我们看第26题： 
26. The Japanese think of the marriage of a young couple in a family as 
A) a sign showing the love between them. 
B) an opportunity for their parents to show their love for their children. 
C) a private affair for the boy and the girl. 
D) an important matter having influence on the whole family. 
这道题考察读者是否能判断出第一段的大意。 
这篇文章讲的是关于日本婚姻方面的一些风俗习惯。文章第一段的第一句话就点明了题意。 Some Japanese still get married by parents’ arrangement. 日本人结婚基本上还是由“父母包办”。这句话就是本段的主题句。文章接下来讲，在日本，婚姻不是仅仅两个年轻人之间的事，而是影响整个家庭的一件事情（见第四句话）。父母之所以“包办“，就是因为儿女的婚姻事关整个家庭。所以答案应为选项D。这样就可以把A、B、C三个选项排除掉了。 
这是一个典型的把主题句放在段落开始位置的例子，我们来看下一个例子的主题句在哪儿。 
Have you ever watched a child in front of a television set? Very interesting things can be observed. A child may be crawling on the floor, playing with his or her toys or talking to himself or herself while the show is in progress. However, as soon as a commercial appears, the child stops what he or she is doing and faces the television set, intent on the picture, motion, and sound coming from the screen. No matter what is said, the child stares at the set until the commercial has ended. Then the child returns to crawling, playing and talking. The magnetic effect of commercials on children is amazing. 
What is the main idea of the passage? 
A) Children’s behaviors are observed when TV is on. 
B) Children are magnetically attracted by commercials. 
C) Children are keen on pictures from the screen. 
D) Children stare at the commercials even when they have ended. 
本文主要讨论了孩子如何被电视广告所吸引。作者一开始并没有直接说出广告对孩子的吸引力有多大，而是通过一个具体的情节来说明。孩子正在地板上玩耍，摆弄自己的玩具，突然，广告出现了，孩子便停下来，眼睛直盯着广告，即使他听不懂广告里说的什么，也要等到广告结束后再玩。文章的最后一句说，广告对孩子的吸引力真是让人吃惊。显然这一句为主题句，对全文进行了概括，起到了画龙点睛的作用。因而正确答案为B。 
四、小结： 
今天我们向大家介绍了如何提高阅读能力及如何解答主旨的技巧。希望大家在以后的阅读中注意运用这些技巧和方法，不断提高解题的效率。