熟悉托福阅读题型的同学们一定做过修辞题，这种题目大部分时候问法是“why”,“in order to”，“purpose”这样的。而且问句中引述的内容也很多时候也是引述的是例子中的内容。因此给人一个刻板的印象就是修辞题一定是考察例子，而且就在例子的前一句找答案。但是有时候细心的同学会发现，首先考察例子的修辞题对应的原理信息不一定在前一句，有时候本身，后一句甚至是段落的首尾句也可以是对应点。另外，问句中引述的信息也不一定是考察例子的。那么这个就引出了咱们今天要讨论的内容，修辞题也会考察修辞的手段。
在托福阅读中，如果遇到考察修辞手段的目的题，往往只需要我们识别出修辞的手段即可，而不会像GRE阅读中那样需要我们分析作者为什么需要做这个修辞这样的高阶考点，因此理解起来相对比较容易。下面我就从几个题来跟大家一起探讨一下考察修辞手段的一些具体样式。
首先是：
The political institutions of the four countries posed no significant barriers to industrialization or economic growth. The nineteenth century passed relatively peacefully for these countries, with progressive democratization taking place in all of them. They were reasonably well governed, without notable corruption or grandiose state projects, although in all of them the government gave some aid to railways, and in Sweden the state built the main lines. As small countries dependent on foreign markets, they followed a liberal trade policy in the main, though a protectionist movement developed in Sweden. In Denmark and Sweden agricultural reforms took place gradually from the late eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth, resulting in a new class of peasant landowners with a definite market orientation.
The author includes the information that “a protectionist movement developed in Sweden” in order to
A support the claim that the political institutions of the four countries posed no significant barriers to industrialization or economic growth
B identify an exception to the general trend favoring liberal trade policy
C explain why Sweden industrialized less quickly than the other Scandinavian countries and Netherlands
D provide evidence that agricultural reforms take place more quickly in countries that have a liberal trade policy than in those that do not
本题问句中“in order to”很直白的表明了它是一题修辞题，但是我们根据高亮的信息回到文章后发现，其实它高亮的信息并不是例子，那么我们就可以联想一下是不是考察的是修辞的手段。我们仔细观察之后发现，高亮信息出现在一个though引导的让步状语从句中。分析句子之后可以知道它讲的是“正如小国需要依赖国际市场，这些国家主体上遵循了自由贸易政策，尽管又一个保护主义者的运动在瑞典发生了。这句话很明显说明的是瑞典出现的保护主义运动不是自由贸易的体现，是一个例外。本句也非常直白的把这块信息放在了让步的成分中，因此我们可以判断出这题考察的是让步句用了哪种修辞，这里可以得到答案是B“identify an exception to the general trend favoring liberal trade policy”
下面我们再来看一题：
In a countercurrent exchange system, the blood vessels carrying cooled blood from the flippers run close enough to the blood vessels carrying warm blood from the body to pick up some heat from the warmer blood vessels; thus, the heat is transferred from the outgoing to the ingoing vessels before it reaches the flipper itself. This is the same arrangement found in an old-fashioned steam radiator, in which the coiled pipes pass heat back and forth as water courses through them. The leatherback is certainly not the only animal with such an arrangement; gulls have a countercurrent exchange in their legs. That is why a gull can stand on an ice floe without freezing.
Why does the author mention old-fashioned steam radiator in the discussion of countercurrent exchange systems?
A To argue that a turtle's central heating system is not as highly evolved as that of other warmblooded animals
B To provide a useful comparison with which to illustrate how a countercurrent exchange system works
C To suggest that steam radiators were modeled after the sophisticated heating system of turtles
D To establish the importance of the movement of water in countercurrent exchange systems
通过阅读问句我们可以发现，问句中定位点old-fashioned steam radiator并不是例子的内容，那么再结合前一句的内容我们可以发现，其实本文作者在前面重点在讲解乌龟的血管的对流交换保温的原理，后面提到了老式散热器的原理的目的其实是为了表示它是一个类比，希望通过引述老式散热器来帮助读者快速理解乌龟血管对流交换的原理。因此我们可以看到这个题目考察的是类比的修辞手段，因此答案很明显的选择B选项。
好了，从这几个题目我们的讲解大家可以清楚的看到修辞题不单纯是考察例子的作用的，还有考察修辞的手段，另外还有考察段落的关系。受限于篇幅原因，另外的考点咱们下次再讲。也希望大家早日与托福分手！
