MBA英语如何猜测不认识的词语？

来源：网络时间：2017-06-24 07:36:45

　　在阅读文章的过程中，考生面临最大的问题是遇到不认识的单词或短语，或者认识的单词在文章中有了新的含义。如果这些词或短语不影响对文章主要内容的理解，考生便可以将它们略过，不中断阅读。如果这些词语的意思对正确理解文章很重要，就必须根据上下文的联系，根据构词法或其他方法对它们的意义进行猜测，使之不影响对整篇文章的理解。猜测词义通常可采用以下几种方法。

　　1. 利用上下文确定词义

　　通过上下文来猜测词意是阅读考试中最常用的重要手段之一，联系上下文可以帮助我们理解句子，确定词义。下面我们通过一些实例来简要说明如何通过上下文来确定词义。

　　例1：He is successful as a businessman because of his dynamic personality. He seems to have unlimited energy.

　　对于dynamic一词大家可能不熟悉，下文的He seems to have unlimited energy…(他似乎有用不完的劲)就是对 dynamic词义的解释。这样，我们便知道该词意为“有干劲的”。

　　例2：Sociology is the term used to describe the scientific study of human society.

　　假定sociology是一个不认识的词，系动词be后面就给出了明确的定义。这样，我们便知道该词意思为“社会学”。

　　例3：A first-year college or university student is commonly a 'freshman', and ‘sophomore’, 'junior’ and 'senior' des¬ignate the second—third—and fourth—year student.

　　要是对sophomore, junior 和senior几个术语不熟悉，通过后面的对应解释词语the second—third—and fourth—year student我们便不难知道它们分别是指二、三、四年级的大学生。

　　例4：The tired soldiers trudged through knee-deep mud for hours before they found a dry place to sleep.

　　通过后面的through knee-deep mud(没膝深的泥浆)，我们知道trudged一词的意思为与行走这一动作有关，在泥浆中行走，也就是“跋涉”。

　　例5：When it comes to manufactured goods there is actually more diversity in this country than Europe has ever known. The variety of goods carried by our stores is the first thing that impresses any visitor from abroad.

　　第二句中的variety与句中的diversity 同义，这样，我们便不难知道diversity的大意是“种类”或“品种”。

　　下面我们联系上下文，试确定以下各句中斜体字的含义。

　　1. The woman and the children were skilful in boats too, but there were usually several of them in a large boat called umiak.

　　2. The doctor said that if a person ate even one leaf of the hemlock plant, he would die, because the plant is a deadly poison.

　　3. Although dogs and cats often have large families, rabbits are famous for the size of their litters, which sometimes number more than twelve bunnies at one time.

　　4. Mark became hysterical when his basketball team won, and he did not calm down for several days.

　　5. With mud from head to toe, flowers still clutched in his hand, John looked so ludicrous that we couldn’t help laughing.

　　6. A bee collects nectar not in its own stomach but in a kind of shopping bag (called the honey sac) similar to the one ants have.

　　7. Several generations ago, the world seemed to run in an or¬derly way. Now, however, everything is in a state of tur¬moil.

　　8. After the first time someone tried to rob him, the banker be¬came flustered easily, and in his confusion he would make many careless errors.

　　9. Jane was intrigued by the behavior of animals; she could sit for hours observing a bird making a nest or an ant carrying a leaf.

　　10. Some chimps are very independent and appear to be the superior members of a group; others seem to be ruled by the leaders and are quite submissive.

　　通过上串下联，我们不难确定上述各句中斜体字的含义如下：1. umiak n. 一种大船2. hemlock n. 一种有毒植物(毒芹)3. litter n.一窝 bunnies小兔子4. hysterical a.歇斯底里，异常兴奋5. ludicrous a..滑稽可笑的6. nectar n.花蜜 honey sac蜜胃7. tur¬moil n.混乱8. flustered a.慌乱的9. intrigued a.感兴趣10. submissive a.顺从的

　　2. 利用构词法确定词义

　　通过观察构词部分，分析辨认单词，是提高阅读速度的技巧之一。一方面，读者不必停下来查词典，继续往下读;另一方面，也大大增加了读者的词汇量，读者通过已知词缀(包括前缀和后缀)和已知词根就能很好地猜出生词的含义。

　　例1：Many cancers have been arrested with the use of chemotherapy.

