阅读策略七：猜测词义

【猜测词义】

猜测词义（Deducing meaning from context），顾名思义就是通过上下文，猜测出生词的含义。TKT一书中提到：Deducing meaning from context involves reading the words around an unknown word or thinking about the situation the unknown word is used in to try and work out its meaning. When we read, we don’t always know the meaning of all the words we meet. This skill helps us understand unknown words without making use of a dictionary or some other reference resource.

【猜测词义技巧】

《英语课程标准》（2011年版）五级读的目标提到：能根据上下文和构词法推断、理解生词的含义。

★ 猜词技巧主要有两个：

根据上下文推断和根据构词法推断

★ 猜测词汇的出题规律有二：

一是课标内词汇词义的引申。考察考生对所熟悉的词汇在特定语境下正确含义的理解。一般来说，该词的本意不是解，但是其引申义上仍可以找到本意的影子。阅读材料中的每个词与它前后的词语或句子甚至段落都有联系。我们可以利用语境（各种已知信息）推测、判断某些生词的词义。

二是课标外词汇词义的推断。

★ 常见的题干有：

Which of the following is the closest in meaning to the word？

　 The word... could best be replaced by.

　 In the... paragraph, the underlined word... means (refers to)…

　　  According to the passage, ... probably means.

　 The author uses the word... to mean.

猜测词义时，一般可利用以下策略：

★ 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从句）或段落来定义，或者使用破折号、冒号、分好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 be, be called, define, represent, refer to, signify等。

如：Do you know what a territory is ? A territory is an area that an animal ,usually the male, claims（声称）as its own.

分析：由定义可推知，这里treritory指的是：动物的地盘。

再如：In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today.

分析：由同位语an endangered wild cat，我们很快猜出生词ocelots的含义：一种濒临灭绝的野猫。

★ 根据举例猜测词义

 The course gives you chances to know great power polities between nation states. It will provide more space to study particular issues such as relationship among countries in the European Union, third world debt, local and international disagreement, and the work of such international bodies as the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, and the World Bank.

分析：根据such as后面举的例子，能推测出句中的issue指的是“议题”。

★ 根据对比、比较关系猜测词义

在一个句子或者段落中，有对两个事物进行比对的描述，我们可以根据其反义词来猜测其词义。注意这些关键词：unlike, not, but, however, despite, in spite of, in contrast等。表示对比关系还有while引导的并列句，表示并列关系的副词有：similarly, like, just as, as well as, also等。

如：A child’s birthday party doesn’t have to be a hassle; it can be a basket of fun.

　　What does the underlined word hassle probably mean?

　　A.a party designed by specialists(专家)               B.a plan requiring careful thought

　　C.a situation causing difficulty or trouble           D.a demand(要求) made by guests

分析：根据对比关系，这里的hassle和a basket of fun是相反的意义，很容易判断理解题的答案为C。

★根据因果关系猜测词义

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。

如：Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender(幼稚的，柔软的) shoots,or young leaves.

分析：根据原因状语从句的内容“因为它能促进幼小的根或刚长的叶子的生长”，我们可以判断Pruning的意思是：修剪（树枝等）。

William Shakespeare said. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn（纱线），good and ill together.

The underlined word mingled in the last paragraph most probably means ______.

　　A. simple      B. mixed         C. sad           D. happy

分析：句中的good and ill together，说明了a mingled yarn的意义，据此我们不难推测mingled的意思：混合的，交织的。

★ 通过构词法猜测词义

根据前缀、后缀、复合词的各部分猜测词义、猜测词性变换新词含义等都是可取的方法。

如：Do you have any strong opinion on co-educational or single-sex（单性别的，男女分开的） schools?

分析：根据词根educational （教育的），结合前缀co-（共同，一起），我们便可以猜出co-educational的意思是：男女同校教育的意思。

再如：Good tool design is important in the prevention of overuse injuries. Well-designed tools and equipment will require less force to operate them and prevent awkward（别扭的）hand positions.

【分析】Well-designed 或许是个生词，但我们分析该词的结构后，就能推测出其含义。它由well （好，优秀）和design （设计）两部分组成，合在一起便是设计精巧的意思。

分析：The other teams, disappointed, were on the bus heading home.

分析：head本为名词，表头。由the bus和home的语境逻辑可以推断，该句head为动词，表方向，结合全句可译为开往、驶向。

★ 根据生活常识等来猜测词义

如：Birds fly with their wings, and they pick up their foods, and then eat them with their beaks and they use their claws for tearing（撕裂）, seizing（抓住，夺取）, pulling or holding objects.

分析：根据常识可知鸟儿吃东西用喙，撕碎等用爪子，因此beak意为“喙”，claw意为“爪子”。

如：

When people are young, meeting and overcoming challenges will make them strong and ready to face life. When we look at successful people, we see that the most successful of them are people who have had to struggle. One famous businessman, who now owns many big supermarkets, used to carry clothes on his back and sell them from door to door when he was young. Another successful man is Dennis. His father died when he was only twenty. His father’s death forced him to mature fast. He had to bring up a family of nine people. He took up the challenges and overcame them. Today his brothers and sisters are leading successful lives.

（   ）The meaning of the underlined word “mature” in the passage is “________”.

A. wake up                  B. give up                    C. grow up                  D. bring up

【分析】根据下文：他不得不抚养九口之家。他本句的意思是：他父亲在他仅仅20岁时就去世了。他的父亲的去世迫使他很快成长起来。他接受了挑战克服了这些困难。因此这里表示父亲的死让他很快成熟了。mature成熟，wake up醒来；give up放弃；grow up长大；bring up抚养。

（未完，待续）