【芝麻开门】
要想概括段落的中心思想，反映作者的写作意图，我们必须借助一个概括性的句子，即主题句，它是段落的核心所在。所以，写好一个段落的前提便是写好主题句。
【活动教室】
Passage 1.
请根据段落其它信息推断总结出适当的主题句。
Clothes do not make the man.
人不在衣装。
1). From the chief executive to the office cleaner, everyone must accept this as the first priority over everything else in the company. In other words, everyone in the company must be salesoriented. The telephone operator the accounts clerk the storekeeper and everyone else must know how to handle enquires and customers politely, correctly. If the appropriate person is not around, the other staff should take orders if necessary, and even encourage order. The deliveryman must be willing to serve and please customers, and when called upon, he must be able to push and to show new products, accessories, etc. to get more sales for his company. Whether you are seeing hoses, hotel rooms, building contracts or exhibition services, you must ensure that you and your organization get enough sales, customers, clients, contracts or business to ensure a good regular inflow of income for your company. Everybody in the organization must understand that sales are the oxygen in the air that the organizational body breathes. Without sales the body dies quickly; with insufficient sales it dies slowly.
2). In other words, get the customer to reserve, to place orders in advance, and to sign a contract, to pay a deposit, or better still, to pay you in full before you acquire and deliver the product. Many hotels accept reservations for their rooms even before construction of the hotels is completed. Remember, you dont have to buy before you sell. The biggest deals are made “no order”. Sold before you have them.
3)when you are really in an outofstock position, your sales people have to learn instead to feel apologetic for being unable to convince the customer to wait. Mercedes and even Honda cars, or a long time, were sold on a waiting list. Even restaurants make sales on order. Similarly, furniture, shirts and big manufacturing orders are some of the many examples where things are sold before they are made. Customers will wait for anything if they want it badly enough.
To be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
既当演说家，又做实干家。
答案与解析：
1.答案〖〗The whole organization— all the members of the staff must acknowledge and understand this: selling is the most important activity of the organization.解析〖〗该段主要介绍从事商业的人员都应了解销售的重要性。在行文之中作者反复重申从事销售的人员，不论是主管还是店员，都应以销售为最主要的工作内容。判断主题句具体内容的主要方法就是通过本段分述部分的理解和归纳得出结论。我们可以从第一段主题句后看到“In other words”，这表明紧接着这句后面的内容既是我们应找的答案。因此可知本文第一段的主题句内容为：在整个销售领域中所有工作人员都必须了解销售的至关重要性。
2.答案〖〗Sell before you buy, whenever possible.解析〖〗同第一段很相似，这一段在主题句之后紧接着就出现了一个解释性词组“In other words”“也就是说”。这对于我们归纳中心非常有帮助。本段所有细节都是在强调从业人员要想尽办法首先实现销售这一理念，作者还一再强调在进货之前就将销售订单签好是最成功的做法。基于此，我们将这段的中心内容确立为：只要有可能，你应提前卖出未进的货物。
3.答案〖〗Train your sales people never to use the excuse, never to feel justified in saying “no stock cant sell”.解析〖〗本段列举了诸多经营有道的商家在无货的情况下照常进行销售活动的事例。这里依然在强调无论遇到什么困难，如没有货物可售，商家还是要坚持实现销售为先的原则，不能将没货或无法销售作为拒绝顾客的托词，这也是本段的中心意思。
Passage 2.
