首字母填空的考查目的：首字母填空与完形填空一样，首先考查的是考生正确理解和把握文章意思的能力。其次，它还考查考生的逻辑思维能力和词汇、语法知识运用能力。该题型是考查考生综合运用英语思维能力的一种有效方法。

　　首字母填空的命题特点：

　　1)设空以考查文意为主，信息词汇比重增大，且有逐年增加的趋势。

　　2)降低了对单词本身词意的考查要求，突出了主题的主要测试目的,即理解全文、通篇考虑、掌握大意、注重关联。

　　3)增加了考查连词的题目，涉及考生对行文逻辑的掌握及文句之间关系的理解。检查考生对并列句和复合句的理解掌握情况。

　　4)重视结合文意检测考生对词语用法的掌握，主要涉及两个方面：同义分析与固定搭配，同义和近义词的比较辨析。

　　特点例析
　　One Sunday, Mark decided to go sailing in his boat with his friend Dan, but Dan h___ to be away. Dan’s brother John offered to go i___     though he did not know anything about sailing. Mark agreed and they set out to the sea. Soon they found t____          in a thick fog. Mark was sure they would be hit by a big ship. Fortunately he saw a large buoy (航标) through the fog. He decided to tie the boat to it for s____ time. As he was getting onto the buoy, however, he d____    the wet rope. The boat moved away in the fog c____      John, who did not know how to use the radio. He drifted about and was not seen until twelve hours later. Mark s____ the night on the buoy. In the early morning, he fell asleep. He was having a bad dream when a s___   woke him up. A ship, the Good Hope, came up and he climbed onto it and thanked the captain. The captain told him that John had been p___    up by another ship and the ship’s captain had sent out a message. “W_____ the message I would not have found you on the buoy,” he said.