说到猜词,其实有多种方法,下面介绍几种常用且准确性高的方法。
★ 一、利用上下文线索猜测词义。
▲ 1.根据同义、反义关系猜词。
案例:Today's teenagers seem to be more liberal in their ideas than their _______ grandparents.
A. freethinking B. traditional
C. old D. happy
分析:traditional与liberal意思相反,故选B。
▲ 2.根据句意或段落文章的上、下文猜测词义。
案例:Klebold and Harris felt _______ and wanted to revenge against those who disliked playing together with them or laughed at them.
A. discouraged B. ashamed
C. tired D. separated
分析:根据下文的disliked playing together with them判断此处应为"感到孤立",故选D。
阅读题参考样
The northern spotted owl is the only species whose survival has been definitively proven to depend on old growth. For at least a dozen other species, ranging from the marten to the pileated woodpecker, a reservoir of old growth habitat may also be essential. But using radio collars, researcher Eric Forsman followed foraging flights from owl nests in the broken tops of ancient Douglas first and fed the data into a computer. The computer-generated maps revealed an overwhelming preference for hunting in forests over two hundred years old, even if to do so the owls have to travel to the limits of their ranges, bypassing plenty of slightly younger forest en route to a kill. The owl needs old growth, and lots of it. But he probably won’t get it. (转自:秦苏珊英语中心)
★ 二、利用构词法猜测词义。
此法包括利用前、后缀及合成词猜测词义。
▲ 1. 用前、后缀猜测词义。
英语中的前缀、后缀构词颇多,并且特定的前缀、后缀往往表示特定的含义,把握住这一点,可起到“以不变应万变”的效果。
案例:He had been overworking and fell ill at last.
分析:overwork是由前缀over加动词构成,over有“超过,过于”之意,overwork意思是“工作过多,劳累过度”。再如,overburden负担过重,overcharge要价过高,overdo做得过分。
● 英语中常用的前缀还有:
mis-错误:misfortune不幸;mislead误导;mismanage处理不当
mid-中央:midnight半夜;midway半路
under-低于:underdone半生不熟的;underestimate低估
anti-反对:antibody抗体;anticyclone反气旋;antifreeze防冻剂
● 下面划线单词为常见后缀派生词:
1) You must stop dreaming and face reality.(-ty为名词的标志)
2) The country is trying to popularize education. (-ize为及物动词的标志,再如realize, modernize)
▲ 2.利用合成词猜测词义。
案例:Family members take turns choosing a special activity for the evening, and everyone partakes in for fun.
分析:根据短语构成及上下文意思看,此处partakes in相当于takes part in。
● 再如break out-outbreak(名词“爆发”),set out-outset(名词“起始”),come in-income(名词“收入”)
阅读题参考样
As early as 1968, a small group of researchers were applying modeling techniques to forest ecosystems. Ecosystems research is politically awkward; it considers nothing by itself. In the Douglas fir forests of the Cascades and the Coast Ranges the owl’s ecological role is to cull and keep healthy the population of small mammals that are its favorite foods, among them the fungus-eating California red-backed vole and the northern flying squirrel. ( 转自:秦苏珊英语中心)