相对于事实信息题是问作者给出了哪个细节或信息，修辞目的题则是问为什么作者给出某个具体的信息或例子，也就说实际考察的是学生在阅读中“角色转换”的能力，即把自己想象成作者，推测作者举某个例子，写某一句话或者一段话的目的。要解决这类题目，我们首先要弄明白托福阅读中使用的修辞手法是怎样的，这里所说的修辞不同于我们语文课上讲的比喻、拟人、排比等修辞手法，而是一种“有效写作或演讲的艺术”，托福中的修辞手法范围更广一些，包括举例子、下定义、阐述、解释、对比、反驳、强调等手法。

我们在清楚了修辞手法后，下一步就是要揣测文章出现某个例子或者某句话甚至某段话的意图所在，有些同学可能觉得如果读不懂文章做这题就难了，而且时间有限，无法细细揣摩作者的写作意图，但不用担心，作者的写作是有一定的逻辑顺序在里面的，具体例子的出现也是有特定顺序的，而且不要忘记托福阅读中的文章大都是从美国大学课本上直接摘取出来的，是学术类文章，学术类文章有很明确的文章结构，即整篇文章有中心论点(thesis statement)，每段都有中心句(topic sentence),反过来说段落内部信息是为段落中心思想服务的，段落是为文章中心服务的。

修辞目的题按提问对象可以分为两种，一种是针对具体信息的，另外一种是针对段落组织结构的。前者出现的频率最高，而且以举例为多，所以我们重点讲解第一类的做法。我们知道举例子是为了论证某种观点的，无非两种情况，先观点后举例，或者是先例子后观点总结，这时候我们要寻找的层次有三个，例子前一句话，文段中心句，文章中心。下面我们就具体的例子来阐述一下具体的做法。

5. The author tells the story of the explorers Lewis and Clark in paragraph 3 in order to illustrate which of the following points?

The number of deer within the Puget Sound region has varied over time.

Most of the explorers who came to the Puget Sound area were primarily interested in hunting game.

There was more game for hunting in the East of the United States than in the West.

Individual explorers were not as successful at locating games as were the trading companies.

Paragraph 3: The numbers of deer have fluctuated markedly since the entry of Europeans into Puget Sound country. The early explorers and settlers told of abundant deer in the early 1800s and yet almost in the same breath bemoaned the lack of this succulent game animal. Famous explorers of the north American frontier, Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River on November 14, 1805, in nearly starved circumstances. They had experienced great difficulty finding game west of the Rockies and not until the second of December did they kill their first elk. To keep 40 people alive that winter, they consumed approximately 150 elk and 20 deer. And when game moved out of the lowlands in early spring, the expedition decided to return east rather than face possible starvation. Later on in the early years of the nineteenth century, when Fort Vancouver became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, deer populations continued to fluctuate. David Douglas, Scottish botanical explorer of the 1830s, found a disturbing change in the animal life around the fort during the period between his first visit in 1825 and his final contact with the fort in 1832. A recent Douglas biographer states:" The deer which once picturesquely dotted the meadows around the fort were gone [in 1832], hunted to extermination in order to protect the crops."

我们根据大写字母L和C定位，在文章的第四行，我们看例子前一句，the early explorers and settlers told of abundant deer in the early 1800s,也是一个例子，不是观点，所以下一步，我们寻找文段中心句，即文段的第一句 the numbers of deer have fluctuates markedly since the entry of Europeans into Puget Sound country.所以举L和C的例子是为了阐述段落中心句，the numbers of deer has changed a lot.与选项A同义，所以我们正确答案是A，再来看其他选项，选项B说大家interested in hunting，原文中没有涉及；选项C东西部hunting的比较在原文中也没有说明；文中也没有出现个体捕猎与团体捕猎哪个更好，所以锁定正确答案为A。

修辞目的题考察学生寻找文中具体信息写作意图的能力，我们始终抓好例子前一句、文段中心句和文章中心这三个重要因素，这道题就会做起来很简单。