怎样通过熟词僻义正确解英文题?
大部分同学在记单词的时候,习惯性抱着各种词汇本仰着头机械的背诵着给定的单词意思,甚至有时候都不知道自己背的意思对于自己解题有何帮助,所以转眼就忘的这种事就时常发生了。当然咱们在记单词的时候是没有捷径可走的,只能靠着不断重复的边记忆边运用才能更好的掌握每个词。然而有些时候词汇本上给的意思并不完整,所以很多同学很可能认为这个词就只有这些意思,当所记忆的意思套不进具体的语境中时,要么就会出现认知的错误,要么就会茫然无措。
前不久碰到这么一个例子,一个基础比较好的同学在做C12T5R2的第25题时,题目意思看懂了,原文也准确定位到了,但答案做错了,咱们来一起看一看。这是一个判断题,题干信息为Someone who collects unusual objects may want others to think he or she is also unusual.对应的原文是One reason, conscious or not, for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector's individualism. Someone who decides to collect something as unexpected as dog collars, for instance, may be conveying their belief that they must be interesting themselves.该同学在读到“interesting”这个词时,无论如何都觉得和题干中的“unusual”一词意思对应不上,最终在FALSE和NG两个答案中苦苦纠结。该同学犯的错误在于,她的固有认知告诉她interesting这个词的意思是“有趣的,有意思的”,没有和“不同寻常”的任何关系,然而在牛津字典中对interesting的释义是“attracting your attention because it is special, exciting or unusual”,如果她有这个层面的认知的话,那答案就很容易写对了。其实她还犯了一个很多同学都很容易会犯的错误,当她在无法理解对应原文的意思时,没有再去前后多读一句话,这句其实是前一句原因的具体描述,原因中谈到了show the collector's individualism,individualism一词想必答案应该很明显了吧,所以正确答案是TRUE。
接下来再看一个例子。想必大家对remain这个词一定不陌生,意为“保持,依然”,当然也能举出好几个替换词,例如stay, maintain等等。但是在雅思阅读的考试中,不止一次的考到了它的名词含义,来看看C10T3R3中的第31题,Spriggs believes the burial urn which was found at the site is very important since it confirms that the ______ found inside are Lapita.这是一个有选项的summary题,对应原文为‘It’s an important discovery’, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, ‘for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita.’很多同学在读到remains一词时就开始犯愁了,面对下面方框中给的各种名词无从选择。其实不止在剑10这篇文章里考到了remain的名词含义,在C4T4R2的第6段中提到“archaeologists study past societies primarily through their material remains - the buildings, tools and other artefacts”,C9T1R3中的第32题题干中考到“fossilised remains”,C12T6R2中的A段提到“the remains of a city”等都不止一次的考到,所以大家一定要把这个词的意思掌握清楚了。
接下来大家可以自己看看C7T1R1“The American zoologist Donald Griffin, who was largely responsible for the discovery of sonar in bats, coined the term 'echolocation' to cover both sonar and radar, whether used by animals or by human instrument.”中的coin和term两个词的意思具体是什么。C5T3R1“As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a child's life and the disappointing results from 'Headstart', a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the child's first teachers.”和“The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations.”这两句中的pilot的实际意思。
所以同学们在平时记单词的时候,一定要自己动动手,翻翻字典,看自己所记的词还有没有咱们不熟悉的意思,再不要单词本上给啥意思就记什么意思,这样很容易陷入思维的死胡同的。