以上三種答案是我們聽到最多的,當然我們肯定不能“懵逼”(雖然這是你們的常態(tài)),當然我們在備考期間一定要好好背單詞(單詞都是背出來的,看看你的單詞書,是不是還是很新?別跟我說你愛惜書,面壁去!)但是當我們走上考場的時候,遇到了不認識的單詞怎么辦?“猜?”沒錯,就是“猜!”但是不能盲目瞎猜,那么今天老師就給你講講該怎么“猜”單詞!
呃…確切地說,是推斷單詞含義,文化人怎么說“猜”!
雅思官方明確說明了雅思考試不考察“記憶力”而是考察“語言的駕馭能力”,也就是說,光靠“背”是不可以滴(所以口語寫作的模板被考官發(fā)現(xiàn)后會扣分很重哦)!
那么閱讀考試中,何為“語言駕馭能力的考察”呢?其實就是看看你能否在陌生語境下聯(lián)系上下文來理解文字的含義。在學術英語中,有很多小的tricks可以幫助到我們,下面我們具體來看看吧。
1.利用詞根詞綴
相信很多同學是了解這個方法的,因為“詞根詞綴記憶單詞”這個東東已經被人們鼓吹了很多年了,從老師還是個稚嫩少年的時候就已經聽說過這個方法了(那個時候菊花還只是一種花)。實際上,詞根詞綴法是一個很好地在閱讀中猜詞的方法。同學們在備考閱讀的時候需要掌握一些常見的詞綴用以猜詞意或判斷方向性。我們來看下面的例子(第24題):
題目:
23 Home medical aids
24 Regular amounts of exercise
25 Feelings of control over life
26 Feelings of loneliness
A may cause heart disease.
B can be helped by hormone treatment.
C may cause rises in levels of stress hormones.
D have cost theUnited Statesgovernment more than $200 billion.
E may help prevent mental decline.
F may get stronger at night.
G allow old people to be more independent.
H can reduce stress in difficult situations.
原文:
Maintaining a level of daily physical activity may help mental functioning, says Carl Cotman, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Irvine. He found that rats that exercise on a treadmill have raised levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor coursing through their brains. Cotman believes this hormone, which keeps neurons functioning, may prevent the brains of active humans from deteriorating.
分析:
利用題干中的信息(regular amounts of exercise)定位到原文(daily physical activity),進而對該段文字進行閱讀,發(fā)現(xiàn)最后的deteriorate不認識,但是以de-前綴開頭,一般都是否定的方向,那么與第五個選項中的decline方向一致,可以確定E為正確答案。
2. 利用并列關系
閱讀中常見的并列關系詞有and, or等,并列關系前后連接的詞往往具有一定的一致性。我們這里拿or來舉個例子,or前后的詞常常含義是近似的。因此,如果or連接的前后的詞我們有一個不認識,那么可以利用另一個來猜單詞。我們來看下面的例子:
例句:
However, the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself.
分析:
本句話中,很多同學是不認識obscure的,但是我們一般都認識前面的hidden,并且發(fā)現(xiàn)這兩個單詞由or連接,所以可以推斷obscure的意思跟hidden是比較接近的。
楊帆老師有話說:
閱讀考察的是單詞的模糊理解而非具體含義,所以很多單詞我們了解大概意思、保證閱讀可以順利進行下去即可,不用弄明白確切意思。
3.利用同位語
閱讀中我們常會看到一個不認識的名詞后跟隨了一個逗號,逗號后是一個名詞短語,這個名次短語就是這個名詞的同位語解釋。我們可以利用同位語去推測未知名詞的含義。我們來看下面的例子
【題目】
? Marie and Pierre Curie’s research into the radioactivity of the mineral known as 8……… led to the discovery of two new elements.
【原文】
Turning her attention to minerals, she found her interest drawn to pitchblende, a mineral whose radioactivity, superior to that of pure uranium, could be explained only by the presence in the ore of small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity. Pierre Curie joined her in the work that she had undertaken to resolve this problem, and that led to the discovery of the new elements, polonium and radium.
【分析】
通過觀察題目,我們發(fā)現(xiàn)我們要填的單詞處在“a mineral known as ...”這個結構下,說明要填的單詞是一種礦物質的名字。那么利用題目中的two new elements定位到原文中,再利用代詞往前查找,會找到pitchblende這個詞,后面就跟隨了我們說的同位語,那么可以確定這就是要我們找的答案。
題目:
我們來看看第6題:
原文:
The original patent outlined a three-stage process, in which phenol and formaldehyde (from wood or coal) were initially combined under vacuum inside a large egg-shaped kettle. The result was a resin known as Novalak, which became soluble and malleable when heated. The resin was allowed to cool in shallow trays until it hardened, and then broken up and ground into powder. Other substances were then introduced: including fillers, such as woodflour, asbestos or cotton, which increase strength and moisture resistance, catalysts (substances to speed up the reaction between two chemicals without joining to either) and hexa, a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde which supplied the additional formaldehyde necessary to form a thermosetting resin.
分析:
很多同學在做這道題時,利用第6題前面的ammonia和formaldehyde定位,在原文中第4句中,我們看到了一個a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde …這個結構,于是就有同學把答案寫成了compound。但是我們來看一下,a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde …就是我們之前說的“雙標點中的名詞短語”,所以它是一個同位語,那么是對誰的解釋呢?逗號之前的名詞hexa,所以hexa是我們的答案(原文的意思是hexa是ammonia和formaldehyde一起構成的混合物)。至于為什么不能填compound這個詞,這是一個解釋性的詞匯,屬于“類別”詞,不夠具體,而填空題需要填具體的詞。