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■應考英文閱讀理解卷前，必須溫習pronouns和demonstratives。圖為中學生看英文書。 資料圖片
在卷一Reading，除常見與推論（inference）和文中詞義（contextual meaning）相關的問題外，還有reference。所謂reference，泛指有關pronouns（she, he, it etc.）和demonstratives（this, that, those etc.）等字義的問題。先看以下例子：
The movie Pompeii is based on an actual incident happened to the two ill-fated cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum, in 79 AD. These two cities were destroyed and buried under layers of ash within several hours after Mount Vesuvius erupted. While the lives of these cities had been short-lived, they have however haunted the imaginations of artists, archaeologists, and scientists for millenniums.
Question: Based on the above paragraph, what does "they" refer to?
必讀pronouns和demonstratives
從上例可見，reference題型其實並不困難，因為答案本身一定會在問題附近。以下舉出解答reference題目的貼士：
1. 在考試前，不妨溫習pronouns和demonstratives。
2. 在考試中，緊記要讀完整句句子（sentence），不要只看某行（line）；而從上例，應重複讀完 "While the lives......millenniums."，不應只看 "While the lives......haunted".
3. 答案一定在關鍵句中，或其前面或後面出現。
4. 留意所選擇的答案是否合理；從上例來看，雖然they有可能用來取代任何plural nouns（the lives, artists, scientists, etc.），但只有Pompeii and Herculaneum才是合理答案。
值得注意的是，考試時通常會以open-ended或close-ended（multiple-choice）的形式，測試考生對題目的理解。其中close-ended的問題較複雜，考生要多留意。
Practice
Read the following paragraph and answer the following two questions.
If you can write some simple instructions, if you can translate one language to another, you can program a computer. Computer programming is nothing more than using an appropriate type of language to instruct a computer to follow, perform or implement your ideas and instructions. You don't need a college degree to help you master the computer languages. In fact, some programs were written by people who have never been professionally trained. Yet, this doesn't make their programs less useful or less popular. In computing, what is more important than knowing how to program a computer is having the ability to imagine new things. While many people can master languages like C, C+, Java, Python etc., the knowledge won't transform them into another Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.
1. What does "this" refer to?
2. What does "them" refer to?
Answers
1.That fact that some programmers lack professional trainings.
2. People who have mastered some computer programming languages.
■Dr. A. Chan
作者簡介：哲學博士，哲學碩士，文學士，英語講師。熟悉公開考試之出題模式與評分準則，任教英語。
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