文中“regulate”的词义可猜测为与“government control”的意思相近。
例十一:
One of the predominant concerns today is the future of our natural resources. This issue is of greatest importance because it is becoming clear to many people that our present resources will not last forever.
文中“predominant”的词义可猜测为具有与“of greatest importance”相近的意思。
例十二:
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。
六、利用基本的构词方法,猜测词义。
例十三:
They overestimate the interviewee’s ability and asked him many difficult questions.
在overestimate词中over-是前缀,意为“过分”。因此overestimate的词义可以猜测为“过高估计”的意思。
例十四:
We were told that our’s was the most spacious room in the hotel. That was why we had to pay so much for it.
Spacious是由词根space(空间)+ious(形容词后缀)构成。由此我们可以猜得其大概意思为“有空间的,宽敞的”。
然而,需要指出的是,不要花费太多的时间去试图猜出所有生词确切的意思,因为有的生词只能猜出大概的意思,有的生词则根本无法猜出其意思。一般来说,碰到一、两个不会的词,无关紧要。重要的是,要弄懂整篇文章表达了什么 思想 。
在阅读理解中要求判断词语意义的问题,通常有下列形式:
1. According to the author, the word “...” means ___________ .
2. By “...”the author means ___________ .
3. Which of the following is nearest(closest)in meaning to “...”?
4. The word “...”in the passage means ___________ .
5. “...”is ___________ .
6. The word “...” most likely means ___________ .