在閱讀理解題中，大多數問題是測試應試者對明確表達的事實和細節情況的理解。在做此類試題時，我們應從英語文章內容的一般組織方法上去考慮。一般說來，為了闡明文章的中心意思，作者總是運用大量的事實和細節來說明中心意思并進行各種不同的陳述，也就是說文章中的每一句話都是圍繞主題而展開的，或是提供例證，或是進行分類比較，或是說明因果關系等。正確分析文章中的每個句子是如何說明和解析中心意思，是提高閱讀理解水平的關鍵。分析事實和細節內容的有效方法是：在閱讀過程中首先找出主題句（文章的中心意思往往通過主題句表現出來），然后分析其他各個句子與主題句的意義關系，即形成一個分析文章意義的流程圖。這樣我們可以清楚地掌握文章中的細節內容，找出所需選擇的問題的答案。下面本文舉一個例子來說明：

during the american war of independence，women were involved in the active fighting in three ways．first，as members of a distinct branch of the continental army，referred to as“women of the army”， women staffed field hospitals and acted as a military support in such roles as water carriers．in an emergency，women water carriers，who had plenty of opportunities to observe the firing of cannons，could replace a wounded comrade．the second way that women were involved in the active fighting was as regular troop members who were in men's uniforms and fought side by side with their male counterparts．theoretically，women were not supposed to be recruited into the army，but if a woman was a good soldier，no one made an issue of sex at a time when the army was so short of soldiers that boys not yet in their teens were also being recruited in violation of rules．third，women were occasional fighters with local militia companies or committees of safety formed to protect the local community．

1．what is the main idea expressed in this passage？

a．women played an important role in military hospitals during the war．
b．the continental army was successful in teaching women to fire cannons．
c．the service of women in combat during the war．
d．wom en were active in com bat during the american war of independence．

2．women sometimes fired cannons because _______ ．
a．they had observed the procedure and could therefore substitute for disabled men
b．local militia companies had trained them very carefully for emergency fighting
c．they had a better safety record than men for using weapons
d．it was against the law for young boys to fire weapons

3．what is probably the m ain reason that women were perm itted to fight in the war even though their formal participation was discouraged？

a．only women were successful as water carriers．
b．they were needed to make battle uniforms．
c．colonial women were particularly healthy and strong．
d．the army desperately needed combat soldiers．

4．women were involved in fighting the war for american independence in all of the following ways except as _______ ．

a．members of committees of safety
b．support personnel at medical facilities
c．recruiters of soldiers for the continental army
d．combat troops in the regular army

本文的中心意思是：在美國獨立戰爭中，婦女是如何積極參戰的。文章中的每一句話都是圍繞這一中心意思展開的。其展開方式可以通過下面的意義流程圖加以分析：

根據以上意義流程圖分析，應該很容易得出問題1—4的答案分別為d，a，d，c。第1題問的是文章的中心意思，其余幾題都問的是事實和細節內容，但后面幾題的答案與第1題是密切相關的。

在做閱讀理解題時，找出文章的中心意思，理解每句話與中心意思的關系，確定題目的測試類型，對照題目和文章中的相關內容仔細閱讀判別是理解文章中明確表達的事實和細節的重要方法。