句際關(guān)系主要是考察空白處與前后句子之間的邏輯關(guān)系。句子與句子之間的關(guān)系可能是顯性的，也可能是隱性的。顯性的句際關(guān)系有明顯的標(biāo)志詞出現(xiàn)，這會(huì)給考生理解文章的發(fā)展脈絡(luò)帶來很大方便。句際關(guān)系主要有以下幾種：

　　1.順接關(guān)系(順承關(guān)系或并列關(guān)系)：后句是前句的延續(xù)或補(bǔ)充，標(biāo)識(shí)詞主要有then, after that, furthermore, also, when(this happens)等。

　　2.轉(zhuǎn)折關(guān)系：前后兩句意思相反，標(biāo)識(shí)詞通常有but, however, nevertheless, (al)though, in fact等。

　　3.例證關(guān)系：即論據(jù)對(duì)于論點(diǎn)的論證關(guān)系。典型標(biāo)識(shí)詞是for example, for instance， take……as an example等�！　�

　　4.因果關(guān)系：前因后果，或前果后因�？赡艹霈F(xiàn)的標(biāo)識(shí)詞有for, as a result, as a consequence, consequently, therefore, accordingly等。

　　5.對(duì)比、對(duì)照關(guān)系：對(duì)比關(guān)系說明前后內(nèi)容的相同之處，可能出現(xiàn)similarly, like等標(biāo)志詞；對(duì)照關(guān)系則說明前后內(nèi)容的不同之處，標(biāo)識(shí)詞通常有as a contrast, on the contrary, on the one hand……on the other hand等。

　　四、理解文章中詞匯的語義特征上文提到了從整體把握文章的命脈。另外，文章中的某些關(guān)鍵詞也能為考生提供線索。在選擇時(shí)，盡量往這些關(guān)鍵詞上"靠"，可以避免離題太遠(yuǎn)。

　　以下三類詞的作用不容忽視：

　　(一)名詞表主題　When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend ＄12 to ＄50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator", she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too,"she says.文中的這些名詞為考生提供了一條主線，即使沒完全讀懂，但通過這些名詞考生也可以確定這是一篇與經(jīng)濟(jì)有關(guān)的文章，每句話都沒離開這個(gè)主題�？梢栽O(shè)想一下，如果把其中的任何一句刪去，然后讓考生選擇后補(bǔ)上，在遵循以"經(jīng)濟(jì)"為線索的前提下都是很容易解決的。也就是說這些名詞表明了這篇文章的主題。

　　(二)動(dòng)詞表變化All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid 1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.動(dòng)詞是各種變化比較明顯的體現(xiàn)，它可以表明文中所述情況的變化、作者態(tài)度的變化以及情感的變化等。本段文字中，先不看其它文字，只看這些關(guān)鍵的動(dòng)詞"caused"、"stopped"、"began to believe"、"begin to fall"、"decline"就可以表明這是一種由好到壞或由壞到好的變化，再結(jié)合其他部分可以更加肯定這一點(diǎn)，因?yàn)槲闹兴�述正是關(guān)于美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)引發(fā)的一場(chǎng)信任危機(jī)，以及這場(chǎng)危機(jī)給人們帶來的情感及經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的變化。

　　(三)形容詞表態(tài)度Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects even as they do some modest belt tightening.在閱讀理解Part A部分經(jīng)常會(huì)遇到表明作者態(tài)度的題，同樣，在Part B部分如果能明確把握作者的態(tài)度對(duì)解題也是很關(guān)鍵的，而形容詞是比較能體現(xiàn)作者態(tài)度的關(guān)鍵詞。以此段為例，前半部分都是關(guān)于美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)不景氣的描述，如果只看到這些，一定會(huì)認(rèn)為下文也應(yīng)該是一些消極方面的描述。但其實(shí)本段的關(guān)鍵在后面，消費(fèi)者的"only mildly concerned"和"not panicked"以及比較明顯的一個(gè)形容詞"optimistic"都與前面的情況形成鮮明的對(duì)比，表明了作者的態(tài)度。如果在此段后設(shè)題進(jìn)行選擇，考生就不得不考慮這些因素了。

　　五、掌握詞匯和語法的銜接

　　詞匯或語法銜接(cohesion)指篇章中通過語法手段或不同的詞匯形式以達(dá)到語義上的銜接連貫，這種聯(lián)系表現(xiàn)為以下幾種：

　　(一)重復(fù)(reiteration)1.原詞的重復(fù)，又叫原詞復(fù)現(xiàn)，指同一主題詞或關(guān)鍵詞的重復(fù)出現(xiàn)。2.同義或近義詞的銜接，又叫同義復(fù)現(xiàn)，指同義詞、近義詞重復(fù)出現(xiàn)在語篇中，語篇中的句子通過這種關(guān)系達(dá)到了相互銜接。坐標(biāo)詞與下義詞的銜接，上坐標(biāo)詞是指那些意義較概括的詞，它們的詞義包括了下義詞的詞義，如bird就是swallow的上坐標(biāo)詞。上坐標(biāo)詞與下義詞在語篇中相互銜接。

　　(二)共現(xiàn)(co-occurrence)：又叫搭配性銜接(collocation cohesion)，意指一系列相關(guān)的詞項(xiàng)在篇章中的經(jīng)常共現(xiàn)。搭配性銜接對(duì)語言信息的生成和解釋均有一定的指導(dǎo)作用，有助于對(duì)篇章的潛在的語義演進(jìn)(semantic evolution)做出預(yù)測(cè)和推測(cè)(anticipation and prediction)。

　　(三)替代(substitution)：語篇中的代詞構(gòu)成了替代銜接關(guān)系，一般而言，one指代前面的單數(shù)可數(shù)名詞；that指代前面的不可數(shù)名詞或句子；this指代前面的單數(shù)名詞或句子；it指代前面的單數(shù)名詞或整個(gè)句子；they或them指代前面的復(fù)數(shù)名詞。