说到听力当中的信号词，同学们应该并不陌生，本文中小编就以两篇TPO真题来谈一谈这个信号词的重要性。
首先我们来看看TPO17 Lecture1, 这篇关于prehistoric art的文章中主要围绕鉴别一个雕塑Lady with the Hood的年代展开，文章是典型的总分结构，通过分别介绍三种鉴别艺术品年代的方式，讲述了这些鉴定方式的缺陷是什么。而文章中也有多道题涉及到探测技术的缺陷这个知识点。
例如在介绍第一种technique时，先解释了什么是stratigraphy, 即利用地层去确定文物的年代，这种技术的宗旨是the oldest layers are at the lowest level.紧接着一个转折就提到了这种技术的缺陷，But this only works if the sitehasn’t been touched, and the layers are intact. A problem with this dating method is that an object could have been carried around, used for several generations before it was discarded. So it might be much older than the layer or even the site where it was found.所以在转折信号词之后提到第一个缺陷是必须要在完整未被破坏的底层，另外一个非常明显的信号就是problem之后提到这种技术有个很大的问题就是it might be much older than the layer or even the site where it was found。而这个出题点在第二题According to the professor, when might stratigraphy provide misleading information about a portable object?就有考察到，显然答案应该是When the object is older than the site at which it was found.
而这篇讲座的第三题问题是What are two disadvantages of radiocarbon dating? Click on 2 answers, 考察的仍然是利用碳的放射性探测雕塑会有什么缺陷。原文当中的表达是这样的So it turns out that radiocarbon dating works for a lot of prehistoric art. But again there’s a problem. This techniquedestroys what it analyzes, so you have to chip off bits of the object for testing. Obviously we are reluctant to do that in some cases. And apart from that, there’s another problems. The date tells you the age of the material, say, a bone or a treethe object is made from, but not the date when the artist actually created it.So, with radiocarbon dating, we get the maximum possible age for the object, but it could beyounger.在文中转折之后直接用problem引出了这个技术的缺陷是会破坏艺术品，另外用And apart from that引出另一个缺陷是we get the maximum possible age for the object, but it could beyounger, 所以由problem引出的两个并列信息点告诉我们此题正确答案应为It causes damage to the material being analyzed.和It cannot prove when a piece of art was made.
Problem引出重要出题点的情况在TPO真题中并不少见，除了在一些艺术类的文章中会提及某种艺术鉴赏技术以及技术的缺陷，在其他学科同样会出现类似的出题点。例如TPO33的Lecture1是考古学相关，首先讲座介绍了我们对于金字塔已知的一些信息，例如它具体建造的年代，是谁建造的，谁监督建造的，而我们迷惑的问题在于它是如何建成的。原文给出的表述是：The problem that has puzzled scholars for centuries is how were these blocks lifted up the height of this massive structure and then fit into place and without the benefit of modern technology.然后给出一系列关于金字塔建造的假说和猜想，听到这样的表达，同学们就应该注意到这篇文章会围绕金字塔建造的未解之谜展开，紧接着文章中陈诉了几种猜测并说明了该种猜想可能存在的问题。
讲座提到的第一个人是Herodotus, 在这里大家一定要注意，提到某个人的观点和假说时一定要利用辅音框架记住这个人的名字发音，并且尽量听懂他的观点是什么。文中提出Herodotus的观点是Herodotus may have seen Egyptians using cranes made of wood, 然而后面紧接着提到But the problem with this theory has to do with simple mechanics. A crane needs a wide and sturdy base to stand on or it will fall over. Well, as you get toward the top of the Pyramid, there’s really no place for a crane to stand.所以我们可以得出的结论是no place for a crane to stand, 即使同学们不知道crane这个词的含义，但是并不影响我们对该篇文章第二题的作答。此题题目是Accordingtotheprofessor,whatisthemainargumentagainstthetheorythatthestoneblocksoftheGreatPyramidwereliftedintoplacewithcranes?不难看出该题的正确答案应该是：Therewouldnothavebeenenoughroomforaplatformforthecranes.
除了这道题，这篇讲座中还有另一道题目也同样考察了这个信号词，题目是WhydoestheprofessortalkabouttheaccuracyoftheproportionsoftheGreatPyramid?而文章中对应的原文是Building the ramp around it as you go. Sounds like a pretty good idea. Except that it’s got a serious problem. See…one of the most remarkable things about the Great Pyramid is how accurate the proportions are. The dimensions are almost perfect. To get that perfection, the engineers must have had to measure it repeatedly during construction. And the way you’d measure it is from the four corners of the base. Well, if you got a ramp spiraling up from the base of the Pyramid, those corners would be buried by that ramp during construction.由信号词引出的内容可知这道题目的正确选项应该是Todiscountthepossibilitythataramponcespiraledaroundoutsideofthepyramid.
由以上几道题目我们可以看出，problem这个词在托福听力中是一个不容小觑的信号词，而在一些介绍技术手段、假说和阶段性研究成果的听力文章中会在对这些内容进行介绍的同时，提到这些技术手段、假说和阶段性研究成果的问题，所以当同学们听到该类文章的时候一定更要注意problem这个信号词后的内容。
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