总有同学说，托福task3的阅读时间太紧，读不完。所以80%以上的同学恐怕都是选择性地阅读task3 reading passage中的一部分内容、寻找所谓“定义句”然后将其抄下来。而这样做的同学中，恕我直言，学术口语可以拿到good的，恐怕寥寥无几。问题出在哪里呢？

在托福阅读task3的阅读文章中，重要的信息往往并非只用一句话就能概括。只抄下一两句话往往意味着你会丢掉许多有用信息，从而影响对整篇文章的理解以及最终的分数。毕竟，投机取巧的方法虽然能让你应付考试，但是并不能真正锻炼到你的能力，不是吗？既然ETS会这样出题：让你在45秒内读一篇长度在100-120之间的文章，就意味着这个时间是足够一个英语水平正常的人读完读懂这样一篇文章的。如果你觉得时间不够，要么意味着你的词汇句法基础有漏洞，要么意味着你的阅读方法存在问题。你说是不是？

如果你的问题在于词汇句法，那么提升基础是你目前的首要任务。如果你的托福阅读科目已经可以稳定在20分以上、如果当给你“足够的时间”后你能读懂task3的阅读文章，那么你的问题就不在基础，而是在阅读时的方法和技巧。由于缺乏有效的阅读技巧，所以你的阅读速度和效率并不达标。

今天这篇文章，就是针对这一类同学，来详细谈谈如何在阅读时既快速、又不会漏掉任何有效的信息点。如何在45秒的阅读时间过后，几乎能够记忆下整篇阅读文章的全部内容。

秘诀就在一样东西上：同义转述

让我们先来看一篇文章：TPO24 Task 4

Irrational Commitment

When people have devoted time or resources to a certain project, they generally want to see it succeed. However, they may grow so attached to the idea of a successful outcome that even if it starts to look like the project will fail and the disadvantages are outweighing the benefits, they will nevertheless increase their commitment to the project rather than give up. This is known as irrational commitment. This tendency to continue with a project when it would make better sense to quit can be especially strong when people feel they may be judged by others for their eventual success or failure with the project.

这篇文章看似信息量很大。但是让我们来看看其中的同义转述。

句子1：When people have devoted time or resources to a certain project, they generally want to see it succeed.

句子2：However, they may grow so attached to the idea of a successful outcome that even if it starts to look like the project will fail and the disadvantages are outweighing the benefits, they will nevertheless increase their commitment to the project rather than give up.

句子3：This is known as irrational commitment.

句子4：This tendency to continue with a project when it would make better sense to quit can be especially strong when people feel they may be judged by others for their eventual success or failure with the project.

第二句中的it starts to look like the project will fail和 the disadvantages are outweighing the benefits，所表达的意思相同，可以视为同义转述。

而它们又和第四句中的it would make better sense to quit 表达了同样的意思。即同一个意思转述了三次。

而第二句中的they will nevertheless increase their commitment to the project rather than give up和第四句中的continue with a project也形成了同义转述。

或者也可以理解为：整个第二句they may grow so attached to the idea of a successful outcome that even if it starts to look like the project will fail and the disadvantages are outweighing the benefits, they will nevertheless increase their commitment to the project rather than give up 和第四句的主语 This tendency to continue with a project when it would make better sense to quit形成了同义转述。

甚至，有没有人发现，整个第一句话When people have devoted time or resources to a certain project, they generally want to see it succeed和第二句中的the idea of a successful outcome也是一种同义转述（只是可能是一种更为广义的同义转述）。

这些发现意味着三件事情。

第一：所谓重要的话说三遍。如果一个信息能在短短一篇阅读文章里被来回转述三次，那么是不是意味着这个信息非常重要一定要记下来？

第二：当我们把同义转述的内容削减到只保留一句，你会发现整篇阅读文章的容量原来并没有那么大。

以这篇文章为例，通过第三句（This is known as irrational commitment.）你应该能判断出第二句为irrational commitment的定义，那么既然第二句和第四句的主语形成了同义转述，为了记irrational commitment的定义，你根本不需要把冗长的第二句话抄下来，而是只需要保留第四句的主语即可。

即：Irrational commitment is a tendency to continue with a project when it would make better sense to quit.

（当然,这篇文章的信息量并非只有irrational commitment的定义,最后一句话的主干部分也非常重要。）

第三：为了最经济地读懂task3的阅读文章，你要做的是删掉所有的重复信息，保留所有的新信息即可。

以这篇文章为例，去除掉所有重复信息之后，需要保留的新信息为：continue with a project when it would make better sense to quit.和this tendency can be especially strong when people feel they may be judged by others。

这也是你需要在笔记上呈现出、以及在答题时说出的全部信息量（当然，记笔记不要把这些句子一次不差抄下来，因为你没有时间，记关键词就好）

记得，当你抱定一个信念——task3的阅读文章中存在大量同义转述——再去读文章时，你会发现很多看似复杂的句子、由于其实表达的是相同的意思（旧信息）、而变得更加好懂了。

你也能学会选择和过滤信息；只让你的大脑记忆那些真正重要的信息。这样，你就不会觉得时间紧、或是自己大脑内存不足了。