纵观
文章开头
转折&强调&语气变化处
因果关系
列举&举例
学生提问
其实很多老师都会告诉学生这些地方是重点，在听听力的时候，一旦听到这些一定要非常注意，可是有很多学生却抓不住这些点，即便他们知道这些方面是重点。首先我们先把这些点具体化，看在听力中这些点是如何表现出来的：
文章开头
文章的开头之所以要很认真的听，而且一定要听到是因为文章的开头关系到主旨大意题。托福听力文章的开头一般分为两个方面：一种是开门见山式，即文章一开头教授就会说”Today, we are going to talk about...”;一种是迂回式，即教授先说之前的课讲了什么，比如“Last class, we talked about…” 中间会讲很多内容，但是这些都是上节课的内容，教授在讲完后会说“But, today, we are going to talk about…” 这时才是这节课的主要内容。如何快速的进入听力状态，一是平常练习的时候，不管外界环境有多大的干扰，都要锻炼自己瞬间进入听力状态，文章的前两句话一定要听懂。那么，主旨大意题就可以直接搞定。
列举&举例
列举，即把事物或者特征或者例子一个个的举出来。在托福听力中的体现为对某个事物的特点的列举，或者对事物的几个方面的列举，或者几个不同的事物的列举。比如听力通常会出现first, second; on the one hand, on the other hand; first, then; some, others等。所以在听到这些提示词时，一定要认真听，而且要记下来。列举通常对应多选题，根据近年来托福听力的考试趋势，多选题出现频率越来越高，所以一定要重视听力中出现的列举。
举例，通常会出现一个不同于文章主旨大意的内容，这时一定要记住这个例子。举例对应功能题，所以在出现“for example”，“for instance”，“such as”，“like”等词时要注意例子的具体名称是什么，这样在听力题目中一旦出现例子至少不会觉得陌生，而且能够根据笔记快速回忆起对应的听力中的内容，准确答出题目。
转折&强调&语气变化处
转折即文章中出现转折的地方，常见的对应标志词有“however，but，while，yet”等。听力过程中可能会出现很多这种转折标志词，但并不是每个转折的地方都会出题，但是基本会有一道题目和转折相关，所以为了保险起见，建议同学们每一个转折点都认真听，然后记下来。
强调&语气变化处，相对于转折来说标志词没那么明显，所以在听力过程中很容易被忽略。强调的标志词有in fact，actually，really等。演讲者在讲这些词的时候一般都会放慢语速，所以强调和语气变化经常一起出现，因此同学们在听力时要特别注意。
下面以
Professor:
Ok, I’m going to begin this lecture by giving your next assignment. Remember I said that at some point during this semester I want you to attend an exhibit at the Fairy Street Gallery and then write about it? Well, the exhibit that I want you to attend is coming up. It’s already started in fact, but it’ll be at the gallery for the next month, which should give you plenty of time to complete this assignment.
The name of the artist exhibiting there is Rose Frantzen. Frantzen’s work may be unfamiliar to you since she’s a relatively young artist. But she’s got a very unusual style, compared to some of the artists we’ve looked at this term. But anyway, Frantzen’s style is what she herself calls Realistic Impressionism. So you’ve probably studied both of these movements separately, separate movements, Realism and Impressionism, in some of your art history courses. So who can just sum these up?
Student:
Well, Impressionism started in the late 19th century. Um … the basic impressionist style was very different from earlier styles. It didn’t depict scenes or models exactly as they looked. Um … Impressionist painters tended to apply paint really thickly, and in big brushstrokes, so the texture of the canvas was rough.
Professor:
Good. What else? What were the subjects?
Student:
Well, a lot of impressionist artists painted everyday scenes, like people on the streets and in cafes, uh, lots of nature scenes, especially landscapes.
Professor:
Good. So when you go to the exhibit, I really want you to take a close look at a certain painting. It’s a farm scene. And you will see it right as you enter the gallery. The reason I think this painting is so important is that it stresses the impressionist aspect of Frantzen’s style. It’s an outdoor scene, an everyday scene. It’s kind of bleak, but you can really see those broad brushstrokes and the blurry lines. The colors aren’t quite realistic. The sky is kind of, well an unnatural pinkish yellow. And the fence in the foreground is blue, but somehow the overall scene gives an impression of a cold, bleak winter day on a farm. So that’s the impressionist side of her work.
Oh, and speaking about farms, that reminds me. One interesting thing I read about Franzten is that when she first moved back to Iowa after living abroad, she often visited this place in her town called the Sales Barn. And the Sales Barn, it was basically this place where the local farmers bought and sold their cattle, their farm animals. And the reason Frantzen went there, and she later on would visit other places like dance halls, was to observe people and the ways that they moved. She really found that this helped her work—that it gave her an understanding of body movements and actions, how humans move, and stand still, what their postures were like, too.
So, what about Realism? What are the elements of Realism we should be looking for in Frantzen’s work?