七、词句猜测—— 词义猜测题
(2017·江苏，B)
Before birth，babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning(胎教)，birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in The Auk：Ornithological Advances，some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)．New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of entering the world.
This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kleindorfer，a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia，and her colleagues.Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs.When the eggs were hatched，the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me！” call.
To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds，the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren，another species of Australian songbird.First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching.Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks，ranking them by similarity.
It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms.And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs，the more similar were the babies’ begging calls.In addition，the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.
This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的) strengths of children to parents.An evolutionary inference
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can then be drawn.“As a parent，do you invest in quality children，or do you invest in children that are in need？” Kleindorfer asks.“Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”
语篇解读 这是一篇科普类的说明文。文章讲述了澳大利亚的一位生物学家通过研究发现，鸟儿在孵化时会进行胎教，幼鸟会用胎教时学会的鸟叫声来引起鸟妈妈的关注。鸟儿在胎教方面比人类更出色。 58．The underlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means “ ”． A．be the worst C．be just as bad 答案 B
解析 词义猜测题。画线部分前面的语境说，婴儿在出生之前就能分辨很大的声响与人的嗓音(tell the difference between loud sounds and voices)；画线部分后面的语境说，有些鸟妈妈在鸟儿被孵化出来之前，就可能教它们啼叫(teach their young to sing)。通过对比画线部分的前后我们发现，这里说的是与人类相比，鸟妈妈在胎教方面表现得最好(be the best)，因此选B。
59．What are Kleindorfer’s findings based on? A．Similarities between the calls of moms and chicks. B．The observation of fairy wrens across Australia. C．The data collected from Queensland’s locals. D．Controlled experiments on wrens and other birds. 答案 A
解析 细节理解题。根据第三段的研究过程和第四段的研究结果可知，他的发现基于A项(鸟妈妈与幼鸟叫声的相似之处)。
60．Embryonic learning helps mother birds to identify the baby birds which . A．can receive quality signals B．are in need of training C．fit the environment better D．make the loudest call 答案 C
解析 推理判断题。文章最后两段说，研究结果发现，叫声与鸟妈妈的声音很接近的幼鸟得到的食物最多(the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food)，这表明，有效的胎教能够把孩子神经系统的优点发信号给
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B．be the best D．be just as good
母亲(signal neurological strengths of children to parents)。从这些信息判断，胎教能帮助鸟妈妈识别出更能适应环境的幼鸟，因此选C项。
一、题型解读
词义猜测题基本上是阅读理解中每年必考的题型。词义猜测是一种阅读技巧和能力，主要考查考生在短时间内根据上下文快速猜测所指定的某一个生词、词组或者句子含义的能力，而这些生词和词组往往都超出考纲范围，但在文章阅读中起到一定的作用。由此看来，对于生词的理解是否准确，直接影响着阅读理解题得分的高低，对能否取得好的高考成绩有着举足轻重的作用。
词义猜测题的命题方式有：
1．The word “...” refers to/probably means .
2．The underlined word “...” could best be replaced by . 3．What do you think the expression “...” stands for? 4．By saying “...” we mean .
5．“...” as used in the passage can best be defined as . 6．Which of the following words can take the place of the word “...”？ 7．What does the underlined word/phrase “...” in Paragraph...mean? 8．The underlined word “...” is closest in meaning to . 二、解题技巧——巧用线索猜词义 1．根据定义、释义或同位语进行猜测
有些文章，特别是科技说明文，作者通常会对一些关键词或专业术语下定义，通过阅读定义和解释部分，考生便可理解该词或短语的意思。有时，需要猜测的单词或短语后面会紧跟一个同位语，作为对前面的词或短语的解释说明。有时，文章会用冒号、破折号、括号等对某个词或短语加以解释说明。
例如：(2018·江苏，B)When Berlin restaurant customers ate in darkness，they couldn’t tell how much they’d had：those given extra-large shares ate more than everyone else，but were none the wiser—they didn’t feel fuller，and they were just as ready for dessert.
试题：The underlined phrase “none the wiser” in Paragraph 3 most probably implies that the customers were . A．not aware of eating more than usual
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B．not willing to share food with others C．not conscious of the food quality D．not fond of the food provided
分析：所猜测短语none the wiser后面出现了破折号来进行解释说明，我们可推知那些被给以大份饭菜的食客比其他人吃得多，但他们没觉得更饱，这说明在黑暗的就餐环境下，食客并不清楚自己多吃了多少，所以此处的none the wiser是“不清楚，不知道”之意。 2．根据构词法进行猜测
英语中通过词根加词缀或两个单词合成的方式可以构成新词。因此，掌握了一定的构词知识，再结合上下文语境，也可以快速猜测词义。
例如：A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness，uneasiness，or worry. 分析：根据构词法知识我们可知，un-为否定前缀，-ness为名词后缀，easy(舒适)为词根。因此，我们可知uneasiness为“不安；担忧”之意。 3．根据因果关系进行猜测
在阅读理解文章的句子或段落中，若两个事物或两种现象之间构成因果关系，这时我们可以根据这种因果逻辑关系推断词或短语的含义。表示因果关系的标志词有because，so，thus，therefore，as a result of，since，so that，so/such...that...等。
例如：My son could not follow the teacher’s directions，he told me，and thus，Scola was disrupting the class.Didn’t he know my son did not speak English yet? 试题：What does the underlined word “disrupting” in Paragraph 4 probably mean? A．Breaking. C．Attending.
B．Following. D．Disturbing.
分析：画线单词所在的句子出现了因果关系标志词thus，由前面的原因“我儿子听不懂老师的指示”可以推知，“因此，我儿子Scola干扰了课堂秩序”，故选D项。其余三项都不符合这一因果逻辑关系。
4．根据同义或近义关系进行猜测
在画线单词或短语前后有时会出现与之同义或近义的词语或结构，它往往暗示了该词或该短语的含义，这时可从熟悉的词语中推知生词或短语的含义。常见的表示相同或相近意义的词和短语有and，or，like，as well，similarly，too，also，either等。
例如：The fine selection of the major works was done in close collaboration(合作) with the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid，Spain，and with contributions from other institutions like the Salvador Dali Museum in St.Petersburg，Florida. 试题：What does the word “contributions” in the last paragraph refer to? A．Artworks. C．Donations.
B．Projects. D．Documents.
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