主旨是托福閱讀文章的核心精髓，當然主旨題也是所有英文考試中屢見不鮮的一種托福閱讀題型，那么這類題型怎么解決呢?下面介紹一些攻克托福閱讀主旨題的方法技巧，希望對大家新托福閱讀備考有幫助。
　　主旨=主題+方向+關系詞(無詞閱讀法的“三要素”)
　　例1：《新概念第四冊》第二課的第一段：
　　Why you may wonder should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world. They would devour all our crops, and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect-eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.
　　這段話首句的主題很明顯講的是“spiders”，方向是“friends”(正向)，合在一起就是主旨“蜘蛛是朋友”。從第二句話開始出現(xiàn)的關系詞 Because、and和Moreover都是在維持著首句的方向，所以即使關系詞后面的具體內(nèi)容由于存在生詞(devour, flocks, herds等等)而看不太懂，也不會影響我們對段落主旨的把握。
　　如果用直白的語言來解釋“主題+方向+關系詞”這三個要素，那就是：“主題”等于這段話講的是個什么事物(spiders);方向是該事物是好是壞 (friends);關系詞(Because、and和Moreover)就是維持或者改變方向的一些標志。一旦我們善于把握這“三要素”，那么閱讀速度將變得立刻提高，因為除了這“三要素”之外的細節(jié)如果包含著個別生詞，我們也可以忽略不計了，從而實現(xiàn)了“無詞閱讀”的境界。
　　如何掌握主旨(How)
　　閱讀英語段落的時候，應該是“勻速閱讀”還是“變速閱讀”呢?當然是“變速閱讀”!這樣我們才能做到閱讀時的詳略得當。但是，“變速閱讀”是“先快后慢”還是“先慢后快”呢?這就要從英語的思維方式說起。
　　英語傾向于先說重要的還是先說次要的?我們來看看英語與漢語的思維方式差異。
　　漢語族人的思維方式是“螺旋式”的，喜歡畫龍點睛，我們稱之為“Save the best for the last”。而英語族人的思維方式是“直線式”的，喜歡直入主題，我們稱之為“Say what you want to say, then say why”。
　　這樣一比較，大家應該馬上明白了閱讀英語段落的要領：變速閱讀，先慢后快，精讀首句，瀏覽全段。據(jù)統(tǒng)計，70%-80%的英語段落都是首句是主題句。所以，以后閱讀英語段落，應該先精讀首句(把握首句的“主題”和“方向”)，再瀏覽全段(把握全段的“關系詞”)，才能實現(xiàn)快速閱讀。而很多同學以前閱讀的時候，要么就是傾向于到段落結尾找主題句(這主要是受了漢語思維方式的影響)，要么就干脆把有限的精力平均分配到一段話內(nèi)部的每個單詞和每個句子，而忽略了主次關系，沒有詳略得當?shù)亻喿x。
　　例2：
　　All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertilisers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate likely to diminish the soil’s productivity. The country subsequently embarked upon a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America.
　　精讀首句：主題是“environmental impacts”，方向是“damaging”(負向)，主旨是“環(huán)境影響是破壞性的”。瀏覽全段：舉例關系詞For example本身就說明是在維持著首句的方向，而且四個并列的分句也證明了這一點。那么，即便是后面的具體內(nèi)容不看了，只要沒有出現(xiàn)大的轉折關系，這段話的主旨就肯定是首句的“環(huán)境影響是破壞性的”。
　　例3：
　　Drama is sometimes seen as a branch of literature because plays，like literature, are often printed in book form. However, there is an important difference between the two forms. Unlike a novel，a play is written to be performed, and the script of a play is not a finished work;it is an outline for a performance. The physical production of the play--the scenery, lighting，and costumes--will affect the performance, and so will the actors. How the actors interpret their roles greatly influences the play’s effect on the audience.
　　精讀首句：主題是“drama”和“l(fā)iterature”，方向是“a branch”，主旨是“戲劇與文學的相同點”，而且因果關系詞because和類比關系詞like都是維持方向的。瀏覽全段：轉折關系詞However 說明方向發(fā)生了改變，說明主旨是“戲劇與文學是不同的”。對比關系詞Unlike也證明了比較的是不同點。所以，第二句話是該段的主題句。