代词往往是我们英语学习中容易忽视的一类单词，因为它们本身并没有太多色彩，太多意义。但是代词的正确使用会让我们的英语表达更加地道，在英语写作方面它们也让我们的句子结构更加紧凑。
在托福阅读中指代题虽然题量不大，但是除了指代题之外，事实信息题、句子插入题以及推断题的很多考点就是清楚地知道代词的指代。如果我们准确领悟代词的指代，很多题目都可以迎刃而解。
下面将从指代题、事实信息题和推断题入手，逐一分析代词指代的重要性。
1、指代题
例题1：
Paragraph 3: At the upper timberline the trees begin to become twisted and deformed. This is particularly true for trees in the middle and upper latitudes, which tend to attain greater heights on ridges, whereas in the tropics the trees reach their greater heights in the valleys. This is because middle- and upper- latitude timberlines are strongly influenced by the duration and depth of the snow cover. As the snow is deeper and lasts longer in the valleys, trees tend to attain greater heights on the ridges, even though they are more exposed to high-velocity winds and poor, thin soils there. In the tropics, the valleys appear to be more favorable because they are less prone to dry out, they have less frost, and they have deeper soils.
The word they in the passage refers to
○valleys
○trees
○heights
○ridges
首先在考察指代题时，代词“they”在题干中打上阴影，并且原文中代词“they”也打上了阴影，所以指代题不需要定位。
其次在解答指代题时，我们只需要看两句话，一是代词所在的这句，二是前面一句。以这道题为例，我们这句话是由since引导的原因状语从句，主句的主语是trees, 然后trees所在的这句话又接了个even though引导的让步状语从句，而从句中的主语是代词，很明显它指代的就是主句中的主语，所以答案是“trees”。所以我们得出了一条规律：在主从复合句中，主语应该是一致的。
例题2：
Paragraph 6: Workers were united in resenting the industrial system and their loss of status, but they were divided by ethnic and racial antagonisms, gender, conflicting religious perspectives, occupational differences, political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics. For them, the factory and industrialism were not agents of opportunity but reminders of their loss of independence and a measure of control over their lives. As United States society became more specialized and differentiated, greater extremes of wealth began to appear. And as the new markets created fortunes for the few, the factory system lowered the wages of workers by dividing labor into smaller, less skilled tasks.
The word them in the passage refers to
○workers
○political party loyalties
○disagreements over tactics
○agents of opportunity
拿到这道题我们发现代词“them”在这句话的句首，for them对他们来说，所以这道题的指代在上一句中。我们不难发现，上一句话中出现了大量的名词短语的并列，而选项中B和C在原文中是以并列形式出现的，表明重要性一致，所以优先排除这两个选项，那么上句话中一提到的名词又在选项中出现的，只有A。
2、事实信息题
例题1：
Paragraph 3: The subjects of the paintings are mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare walls, with no backdrops or environmental trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women believed that the drawing of a human image could cause death of injury, and if that were indeed their belief, it might explain why human figures are rarely depicted in cave art. Another explanation for the focus on animals might be that these people sought to improve their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested by evidence of chips in the painted figures, perhaps made by spears thrown at the drawings. But if improving their hunting luck was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is difficult to explain why only a few show signs of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals.
According to paragraph 3, scholars explained chips in the painted figures of animals by proposing that
○Upper Paleolithic artists used marks to record the animals they had seen
○the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals for hunting
○the artists had removed rough spots on the cave walls
○Upper Paleolithic people used the paintings to increase their luck at hunting
事实信息题主要考察的就是准确定位和同义转换的能力，所以只需要带着题干中的信息到文章定位，阅读相关的一两句话，找到同义改写，即能选出答案。但是对众多考生来说准确定位不难，但是到底我们应该阅读定位信息的什么地方，前面还是后面，亦或是该句本身?
首先题干中的名词：chips是解题关键，到文中定位到第七行倒数第二个单词，我们发现这句话的主语是this theory, 所以chips想要提出的理论，应该在上句话中。往前看一句我们发现该句的主语是another explanation, 很明显这是段落的分论点二，所以答案就是这一句，画动物的理由是improve their luck at hunting, 选项D地表达了这个概念。 |
