顺藤摸瓜巧猜词义
——词义猜测题解题技巧

文/欧阳芳

顺藤摸瓜巧猜词义
——词义猜测题解题技巧

文/欧阳芳

猜词能力是英语应用能力的重要指标。要准确把握词义猜测题，一方面我们需要较大的泛读量，掌握较多的课外词汇，同时若能巧妙联系上下文来理解，把握顺藤摸瓜的技巧，通过构词、定义、逻辑（如对比、因果等）、常识等线索，我们也能准确敲定词义。

词义猜测题的常见命题形式有:

1.The underlined word“...”most probably means...

2.By saying“...”，the author means...

3.The expression“...”is closest to...

4.According to the passage，the phrase“...”suggests...

5.The underlined part“...”（in Para...）means...

做这种类型的阅读理解题，我们还是得以“词不离句、句不离篇”的逻辑表达习惯为解题宗旨，巧妙利用上下文中的线索（词汇、逻辑或常识），准确猜测词义。常见的词义猜测题可从以下几个方面入手:

一、通过构词法猜词

如果需要猜测的词中有自己熟悉的词根，我们应该根据上下文大胆推测其基本构词的方式，猜出词义。如:

【中考真题1】（2015年安徽卷，保留原题号）Mr.Hirsh Goldberg wrote a book on telling lies.He said in his book that almost all persons lie about 200 times a day. In our daily life，a typical（典型的）lie for a man is“I did not d rink that much”and for a woman is“Nothing is wrong，I'm fine”.It is found that nurses are the most honest people，while sales people and politicians（政客）are the biggest liars.

79.The underlined w ord“liars”probably means“”.

A.获利者B.说谎者C.影响者D.领导者

解析：lie一词在文中多次出现，根据我们熟悉的词缀-er表示“做……的人”可知，liar应该为词根lie+ar构成，推测其意思为“说谎者”就不难了。再加上文中the biggest liar与the most honest people之间的对比含义，对推测结果的正确性就更有把握了。

二、通过上下文中的同义词、近义词、并列词等猜词

作者通常会在猜测词义处的上文或下文中，用其同义词或反义词进行解释说明，这也是猜测词义的一个重要方法。

【中考真题2】（2015年遵义卷，保留原题号）Another thing she taught me was punctuality. She set a good example with her own actions.She was always on time，so we students tried our best on time.

52.The underlined word“punctuality”in the third paragraph probably means .

A.being on time B.being honest C.being patient

解析：通过下文中描述“她用自己总是准时的行动，给我们树立了一个好榜样”，由此可以推测：她教给我的实际上就是being on time，所以答案选A。

三、通过解释语或定义猜词

对于个别的词汇，作者会用解释语甚至以下定义的方式进行阐述，此时抓住解释语或定义语，词义的猜测就迎刃而解了。

【中考真题3】（2015年宁夏卷，保留原题号）A lain c limbs as a hobby.He also does it to make money for charity（for poor children and the home less）.

58.The underlined word“charity”means“”in Chinese.

A.享受B.休闲C.慈善D.消费

解析：括号内“为穷苦的孩子们和无家可归的人们”是对charity的补充解释，所以我们不难猜到艾伦不仅以攀爬作为业余爱好，也通过这一活动来赚钱做慈善。所以答案为C。

【中考真题4】（2015年北京卷，保留原题号）The teachers also say that iPads allow students to learn at their ow n pace.Some students might listen to a dialogue only once and understand it，so they can save time for doing other things.Other students，how ever，might need to listen to the same dialogue again and again to understand it.Using iPads is especially helpful to students who are learning a language at different paces.

53.What does the expression“at their own pace”in Paragraph 3 probably mean？

A.According to their own timetable.B.Without their teachers'help.

C.Because o f their wonderful goals.D.Against their parents'hope.

解析：此段中首句为段落主旨句，而后面的Some students...Other students，however...则为对段落主旨句的解释和说明，最后一句话是对全段内容的总结。把握住这一结构，短语的意思就不难推测了。既然有些学生只需学一遍，而有些学生需多次反复，说明他们的学习步调不相同，而iPad则能帮助解决这一问题，所以答案为A。

四、通过上下文的逻辑关系猜词

上下文的逻辑关系是我们猜测词义的主要方法，只要能识别上下文中的逻辑关系（因果、并列、转折等）的引导词，猜词就不那么困难了。

【中考真题5】（2015年河北卷，保留原题号）...I would also like to be well remunerated for my hard work，so I can lead a comfortable life with this hard-won money.Then I can provide the best for my family.

63.The underlined word“remunerated”in the passage means“”.

A.trained B.praised C.accepted D.paid

解析：so在此表因果关系，意思为“所以我能用这些辛苦赚下来的钱过上舒适的生活”。后一句又说“然后我就能为家里人提供最好的（生活）”。由此可推知，此句中be well remunerated for...意为“因为……得到较高的报酬”。所以答案为D。

【中考真题6】（2015年临沂卷，保留原题号）...When they were alone with the cow s，they often sang beautiful and peaceful songs to calm the animals and to overcome their own fear.

38.The phrase“calm the animals”here means“make the animals become”.

A.sad and lonely B.quiet and relaxed

C.angry and wild D.upset and scared

解析：句中and为表并列关系的连接词，to calm the animals与to overcome their fear为牛仔们唱歌的两个目的，再根据后面的“为克服他们自身的恐惧”这一目的，我们能体会到牛仔唱歌是为了让牛安静和放松，所以答案选B。

五、通过生活常识、社会经验及科技知识猜词

阅读理解题在绝大部分情况下应该以文本所说为准，但在词义猜测方面，我们还得借助于常识，毕竟常识的存在能为作者和读者搭建一个共同的理解平台。所以对于部分猜测词义的内容，我们完全可以根据上下文的提示并结合常识来准确猜出词义。

【中考真题7】（2015年山西卷，有删节，保留原题号）Because people in the world today are many more than those about fifty years ago，most of the earth's surface has to be filled.The deserts are irrigated with water and crops are no longer eaten by pests（害虫）.The harvest is always good.

52.What's the meaning of the underlined word“irrigated”？

A.冲刷B.灌溉C.淹没

解析：根据常识，想要收成不错，农作物就不能有虫害，沙漠也应该解决缺水的问题才行，所以此处irrigated表“（用水）灌溉”。本段句意为：因为现在世界上的人比大约50年前要多得多，所以绝大部分地球表面都得利用起来。沙漠被水灌溉而农作物也不再被害虫吃掉了。收成一直都不错。

总之，在做阅读理解中的词义猜测题时，我们首先应认真阅读，把握上下文大意，再根据生词的情况采用恰当的方法进行推测，以提高做题的正确率。