1、同义词原则
I did not have a roll on my plate, but I do not like bread very much anyway。
从句子的后半部分可以看出,说话人不喜欢面包,可见roll也是一种面包。通过bread这个词,可以猜出roll的词义。
One night Mrs Rochester succeeded in setting the house on fire. Mr Rochester managed to lead the servants to safety and then went back into the burning mansion to rescue his wife。
第二个句子中的mansion是生词。从前后两个句子来看,我们不难发现mansion指的就是第一句中的house。
2、环境原则
We are glad that we live near the ocean because we love to eat flounder。
如果单从“我们爱吃flounder”这部分,无法判断它的意思,而前面提到the ocean,则可以判断出flounder是一种鱼类或水产品。
She read my letter slowly to the end and then tore it to shreds。
这个句子中的shreds是生词。但我们从整句来理解,“她慢慢地把我的信看完,然后把它撕成……”,从“撕成……”,我们可以猜出shreds是“碎片”的意思。
3、用途原则
We like our new house because it has a few elms in the back yard that will give us shade and keep the house cooler。
通过elms的作用,能有阴凉使房屋凉爽些,我们可以猜测出elms是一种树。
Fishes live in water and have fins which help them to swim。
运用生活常识就能较为确切地判断出fins的词义是“鳍”。
4、因果关系原则
She can’t play tennis now because she can’t find her white sneakers。
由于找不到这个“白色的sneakers”,所以无法打网球。可见sneakers是一种和打网球有关的东西。而从white和sneakers这个词的复数形式看,你也许已经猜出它们意思是“球鞋”了。
The lack of movement caused the muscles to weaken. Sometimes the weakness was permanent. So the player could never play the sport again。
从后面的结果“永远不能再运动”中,可以推测出permanent的意思是“永久的”。
5、对比原则
She is usually prompt for all her classes, but today she arrived in the middle of her first class。
but表示意思的转折,因此可以看出but前后的意思是相反的。后半句说,她今天在第一节课上了一半时才来。反推回去,她平时应该是一向“准时”的了。
The pain on the cottage had peeled in a few places, otherwise they looked well kept。
句中peel可从otherwise后面的对比猜出是“脱落”之意。
6、说明原则
Ann is very smart. She always knows the answers to all the teachers’questions。
第二句是对前一句的补充说明。一个能回答老师所有问题的女孩,Ann一定是很“聪明”的。
Capacitance, or the ability to store electric charge, is one of the most common characteristics of electronic circuits。
由后半句的解释我们很快猜出生词capacitance词义——电容量。
7、顺序原则
After Ms Ellis put the letters in the envelope, she sealed it and put a stamp on it。
在发信时,先把信装入信封,封上口,然后贴上邮票,是合理的顺序,通过前后动作,不难看出seal是“封口”的意思。
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