來看一道2006年的考研英語一真題:
People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
題目要求猜測bummer的含義,根據最后一句“綜上所述,他們就不需要他們的藝術也成為一個bummer”,也成為bummer意味著前文必然出現過bummer。所以從前文內容in danger,few protections and died young,surrounded by reminders of misery,可以看出英年早逝,充滿了痛苦都是暗指生活困難堪憂。所以接近選項[B] unpleasant不愉快。這就是根據同義關系猜詞,所猜單詞的詞義與前文的主要意思一指。
(三)根據句間關系猜測詞義
通過句間關系來理解上下文的關聯,也是猜詞的一個重要途徑。例如表示因果關系的常見關聯詞有:because,as,since,for,so,thus,as a result,of course,therefore。例句:You shouldn't have blamed him for that,for it wasn't his fault.通過for引出的句子所表示的原因(那不是他的錯),可猜出blame的詞義是“責備”。