1. Annealing is a way of making metal softer by heating it and then letting it cool very slowly. 句子給予annealing明確的定義，即“煅燒，熱處理”。

2. It will be very hard but also very brittle―that is, it will break easily. 從后面的解釋中我們可以知道brittle 是“脆”的意思。

3. The herdsman, who looks after sheep, is now living a better life. 定語從句中 looks after sheep 就表明了herdsman 的詞義為“牧羊人”。

重述也是一種解釋方式，即換用不同的詞語重新表達同一內(nèi)容。重述部分可以是單詞、短語或句子。另外，句中常用破折號、冒號或括號來表示，或者用or, in others words等連接。如：

1. They traveled a long way, at last got to a castle, a large building in old times. 同位語部分a large building in old times 給出了 castle 的確切詞義，即“城堡”。

2. We are on the night shift―from midnight to 8 a.m.―this week. 兩個破折號之間的短語很清楚地表明night shift 是“夜班”的意思。

在 but, however, yet, otherwise, although等這些表示轉(zhuǎn)折意義的連詞出現(xiàn)的句子中，其前后有明顯的對比關(guān)系。根據(jù)已知內(nèi)容，通過這種對比關(guān)系，就很容易猜出生詞的含義了。如：She is usually prompt for all her classes, but today she arrived in the middle of her first class. but一詞表轉(zhuǎn)折，因此but 前后的意思正相反。后半句的意思是她今天“第一節(jié)上了一半才來”，因此反向推理，可得出“她平時一向‘準時’”的結(jié)論。

最常用的英語構(gòu)詞方法有以下三種：    ‘

1. 轉(zhuǎn)化法 (conversion) ， 即把一個詞從一種詞類轉(zhuǎn)成另一種詞類。如：water n. 水→v. 澆水；picture n. 圖片→v. 描繪；tidy adj. 整齊的→v. 弄整齊；slow adj. 慢的→v. 減慢； hot a. 熱的→heat v. 加熱。

2. 合成法 (composition) ，即把兩個或兩個以上的詞組合成一個復(fù)合詞。如：woodcut (木刻); handbag (手提包); three-year-old (三歲的); up-to-date (最新式的)。

The nine shorts to be shown range from a Claymation biography of B.B. King to a science fiction adventure set in the year 3005. “A lot of the material is really mature,” Ms. Gardner said, talking about films by the New York City branch of Global Action Project, a media arts and leadership-training group. “The Choice is about the history of a family and Master Anti-Smoker is about the dangers of secondhand smoke.” Dream of the Invisibles describes young immigrants’ feelings of both belonging and not belonging in their adopted country…     (2008 山東卷A篇)

58. The underlined word “shorts” in Paragraph 4 refers to _____.

A. short trousers  B. short kids   C. short films   D. short stories

答案：C。此題為猜測詞義題。由“This year the festival will include films not only from Wingspan but also from other city organizations and one from a middle school in Arlington, Virginia.”和shorts后面的關(guān)鍵詞“to be shown”可判斷“有很多部各種題材的電影將在此次電影節(jié)上上映”，因此九個shorts，應(yīng)該是九部短片電影。

值得注意的是，近幾年來除了猜測單個的生詞詞義外，還涉及了短語或句子的含義理解。如：

When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend. He was in despair (失望) and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.                               (2008 北京卷 D篇)

67. In Paragraph 3, “We gave London to each other” probably means ______.

A. our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us

B. we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London

C. our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared

D. we parted with each other in London

作者與一個朋友在倫敦逗留五周期間，每個星期天一起去探索這個古老的城市，發(fā)現(xiàn)許多美好的東西，直至分別。所以，根據(jù)本段內(nèi)容，不難看出“We gave London to each other.”這句話意為“our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us.”