阅读部分是GRE考试相比托福、雅思这类语言考试，处理方式上差异大的一个板块。而除去为General的单词问题之外，阅读部分大家遇到的大问题就是“文章读不完”，尤其是长文章。今天就来说说如何应对GRE长阅读。
两大秘诀
在有限时间内获取多的有价值信息
1. 抓“论点”
在GRE的长文章中，每一段都是一个“自然段”（这个概念是相对于短文章和中篇文章中经过大量压缩改写的“人工段”），因此每个段落都一定是围绕一个论点展开的。找到这个论点并且读懂它，就可以掌握全段大意。把所有自然段的论点集合在一起，就是全文的总论点，即文章主旨。
说起来容易，怎么做？
a. 每个自然段的论点通常都位于段落开头，且大多数在首句。需要注意的是，论点必须是一个“观点”，“事实”无法作为论点。如果首句是一个事实，则继续向后看。
b. 如果段落中出现了转折词（如：however, but, yet, nevertheless, nonetheless），或表示转折意味的词（如：question, challenge等表示质疑、反驳的词），则需要特别关注其所在句子，查找是否相比段首论点改变了方向。
c. 也会出现一些例外比如
背景段：全段都在铺垫背景，引出话题，没有论点。这种“背景段”通常出现在文章一、段。
总结段：全段都是论点。这种情况一般出现在文章开头或者结尾处，作用是归纳总结全文论点。这种段落真的是宝藏，读完基本上就get到所有概括性的全文论点。
STUDYDAY
2. 跳“论据”
论据服务于论点，对论点进行展开和支持。
这东西初中生都知道。
论据不会改变论点的方向和内容，只起到辅助作用。因此，就算论据读不懂、不想读、没时间读也没事，不会影响对文章主旨的把握。这东西很多大三大四的同学尚且不知道。
如何找论据？
a.位置：为了避免引发歧义，论据通常紧随其所展开、支持的论点之后。
b.长相：论据常常提供针对性的统计数据、调查研究、理论支持，或者“他山之石”。而这些都是我们用来识别论据的捷径。
如：It estimates that average wages rise by 20% in an occupation for every 10% rise in average hours. | Men in the rich world are twice as likely as women to work more than 48 hours a week. | In America 20% of American fathers, but just 6% of mothers, work more than 50 hours a week.
上面这一堆看着很长，但一看就是论据。可以忽略。
不想看、没耐心、时间紧的同学看到这里就可以了，想尝试一下方法的同学接着看。
小试牛刀
字数：501words（近 GRE long passage）
考场建议阅读时间：4min
Source：Working Hours：Balancing act. The Economist. (September 7, 2019)
Getting hold of a Dutch woman on a Wednesday can be tricky.【快速扫过背景，找论点】For most primary schools it is a halfday, and as threequarters of working women are parttime, it is a popular day to take off. The Dutch are world champions at parttime work and are often lauded for their healthy worklife balance and happy children. But these come at a price.【仍然是背景，继续快速扫，找论点】Among western European countries, the Netherlands has the largest gap between men’s and women’s pension entitlements, and the largest in monthly income. Even though a similar share of Dutch women are in the labour force as else where in western Europe, their contribution to GDP, at 33%, is far lower, largely because they work fewer hours.【读完发现只是个背景段，细节根本不需要记住，幸好没花大力气读细节】
【第二段了。这段总得有个论点了吧？】In the rich world parttime working took off in the second half of the 20th century, 【总算不再讨论Dutch women的具体例子了，论点有希望要出现了】as services replaced manufacturing and women piled into the labour market. It remains essential to helping women work【论点：parttime working的正面作用】, particularly after giving birth, and in countries with traditional gender norms. But it can prolong—or even worsen—gender inequality 【论点：parttime working的负面作用，且由“But”可知，前面一句讨论的正面作用只是在让步，本句讨论的负面作用才是文章讨论的重点】and make women less independent by locking them into jobs with worse pay and prospects. Differences in working hours explain a growing part of the gender pay gap. That share could increase as labour markets disproportionately reward those willing and able to work all hours— who are mostly men.【展开谈负面作用是如何造成的。整段基本都是论点，宝藏段落！下文估计就是针对每个论点进行展开了】
Indeed, the gender pay gap could even widen further. One reason is growing demand for “flexible”workers【首句论点，全段领袖】, by which employers generally mean the opposite of what workers with caring responsibilities mean: permanently oncall rather than with predictable, mutually agreed hours and the ability to work from home. “I wouldn’t be surprised 【引号框起来的话语，肯定是引用观点；且无转折词，所以大概率是作论据】if this new demand for flexibility creates new types of biases against women,” says Mr Bassanini.
Mean while the hourly reward for working in professions where very long hours are the norm, such as law and consulting, has risen dramatically. 【首句论点，统领全段】 A study【引用一个study作论据；如果觉得没必要进一步了解数据，可以跳过】published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that America’s gender pay gap would be as much as 46% smaller were it not for the increasingly disproportionate rewards for working extra hours since the 1980s. It estimates that average wages rise by 20% in an occupation for every 10% rise in average hours. This premium for uncompromising jobs means “women have been swimming upstream in terms of achieving wage parity,” write the authors. To make matters worse, says Youngjoo Cha of Indiana University, women in households where the man works more than 60 hours a week are three times as likely to stop work as women in households where the man works 3550 hours a week. 【迅速扫这段，发现一堆数字，全是论据，直接过】(A wife working long hours does not make a man any more likely to quit.) 【括号中经常有不重要但很好玩儿的信息】
As long as some people work punishing hours, the prospect of closing the gender pay gap appears remote.【首句论点，统领全段】Men in the rich world are twice as likely 【看到数字，就知道是论据，懒得读了】as women to work more than 48 hours a week. In America20% of American fathers, but just 6% of mothers, work more than 50 hours a week. This is one of several arguments made by campaigners for a fourday working week.

Yet even modern, familyoriented men face a dilemma. 【首句论点，全段领袖】Their requests to work parttime are more likely than women’s to be rejected. And those who do work parttime risk discrimination. A study 【引用一个study作论据，懒得读了】in which cvs were sent to prospective employers found that men whose cvs showed them as working parttime were just half as likely to get a call back as those who were identical, except that they were working fulltime. Parttime women faced no such discrimination. As long as such double standards exist, many couples will still choose to scale back her career, rather than his.
现在我们忽略所有论据，把每段论点拼在一起，原文就可以被压缩提炼成：
It remains essential to helping women work, particularly after giving birth, and in countries with traditional gender norms. But it can prolong—or even worsen—gender inequality and make women less independent by locking them into jobs with worse pay and prospects. Differences in working hours explain a growing part of the gender pay gap. That share could increase as labour markets disproportionately reward those willing and able to work all hours — who are mostly men. Indeed, the gender pay gap could even widen further. One reason is growing demand for “flexible” workers. Meanwhile the hourly reward for working in professions where very long hours are the norm, such as law and consulting, has risen dramatically. As long as some people work punishing hours, the prospect of closing the gender pay gap appears remote. Yet even modern, familyoriented men face a dilemma.