【强烈推荐】阅读经典加试全文、试题加解析（独家奉献，考试时5分钟可以做完一篇文章，建议加精）

Q3

选A

原文

As a consequence, the political history of ancient Mesopotamia has no underlying theme of the sort that divine kingship provides for Egypt. Local rivalries, foreign incursions, the sudden upsurge and equally sudden collapse of military power – these are its substance.

题干

3. The phrase its substance refers to
(A) the political history of ancient Mesopotamia
(B) divine kingship
(C) Egypt
(D) the sudden collapse of military power

解析

关系词As a consequence是解题的关键，因为这里要给出结论了。后面的主语the political history of ancient Mesopotamia是这个结论的“主题”，因此后面的解释内容肯定是围绕这个主题展开的，于是这个主题就成了答案。

注释：无词阅读法的三个要素就是“主题+方向+关系词”。“主题”就是一句话的point，方向是正负向，关系词是维持或改变方向的标志。只要抓住这三个要素，托福阅读就可以在不大量背单词的情况下取得高分。

表示结果的关系词：so, therefore, thus, hence, as a result, as a consequence, accordingly, consequently

表示原因的关系词：because, as, since, for, in that, due to