英语技巧：如何准确推断词义

重点词汇预告

1 remains

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 turbid

adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的

参考例句：

• He found himself content to watch idly the sluggish flow of the turbid stream.他心安理得地懒洋洋地望着混浊的河水缓缓流着。
• The lake's water is turbid.这个湖里的水混浊。

3 auction

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

4 proprietor

n.所有人；业主；经营者

参考例句：

• The proprietor was an old acquaintance of his.业主是他的一位旧相识。
• The proprietor of the corner grocery was a strange thing in my life.拐角杂货店店主是我生活中的一个怪物。

5 formerly

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

正文

阅读理解题型在高考试题中所占比例最大，在阅读理解测试中，必然要考查对词或词组意思的理解。试题越来越重视对理解能力的考查，生词的分布范围越来越广，不仅在阅读理解、完型填空，甚至在单选题中，也出现了生词，而且生词量逐年有所增加。我们平时阅读时，不可避免地会遇到一些生词、熟词的新义和由熟悉的单词组成的有新含义的短语，要正确理解其含义，尤其是对词组的理解切不可望文生义。那么如何根据短文已知信息快速准确地推断出生词的含义就显得尤为重要。

■常用猜词方法

1.根据定义或解释说明进行推断

常见的一种情况是生词的后面，用逗号、引号、或破折号引出对该词的定义或解释。另一种情况是在be，mean，that is(to say)或be called等词出现的句子中，生词是被解释说明的表语，或是用来下定义的主语。

1)A surgeon is a doctor who cuts open the body of his patients and does operations.

根据句中的解释，不难推断出

surgeon的含义为“外科医生”。

2)The new edifice，a twenty-four-story building，was completed last month.

从后文的解释a twenty-four-story building可以推断出edifice的含义为“高大的建筑物”。

2.根据构词法进行推断

英语中主要构词法有三种：

转化——由一个词类转化为另一个词类

派生——通过加前缀或后缀构成另一个词

合成——由两个或更多的词合成一个词

1)He insisted on staying up to nurse the child.

名词nurse转化为动词，可以推出含义为“护理”。

2)Mr.Brown is a specialist in Chinese disease.

由构词知识可分析出specialist的词根是special，意为“特别的，特殊的”，“-ist”是名词后缀，表示“…专业人员”，由此可以推出specialist意为“专家”。

在日常的阅读中，要注意积累一些常用的词根及前后缀。美国最畅销书之一《如何增进你的词汇能力》就把词根誉为“打开词汇宝库的第一把钥匙”，前缀后缀“是打开词汇宝库的第二和第三把钥匙”。

3)Now all the fishing boats are radio-equipped.

由radio和equip这两个词合成了一个新词radio-equipped，推出radio-equipped的含义为“装备了无线电的”。

3.根据常识或经验进行推断

My legs are sore from running the race.

根据我们的经验，跑完步以后腿会感觉“酸疼”，就可推断出sore的含义。

4.根据文中特定的情景或上下文进行推断

这是我们经常使用的一种方法。根据文章的描述或文章中常出现的上下文关系进行推断。文中常出现的上下文关系有对比、转折、反义、因果、同等或同义等。

1)Though Jack's face has been washed quite clean，his neck still remains¹ grubby.我们可以通过前句“尽管汤姆的脸已洗得干干净净，推断出他的脖子还是”脏的“。此处用的就是转折关系。表示对比或转折关系的常用连词或副词有：but，though，although，still，yet，however，instead，while，on the other hand.等。

2)The river is so turbid² that it is impossible to see the bottom even when it is shallow.通过因果关系，我们可以推断出划线部分的含义为“浑浊的”。表示因果关系的常用词有：because，as，so，so..that，such…that.等。

3)In the ancient city of Rome，we visited every mansion，church，battle site，theatre and other public halls.根据上下文，推出划线词与church，battle site，theatre等属于同等范围，词性为名词，其含义应属于”建筑物“的范畴。表示同等关系的词常用and或or.

4)Zhou Bing has helped at least 500 people bitten by snakes.“It was seeing people with snake bites that led me to this career，”he said.

In 1972，after his army service，Zhou entered medical school and later became a doctor of Chinese medicine.As part of his studies，he had to work in the mountains.There he often heard of people who had their arms and legs cut off after a snake bite in order to save their lives.

根据上下文的描述，推出划线词的含义为”职业“。

■常见题型表达方式

1.Which of the following words can take the place of the word____in Para…

2.The expression“…”in line… is closest in meaning to_____

3.In line…，the word“…”means______

4.In line…，the word“…”can best be replaced by______

5.By“…”，the author means______

6.The word/phrase“…”as used by the author，means most nearly______-

7.In this passage，the word/phrase“…”means______

8.“…”，as used in the passage，can best be defined as______

9.The underlined word in the … paragraph means_____

10.“…”in the passage stands for_______

■请推断下列句子或短文中划线部分的词义，然后借助词典检验你的猜测是否正确

1.If you agree，write“yes”;if you dissent，write “no”.

2.Mrs.Blake left her five children with me while she shopped.I could not get anything done with the children on my hands.

3.She was getting impatient at having to wait so long.

4.Coin collecting is interesting，but you find a valuable coin only once in a blue moon.

5.The new edifice，a twenty-four-story building was completed last year.

6.At the age of sixty-six，Harland Sanders had to auction³ off everything he owned in order to pay his debts.Once a successful proprietor⁴ of a restaurant，Sanders saw his business suffer from the construction of a new freeway that bypassed his establishment and rerouted the traffic that had formerly⁵ passed.

7.The Internet has led to a huge increase in credit-card fraud.Your card information could even be sale in an illegal Web site.

Credit-card firms are now fighting against on-line fraud.MasterCard is working on plans for Web-only credit card，with a lower credit limit.The card could be used only for shopping on-line.

8.The modern age of medicine began with the stethoscope，an instrument for listening to a patient's heartbeat and breathing.