| 标题 | 浅谈大学英语阅读中如何判断和猜测词义 |
| 范文 | 王 蕊 摘要：阅读中遇到的生词，会影响阅读速度及理解。本文从六个方面对如何判断和猜测词义进行了论述，意图让学生掌握猜词技巧，提高阅读理解能力。 关键词：上下文；词义；猜测；关系 在大学英语阅读中，我们往往会遇到一些不认识的生词。如果这些生词不影响对文章主要内容的理解，我们可以一带而过。如果了解这些词语的意思对正确理解文章很重要，这时，我们就必须根据上下文的联系，对它们的意义进行猜测，使之不影响对整篇文章的阅读和理解。需要注意的是，不可脱离上下文，只根据自己以前了解的词义来确定其意义。通常，猜测词义可采用以下几种方法： 1 根据上下文内在逻辑关系猜测词义。 1．1 根据对比关系猜测词义 在一个句子或段落中，有对两个事物或现象进行对比性的描述，我们可以根据生词或难词的反义词猜测其词义。例如： Andrew is one of the most supercilious men I know. His brother， in contrast，is quite humble and modest.该例中supercilious对许多人来说可能是个生词，但是句中短语in contrast，（相对照的，相对比的）可以提示我们supercilious和后面词组humble and modest（谦卑又谦虚）是对比关系。分析出这种关系后，我们便能猜出supercilious意为“目空一切的，傲慢的”。 表示对比关系的词汇和短语主要是unlike，not，but，however，despite，inspiteof，incontrast和while引导的并列句等。 “A good supervisor can recognize instantlythe adept workers from the unskilledones.” 该句中并未出现上面提到的表示对比关系的词或短语，但是通过上下文可以判断出句子前后是对比关系，即把熟练工人与非熟练工人区分开。这时我们也能够推断出生词adept的词义，“熟练的”。 1.2 根据比较关系猜测词义 同对比关系相反，比较关系表示意义上的相似关系，例如：“Green loves to talk，and hisbrothers are similarly loquacious.” 该句中副词similarly表明短语loves totalk与生词loquacious之间的比较关系。以此可以推断出loquacious词义为“健谈的”。 表示比较关系的词和短语主要是similarly，like，just as，also等。 1.3 根据因果关系猜测词义 在句子或段落种，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知生词词义。例如：The teacher did not hear the knocking at the door because he was completely engrossed in his reading. 以因果关系为线索, 可确定engrossed的意思为“被吸引”, “全神贯注”。 There were so many demonstrators in theRed Square that he had to elbow his waythrough the crowd. 此句为结果状语从句，根据从句的描书“许多示威者”，我们便可推知elbow的词意“挤，挤过”。 1.4 找同义词、近义词和词组的替代关系猜测词义 在句子或段落中，我们可以利用熟悉的词语，根据语言环境推断生词词义。例如： Should the government regulate the cost of resources such as oil and gas? Some people do not believe that government control is the solution to the problem of the rising cost of fuel. 文中regulate的词义可猜测为与government control的意思相近。 Cleaning up waterways is an enormous task. The job is so large, in fact, that the government may not be able to save some of the rivers and lakes which have been polluted. 文中enormous 的词义可猜测为与so large 的意思相近。 “Doctors believe that smoking cigarettes isdetrimental to your health. They also regarddrinking as harmful.” 句中detrimental四个生词，但判断出harmful替代detrimental后，不难推断出其词义为“不利的，有害的”。 1.5 利用文中的反义词猜测词义。 表示对比的词有but, while, however, otherwise 等。 American businessmen expect employees to be punctual. They do not expect that the workers will come late. 文中be punctual.的意思, 可理解为not come late, 即“准时, 不迟到”。 Unlike her gregarious sister, Jane is a shy person, who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends. 根据文中Unlike的意思, shy person, who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends.应该表达了“gregarious”相反的意思, 所以gregarious的意思为“好交际的”。 A vegetarian does not want meat, but may rate the utility of banana very highly, while a meat-eater may prefer steak. 句中vegetarian通过while与meat-eater对比, 可猜为“吃素者”。 Most of them agreed; however, John dissented. dissented通过however与agreed对比, “反对”。 I try hard not to make serious mistakes, but inevitably I slip up. slip up通过but与make serious mistakes对比, 可猜为“犯小错误”。 Jane was talking with others while Bliza remained reticent all the time. 根据while的提示, 前后对照, reticent的含义是“沉默寡言”。optimism“乐观主义”与Pessimism意义相反, 可猜Pessimism之意为“悲观主义”。 利用文中的举例猜测词义。 恰当的举例能够提供猜测生词的重要线索，常见的举例的提示词有：for example, such as , for instance 等。例如：The consequences of epochal events such as wars and great scientificdiscoveries are not confined to a small geographical area as they were in the past. 