第一段：What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph ， the steamboat and the weaving machine?
原文如下：We live in a society in which the medicinal and social use of substances (drugs) is pervasive：an aspirin to quiet a headache， some wine to be sociable， coffee to get going in the morning， a cigarette for the nerves.
如果句子中間有兩個(gè)破折號，如In Australia-where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part-other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia。
分號前后是并列關(guān)系，如果句中有一個(gè)分號，則表明分號前后語(yǔ)義相同，如1997年閱讀中有道題目問(wèn)69.The sentence"This is no flash in the pan" (Line 5， Paragraph 3) means that ________?；氐皆闹校篢his is no flash in the pan; over the past couple of years， inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America。
那么根據分號前后語(yǔ)義相同我們很容易選出正確答案為[A] the low inflation rate will last for some time。
如果句中出現兩個(gè)或以上的分號，則表明分號前后的東西在結構上是并列的。如96年第四篇中
Among the many shaping factors， I would single out the country's excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors ; and above all the American genius for nonverbal ， "spatial" thinking about things technological。
5、引號
引號有三種作用①引用，②強調，③諷刺
尤其需要注意的是第三種表示諷刺的作用，因為它往往暗示著(zhù)作者并不認同的態(tài)度。比如"Scientific" creationism， which is being pushed by some for"equal time" in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are given， is based on religion， not science。這句話(huà)中creationism前面的Scientific加了引號，就表明作者認為創(chuàng )始論其實(shí)是不科學(xué)的。
那么題 目"Creationism" in the passage refers to ________. [A] evolution in its true sense as to the origin of the universe[B] a notion of the creation of religion [C] the scientific explanation of the earth formation [D] the deceptive theory about the origin of the universe中正確答案就顯然為[D]了。
比如In order to "change lives for the better" and reduce "dependency，"George Osborne， Chancellor of the Exchequer， introduced the "upfront work search" scheme。中，Chancellor of the Exchequer就可以跳過(guò)不讀。
例如：Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions.像這樣括號在句號的里面，解釋的就是離其最近的名詞。
像Anyway， the townsfolk can't understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row. Last year its 1，431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and this year they'll do better.)這個(gè)例句中，括號在句號的外面，解釋的就是前面的一句話(huà)。
