所謂“知己知彼，百戰不殆”。其實，只要我們了解并熟悉了英語文章的篇章結構，準確把握文章的段落大意就不是什么難事了。下面我們列舉職稱英語教材上面的幾段話來剖析英語文章中段落的結構：
(一)【主題句段首型】
According to news reports， US restaurants are partly to blame for the growing bellies. A waiter outs a plate of food in front of each customer， with two to four times the amount recommended by the government， according to a USA Today story. Americans traditionally associate quality with value and most restaurants try to give them that. They prefer to have customers complain about too much food rather than too little。
本段共有四句話，該段的結構是明顯的總分結構，它的主題句是段落的第一句，美國的餐廳應為人們不斷增大的肚子受到一定程度的指責。而后面的三句話則舉例子：服務員為客人提供過多的事物，這樣客人對餐廳的評價就會更高，一次來說明本段的主題：美國餐廳應受指責。
值得注意的是，在職稱英語考試中，這一類型的考題出現頻率相比之下要高得多。
(二)【主題句段中型】
The vegetable and fruit and flower merchants are surrounded by baskets of purple eggplants， green peppers， strings of tiny silvery onions， heads of bitter Indian spinach， and a dozen Indian vegetables for which I don’t even know the English names. I had forgotten about the profusion of fruit in India—it is only during the brief intense summer that you see much variety of fruit in Moscow. In Russia， as winter approaches all vegetables except for potatoes and the pervasive cabbage in soup seem to disappear from the menus。
本段共三句話，第一句列舉印度菜市場上蔬菜水果品種繁多的景象，以此引出主題句我已經忘記了只有在莫斯科的夏天才能看到的品種多樣豐富的水果，而第三句話也是對主題句的又一個列舉。
(三)【主題句段尾型】
People live in cities today think that meat is something that comes warped in cellophane from the supermarket， potatoes come by the pound in plastic or paper bags， and feather grows in hats. The city dwellers’’ views are quite different from the views of their ancestors， who knew that meat is hunted down in the forest， potatoes are planted and weeded， and inky birds can produce feathers. Yet， whether people today realize it or not， they are still as dependent on animals and plants for their existence as their ancestors were。