请根据段落其它信息推断总结出适当的主题句。
Factors That Influence Teen Violence1). Teens face many situations that cause these problems. Several factors are mass media, societys view on the “perfect” person. 2). One might see a violent movie and decide to reenact the scenes thus causing harm to ones self or to others. Hidden meanings of racism and hate are put into music. Teens hear the words of their supposed role models and think it is OK to follow in their foot steps. When reading of such violent acts as the Oklahoma City bombing or the murders of Nicole BrownSimpson and Ron Goldman, it is taken to most that anyone can get away with crime. 3). To be considered “in”, you must fit the role of the “perfect person”. As young adults, teens are trying to find themselves. They look toward celebrities and leaders for a goal. They try to buy the right clothes, wear the nicest shoes, and be present at all the social events. To fit in, some are pushed to the edge. If you are caught in a dark alley at the wrong time, you might be killed just for your name brand shoes. Competition among fellow teens leads to jealousy and jealousy leads to violent acts.4). Learning not to believe everything they see and hear will help to come to reality with this ever changing world. Self esteem and confidence in ones self are very attractive qualities to possess. Violence will lessen as teens become more alert and smarter.
Variety is the spice of life.
变化是生活的调味品。
答案与解析：
1.答案〖〗In todays society, the teenage population has experienced an increase in violence. 解析〖〗从题目中我们可看出这是一篇通过列举、说明来阐述问题的文章。文章将主要围绕对青少年有暴力影响的种种因素展开，那么第一段往往会以开门见山的方式开始，明确提出要讨论的问题，即以上我们确立的主题句。
2.答案〖〗Television, radio, and newspapers are all ways of transferring messages to people.解析〖〗本段具体介绍了邪恶的暴力是从哪些方面侵入青少年的生活的，即通过各种媒介。青少年时期的孩子很易受外界的影响，喜欢模仿，当然很容易受到媒体的种种影响，特别在暴力犯罪方面他们易受到误导。本段就是对这一现象进行阐述，首先将各种媒介的作用进行介绍，从而引出其它细节，这也是很关键的一点。
3.答案〖〗Society can often be a harsh world to live in for a teen.解析〖〗该段介绍了另一个在暴力方面对于青少年有影响的重要因素——社会。为什么我们生活的社会会成为影响青少年健康成长的原因呢？社会对于“优秀”青年的要求很高，很多人是愿意被社会认可的，但在成长过程中若被无限膨胀的攀比之风左右，那么有些孩子便会走向犯罪的边缘。因此对于青少年，我们可以说社会是苛刻的。
4答案〖〗Teenagers who follow their own morals and good judgment will find that they will be in less troublesome situations.解析〖〗除最后一段外，文章一直在描述青少年受多种影响而有暴力倾向的原因。那么孩子们只能这样艰苦地挣扎着，不断地回避着各种诱惑与威胁吗？如果真是这样那就太可怕了。在文章的结尾，作者阐述了青少年自信心的培养在避免暴力问题上的重要性，这也是作者最后给我们的希望。
Little goods, little care.
钱财少，不烦恼。
Passage 3.
请根据段落其它信息推断总结出适当的主题句。
Is the Death Penalty Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
1). According to the MerriamWebster collegiate dictionary, cruel is defined as: disposed to inflict pain or suffering devoid of humane feelings. Unusual is defined as: not usual, uncommon, or rare. Punishment is defined as: suffering pain or loss that serves as retribution. Should capital punishment be viewed as retribution used to cause pain or suffering without humane feelings, and is it uncommon? 2). Punishment by death is the ultimate punishment and one that cannot be taken back. A jury is instructed to determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but with a punishment as final as death, any doubt should be reason enough for a person to live. Forcing a jury to decide whether a person should live or die is wrong. If the jury decides the person should die, then they have just committed the same crime they just sentenced someone to die for, murder. The jury then has to live with the fact that they killed someone. Just this stress put on the jury is enough to call the death penalty inhumane, not to mention the years the inmate will have to sit on death row knowing that at any time, it could be their turn to be strapped in to die. As far as the death penalty being unusual, since the U. S. is the only western democracy to still use the death penalty, it would be safe to say this punishment is uncommon. 3). Some look at it as an eye for an eye, but as Mahatma Gandhi once said, an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind. As we head into the next millennium, it is time we modernize our punishments of criminals just as we have modernized every other aspect of our lives.
