1、第十讲 阅读理解之猜测词义题【考点说明】 阅读理解之猜测词义题在阅读考试中考察得比重不大，但难度很大。在有传统阅读题型的联盟考试（复旦千分考、北约、卓越同盟）中，四选一的阅读理解有时会考这种题型，其中复旦千分考考查较多，几乎每年都有该题型。此类题目考查的是考生对阅读文章中出现的关键词或短语的理解能力，对考生的上下文分析能力要求比较高。【题型特点分析】对于文中单词的考查又无外乎两种情况：一种是多义常用词在特定语境中的具体含义；一种是可以根据上下文推测出含义的生僻词汇。常见题干表现形式如：The word“”mostly probably meansBy saying“”,the author m
2、eansThe word“”mostly probably refersWhich of the following is the closet in meaning to the word“”The statement“”probably means【解题技巧】 猜测词义时，一般可利用以下四个方面的线索：一 通过构词法根据前缀，后缀，转化猜测词义如：But judging from recent studies Of crying behavior, links between illness and crying and the chemical composition of tears，
3、both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even be counterproductive 【解析】“counter”表示“相反的、逆向的”，而“productive”表示“产生的”，再综合上下文，我们可以断定其含义是“对健康有害意思。所以答案为D。注：关于这一块内容，建议复习第二讲中的构词法二篇章逻辑关系法所谓逻辑关系法，即通过理解引号内的部分在原文中所在的句子，以及其之前和之后的句子，并通过这些句子之间的逻辑关系判断引号内部分的含义。这里常见的句子之间的关系有：1. 并列关系。其特征是，句子之间由and,
4、or等并列连词连接，或者没有连接词。2. 转折关系。其特征是，句子之间由 but, yet, however, still, contrary to , in contrast等转折连词连接。3. 因果关系。在句子或段落中，若两个事物现象之间构成因果关系，我们可以根据这种逻辑关系推测生词词义。利用逻辑关系法解答语义理解题的做题步骤是：1，回归原文在原文中找到题干中引号内的部分，这一步非常简单，因为题干中会标出引号内部分在文中的段落数和行数。2，瞻前顾后在原文中找到定位后，就要判断引号内部分和它之前、之后的句子的关系，并且通过阅读相应的句子理解引号内的部分的含义。这一步最关键也最灵活，下面笔者还
5、会结合今年真题进行具体对此进行讲解。3，比对选项最后一步，将四个选项分别与从上一步中得到的信息做比对，选出一致选项。三文章内针对性解释1.根据定义（definition）猜测词义如果生词有一个句子（定语从句或是同位语前常有 or, similarly, that is to say, in other words, namely, or other, say等或是同位语从句）或段落来定义,或使用破折号，冒号，分号后的内容和引号括号中的内容加以解释和定义，那么理解这个句子或段落本身就是推断词义。定义常用的谓语动词多为：be, mean, deal with, be considered, to
6、be, be called, define, represent, refer to, signify 等。如：A supernova is a massive star that undergoes a gravitational collapse, then a gigantic explosion, blasting away the outer layers into space.【解析】Supernova是一种巨大的恒星，它不断进行着引力的收缩，然后就会发生巨大的爆炸，而它的外层会随着爆炸产生的巨大气流被吹向外太空。这里的supernova对我们可能非常陌生，但这里的is给了我们对s
7、upernova的定义，所以我们知道其实它就是一种巨大的恒星。 2.根据举例猜测词义恰当的举例能够提供猜测生词的重索。表示例举关系的词常有：like, for example, for instance, such as, especially, include, consist of 如：Defined most broadly, folklore includes all the customs, beliefs and traditions that people have handed down from generation to generation.【解析】此句中include后
8、面的例子基本上表示出了“folklore”的内容，这些东西都是通常所获得的民俗传统，这也就是folklore的基本含义。四作者语气推断学会关注文章中三处展现的感情色彩：观点句或者结论句出现的地方，代表人物或代表流派出现的地方，强烈感情色彩出现的地方。因为感情色彩通过语境能够传达出很多单词的大概意思或者说是关键特征，甚至强烈感情色彩还能给出下面很多文字的中心。如：They must gain an understanding of human nature, including its negative aspects, such as the sources of human conflict
9、 and the pitfalls of power.【解析】他们必须获得对人类本质的理解，包括人类本质中不好的方面，例如人类冲突的源泉和人类权利的pitfalls。虽然pitfalls很多同学并不认识，但我们通过negative aspects传达出的负态度和such as的举例标志词，我们可以做出这样的合理推测pitfalls表示不好的方面。【典例精讲】AEver since news of widespread food recalls caused by a carcinogenic dye broke, there has been confusion over possible l
10、inks to the country of the same name, but Sudan officials say there is no connection whatever. Sudan 1 is a red industrial dye that has been found in some chilli powder, but was banned in food products across the European Union (EU) in July 2003. Since the ban was put in place, EU officials have bee
11、n striving to remove some food products from the shelves. So far 580 products have been recalled. Last week Sudans Embassy in the United Kingdom asked the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for clarification of the origin of the dyes name.Sudan dyes, which include Sudan 1 to 4, are red dyes used for colori
12、ng solvents, oils, waxes, petrol, and shoe and floor polishes. They are classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. 1. What does the underlined word mean in paragraph one?A. Causing cancer. B. Having side effect. C. Containing poison. D. Poisonous.【答案】A【解析】词义猜测题。根据T
