备战08高考英语复习运用上下文和构词法猜词

　　在平时的阅读和英语考试中，我们都会遇到生词，这很正常，也不可避免。根据文章提供的上下文和掌握构词法猜测词义，是我们学习和掌握英语必须具备的能力。对高考而言，这种能力尤为重要。从四年高考英语天津卷来看，阅读理解试题中总有一些题要考查同学们根据上下文和构词法知识猜出生词词义或熟词新义的能力。而从考试结果来看，猜词题一直都是难度大，区分度高的试题。在这个项目上得分，可以使自己的高考英语成绩占有优势。2004年至2007年的试题中，在不同的语篇里，分别要猜collision，juvenile obesity，inheritable trait和compassion等四个词（词组），虽然这几个猜词题都有很好的上下文，也有比较明显的“词干”提示，但考试的结果，其难度系数（正确选择率）却分别是：0.23，0.64，0.24和0.13，猜词成了大部分同学的“滑铁卢”。

　　一、高考猜哪类词

　　从近几年高考试题来看，猜词题既猜生词生义，也猜熟词生义；猜词里既有单词，又有短语；词类分布上，以实词（名词，动词，形容词，副词和代词等）为主。

　　1.生词生义

　　例一：Food Network producer Flay hopes the young cook will find a place on the network television. He says Lieberman’s charisma is key. “Food TV isn’t about food anymore,” says Flay. 　　“It’s about your personality（个性）and finding a way to keep people’s eyeballs on your show.”

　　What does the word “charisma” underlined in the text refer to?

　　A. A natural ability to attract others.

　　B. A way to show one’s achievement.

　　C. Lieberman’s after-class interest.

　　D. Lieberman’s fine cooking skill.

　　答案A。charisma为非考纲词汇表上单词，其词义与下文的“It’s about your personality（个性）and finding a way to keep people’s eyeballs on your show.”有关。

　　例二：Born in Chicago in 1902, brought up and schooled in Nebraska, the 19-year-old college graduate Ralph Tyler became hooked on teaching while teaching as a science teacher in South Dakota and changed his major from medicine to education.

　　The words “hooked on teaching” underlined in the paragraph probably mean ________.

　　A. attracted to teaching B. tired of teaching

　　C. satisfied with teaching D. unhappy about teaching

　　答案A。become/get hooked on sth为非考纲词汇表上词组，其词义可以通过下文的… and changed his major from medicine to education.来获得。

　　2．猜熟词生义

　　例一 Dear all,

　　Please read Professor Hume's email about his next lecture on Rosa Parks.

　　Susan Miller

　　Secretary

 

　　Dear Susan,

　　Please forward this message to students of my history class.

　　What does the underlined word “forward” mean?

　　A. Explain. B. Send.

　　C. Take. D. Read.

　　答案B。forward做副词，表示“向前方”、“前进”，这是同学们非常熟悉的。但在这里forward显然是用做动词，这是从构词法“转化词”的角度考查同学们词的知识扩展能力。forward在这里指信件的“转递”。

　　例二One of the best-known sayings must be “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” The promises of health, wealth, and wisdom to those who join the teams of the early retirers and risers must be particularly pleasing to many people in our modern society. There is no doubt that one of the greatest concerns of modern man is his health.

　　The underlined word “retirers” in the paragraph here refers to _________.

　　A．people who give up their work

　　B．people who have a lot of free time

　　C．people who go to bed

　　D．people who live in quiet places

　　答案C。我们所熟知的retire一词当“退休”讲，因此retirer似乎应当是A选项“people who give up their work”；但在本文的语境中riser对应early to rise，因此retirer要对应early to bed，取选项C的意义，这是熟词的生义。

　　二、猜词的有效方法是上下文和构词法

　　1．根据上下文猜词，就是要捕捉出猜词的语境信息。

　　“上下文”是生词在语句、语段或语篇中的具体语言环境。一个生词总是与周围的词语发生某种联系，并受其制约。词的意思可以从“上下文”的语境中捕捉出来。在高考命题中，命题者往往会选择上下文比较充分的词，让同学们来猜。一般而言，命题者是不会把猜词变成“认字”意义上的考查的。换句话说，只要同学们有耐心，“上下求索”，总能够找到猜词信息的。问题是，由于平时很多同学依赖“电子字典”，逢生词便查，没有注意平时的猜词训练，没有形成猜词的意识、方法和技巧，因此，一到上下文猜词，就感到无所适从。

　　在寻找上下文信息时，要特别注意语句、语段或语篇中所存在的解释、说明或者同义、反义、对比、归纳、列举等逻辑上的联系。

　　例一 When Andrea Peterson landed her first teaching job, she faced the daunting task of creating a music program with almost no money for equipment or supplies in a climate where standards-based learning was the focus and music just provided a break for students and teachers.

