获取信息的本质是要了解你要的是什么，换句话说，了解什么对你来说是信息，什么是噪音。
阅读考试想考察的就是我们获取信息的能力。
当然目标信息是题目给的，我们是根据题目的要求去原文本获得对应的信息。
说起来很简单的一个过程，但是确实我们提高能力型考试分数上的一个坎。
首先讨论下，为什么能力型的考试（比如SAT/GRE/LSAT）都主要考察的是阅读能力？
简单点来说，因为未来的学习生活，不管是本科还是研究生，都是需要大量的阅读的，所以阅读能力好的人，显然更适应未来的学校生活。
往大了说，因为目前人们分享和获得信息最高效的方式还是阅读，也许未来人类的信息传播方式会改变，但目前来说，阅读文字依然是最为高效的信息传递方式，所以阅读能力好的人，一般意义上来说，在同样的时间里，能获取和消化的信息也是更多的，获得的知识也更多些，当然相对来说距离“真”也更近一些。
所以阅读能力是个重要的能力，需要培养。
如果阅读是为了获得信息，那么对于做题来说，只有做题需要的内容才是有用的信息。
对于宏观题（比如主旨或者结构题），显然了解主要信息就可以。
而对于微观题, 掌握主要内容，可以帮助我们定位。因此第一步还是需要读出文章的层次或者主要的信息。
所以，我们可以几乎靠谱的得出这个一个结论：
任务时间紧张的阅读测试的本质是读主要信息。
那么什么是主要信息。
一般就是段首、段尾、转折句。
以下以SAT 考场的一篇阅读文章为例
202003 NA 阅读第五篇
Passage 1
In the early 2000s, wolves began to drift down from Canada and across the border from Idaho into Washington State. This natural wolf recolonization inspired ecologists such as William Ripple and his colleagues to conduct an exercise in scientific thinking to consider potential impacts that an apex predator like the wolf would have on the intricate workings of the lynx-snowshoe hare food web. At the time, Washington had low hare and lynx populations and a high coyote population. Coyotes had recently expanded their range and abundance there. Wolves prey on coyotes. What if the wolf’s return to the Pacific Northwest could indirectly improve lynx conservation, via trophic cascade effects?
这段话一直读下来，中间的连接部分没有任何的逻辑词，都是用句号连接的，所以一路下来应该是越来越具体化的过程，中间因为没有什么转折关系，所以也就没有什么新信息，所以这段话，读完以后，基本对于最后一句有个印象就好，就是 “wolf 的回归，会不会让lynx 数量上升”（当然是通过一个叫做 tc effects的过程）
这一段读完以后，实际脑海中处理的内容
In the early 2000s, wolves began to drift down from Canada and across the border from Idaho into Washington State. This natural wolf recolonization inspired ecologists such as William Ripple and his colleagues to conduct an exercise in scientific thinking to consider potential impacts that an apex predator like the wolf would have on the intricate workings of the lynx-snowshoe hare food web. At the time, Washington had low hare and lynx populations and a high coyote population. Coyotes had recently expanded their range and abundance there. Wolves prey on coyotes. What if the wolf’s return to the Pacific Northwest could indirectly improve lynx conservation, via trophic cascade effects?
灰色部分是次要信息
第二段
Ripple and colleagues hypothesized that two mechanisms would drive wolf-coyote-lynx-snowshoe hare trophic cascades. First, by killing coyotes, wolves would reverse the mesopredator release that had occurred when wolves had been extirpated from this region nearly century earlier. When humans hunted wolves to extinction, they removed an important check on coyote numbers-creating a “release” on the numbers of this mid-sized predator. Coyote numbers increased, which put more pressure on lynx via competition for food resources such as snowshoe hares. Therefore, by reducing coyotes in this system, a returning wolf population could indirectly create ecological benefits for lynx. The researchers further hypothesized that because coyotes also prey on lynx, a reduction of coyote numbers by wolves would release predation pressure on lynx.
