これはハーバードの学生に私が速読で悩んでいた頃に実際に聞いて教わった手法ですので役に立てれば嬉しです。

先ずは無料の練習問題をダウンロードしましょう。

以前に英語は起承転結で成り立っているという記事をSPEAKING攻略法で書きましたがREADINGでも活用します。

ずばり段落（パラグラフ）も起承転結で成り立っています。

ちょっと見て行きましょう。ESTの練習問題です。

Reading Practice Set 1

Agriculture, Iron, and the Bantu Peoples

1. There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world. The drying up of what is now the Sahara desert had pushed many peoples to the south into sub-Saharan Africa. These peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations. Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since the first domesticated crops were millets and sorghums whose origins are not African but West Asian. Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans began to develop their own crops, such as certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated a continued receptiveness to new imports. The proposed areas of the domestication of African crops lie in a band that extends from Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa. Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas, were introduced from Southeast Asia.

Directions: Now answer the questions.

1. According to paragraph 1, why do researchers doubt that agriculture developed independently in Africa?

(A) African lakes and rivers already provided enough food for people to survive without agriculture.
(B) The earliest examples of cultivated plants discovered in Africa are native to Asia.
(C) Africa’s native plants are very difficult to domesticate.
(D) African communities were not large enough to support agriculture.

問題を見たらすぐに起承転結に分類しましょう

通常ピリオドで区切る事が出来ます。

起：There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world.

承：The drying up of what is now the Sahara desert had pushed many peoples to the south into sub-Saharan Africa. These peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations.

転：Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since the first domesticated crops were millets and sorghums whose origins are not African but West Asian. Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans began to develop their own crops, such as certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated a continued receptiveness to new imports.

結：The proposed areas of the domestication of African crops lie in a band that extends from Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa. Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas, were introduced from Southeast Asia.

時間が限られてますので問題から読んでいきましょう。

1. According to paragraph 1, why do researchers doubt that agriculture developed independently in Africa?

何故研究者はアフリカで農作物が独自に開発されたのかを疑っているのか？

次に問題提起と結論だけを読みます。

起：There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world.

結：The proposed areas of the domestication of African crops lie in a band that extends from Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa. Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas, were introduced from Southeast Asia.

問題提起ではどうやら農作物と鉄の開発がアフリカとアジア、中東とリンクされてきたと読めます。
結論ではエチオピア, 南スーダン等の西アフリカに広がっている→バナナの様な農作物は東南アジアから入って来た。と読めます。

問題文はすべて読み消去法で消していきます。

(A) African lakes and rivers already provided enough food for people to survive without agriculture.
問題提起に反しますからXです。
(B) The earliest examples of cultivated plants discovered in Africa are native to Asia.
結論に近い意味だから〇
(C) Africa’s native plants are very difficult to domesticate.
問題提起、結論に反しますからX
(D) African communities were not large enough to support agriculture.
問題提起、結論に反しますからX

正解は

この様に文章は起承転結というパラグラフに分解出来ます。

問題提起と結論だけ読めば7割から8割内容を理解できます。

TOEFL試験は時間が絶対に足りなくなります。時間内に回答するにはどうしても工夫が必要です。

分からない単語は語源で分解してニュアンスをつかむ

詳しくは単語の勉強法を読んで下さい。

大学に入っても論文を書くことになります

論文を書くには多くの読み物を読む必要があります。

起承転結に分解して問題提起と結論から読みましょう。

大学に入ると更に時間が無くなります。如何に時短して成績を上げるかが勝負です。

同じ方法で時短してください。

パラグラフの結論だけを斜め読みする。。これがハーバードの学生がやっている常識です。