13、hey are classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. 可知这个词与癌症有关，故可推出carcinogenic意为致癌的。注意信息点的寻找： 我们在做题时习惯于在划线词附近寻找解题的信息点，寻而不得时往往就会慌张，其实往下多看看，可能在后面的某一段就出现了相关的信息，因此，冷静的寻找对于解题至关重要。 BPeople in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhauste
14、d, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their a
15、rt to be a bummer too. 1. The word “bummer” most probably means something _.A. religious B. unpleasant C. entertaining D. commercial【答案】B【解析】词义推测题。我们很容易地定位到本段末句，通过分析段落，不难发现本段共包括4句话，前三句之间并没有出现表示逻辑关系的词汇，因此没有转折现象发生，而最后两句之间出现Give all this作为连接，很明显四句话之间均为顺承关系，通过阅读文章我们不难发现前三句中出现的诸如misery, worked until exha
16、usted, lived with few protections and died young, their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms等信息都是负性词汇，因此bummer一词必然表达了一种负面的含义，通过选项的分析，AD都为中性词，只有B表达了负面含义，因此本题选择B作为正确选项。注重句与句的关系：英文文章行文紧凑，句与句之间的衔接也非常紧密，考试中常涉及的逻辑关系包括转折、让步、因果、递进、并列等，而在具体的解题过程中，我们可以对其进行简化处理：将句与句之间的关系简单地分为顺承和转折
17、两类，顺承表示前后语句同义，而转折表示前后语句反义，于是对于并列、因果、递进而言，前后句在方向上并未发生变化，而转折和让步则体现前后反差性。 CIndeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City are eager to follow Arace Middle Schools example. Governor Angus King has proposed using $50 million from an unexpected budget surplus to buy a laptop for all of Maines 17,
18、000 seventh-graders and for new seventh-graders each fall. The funds would create a permanent endowment whose interest would help buy the computers. The plan, scaled back to $30 million in a compromise with the legislature, is scheduled to be voted on this week.In the same spirit，the New York City b
19、oard of education voted unanimously on April 12 to create a school Internet portal, which would make money by selling ads and licensing e-commerce sites. The portal will also provide e-mail service for the citys 1.1 million public school students. Profits will be used to buy laptops for each of the
20、school systems 87,000 fourth-graders. Within nine years, all students in grades 4 and higher will have their own computers.Back in Bloomfield, the school board is seeking federal grant money to expand its laptop program to high school students. In the meantime, most of the kinks have been worked out
21、. Some students were using their computers to goof off or visit unauthorized websites. But teachers have the ability to track where students have been on the Web and to restrict them. “That is the worst when they disable you”，says eighth-grade honors student Jamie Bassell. You go through laptop with
22、drawal.”The habit is rubbing off on parents. “I taught my mom to use e-mail, says another eighth-grader, Katherine.34.The underlined word “kink” most probably means_.A. planB. methodC. problemD. process【答案】C【解析】词义推断题。属于比较明显的举例分析，根据后文的例子，即学生浏览不良网站，可推断此词意思近于“问题”。 DThere must be few questions on which
23、responsible opinion is so utterly divided as on that of how much sleep we ought to have. There are some who think we can leave the body to regulate these matters for itself. The answer is easy, says Dr A. Burton. With the right amount of sleep you should wake up fresh and alert five minutes before t
24、he alarm rings. “ If he is right, many people must be under sleeping, including myself. But we must remember that some people have a greater inertia than others. This is not meant rudely. They switch on slowly and they are reluctant to switch off. They are alert at bedtime and sleepy when it is time
