歷年考研英語試題命題特點及規(guī)律(閱讀理解A部分)

　　(三)詞義/句意題

　　命制的試題中經(jīng)常有要求考生對詞語和句子做出解釋的題目。兩者都主要側重于考查考生通過上下文去判斷詞義、句意的能力。詞義題的考查有兩種：一是超綱詞含義的推斷，另一個是熟詞僻義或是在特定場合的意思。

　　1�痹~義句意題命題模式

　　(1)The phrase (word, sentence) “...” (in line...) most probably means .

　　(2)By “...”, the wrier (probably ) means .

　　(3)What does the author probably mean by “...” in... paragraph?

　　(4)The phrase (word, sentence) suggests .

　　(5)From the passage,we can infer that the word “...”is .

　　(6)According to passage, what is “...” ?

　　(7)When the author says that..., he means .

　　2�痹~義題的解題技巧

　　(1)根據(jù)上下文進行推理猜測

　　考生必須明確，不管所考的詞語有多超綱，都能夠通過上下文得出其意思;不管這個詞有多熟悉，都必須通過上下文得出其在特定場合的意思。在克服畏懼心理的同時，也要避免直接用自己熟悉的意義去解釋詞義。對句子的理解也要通過前后關聯(lián)的句子進行推測。比如利用前后的比較對照關系、利用文中給出的定義或對它進行的重述、利用所舉的例子進行歸納、利用同義/近義/反義詞、利用特殊標點符號等等。

　　Example

　　We live in a society in which the medical and social use of substances (drugs) is pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves. When do these socially acceptable and apparently constructive uses of a substance become misuses? First of all, most substances taken in excess will produce negative effects such as poisoning or intense perceptual distortions. Repeated use of a substance can also lead to physical addiction or substance dependence. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued.(1997年 Passage 3)

　　The word “pervasive” (Line 1, Paragraph 2) might mean .

　　[A] widespread [B] overwhelming [C] piercing [D] fashionable

　　所要解釋的詞pervasive后有冒號，起解釋說明的作用。因此通過冒號后的內容就可以知道該詞的含義。作者在冒號后面列舉了物質在日常生活的各個方面的使用，因此可推知[A]選項“分布廣泛的，普遍的”為正確答案。

　　(2)對超綱詞含義的推斷

　　生詞是造成閱讀困難的障礙之一。閱讀短文中的詞匯一般不超過大綱的詞語范圍，但也有5%左右的派生詞和合成詞，2%～3%的超綱詞。對于部分超綱而且專業(yè)性較強的詞，在較早的幾年里命題者還曾給出過其漢語意思，如：1991年Passage 1中的chlorophyll(葉綠素)、carbohydrates(碳水化合物);1992年Passage 2中的inertia(慣性)，Passage 3中的hockey(曲棍球);1993年Passage 1中的babbling(咿呀學語)，Passage 2中的bureaucratic(官僚主義的)，Passage 3中的monopoly(壟斷);1994年Passage 4中的pancreas(胰腺)、genes(基因)，Passage 5中的mold(霉)。但是后來的命題趨勢中取消了這種形式，其意圖在于讓考生更多地去猜測詞語含義。其實很多短文中出現(xiàn)的超綱詞匯并不影響對全文的理解，而且我們可以以下幾種方法去猜測其含義。

　　①構詞法：掌握常見的英語詞根、詞綴，通過分析生詞的詞根、前綴、后綴去推測詞義。如：1996年Passage 5中的nonfundamentalist(非原教旨主義 non-非，不;fundament基礎，基本原理;-al 形容詞后綴;-ist…主義者)。

