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。