25、 to get up, and this may have nothing to do with how fatigued their bodies are, or how much sleep they must take to lose their fatigue.Other people feel sure that the present trend is towards too little sleep. To quote one medical opinion, thousands of people drift through life suffering from the ef
26、fects of too little sleep; the reason is not that they cant sleep. Like advancing colonists, we do seem to be grasping ever more of the land of sleep for our waking needs, pushing the boundary back and reaching, apparently, for a point in our evolution where we will sleep no more. 40.The meaning of
27、the underlined word is closest to_.A. slowness B. stupidity C. sensitivity D. bluntness【答案】A【解析】词义推断题。通过后面一句“They switch on slowly and they are reluctant to switch off” 的解释，可以推出文中的inertia最接近的意思为slowness。inertia原意为“惰性”。B意为“愚蠢”，C为“敏感”，D为“迟钝，直率”。 不管语义题属于哪种情况，其考查的侧重点并不是我们的词汇量，而是我们通过上下文猜测词义的能力，应试技巧有： 1)结
28、合文章和段落的主旨进行判断。不能只根据孤立的句子来判断，要将词汇放到上下文中去判断。 2)切忌从字面意思来判断选项含义与被考单词在含义上字面相近的一般不是答案。 3)通过连接词判断被考词汇含义。 4)利用被考词的修饰、限定成分判断其含义。这种修饰、限定成分的表现形式多样，可以是定语、其他修饰语、特殊标点符号（如冒号、破折号、引号）后面的内容、甚至该词下属的例子及定义，可以通过这些表达从侧面理解被考单词含义。 5)利用上下文中给出的相关信息作为线索进行推测。6)利用实例。列举实例是作者常用的一种写作方法，它常常跟在生词、难词、短语或句子的后面用以解释或重申上文的内容，理解了例子的用意也就弄清了所
29、考词汇的含义。7) 利用排除法进行选择。如果直接判断存在困难，也可以将各选项带入原文，看其是否能使上下文语义通顺，利用排除法进行选择。【真题模拟题训练】 （1）（北京大学 10） Everyone is not equally open with all their friends. The degree of intimacy is determined by many factors. Close friends can be formed at any stage in ones life but they are usually very rare. Not very many peo
30、ple have more than a few really close friends. Irrespective of the level of intimacy, all friendships are based on reciprocity, honesty and a certain of love and affection.1. The word “irrespective” means_.A. not respecting B. dishonoring C. regardless D. considering【答案】C【解析】词义猜测题。由本句后一部分“all friend
31、ships are based on reciprocity, honesty and a certain of love and affection.”可以推断出答案，该词的意思为“不管，不顾”。Word bank-Dripping water penetrates the stone(滴水石穿)Write down the words & phrases unfamiliar to you in this passage.（2）（交通大学，09）Sometimes these errors or failures cant be helped. For example, if you ca
32、nt get parts because of materials shortages or a transportation strike, customers may be denied the goods theyve ordered. And not infrequently the customer is to blame, for example, failing to clearly identify the article or service required. 1. The underlined word “identify” can be replaced by_A. d
33、istinguish B. describe C. notice D. recognize【答案】D 【解析】词义猜测题。通过将四个答案带进原文翻译后，只有D选项的翻译：识别当初所定的商品或服务意思通顺，因而选择D.Word bank-Dripping water penetrates the stone(滴水石穿)Write down the words & phrases unfamiliar to you in this passage.（3）(复旦 08)General Electric has found robots far more productive in some work
34、 than human workers in one case; a robot saved enough to pay for itself in ten months: At Ford Motor Company, about fifty small robots are deftly fitting light bulbs into dashboards and speakers into car radios. The next phase of the computer revolution may well turn out to be the robot revolution R
35、obots have been fixtures in comedy and science fiction for a long time, but the first industrial robot wasnt used in the United States until 1961. Industrial robots scarcely resemble the stereotyped humanoid with flashing eyes and a combinations chest. Theyre basically just combinations of a compute
36、r with very deft and efficient producing machines. Whats really new, of course, is the extent to which these electronic wonders are transforming the way people work and the composition of the work force, especially in Japan. There are about 36,000 robots working in Japan and approximately 6,500 in t
