在做雅思阅读题的时候，对于题干的深刻理解至关重要。雅思考官为了增加题目难度，会尽可能减少题干中给出的已知信息，但是有一种状语却在惜字如金的题干中频出，想要尽快跟雅思分手，你意识到它的重要性了吗？

　这种状语就是时间状语，不仅仅值得是最明显的2018年这样的年份，还包括哪些？在哪些题目中有出现？应该如何运用它？请让我们细细道来。

　Part1 对于时间的定义

 阅读中对于时间的应用当然不仅仅局限于明显的带年份的时间，还包括相对明显的时间状语，如before，after，follow等词汇也表示时间上的先后顺序，最后还包括最隐性的动词时态暗示，如did，was，had done，will等

　Part2对于时间的应用

　发现了这些形式之后，它们在做题和文章阅读过程中都有很重要的作用，对于细节题如填空和判断可以帮助定位；对于结构性题型如list of heading可以推测段落结构，找到段落主旨；对于一些全文性的乱序题如paragraph matching题可以帮助考生推测全文结构，确定大致段落定位

　作用一：找准定位

　(1) 填空简答类题目

　【7-1-1 10】Long before the invention of radar,       had resulted in a sophisticated radar-like system in bats.

　解析：题干句首的long before就是典型的时间提示，暗示我们在文章中一定有一个相应的替换，果不其然，在下文中即可发现，tens of millions of years earlier就是一个细节替换，辅助其他名词如system的定位，就比较容易能得到正确答案 natural selection.

　The Sonar and Radar pioneers didn’t know it then, but all the world now knows that bats, or rather natural selection working on bats, had perfected the system tens of millions of years earlier.

　【9-1-1 13】 According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using synthetic dyes?

　解析：此题出现在文章最后一题，定位段也不难找到是文章的最后一段，但是如何进一步缩小范围呢？这时就要注意到题目中的时间now，在文章中定位的时候也要找到一般现在时出现的地方才可以，这样就不用细读句子，只要快速找到动词判断时态，找到描述现在状态的句子，即可作答。

　Among other dyes he developed and introduced were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863) and, in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green. It is important to note that Perkin’s synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far beyond the merely decorative. The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways. For instance, they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria, allowing researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have been particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a vaccine against malaria.

　关于类似的习题，同学们自己动手做一个，体验一把吧！

　【9-1-1 10】What was the name finally used to refer to the first colour Perkin invented?

　Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the colour violet).

　(2)summary

　有填空题本质的summary有时出现乱序，有时同义词不明显，那利用时间状语辅助定位，也是既快又准。

　【6-1-3 33-40】If you visit the Canadian Arctic, you immediately appreciate the problems faced by people for whom this is home. It would clearly be impossible for the people to engage in 33     as a means of supporting themselves. For thousands of years, they have had to rely on catching34      and 35      as a means of sustenance. The harsh surroundings saw many who tried to settle there pushed to their limits, although some were successful. The 36      people were an example of the latter and for them the environment did not prove unmanageable. For the present inhabitants, life continues to be a struggle. The territory of Nunavut consists of little more than ice, rock and a few 37     . In recent years, many of them have been obliged to give up their            38      lifestyle.

　解析：34，35题中虽然出现了并列结构，但是有些同学仍然找不到是哪一组词之间的并列关系。妙的是本题中出现了for thousands of years这个时间，用它在文章中很容易找到a mere 4500 years ago,很容易就找到了定位句，获得答案：sea mammals, fish.

　略有难度的题是36题，大家都会预测出来是填形容词，也容易在文章中找到Thule People和Inuit people,很多同学就填了Inuit people，完美掉入了考官的陷阱。那如何辨别这两个选项呢？大家仍然可以通过时间状语来选出正确答案，36题中动词是were，一般过去时，文章中Thule people发出的动作moved正好是过去时，完全匹配，而Inuit people则是today's Inuit people,可以被排除。

　相似的题目38题大家可以小试牛刀啊~

　The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Human first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.

　Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and ...

　(3)判断题

　判断题中时间段的出现可以帮助同学们定位和判断出正确答案

　【12-6-3 32】Attitudes towards bilingualism have changed in recent years.

　解析：本题中提到了时间状语In recent years，句子主干意思是态度发生了转变。读文章过程中不难发现文章中有两组时间状语，in the past和over the past few decades，分别读两段时间对应的态度即可发现关于双语者的态度从消极转化成了积极。

　According to the latest figures, the majority of the world’s population is now bilingual or multilingual, having grown up speaking two or more languages. In the past, such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. Over the past few decades, however, technological advances have allowed researchers to look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.

　作用二：推测段落结构

　让考生总是摸不到套路的list of headings题，如何看到了时间的痕迹，问题也就迎刃而解了。文章作者写文章的目的无非就是强调现在的问题非常严重，需要引起读者重视，如果提到了过去的事情则意图在于进行对比，并不是重点内容

　【6-2-1 1-5】

　E It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team’s research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. ‘The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.’

　Paragraph E中首句用了was表示过去时，还用了once来强调过去时间，这样重点强调过去假设的事情非常明显得告诉考生这首句中的内容是迷惑选项，所以可以排除VI这一选项，后文即出现转折however，用一般现在时表示出真正意图：valuable to place people working in related fields together就能选出正确选项：iii

　下面一题留给同学们一展身手吧！

　B In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work. Trains and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.

　作用三：推测文章结构

　众所周知，雅思阅读中很多文章都是按照时间顺序推进的，比如人物类文章，时间类文章，看着题干中给出的时间顺序按图索骥，推测每组题目的定位部分是有交叉还是完全正序。

　【9-1-1】剑桥9test1passage1中讲述Perkin的生平，文章只有判断题和简答题两组题，那这两组题目的定位有没有交叉呢？可以根据题干中的关键词有个推测：

　判断题题目如下：

　1 Michael Faraday was the first person to recognise Perkin's ability as a student of chemistry.  

　2 Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enrol in the Royal College of Chemistry.

　3 Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.  

　4 Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich and famous.

　5 The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.  

　6 Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.  

　7 Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur.

　填空题个题目：

　8 Before Perkin's discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?

　根据判断题的题目大致可以推断出是按照人物生平考察文章内容，第6题说的是hoped希望制造一种药物，说明还没有做出最后的成果，第7题讲的是被Perkin被别的主体激励，跟自己的研究无关，所以第8题给出Before Perkin’s discovery,出现了研究成果，那么说明第8题在第6、7题之后，两道题目的定位界线比较清晰，没有交叉。

　【9-4-1】剑桥9test4passage1中讲述居里夫人的生平，文章仍然只有判断题和简答题两组题，那这两组题目的定位有没有交叉呢？

　1 Marie Curie's husband was a joint winner of both Marie's Nobel Prizes.

　2 Marie became interested in science when she was a child.

　3 Marie was able to attend the Sorbonne because of her sister's financial contribution.

　4 Marie stopped doing research for several years when her children were born.

　5 Marie took over the teaching position her husband had held.

　6 Marie's sister Bronia studied the medical uses of radioactivity.

　从题干分析中看出仍然是按照时间顺序描述人物的一生，说到了上学，做研究后续工作的事情，下面一组summary题的标题为Marie Curie’s research on radioactivity，那么说明从第4题左右，甚至是第4题之前就可以开始找summary题的定位点了。两道题可以组合做，或者做完判断题后从第四题前面的位置寻找summary的答案。

　Part3结论

　通过上面众多习题的分析和练习，同学们一定都明白了在做题的时候要关注明显的和不那么明显的能够暗示时间变化的动词，另外也学会了如何利用时间状语帮助自己定位和筛选正确答案了。赶快再找一些类似的习题练习起来吧！