托福阅读中有些题目所对应的文章信息太多，从应试的角度来看，逐字阅读又太浪费时间。这时比较快速的做法就是从选项中挖掘一下方向，如果有选项和文章信息不符，或者几个选项之间互相矛盾，便可以直接排除，然后再回到原文对模糊选项进行确认就会很省力。一般情况下，排除法是比较容易上手的套路，答题快速且准确率较高。可以说，排除法适用于绝大部分托福阅读题目的解答，下面我们就通过几个具体的例子来看一下。
实例解析1：用排除法解答否定事实信息题
使用排除法解答否定事实信息题是最合适的，因为一般情况下正确选项要么直接与原文中的一处或多处信息相矛盾，要么在原文中没有被提及，如果选项与原文信息相符或者在原文中出现过，那么这个选项就可以果断地排除了。下面来看一道例题：
Ancient people made clay pottery because they needed it for their survival. They used the pots they made for cooking, storing food, and carrying things from place to place. Pottery was so important to early cultures that scientists now study it to learn more about ancient civilizations. The more advanced the pottery in terms of decoration, materials, glazes and manufacture, the more advanced the culture itself.
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a way that ancient people used pottery?
A. To hold food
B. To wash clothes
C. To cook
D. To transport objects
这道题是一道典型的否定事实信息题，题目问的是以下四个选项中哪一个不是陶器在古代的用途。很明显，原文第二句中列举了陶器的三种用途：“cooking”、“storing food”和“carrying things from place to place”，分别对应C、A、D选项，果断排除;只有B选项在原文中没有被提到，因此这道题的答案就是B选项。
总之，在回答这类问题时，首先需要找到相关信息在原文中出现的位置，然后确定四个选项中的哪三个是真实的，这样剩下的那个选项自然就是不真实的了。注意，对于此类问题，正确答案是那个不真实的选项，不要误选。
实例解析2：用排除法解答句子插入题
Animals need natural periodic signals like sunrise to maintain a cycle whose period is precisely 24 hours. ■Such an external cue not only coordinates an animal's daily rhythms with particular features of the local solar day but also—because it normally does so day after day-seems to keep the internal clock's period close to that of Earth's rotation. ■Yet despite this synchronization of the period of the internal cycle, the animal's timer itself continues to have its own genetically built-in period close to, but different from, 24 hours. ■Without the external cue, the difference accumulates and so the internally regulated activities of the biological day drift continuously, like the tides, in relation to the solar day. ■This drift has been studied extensively in many animals and in biological activities ranging from the hatching of fruit fly eggs to wheel running by squirrels. Light has a predominating influence in setting the clock. Even a fifteen-minute burst of light in otherwise sustained darkness can reset an animal's circadian rhythm. Normally, internal rhythms are kept in step by regular environmental cycles. For instance, if a homing pigeon is to navigate with its Sun compass, its clock must be properly set by cues provided by the daylight/darkness cycle.
Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
Because the internal signals that regulate waking and going to sleep tend to align themselves with these external cues, the external clock appears to dominate the internal clock.
Where would the sentence best fit?
这道题表面上看并不容易，因为待插入的句子与其他句子之间看不出任何明显的逻辑，但是如果换一种角度，用排除法来做就会简单得多。下面我们来看一下如何利用排除法来解答这道题目：通过观察我们发现，A方块和D方块后面都出现了代词(分别是“Such”和“This”)，说明方块前后两句话关系紧密，中间不宜再插入句子，因此排除，那么剩下的B选项和C选项就有可能是正确答案。通过观察待插入的句子我们会发现，句子中有一个提示点“these external cues”，说明这句话前面应该会出现“external cues”的相关内容，而且待插入句还说“internal dominate external”，和B方块后面的“this synchronization”是一脉相承的，因此恰当的位置就应该是B方块的位置。
以上就是小编为大家分享的利用排除法解答阅读题目的方法，当然，排除法的应用并不局限于以上两种题型，考生在做题过程中一定要善于利用排除法，提高解题的效率。
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