37、he United States. In early i982. Raymond Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Labor, predicted that by 1990 half the workers in U.S. factories would be specialists trained to service and repair robots.54. In Paragraph 1, the word deftly means_A. clumsily B. swiftly C. expensively D. skillfully【答案】B 【解析】词义猜测题。
38、第一段最后一句提到一些小机器人将灯泡装入仪表等，此处用deftly形容机器人的动作，只有D选项最为贴合原文意思，与原文中该意思相近。Word bank-Dripping water penetrates the stone(滴水石穿)Write down the words & phrases unfamiliar to you in this passage. （4）（复旦，08） If all goes according to plan, the entire North American continent will become a free trade zone devoid of
39、 tariffs, quotas, and other trade barriers some time during the 1990s. This plan is the result of recent agreements and discussions involving the United States and Canada on the one hand and the United States and Mexico on the other. Canada and the United States are already each others largest tradi
40、ng partners. In 1986, for example, the U.S. accounted for 71 percent of Canadian merchandise trade (exports plus imports); Canada accounted for 19 percent of U.S. trade. In 1988, a historic document was signed, the Canada-United States Free-Trade Agreement.In many respects, this event seems a natura
41、l consequence of long-standing friendship, common economic interests, and geographic proximity. Nevertheless, it took more than a century to reach agreement. In the mid 1800s, after Great Britain repealed the Corn Laws, Canada proposed bilateral free trade with the United States, and a limited treat
42、y covering natural products only was signed. However, it was abrogated during the Civil War by the United States because of close Canadian-British ties and British support for the Confederacy. After more than a century of fluctuating sentiments on the issue, the 1988 agreement finally eliminates all
43、 bilateral tariffs (in stages to be completed by 1998) and all quantitative trade restrictions. The agreement, it was thought, would particularly boost trade in agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, poultry), mining products (coal and oil), and services (banking, computer, insurance, profession
44、al and telecommunications services, plus retail and wholesale trade). Both countries expected net gains between $1 and 3 billion per year.52. As used in Paragraph 3, the word abrogated means _. A. abolished B. abridged C. ignited suddenly D. ended formally【答案】A【解析】词义猜测题。根据前一句可得知加拿大提议与美国实行双边自由贸易，同时签订
45、了关于天然产品的合约。下文出现了However，可以得知后文与前面进行了转折，将四个选项答案带入，A符合原文，表示废除。Word bank-Dripping water penetrates the stone(滴水石穿)Write down the words & phrases unfamiliar to you in this passage. （5）If you found yourself in a cocktail bar with a Neanderthal man(尼安德特人,直立猿人) what would he say? A good conversation is one
46、 of the great joys of being human, but it is not clear just how far back in the hominid lineage the ability to use language stretches. The question of when grunts and yelps turned into words and phrases is a tricky one. One way of trying to answer it is to look in the fossil record for evidence abou
47、t what modern humanitys closest relatives could do.Svante Pbo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and his colleagues have done just that. Dr Pbo is an expert in extracting and interpreting the DNA of fossils. As he reports in the latest issue of Current Biology, he and h
