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　　即根据定义猜测词义的方法。需要定义或解释的单词或短语大多是专有名词、生僻词或文中的关键词，作者为了使读者正确理解它们，就得做出较浅显的解释或说明。

　　例一：Giraffe is an animal with a very long neck, four legs and orange skin with dark spots.根据后面对 Giraffe 的解释，它的词义为“长颈鹿”。

　　例二：Anthropology is the scientific study of man.由定义可知 Anthropology 的词义为“研究人类的科学”即“人类学”。

　　例三：What is plagiarism? It is using others’ ideas and words without clearly mentioning where the information is from.根据定义我们知道plagiarism的词义为“剽窃”。

　　二、定语从句

　　定语从句对先行词起限定、修饰或解释作用，因此我们可以利用定语从句来推测先行词的词义。

　　例一：Second generation Puerto Ricans who were born in New York but who have returned to the island, are called Nuvoricans.

　　Nuvoricans 的词义可以由Second generation Puerto Ricans后面的两个定语从句来得到， 即生在纽约，后又回到波多黎各的人。

　　例二：Psychophysiology is a science which deals with the relationship between mind and body.根据定语从句我们可以看出Psychophysiology的意思为“身心联系的科学”，即“心理生理学”。

　　三、同位短语或同位语从句

　　同位关系的两部分之间多用逗号连接，有时也用破折号、分号、引号和括号连接。

　　例一：According to a report published on the British medical magazine, The Lancet, a study of ten German mobile phone users found that when they turned on their phones, their blood pressure goes up by 5 to 10 millimeters of mercury.根据句法结构的知识，我们知道The Lancet是the British medical magazine的同位语，由此可知The Lancet是一个杂志的名称。

　　例二：Semantics, the study of the meaning of words, is necessary if you are to speak and read intelligently.两个逗号中间的短语the study of the meaning of words是Semantics的同位语，意为“对词义进行研究的科学”， 即“语义学”。

　　四、对比结构

　　寻找文中相互对比、相互对照的线索来确定生词的含义。

　　在此类文章中，通常会出现一些表示意义转折、对比的词语：however, but, on the other hand, on the contrary, instead of, while, unlike, not, although, yet, despite, in spite of, in contrast, etc.

　　例一： A good supervisor can recognize instantly the adept workers from the unskilled ones.根据句法结构可知the adept workers和 the unskilled ones.为对比关系，意义相反。由the unskilled ones可推出the adept workers为熟练工人。

　　例二：Someone liked milk, but others abhorred it.通过but我们知道abhor是like的反义词，意为“厌恶”。

　　五、并列平行结构

　　它表示意义上的并列或相似关系。表示并列关系的词语为and, similarly, like, just as, also, etc.

　　例一：A child’s birthday party does not have to be a hassle; it can be a basket of fun, according to Beth Anacleria, an Evaston mother of two, aged 4 and 18 months.分号前后为两个并列平行的分句，后一句意为“生日聚会可以充满快乐、乐趣”，我们可以推测hassle意为“混乱”。

　　例二：First put forward by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in the seventeenth century, the theorem had baffled and beaten the finest mathematical minds, including a French woman scientist who made a major advance in working out the problem, and who had to dress like a man in order to be able to study at the Ecole Polytechnique.baffled 和beaten为并列平行关系，根据beaten可以推测出baffled意为“难倒，使受挫，阻碍”之意。

　　例三：John loves to talk, and his sisters are similarly loquacious.根据and和similarly判定短语loves to talk 和loquacious.之间为同义比较，意为“健谈的”。 

　　它也是推测词义的一种重要方式。我们可以通过结果推测原因，亦可通过原因推测结果。

　　例句：The girl began to feel homesick because she had been away from her family for years.根据原因状语从句和homesick本身的构词方法，我们推断它的词义为“想家的”。

　　七、举例法

　　即通过生词后面所举的例子来推断生词的含义。

　　例句：In this reading room, you can find almost all periodicals in China, such as: The World of English, Foreign Language in School, English Learning or Readers.我们根据后面所举的例子，不难推断出periodicals是“期刊”之意。

　　八、语境线索或上下文

　　即利用语境来推测生词含义的方法。这是我们用来推测词义的主要方法之一。

　　例一：The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society—a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.“My grandmothers did not do anything, but keep house and serve everybody, they were programmed to do that,” said Emily Cornette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.根据上下文我们可以很容易得出chapter的词义为这个组织the Red Hat Society的一个分支。

　　例二：As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency ( 一贯性 )is very important teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality ( 道德 ). Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”. If they are not sincere and don’t practice what they preach ( teach ), their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure ( 不稳定 )when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.根据上下文我们可知precept的词义为“说教”。

　　例三：Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day. Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.

　　根据语境我们知道available的词义为“可与之交谈的”或“有空的”。

　　例四：We found that bar at last. I didn’t have to ask again, for there it was in big letters over the window—Star Bar. There were some iron tables outside with plastic chairs around them. A few people sat listlessly around, looking at a portable television set that someone had brought out of the bar. They were all in thin summer dresses or short sleeved-shirts; even at that late hour it was stifling. Two thin dogs lay under one of the tables with their tongues out, and some of the women were fanning themselves unenthusiastically (无精打采的) with magazines.根据语境我们猜出stifling的词义为“极热的”。

　　九、标点符号的暗示

　　例一：The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society—a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.破折号后面的部分对the Red Hat Society作了解释，是“一个认为老年人应该有自己乐趣的团体”。

　　例二：The largest player—Shanghai Bashi Tourism Car Rental Center offers a wide variety of choices—deluxe sedans, minivans, station wagons, coaches. Santana sedans are the big favorite.第二个破折号后面的deluxe sedans, minivans, station wagons, coaches应该指的是汽车的品牌或种类。

　　十、同义词的替代关系

　　例句：Although he often had the opportunity, Mr. Tritt was never able to steal money from a customer. This would have endangered his position at the bank, and he didn’t want to jeopardize his future.

　　为避免重复使用endanger一词， 用同义词jeopardize来替代它, 我们推知jeopardize词义为“使陷入危险，危及，危害”。