脑海中留存的信息是：导致 tc effects 的是两个因素 1. wolf 吃 coyotes，lynx 得利
第三段
Second, in western North America, south of the US-Canada border, wolves prey primarily on elk and deer. When elk and deer numbers are high, these herbivores can suppress shrubs via heavy browsing. Ripple and colleagues hypothesized that the wolfs return would reduce elk and deer numbers and also change their behavior, as has been found in places like Yellowstone by John Laundre and others. Elk and deer need to stay alert in order to survive in areas where wolves exist. This means keeping their heads up and spending less time standing in one spot with their heads down, as they typically do when there are no wolves in a system. Via this predation risk mechanism, wolves could indirectly reduce browsing pressure on shrubs, which would improve snowshoe hare habitat, thereby benefiting lynx.
第二：wolf 吃elk and deer，最后还是lynx 得利
所以一个363字的内容，我们最后脑海中存下的主要信息是
第一段：wolf 的回归，会不会让lynx 数量上升
第二段：wolf 吃 coyotes，会导致 lynx 数量上升
第三段：wolf 吃elk and deer，最后还是lynx 数量上升
当然对于应试来说，检验一个方法有用性的唯一标准就是对于做题有帮助：
所以来看下这个文段对应的题目：
宏观题：
One important function of the first paragraph of Passage 1 is to
A. assert the strength of the assumptions that informed the hypothesis that Ripple and his colleagues developed.
B. describe the ecological situation that Ripple and his colleagues considered. 灰色部分大量的就是在讲wolf 回归的情况
C. define important concepts that Ripple and his colleagues employed in their research. 有最后提到tc effects，但是没有对这个概念的过多展开
D. compare behavioral traits of the animals that Ripple and his colleagues studied
微观题（细节题）：
2. As used in line 16, “drive”most nearly means
A cause.
B convey.
C operate.
D repulse.
这个词汇题，和我们刚刚对于主要信息的梳理的关系不大。
值得一提的是SAT 的词汇题做的时候建议忘了这个单词的原来解释，主要看的还是选项单词哪个到文中更为合适
Passage 1 indicates that Ripple and his colleagues would expect to find that in areas where wolves have returned, elk and deer
A. feed on fewer varieties of shrubs than do elk and deer in areas where no wolves are found
B. exist in lower numbers than they did prior to the local extermination of wolves.
C. graze for shorter periods without interruption than they did before the return of wolves.
D. demonstrate less fearful behavior toward coyotes than toward wolves.
层次分清了的话，这里看到elk and deer就是回到第三段，虽然刚刚没有细读，但是现在有出题了，所以可以定位着去细读下，文中说elk and deer 会怎样呢？
“…wolfs return would reduce elk and deer numbers and also change their behavior, …” 数量会减少，行为会改变。
具体的行为改变：
“…keeping their heads up and spending less time standing in one spot with their heads down…”
回去看选项 (红色部分为判断为错的原因)
A. feed on fewer varieties of shrubs than do elk and deer in areas where no wolves are found
B. exist in lower numbers than they did prior to the local extermination of wolves. 不是相比于wolves 灭绝前，是相比于灭绝时
C. graze for shorter periods without interruption than they did before the return of wolves. 和原文的spend less time standing…. 同义替代
D. demonstrate less fearful behavior toward coyotes than toward wolves. 无关比较
因为Sunshine 觉得对于这篇文章有疑问，所以随机的拿了这篇文章来分析。
遗憾的是因为对于这个篇章没有出类似主旨题这样很宏观的题目，所以读出主要信息的优点没有很淋漓尽致的体现出来。
但是从结构题排除选项的帮助和 细节题部分对于定位的帮助，也可以看出抓主要信息的重要性。
不管怎样，对于时间紧张型的阅读考试来说，任何阅读方式的核心是希望读者，“有的放矢”的读，不要一股脑的把所有信息“照单全收”。
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