爱华网单词题考查是单词在原文中的含义。因为一个单词不止一个含义，但是放到一篇文章中含义便会受到限定，而托福的科普文章不会出现任何一词多义一语双关的情况，所以一个单词或者用语只表达一个含义，并且通常（大多数情况下）都是常用含义。所以只要认识单词通常所使用的含义，选择答案中的同义词或者近义词，再回到原文验证一番便可。但有的老师认为单词题可以直接当填空来做，即使不知道单词本身的含义，通过上下文推理的方法，也能得出正确答案。我们来看一个例子：
Paragraph 3: What could cause such high rates ofextinction? There are several hypotheses, including warming orcooling of Earth, changes in seasonal fluctuations or oceancurrents, and changing positions of the continents. Biologicalhypotheses include ecological changes brought about by theevolution of cooperation between insects and flowering plants or ofbottom-feeding predators in the oceans. Some of the proposedmechanisms required a very briefperiod during which all extinctions suddenly took place;other mechanisms would be more likely to have taken place moregradually, over an extendedperiod, or at different times on different continents.Some hypotheses fail to account for simultaneous extinctions onland and in the seas. Each mass extinction may have had a differentcause. Evidence points to hunting by humans and habitat destructionas the likely causes for the current mass extinction.
3. The wordextended in the passage is closest in meaning to
○specific
○unlimited
○reasonable
○long
按照做填空题的解法回到原文，然后看到前一句“Some of the proposed mechanisms……a very briefperiod……”看到考察单词所在句“Other mechanisms……over an extended period……”因为这两句明显在做一个对比，既然前一句的brief表示短暂的，那么后面extended就必须是短暂的反义词，所以得出答案选long。看到这儿，大家都会想，多么科学的单词题解决方法啊！于是大家都趋之若鹜觉得不用背单词，直接做填空题就好了。如果真的这么认为，我们请看下一道题：
Paragraph1: Glaciers are slowly moving masses ofice that have accumulated on land in areas where more snowfallsduring a year than melts. Snow falls as hexagonal crystals, butonce on the ground, snow is soon transformed into a compacted massof smaller, rounded grains. As the air space around them islessened by compaction and melting, the grains become denser. Withfurther melting, refreezing, and increased weight from newersnowfall above, the snow reaches a granular recrystallized stageintermediate between flakes and ice known as firn. With additionaltime, pressure, and refrozen meltwater from above, the small firngranules become larger, interlockedcrystals of blue glacial ice. When the ice is thick enough, usuallyover 30 meters, the weight of the snow and firn will cause the icecrystals toward the bottom to become plastic and to flow outward ordownwa rd from the area of snow accumulation.
1. The word “interlocked”in the passage is closest in meaning to
○intermediate
○linked
○frozen
○fully developed
这道题就是看破头、看破红尘也看不到任何上下文的提示能够表明考查单词会与link有什么关系。题目就是很简单的词义考察，inter- 前缀表示“互联”lock词根表示“锁”，那么锁互联在一起了不就是连锁嘛？其实不知道词根词缀，查个字典也能得出答案Things that interlock or areinterlocked go between or through each other so that they arelinked. 讲到这里并不是认为把单词题当做填空题做是错的，只是这种做法太极端，变成很多同学不背单词或者小瞧单词题的借口。要是所有单词题都能像SAT或者GRE填空题那样根据上下文推出答案，那干脆把单词题变成“完形填空”好了。殊不知在SAT和GRE的填空题中，背单词并知晓单词通常含义往往是最重要的。再者说，看不懂所考察单词的同学可能连上下文都看不懂，何来通过“已知推理未知”。比如，有些同学并不知道brief代表“短暂”的意思，如何能推出extended就能表示“长久”的含义？所以说，填空题的做法只有当遇到真正变态无耻的单词题才需使用（这种情况在托福考试中极少出现），大家杀鸡的时候就不要用宰牛刀了，好好背单词查字典积累词汇量才是解决单词题最朴素有效的途径。