　　Chemotherapy 是由chemo(意为chemical)和therapy (意为treatment)，整个单词意思就是“化学疗法”。

　　例2：They overestimate the interviewee’s ability and asked turn many difficult questions.

　　overestimate =over (过分、过度)+estimate (估计)。因此overestimate的词义可猜测为“过高估计”。

　　例3：The murderer had developed a poison which could not be tasted or smelled when mixed with food. Because it was imperceptible, he was able to murder a number of people without being caught.

　　句中的imperceptible 一词由前缀im-(非，不)+词根percept(感知、觉察)+后缀 -ible(能……的)构成。几部分组合在一起，也就是“难以觉察的”之意。

　　例4：Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry which seeks to study humans and their endeavors in the same reasoned, orderly, systematic, and *dispassioned manner that natural scientists use for the study of natural phenomena. (2003考研英语第62题)

　　其中的dispassioned为超纲词，我们可根据构词法dis + passion + ed知其大概意思：除掉激情的，也即是“冷静的”。

　　3. 利用语法知识确定词义

　　在很多情况下，各种语法知识可以帮助我们来判断词性、词义。

　　例1：This set of books is for children. The first book of the sequence, which is one of the most popular series of children’s stories, is a group of stories about the inhabitants of a village.

　　假定我们不认识sequence，利用定语从句which is one of the most popular series of children’s stories, 其中series就与sequence 同义，也就是“丛书”的意思。

　　例2：For their fishing and hunting the men used a kayak, a small boat for one person.

　　利用同位语a small boat for one person我们知道kayak是一种单人小船。

　　例3：A solar eclipse—when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun—in an unusual and interesting phenomenon that occurs rarely.

　　通过破折号解释我们知道solar eclipse为“日食”。

　　例4：Ventilation, as we know, is a system or means of provid¬ing fresh air. It plays a very important part in the field of engineering.

　　通过后面的解释我们知道Ventilation为“通风，流通空气”之意。

　　例5：The modern age of medicine began with the stethoscope, an instrument for listening to a patient’s heartbeat and breathing.

　　Stethoscope一词大家都不熟悉，通过后面的同位语解释an instrument for listening to a patient’s heartbeat and breathing，我们便能理解stethoscope的确切词义，即“听诊器”或“听筒”的意思。

　　4. 根据同义、反义关系确定词义

　　阅读中，特别是要注意表示反意的信号词：in contrast, on the other hand, rather than, however, yet, although, while, unlike, but, whereas, as opposed to等，利用这些同义、反义关系，可以帮助我们确定词义。

　　例1：My sister Mane is an optimist, while her boyfriend is one who is always gloomy and expects the worst to happen.

　　从while的转折关系可知optimist意思是“one who expects the best’’, 即“乐观的”。

　　例2：Mother was tall, fat, and middle aged. The principal of the school was an older woman, almost as plump as Mother, and much shorter.

　　根据Mother was tall, fat 以及后面as plump as的同义关系，我们知道plump为“丰满的”之意。

　　例3：Sally liked to concoct all sorts of stories, but her mother always knew when she was lying.

　　concoct一词大家不熟悉，根据but的转折关系我们知道在此句中与was lying的含义大体相同，由此可知concoct的大概意思是“编造谎话”。

　　例4：A gorilla always makes me think of the word aloof—not friendly, of distance from others.

　　假定我们不认识aloof一词，破折号后的反义关系：“不友好，冷漠” 就解释了aloof一词的含义。

　　5. 利用逻辑推理和常识确定词义

　　有时候，逻辑推理和自身的生活经验及普通常识能帮助我们确定词义。

　　例1：Fishes live in water and have fins which help them to swim. Most fishes have slimy skins covered with scales, but in fishes such as eels the scales are very small and can hardly be seen.

　　凭常识我们不难猜出fins, slimy和scales的确切意思分别是“鳍”、“滑溜的”和“鳞”，对于eels一词，我们只需知道是fish的一种(鳝鱼类)就行了。

　　例2：Not wanting to disturb the sleeping kitten, I gingerly lifted her from the box and put her on a blanket near the heater.

　　根据前半句的Not wanting to disturb(不愿打扰)，我们便可大致推测出gingerly一词的含义：“小心翼翼地”。

　　例3：A mercury thermometer is made of a glass tube with a bulb at one end.

　　凭常识我们知道温度计下面的bulb是“水银球”。

　　例4：Most troubles can be avoided, but death and taxes are in¬evitable.

　　凭常识我们知道死亡和税收是不可避免的(in¬evitable)事情。