二、主旨大意题
主要的命题方式有：
What's the subject of the passage?
The main ideapointof the passage is______．
The suitable title for the passage might be_______．
主旨大意题一般有以下几种形式：
1．段落主旨题。这种段落的中心大意一般出现在这一段的第一句或最后一句，但有时也有几句话的综合，并不直接在某一句中体现。
2．全篇主旨题。这种题主要考对全文的中心大意的概括能力。有时中心意思在首段用主题句等方式表达出来，有时则在中段或尾段。有主题句的文章的其他各部分通常都紧密围绕主题句层层展开。一般在阅读文章的时候就应该对作者的中心大意有一个比较准确的理解，在前面所提到的勾画主题句可以很好的解决主旨型题型。
还有一点必须注意的是，在做完所有的题后，应该再重新考虑主旨题，看是否与其他各题有矛盾之处，如有，那么主旨题应该重新考虑答案。
Though they were not trained naturalists, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their explorations of North American in the early nineteenth century came across enough unfamiliar birds,mammals, and reptiles to fill a zoo. In keeping with president Jefferson's orders, they took careful note of 122 species and subspecies that were unknown to science and in many eases native onlyto the West. Clark make sketches of any particularly intriguing creature. He and lewis also collected animal hides and horns and skins with such care that a few of them were still intact nearlytwo centuries later. While Lewis and Clark failed to meet the mythological monsters reputed to well in the West, they did unearth the bones of a 45 - foot dinosaur. Furthermore, some of theliving beasts they did come upon, such as the woolly mountain goat and the grizzly bear were every bit as odd or as fearsome as any myth. In their collector's enthusiasm, they even floatedaprairie dog out of its burrow by pouring in five barrelfuls of water,then shipped the frisky animal to Jefferson alive and yelping.
Q: What does the passage mainly discuss?
A President Jefferson' s pets.
B Collector's techniques for capturing wildlife.
C Jobs for trained naturalists.
D Record newly discovered species of animals.
正确答案为C。原文要讲述Mefiwether Lewis和William Clark在19世纪早期在北美探险时发现的一些以前所不熟悉的鸟、哺乳动物及爬行动物等。这在原文开头提到了，接着具体叙述他们探险时遇到各种动物时的情况。这是典型的中心句在句首的情况。