答案与解析：
1.答案〖〗In order to determine whether the death penalty is to be considered cruel and unusual punishment, it is necessary to first define each word in order to get full understanding of the issue being assessed.解析〖〗首段除主题句外，主要是将标题中的关键词逐一进行了解释，解释的出处为韦伯斯特词典，这也显现了文章内容的准确性。将关键词进行解释的目的在于看清问题、分辨是非，以便更好地为文章服务。这篇文章的题目是一个选择疑问句，要得出正确的答案，首先就应统一我们对问题中的字句的理解。通过我们对第一段的上述分析可得出本段主题句的主要内容为“为确定死刑是残忍的还是不同寻常的刑罚，将涉及的关键词解释清楚有助于问题顺利地讨论”。
2.答案〖〗The message that is sent out by killing a murderer is if you kill, we kill. 解析〖〗Man struggles upwards; water flows downwards.
人往高处走，水往低处流。第二段篇幅相对较长，能够给我们提供的可参考的内容也就多了起来。作者在本段中详细记述了犯人在被陪审团判处死刑的过程，同时也谴责了陪审团这样做的另一种意义。该段对问题的深入探讨，揭示了死刑这种惩罚的不可溯性，作者认为判杀人犯死刑的也在杀人，所以他最后说死刑是一种不同寻常的刑罚，即在第二段结尾处作者已将本文的问题做了答复。我们把这一段的中心提炼出来就是：如果我们判处杀人犯死刑，实质上我们自己也在杀戮。
3.答案〖〗The death penalty should not be carried out in any case.解析〖〗从这最后一段的陈述中我们可以深切地体会到作者不赞成执行死刑，他认为死刑不应再被继续执行下去，人类在其它方面不断进步时也应将死刑等类似的刑罚加以改进。若将这段内容浓缩概括为一句话就是我们需要的主题句：不论何种情况，死刑不应再被执行下去了。
【友情提示】
想写出合格的主题句吗？铭记以下四个要点你就会做得更好：
完整主题句结构要完整，即结构符合语法规则；意义要完整，即主题句是一个符合逻辑的完整命题。
清晰主题句表意要清晰明确，不使用意思含混的词或句子。
具体主题句的内容要明确具体，否则不利于段落的拓展。
贴切主题句一定要用词贴切，简明达意，使段落的拓展有一个良好的基础。
美文赏析
Mobile Phones
Nowadays, with the rapid development of IT and information industry, cell phones begin to play a dominant role in peoples life. But, like everything else, they have both favorable and unfavorable aspects.
Firstly, mobile phones are portable. Being wireless, you can carry them everywhere with great ease. Secondly, its convenient, and greatly accommodates ones lifestyle. You can reach a person wherever and however far away he is. Whenever you come across trouble or meet something urgent, you can call for help immediately. Most important of all, its a very useful tool. With the many functions it offers, you can easily get on the Net, browsing for the information you need, conducting Ecommerce and doing whatever you can and you please via Internet.
However, just as every coin has two sides, the cell phone also has many disadvantages. Some people complain that mobile phones give unpleasant noise at some important occasions when the owner forgets to turn them off. And it also cuts into peoples spare time, because with the mobile phone the boss can easily reach you and call you to duty during your free time. Worst of all, the electromagnetic wave emitted from the phone is said to be harmful to peoples health and does often cause headaches to the owner.
In my opinion, with its expenses greatly reduced and Chinas entry into WTO, mobile phones will face an even brighter future in their development. They have changed the way we communicate and made our life more convenient, and thus will stay in people' lives.
手机已日益普及，冯小刚的贺岁大片《手机》公映，暴露了这种现代通讯工具的一个特点：暴露隐私。那么你对手机有何见解呢？本文首先列出了手机的优点：轻巧、方便、有用；接着笔锋一转，列出手机的不足：产生噪音、影响休息、妨碍健康；最后提出自己的看法。文章脉络清晰，说理充分。A little pot is soon hot.
壶小易沸，量小易怒。
