一、问题形式

　　列举题，也叫排除列举题，ETS称之为“否定事实信息题”(negative factual information question)。基本形式如下：

　　According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true of X?

　　The author’s description of X mentions all of the following EXCEPT

　　二、解题技巧

　　列举题的基本思路是排除，排除与原文相符的选项，与原文相矛盾的选项或原文未提到的选项是正确答案。注意问题中的否定词Not 和EXCEPT。

　　1.列举题的解题步骤

　　1)看题干找关键词

　　问题中有关键词的，可以根据它定位，然后将四个选项与定位的地方进行比较。如果没有关键词，可以先定位于上一个问题对应的段落之后的段落。

　　2)阅读四个选项

　　题干中没有线索的，可以阅读四个选项，总结其中的共同点进行定位，或者根据各个选项中的关键词一一进行定位。

　　3)排除与原文相符的选项

　　将各个选项与原文比较以后，排除其中符合原文意思的选项，剩下的一个选项，或者与原文相矛盾，或者在原文未提到，就是正确答案。例如，

　　The opposite of an opportunist is a competitor. These organisms tend to have big bodies, are long-lived, and spend relatively little effort each year on reproduction. An oak tree is a good example of a competitor. A massive oak claims its ground for 200 years or more, outcompeting all other would-be canopy trees by casting a dense shade and drawing up any free water in the soil. The leaves of an oak tree taste foul because they are rich in tannins, a chemical that renders them distasteful or indigestible to many organisms. The tannins are part of the defense mechanism that is essential to longevity. Although oaks produce thousands of acorns, the investment in a crop of acorns is small compared with the energy spent on building leaves, trunk, and roots. Once an oak tree becomes established, it is likely to survive minor cycles of drought and even fire. A population of oaks is likely to be relatively stable through time, and its survival is likely to depend more on its ability to withstand the pressures of competition or predation than on its ability to take advantage of chance events. It should be noted, however, that the pure opportunist or pure competitor is rare in nature, as most species fall between the extremes of a continuum, exhibiting a blend of some opportunistic and some competitive characteristics.

　　All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 7 as contributing to the longevity of an oak tree EXCEPT

　　the capacity to create shade

　　leaves containing tannin

　　the ability to withstand mild droughts and fire

　　the large number of acorns the tree produces

　　本题对应第七段(见上文)，其中前三个选项所说的条件(从第四句开始)都对oak tree的长寿有利，而第四个选项所说的“acorns的数量”并未与oak tree的寿命直接联系在一起，因此为正确答案。

　　2.列举的两种形式

　　1)集中列举

　　集中列举的形式有：三个名词或词汇连续出现，各个名词或词汇之间以逗号隔开；三个短语连续出现；三个句子连续出现。对于集中列举，只需根据题干或选项定位原文，排除在原文的集中列举之处出现的三个选项，剩下的一个选项为正确答案。例如，

　　They used the pots they made for cooking, storing food, and carrying things from place to place.

　　Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a way that ancient people used pottery?

　　(A) To hold food.

　　(B) To wash clothes.

　　(C) To cook.

　　(D) To transport objects.

　　2)分散列举

　　分散列举的各项可能出现于同一段落之中，或分布于全文各段。对于分散列举，需要根据题干或选项定位原文，将各个选项与所对应的原文一一进行比较，在原文未提到或与原文相矛盾的选项为正确答案。例如，

　　Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness, its originality of perspective. Satire rarely offers original ideas. Instead it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd, Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science, A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of expression the satiric method that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude.

　　Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they lived in a world of platitudinous thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely hold the ideals that movies attribute to them, nor do ordinary citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity. Intelligent people know these things but tend to forget them when they do not hear them expressed.

　　The various purposes of satire include all of the following EXCEPT

　　(A) introducing readers to unfamiliar situations

　　(B) brushing away illusions

　　(C) reminding readers of the truth

　　(D) exposing false values.

　　这道列举题的选项分布于文中各处，是一道分散列举题。其中选项(B)对应第一段倒数第二句…they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions，选项(C)对应第二段第三句：Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth though rarely to any action on behalf of truth，(D)对应第一段第五句：Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false。(A)与原文第一段的意思“satire并无新意，只是表达独特”相矛盾，符合题意，为正确答案。

　　(本文撰写时参考了李传伟已出版的《TOEFL阅读高分对策》和即将出版的《新托福阅读高分对策》。)