　　The underlined word “daunting” in the paragraph most probably means__________.

　　A．discouraging

　　B．interesting

　　C．creative

　　D．unbearable

　　答案A。daunting的词义来自of后的描述性语言，如with almost no money（几乎没有钱），music just provided a break for students and teachers（对老师和学生来说音乐只不过是一段休息），从“没钱”和“不受重视”可以猜出词义为discouraging，“让人沮丧、丧失斗志和打消念头的”。

　　例二 The above are the main reasons for this problem, and therefore we have to encourage young people to be more active, as well as steering them away from fast food shops and bad eating 　　habits.

　　The word "steering" underlined in the last sentence most probably means _______.

　　A. forcing

　　B. guiding

　　C. driving

　　D. moving

　　答案B。猜测steering一词，要抓住as well as这个词所提示的并列、同义信息。前面是encourage young people to be more active，“鼓励年轻人更积极主动”，后面就应当是“引导”他们远离快餐店和不良饮食习惯，而不是forcing（迫使）、driving（驱使）他们来做这个事。

　　例三 “It’s important to let children experience the reality of death, if it can be done in an atmosphere of love and caring． A child whose sibling, parent or grandparent is seriously ill can be made to feel helpful by being allowed to run errands（跑腿）． Even a very young child can comfort a sick loved one with a cheering visit．”

　　Judging from the passage, the underlined word “sibling” in the paragraph probably means ．

　　A． friend B． brother or sister

　　C． cousin D． relative

　　答案B。猜测sibling这个词时，需要注意它是与parent or grandparent一起罗列出来的，这是通过列举归纳的方法来猜测词义的很好的例子。sibling, parent or grandparent都与孩子有亲属关系，从这样的列举我们不难推断sibling应当是“兄弟姐妹”。

　　例四 Johnson looked like a man wanted in Los Angeles for robbery, so the police detained him at San Pedro for the night．The next day, Johnson telephoned his friends in Los Angeles． They drove to San Pedro and made the police believe that Johnson was a harmless salesman, so they set him free．

　　The underlined word “detained” probably means __________．

　　A． caught B． controlled

　　C． kept D． hurt

　　答案C。detained前面出现了a man wanted（被通缉的人），the police（警察局）；它的下面又出现了at San Pedro for the night（在San Pedro过一夜），综合分析上下文的信息，应当是拘留，也就是用kept一词，注意不能用caught，这是个动作动词，表示“逮着了”，但不能说“逮着了一夜”。

　　例五 Jacob Blitzstein surprised his fellow students all the time. He isn’t some stuffy guy, though he wears his neat gray beard and conservative (traditional) clothes.

The word “stuffy” in the paragraph means _______.

　　A. old-fashioned

　　B. respectable

　　C. narrow-minded

　　D. fat

　　答案A。stuffy后面有一个though引导的让步状语从句，说明出现了反义信息，但是stuffy前面又有not，说明stuffy就是wears his neat gray beard and conservative (traditional) clothes传递出的信息，因此选择old-fashioned“传统的，守旧的”。

　　例六 If left to himself, he would have whistled ( 吹口哨) life away in perfect satisfaction; but his wife was always mad at him for his idleness （懒散）. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was endlessly going, so that he was forced to escape to the outside of the house ——the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.

　　The underlined words “henpecked husband” in the paragraph probably means a man who______.

　　A. likes hunting

　　B. is afraid of hens

　　C. loves his wife

　　D. is afraid of his wife

　　答案D。henpecked husband是通过前文事例，最后做出的归纳。进行猜词时，要分析文段所描述的人物特点：自己待着，无拘无束，其乐融融；而他的妻子却总会为他的懒散而恼怒，整天唠叨他，结果他不得已跑出家去。这种表现明显的是“气管炎”，怕老婆。

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