现行的新sat考试中，写作部分由之前的自选立场写议论文改为分析性写作，考生需要在50分钟的时间内完成对一篇文章的阅读、分析和写作三方面的任务，难度大大增加。很多同学抱怨写不完，更有很多考生在关就犯难--读不懂！

合理规划各部分用时的话，阅读时间当限制在在12分钟左右。然而所选文章词数在650-750之间，且源自权威报刊或名人演讲（演讲目前还没考到），难度并不低。想要短时间内把文章读懂、析透，除了需要平时多读英文书报提升阅读速度和理解能力外，还必须掌握一定的技巧。这里给大家两个方面的建议来提高阅读效率：1.掌握正确阅读步骤2.抓住有效信息提示。

一、正确的阅读步骤：Title-Assignment-Article

步毋庸置疑是读题目，通过题目可以对文章内容作一个基本定位。

第二步是读文章后面的方框，也叫assignment,里面会告诉我们本文的中心论点，这也是CB比较仁慈的一个地方。中心论点确定了，对内容理解上一般就不会跑偏，因为文中所有文字毫无疑问是为论点服务的。

第三步才是读正文，分析作者是如何展开及证明本人论点的。

正确的步骤有了，大方向定了，接下来具体的文本解读亦有技巧可寻。

二、 有效的信息提示：段首句，上下文，转折后

1.段首句

新sat的文章为议论文，在写作方面，大部分段落采用PEEL结构，具体对应如下：

这种段落的特点是内容明确，段首句准确概括段落大意，帮助理解又节省时间。如：

The claims that plastic bags are worse for the environment than paper bags or cotton reusable bags are dubious at best. In fact, compared to paper bags, plastic grocery bags produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, require 70 percent less energy to make, generate 80 percent less waste, and utilize less than 4 percent of the amount of water needed to manufacture them. This makes sense because plastic bags are lighter and

take up less space than paper bags.

Reusable bags come with their own set of problems. They, too, have a larger carbon footprint than plastic bags. Even more disconcerting are the findings of several studies that plastic bag bans lead to increased health problems due to food contamination from bacteria that remain in the reusable bags. A November 2012 statistical analysis by University of Pennsylvania law professor Jonathan Klick and George Mason University law professor and economist Joshua D. Wright found that San Francisco's plastic bag ban in 2007 resulted in a subsequent spike in hospital emergency room visits due to E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter-related intestinal infectious diseases. The authors conclude that the ban even accounts for several additional deaths in the city each year from such infections.（官方指南p204）

通过两个段落的首句即可知作者并不赞同塑料袋比纸袋更危害环境，并认为纸袋本身存在很多问题，观点非常明确。

2.上下文

除了PEEL结构之外，还有一种典型写法是整个段落都是论据，不加赘言，而在上下文（通常是是下文）进行分析解释，如：

All of this decline was playing out at a time when the U.S. was embroiled in two overseas wars, with hundreds of thousands of Americans deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was happening as domestic politics grappled with the merits and consequences of a global war on terror, as a Great Recession was blamed in part on global imbalances in savings, and as world leaders debated a global trade treaty and pacts aimed at addressing climate change. It unfolded as American workers heard increasingly that their wages and job security were under assault by competition from counterparts on the other side of oceans.

In short, news of the world is becoming palpably more relevant to the day-to-day experiences of American readers, and it is rapidly disappearing. （官方指南p184）

上述引文中段讲述了与美国人民密切相关的一些国际大事，很多同学读完后误以为这段话表达的含义是美国对国外新闻的专业报道下降是由这些事件造成的。事实上作者在下一段中进行了分析解读--美国对国外新闻的专业报道下降恰恰是发生在世界大事与国人生活息息相关之时。

美国三月真题的作文部分（A Call for National Service）前三段也是如此安排，这种写作手法并不罕见。因此，考生须切记议论文从来不是论点与论据的简单堆砌，作者会用相应的论证将其联系起来，如果本段内没有，那么大多是在下文。

3.转折后

一个常识是，只要作者在文中使用了转折，那么论述重点在于转折之后的部分。所以在新sat文章中，见到but, yet, however等转折词时要明确其后的内容才是作者的表达重心。如：

We all know the power of Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media to connect readers in one place with images and impressions from situations unfolding far away. We know the force of social media during the Arab Spring, as activists convened and reacted to changing circumstances. . . . Facts and insights reside on social media, waiting to be harvested by the digitally literate contemporary correspondent.

And yet those of us who have been engaged in foreign reporting for many years will confess to unease over many of the developments unfolding online, even as we recognize the trends are as unstoppable as globalization or the weather. Too often it seems as if professional foreign correspondents, the people paid to use their expertise while serving as informational filters, are being replaced by citizen journalists who function largely as funnels, pouring insight along with speculation, propaganda and other white noise into the mix.（官方指南p184）

引文中段认同了网络媒体在新闻报道中起到了一定作用，但这并不是他真正想表达的，因为第二段中出现了yet一词。第二段作者话锋一转，谈论起专业新闻人对当前网络介质过度使用这一现状的担忧。所以这才是真正的侧重点--依赖网络传播新闻弊端明显，而前面不过是欲抑先扬的铺垫罢了。

例子很多，在此不能一一列举。同学们若能牢记以上两方面的建议，并以此引导阅读，分清主次，速度与理解准确性定有较大提升。更多雅思考试干货敬请关注新航道SAT考试频道