高考英语阅读理解词义猜测体会

赵康华

【摘要】 猜词是英语阅读的重要技巧，也是高考阅读中必考的题型。它不但需要准确无误地理解上下文，而且要有较大的泛读量，掌握或认识较多的课外词汇。考生应学会“顺藤摸瓜”，通过构词、定义、同位、对比、因果、常识、同义、反义及上下文线索等来确定词义。本文拟通过对高中英语阅读中的词义猜测的题型特点与命题方式、解题技巧进行归纳、剖析，以期能对同学们的阅读学习有所启示。

【关键词】 高考英语 阅读理解

【中图分类号】 G633.41 【文献标识码】 A 【文章编号】 1992-7711（2018）01-121-01

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1.根据定义解释猜测词义

我们经常可以根据文章中的标点符号来推断词义。比如，破折号常常起解释说明的功能，冒号常常标志着前后文有一种包含或者辩证关系。定义或作解释的方法来定义或诠释某一名词或者概念是文章中经常会出现的。这些定义常常与划线词位置关系很紧密，常用于下定义的词或短语有：is， is called， be defined as， like， the same as， refer to， such， such as， like， for example/ instance， especially， include，that is to say， in other words…

【例1】【2015·江苏高考，D】Some 2，500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations， splendid empires， but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies， one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.

65.What does the underlined word “tyrannies” in Paragraph 2 refer to？

A.Countries where their people need help.

B.Powerful states with higher civilization.

C.Splendid empires where people enjoy freedom.

D.Governments ruled with absolute power.

【解析】画线单词后面部分为画线单词的同位语，对该单词进行解释，意为“一个统治无助群体的强有力的人”，即“专政，暴君”，可知答案是D.

2.根据逻辑关系猜测词义

1） 转折或对比关系

事物之间是有联系的，事件也是隨着事件的推移不断发展的。这之中又常常会有“人死了，钱没花了”这样的矛盾所在，也就是我们说的转折或对比关系。在英语阅读文章中，也经常会出现这样的情况。表示转折和对比关系的标志性词或短语有：but， however， yet， or， otherwise， while， though， on one hand…on the other hand， rather than， instead of.如：

【例2】【2016·湖北秭归一中高考模拟】For example， we all have days like this： our dog has made a mess on the floor we just cleaned， or our friend called to tell us he or she couldnt come at the last minute when we had cooked dinner for him or her. We may be really angry but we tried to bear things like those.

The underlined word “bear” in Paragraph 2 means ________.

A. 纠正 B. 忍受 C. 铭记 D. 杜绝

【解析】前文中描述了两种场景：狗狗把我们刚擦干净的地板弄得一团糟，朋友在我们准备好晚饭后才告知不能来。这两件事情是足以让我们抓狂生气的事情，但文章中的but一词的出现说明后面bear的意思是和angry是相反意义的词。根据判断，我们得知对这样的事情我们可能会很生气但是也应该尽量去忍受，所以B为正确答案。

2）比较关系

有句话说得好，“有比较就有鉴别”。中国的作家如此，英文作家也是如此，他们有时候会在表达一个态度的时候采用“对比”的方式，这时候就需要读者有一双发现“双胞胎”的眼睛，给划线词找到它的“同胞兄弟”。表示比较关系的词或短语主要有：similarly， like， just as， also， as well as等。如：

【例3】Green loves to talk， and his brothers are similarly loquacious.

【解析】该句中副词similarly表明短语loves to talk与生词loquacious之间为类比关系。以此可以推断出loquacious词义为“健谈的”。

3）因果关系

佛家讲凡事有“因果循环”。确实，事物的发展一定是先有因，后有果。而果又变成了下个事件的因，如此反复。不论是什么文体，在事件A和事件B中总是存在这样的逻辑关系，如果我们能睁大眼睛看到文章的行文思路，弄清来龙去脉，不仅可以猜测出某些词的含义，对于整段话及文章的思路也会有更好的把握。表示因果关系的词或短语主要有：because， since， as， for， so， therefore， so…that…， such…that…， thus。 如：

【例4】Jake wasnt impressed with what he had done. “Stopping the bus，” he said， “was easy compared to playing Grand Theft Auto III，” his favorite video game. The bus driver was taken to the police station. He was at first charged （指控） with “leaving a child alone while motor is running.” The lawyer said he hoped to upgrade the charge because of the number of children （twenty） on the bus.

4.What does the underlined word “upgrade” mean in the fourth paragraph？

A. 改变 B. 取消 C. 加重 D. 减轻

【解析】根据because后的原因——当时有二十个学生在车上而不是一个，推测结果是律师要“升级、加重”对司机的指控，所以正确答案为C.

3.根据上下文关系猜测词义

1）有时候文章没有明显的标志性提示词，只有把前后文章读懂，才能最终推断出划线词的意思。此时一定要耐心和细心，我们来看一个例子：

【例5】【2015·四川高考，D】And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being more nocturnal. Dr. Dominoni said， “In Glasgow where I live， gulls are a serious problem. I have people coming to me saying ‘You are the bird expert. Can you help us kill these gulls？. During the breeding （繁殖） season， between April and June， they are very active at night and very noisy and people can't sleep.”

44.What does the underlined word “nocturnal”in Paragraph 5 mean？

A.Active at night. B.Inactive at night.

C.Active during the day D.Inactive during the day.

【解析】根據画线词所在段中的“being kept awake”及“During the breeding （繁殖） season， between April and June， they are very active at night”可知，nocturnal的意思应是“夜间活动的”，故选A.

当然，还有其它一些方法，比如，根据构词法、常识，也可以作出正确判断。