the rise
(4)破折号：两个破折号之间的内容往往充当插入语，其解释说明租用;一个破折号后面的内容，通常表示解释说明或者高度概括，作用类似于冒号。
【真题回放2005-Text2】
Fortunately, the White House is starting to pay attention. But it's obvious that a majority of the president's advisers still don't take global warming seriously. Instead of a plan of action, they continue to press for more research — a classic case of “paralysis by analysis.”
28. What does the author mean by “paralysis by analysis” (Last line, Paragraph 4)?
[A] Endless studies kill action.
[B] Careful investigation reveals truth.
[C] Prudent planning hinders progress.
[D] Extensive research helps decision-making.
(5)引号：表示引用他人的观点，或者突出强调，或者反语。
【真题回放2011-Text4】
① It's no surprise that Jennifer Senior's insightful, provocative magazine cover story, “I love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter – nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience.② Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition. ③ Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight.”
36.Jennifer Senior suggests in her article that raising a child can bring
[A]temporary delight
[B]enjoyment in progress
[C]happiness in retrospect
[D]lasting reward
(6)问号：如果第一段开头设问，往往是引出下文或者设问句本身就是中心思想句;
【真题回放2001-Text3】
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
59. What is the passage mainly about?
[A] needs of the readers all over the world
[B] causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
[C] origins of the declining newspaper industry
[D] aims of a journalism credibility project
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
如果句中设问往往后面紧跟的句子是答案。
【真题回放1997-Text1】
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
如果在文章最后一段最后一句话，往往可以省略不看。
【真题回放2001-Text4】
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of “defending competition” on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U.S. vs. Microsoft case?