　�、谠~性加搭配：先判斷生詞在文章中的詞性，再看它與哪些詞語可以搭配，最后根據(jù)自己的常識猜測其大概含義。

　�、壅彝�義詞、同義解釋或反義詞和反義解釋：在上下文中找出生詞的其他表達法，可能是近(反)義詞、一個解釋或一些暗示。

　�、苷彝�位詞：上下文中可能有類似生詞出現(xiàn)的句子的平行結構，找出其中和生詞處于同一位置的詞去推測。

　　考生可以適當記些詞根詞綴，以備不時之需。如：

　　geo-：前綴，表示“地球”，如：geography：地理學, 地理;geology：地質學 ;geophysic：地球物理學;

　　hydro-： 前綴，表示“水”，“液體”，如：hydrobiology：水生物學;hydro-cooling：水冷法;hydro-mania：投水狂，自溺;hydroelectric：水電的;

　　over-：前綴，表示“越過，超過”，如：overcrowdedness：過于擁擠;overestimate：估計過高，過高評價;oversensitive：過于敏感;overplease：使過分高興;overactive：過于活躍。

　　Example

　　Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west joined by a related but newer phenomenon: More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too. Some instances—

　　● Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states reported the most rapid growth rate—37��1 percent since 1970 in a vast area with only 5 percent of the US population.

　　● Among states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63��5 and 53��1 percent respectively.

　　Except for Florida and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western states with 75 million people—about 9 per square mile.(1998年 Passage 4)

　　The word “demographers” (line 1, paragraph 8) most probably means .

　　[A] people in favor of the trend of democracy

　　[B] advocates of migration between states

　　[C] scientists engaged in the study of population

　　[D] conservatives clinging to old patterns of life

　　根據(jù)上下文demographers提到的兩個例證都涉及人口，因此他們應該是 “人口統(tǒng)計研究方面的人”。[C]選項“研究人口的科學家，也就是人口統(tǒng)計學家”是該詞的正確含義。同時，也可運用構詞法的知識， demo=people, graph=write， -er指人。因而猜出它指“記錄人口方面數(shù)據(jù)的人”。

　　(3)句意題解題技巧

　　試題中出現(xiàn)句意題時，考生需要根據(jù)上下文的內容聯(lián)系去猜測句意;或將所考的句子與它的上下文進行關系對照，找出它與上下文的關系，如轉折、并列、遞進、解釋說明等，然后針對不同的關系，對上下文采取取非、找同義等方法進行解題。

　　Example

　　It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America’s inflation rate would average 3��5% in 1995�� In fact, it fell to 2��6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan;over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America.(1997年 Passage 5)

　　The sentence “This is no flash in the pan” (Line 5, Paragraph 3) means that.

　　[A] the low inflation rate will last for some time

　　[B] the inflation rate will soon rise

　　[C] the inflation will disappear quickly

　　[D] there is no inflation at present

　　此題需要根據(jù)上下文推測句意。在This is no flash in the pan之前，作者給出近來美國、英國和日本的通貨膨脹率都低于經(jīng)濟學家預期的數(shù)字;之后又指出在過去的幾年，英國和美國的通貨膨脹率始終低于預期的水平。由此可以推斷，該句意思是“并非一時現(xiàn)象，并非是曇花一現(xiàn)”。 [A]選項“低通貨膨脹率將會持續(xù)一段時間”符合題意。

　　(4)選項特點

　　正確選項特點：第一，詞義題中，不是熟詞的常規(guī)含義。第二，句意題中，正確選項不含有意義過于絕對化的詞語，而是使用不肯定語氣詞或意義解釋深刻。

　　Example

　　The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.(1994年 Passage 1)

　　In line 8,paragraph 1, “the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes” means .

　　[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes

　　[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes

　　[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased

　　[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes

　　[A]、[B]選項都使用了帶有絕對意義的詞語，如never 和overstate因此可直接排除。[C]和[D]意義相近，但是[D]的意義更為深刻，因此可知[D]為答案。而且，此處的income不是常規(guī)詞義“收入”，而是“收入的購買力”，故不可選答案[C]。

　　干擾項特點：第一，與所考詞匯形似。第二，如果考的是熟詞，含有常規(guī)詞義的一般是錯誤選項。第三，根據(jù)命題原則，正確選項不會使用與原文過多相同的字眼，因此，對句子的解釋中含有過多原句中已有的詞和短語的選項一定是錯誤的。