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找段落小标题就是要求从选项列表（List of Headings）中给文章的一些段落分别选择恰当的小标题。在 Cambridge IELTS 9 的160道A类阅读题目中，有8道是找段落小标题；在 Cambridge IELTS 10 的160道A类阅读题目中，有19道是找段落小标题。这种题型在每次考试中都会出现，是考生应该重点掌握的题型。
这种题型有两个明显特征：
（1）有选项列表。 该题型有一个标志性特征，那就是在文章前面有一个选项列表（List of Headings），并且选项数目往往比文章中的段落数目多出几个。例如文章有6段，选项数目则至少会有8个，也就是说，有很多干扰选项。
（2）有例子。通常情况下，选项列表下面会直接给出某一个段落的小标题作为例子，要求考生选出余下段落的小标题。
（1）划去例子所对应的选项和段落。每个选项最多只能用一次，将例子对应的选项从列表中划去，以免被其他段落误选。同时在文章中把作为例子的段落划掉，以免对例子段落进行不必要的阅读。
（2）注意做题顺序并找到主题句。为了提高效率，考生要读一个段落，做一道题。绝大部分此类题目的正确答案可以通过主题句确定，因此读每个段落时，注意寻找段落主题句，并利用关键词对应法快速确定答案。注意关键词的同义替换，即正确选项往往是主题句的改写。关于主题句的位置，前面已经详细讲解过，在此，考生注意熟练运用前面讲过的内容，快速找到主题句。
（3）如果表达相同含义的词或短语相继出现在段落各句中，答案则是含有这些高频词汇的选项。
（4）划去已选选项。某段的答案确定后，将它对应的选项从选项列表中划去。
下面我们通过例题来具体讲解以上答题方法的运用。
小标题即指段落的主旨大意或中心思想。因此，这种题型主要测试的就是考生“抓住各段主题句”并“利用主题句和选项中的关键词选出答案”的能力。前面已经讲过如何利用“主题句扫描法”和“关键词对应法”定位并确定答案，考生再结合下面的例题进一步熟练运用这种方法。
You should spend about 7 minutes on Questions 14-17 , which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.
Questions 14-17
Reading Passage 2 has five paragraphs, A-E.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
14 Paragraph B
15 Paragraph C
16 Paragraph D
17 Paragraph E
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?
The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence
The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life.
A The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity —the same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we haven’t yet discovered.
B In discussing whether we are alone , most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules . First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists don’t consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively,have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water.
C Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally,given the right conditions. However , when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it: in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms.
D An alien civilisation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that , for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1,000 to 300 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct a thorough search for extraterrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the world’s largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1,000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency range 1,000 to 300 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network.
E There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation . Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away,so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. It’s not important, then, if there’s a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply.
以上画出的主题句关键词共37个，下面我们根据各个题目和这些主题句关键词来定位答案。
14 Paragraph B
答案：iv
定位： B段主题句： In discussing whether we are alone , most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules .
解析： 首先划去作为例子的选项v，再看其余的6个选项。主题句中的关键词ground，rules分别和选项iv中的关键词underlying，assumptions对应，主题句中的discussing whether…alone和选项iv中的search for extra-terrestrial intelligence对应，答案就是iv。
15 Paragraph C
答案：vii
定位： C段主题句，即However所在的句子： However , when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it：in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it.
解析： 划去上一题的答案选项iv，再看其余的5个选项。表达相同含义的词或短语相继出现在主题句中，它们分别是inconceivable，guess，estimate，might（难以置信、猜、估计、可能），选项vii中的关键词likelihood（可能，可能性）和这些高频词汇对应，另外，该句中的have a life-bearing planet和选项vii中的life on other planets对应，答案就是vii。
16 Paragraph D
答案：i
定位： D段主题句，即It turns out that所在的句子： It turns out that , for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1,000 to 300 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range.
解析： 划去上一题的答案选项vii，再看其余的4个选项。主题句中的关键词searches，looking for和选项i中的seeking对应，该句中的radio waves和选项i中的radio signals对应，答案就是i。
17 Paragraph E
答案：ii
定位： E段主题句： There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation .
解析： 划去上一题的答案选项i，再看其余的3个选项。主题句中的关键词react，signal…alien civilisation分别和选项ii中的关键词appropriate responses，signals from other civilisations对应，答案就是ii。
上面的4道考题，全部可以根据主题句中的关键词确定答案，大大提高了答题的速度和准确率。