托福閱讀中的長難句一直是考生們月的障礙，但是托福閱讀偏偏又喜歡在這些句子中安排考點，考生們就要學會理順這些長難句。

除了詞匯量較大以外，句子結構復雜也是托福閱讀的障礙之一。面對難句，必須迅速把握其主干和重點，因為考試時涉及答案的主要是句子的主干和重點，對于句子簡化題(sentence simplification)尤其如此。要把握難句的主干和重點，首先要弄清它們的類型。簡而言之，托福中的難句主要包括下列類型：

1. 定語(包含后置定語與定語從句)

2. 同位語

3. 并列結構

4. that引導的各種從句

5. 插入結構

6. 獨立主格

7. 倒裝句

8. 強調句

9. 虛擬語氣

• 對于不同類型的難句，把握主干的方法也不一樣。以倒裝句為例，主要有下列情況：

1. 方位副詞放在句首

Herein lay the beginning of what ultimately turned from ignorance to denial of the value of nutritional therapies in medicine。

2. 介詞放在句首

Among the species of seabirds that use the windswept cliffs of the Atlantic coast of Canada in the summer to mate, lay eggs, and rear their young are common murres, Atlantic puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and northern gannets。

3. 形容詞放在句首

Implicit in it is an aesthetic principle as well: that the medium has certain qualities of beauty and expressiveness with which sculptors must bring own aesthetic sensibilities into harmony。

4. 過去分詞放在句首

Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”， the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent。

5. 現在分詞放在句首

Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans。

• 句子倒裝的目的主要有兩個：

一是被提前的部分被強調，如上述的第四句：Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”，其中的accustomed按照正常語序應該放在are之后：Though we are accustomed to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”。之所以將accustomed提前，是為了強調它。二是為了句子的平衡，否則將導致頭重腳輕的效果，如上述的第一句、第三句和第五句。以第五句為例，按照正常語序應該是：Fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans were missing until recently。但是這種句子結構比較糟糕，因為主語及其修飾語過長(從句首直到cetaceans)，而謂語部分were missing until recently較短，容易造成頭重腳輕的效果。第五句將missing提前，避免了這一現象。

長難句中，考生可以將不必要的部分先省略不看，只看主謂賓，然后慢慢的疊加，看看是否會改變語句的意思。