句中“战争”和“重大科学发现”是生词的实例，通过它们我们可以猜出epochal的大致词义“重要的”，这与其确切含义“划时代的”十分接近。 Some artists plan their paintings around geometric forms like squares, circles and triangles. 如不知道“geometric forms”的意思, 可从文中所列举的三角形、正方形、圆形来猜得其意义为“几何图形”。 Today young couples who are just starting their households often spend lots of their money on appliances, for instance, washing-machines, refrigerators and color televisions. 如不知道appliances的意思, 从文中的举例washing-machines（洗衣机）, refrigerators（冰箱）, color televisions（电视机）可以猜出该词的意思为“家用电器”。 There were disastrous fires in some cities, such as the great fire of London in 1666. such as 列举出如1666年伦敦大火一类“灾难性”（即disastrous）的火灾。 The government promises to give millions of deprived black the essentials in life——housing, education, health facilities, and job opportunities. 可猜出essentials是“必需品”。 3 利用文中说明词义的同位语或定语, 猜测词义。 上下文中可能有与生词出现的句子类似的平行结构，找出和生词处于同一位置的词去推测。 The invention of snorkel, a long air tube that reaches up to the surface, has made it possible for submarines to use their diesel engine even when they are submerged. 句中snorkel一词的意思, 可通过其同位语a long air tube that reaches up to the surface来猜得。由此我们可以确定该词的意思为“通气管”。 Tom was a roamer,a wanderer who could never stay in one place. roamer是生词, 但wanderer是由我们所熟悉的wander变化而来的名词, 那可以推出的意思是“流浪汉”。 Nearby is the race course, where the town's most famous car race is held each year on May 30th. 以where引导的定语从句为依据, course应是汽车赛举行的地点, 所以排除“过程”, “课程”, “航向”, 而要定义为“跑道”。 The type of meter is called multimeter, which is used to measure electricity. 通过定语从句which is used to measure electricity（用来测量电的）, 我们可以将multimeter的词义确定为“万用表”。 They will be on the night shift—— from midnight to 6 a.m. - next week. 由破折号之间的解释内容, 我们可以了解到night shift意思为“夜班”。 To train the students to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words through contextual clues, namely, through the words before or after the words they may not know. namely后面的内容解释说明了contextual clues为“情景线索”。 In sports, especially athletics, success is often prevented by psychological obstacles, that is, barriers that exist in the mind only. that is后面的内容解释说明了psychological obstacles为“心理障碍”。 4 利用下文定义的句子猜测词义。 In some cultures, certain foods are taboo. Taboo is a word from the language of the Fiji Islands, used to describe something forbidden. 根据句子内容, 可猜测Taboo为“禁忌”。 Instinctive behavior is a pattern of behavior that an animal is born with. 根据句子内容, 可猜测Instinctive behavior为“本性”。 An expedition is a long, organized trip or journey, which is made into an unfamiliar area for a particular purpose by a group of people. 句中which引导的定语从句进一步解释了expedition之意为“远征队”。 Some computer scientists are developing artificial-intelligence machines that they say will think like people. 根据定语从句, 可猜测artificial-intelligence之意为“人工智能”。 A gorilla always makes me think of the word aloof-- not friendly, of distance from others.破折号后的内容是aloof一词“不友好, 冷漠”的释意。 We all use onomatopoeic words——words that sound like the noise they are describing. 不难猜出onomatopoeic words意为“象声词”。 总之, 在英语阅读中运用和掌握这些猜词方法, 就会在很大程度上减少生词的数量, 有助于提高阅读速度和培养阅读能力。 参考文献 [1]汪榕培.英语词汇学教程[M].上海外语教育出版社，2005. [2]谭晓英.大学英语学习策略培训与研究[J].外语界，2002. [3]刘兵.阅读能力培养[M]北京航空工业出版社，1998. [4]吕道利.英语词汇教学研究[J].外语研究，2004，（2）64-66. 作者简介：王蕊（1973-）黑龙江哈尔滨人，黑龙江广播电视大学基础教学部英语教师。 |
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