In reading process, you may often see many conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence of a passage to connect the sentences of passages. As a matter of fact, there are three types of conjunctions among those you often see and use, one of which will be explained is the conjunctions of explaining or specifying. The function of this classification of conjunctions is to further explain the contents in the former sentences or passages to make it clearer and more specific so that the readers can understand much easier.

In addition, the conjunctions of this classification can be subdivided into three types, to illustrate, to summarize and to example. Foreign students who study in Mandarin language courses in China may often see the words and phrases like 这就是说、总而言之and例如, each belongs to the three types respectively mentioned above. Of course, there are also more frequently used phrases like 换言之、也就是说、总之、一句话、比如and举一个例子 and so on.

In reading process, students can take different measures when coming across the conjunctions of this classification. For the conjunctions indicating explanation, the contents behind are the repeated or specific explanations to a certain viewpoint or important thing. If the readers have fully understood the former contents, they can just neglect the contents with the conjunctions. In this way, it can make sure to improve the reading speed on the basis of understanding the articles. On the contrary, the readers need to pay special attention to the latte parts with conjunctions which show the main contents.

When it comes to the conjunctions of indicating the conclusion, the most important thing that the learners who study in Chinese language school need to emphasize is the cohesion part because the contents after them are the main viewpoints of the articles, providing the most important contents and information. It is essential for the readers to slow down the reading speed when seeing those conjunctions.

Let’s more our attention to the conjunctions of exampling, the contents after which can be neglected because it usually have no new information appears. Of course, if the readers do not understand the former contents so perfect, they can strengthen the understanding to the articles through examples. The aim of practicing such conjunctions is to understand the contents through the conjunctions and even predicate the following contents.