在阅读中，我们往往会遇到一些不认识的单词或短语，或者认识的单词在文章中有了新意义。如果这些词或短语不影响对文章主要内容的理解，我们便可以将它们略过，继续阅读。如果了解这些词语的意思对正确理解文章很重要，这时，我们就必须根据上下文的联系，对它们的意义进行猜测，使之不影响对整篇文章的阅读和理解。需要注意的是，一个单词通常有好几个意思，我们要解决的是这些词在文中所表达的意思。因此，不可脱离上下文，只根据自己以前了解的词义来确定其意义。通常，猜测词义可采用以下几种方法：
一、利用所出现生词的上下文与其意义上的联系或下文进一步的叙述，猜测词义。
例一：
The female mosquito is a vampire and lives on blood.
如不知道vampire的词义，从下文lives on blood(靠吸血而生存)则可得知其词义为吸血昆虫。
例二：
The old man put on his spectacles and began to read.
如不知道spectacles的词义，从下文“戴上‘spectacles’后开始阅读”可以猜得其词义“眼镜”。
二、利用文中的举例猜测词义。
例三：
Some artists plan their paintings around geometric forms like squares, circles and triangles.
如不知道geometric forms的意思，可从文中所列举的三角形，正方形、圆形来猜得其意义为“几何图形”。
Today young couples who are just starting their households often spend lots of their money on appliances for instance, washing machines, refrigerators and color televisions.
如不知道appliances的意思，从文中的举例“washing-machines(洗衣机)，refrigerator(冰箱)，televisions(电视机)”可以猜得该词的意思为“家用电器”。
三、利用文中说明词义的同位词或定语等，猜测词义。
例五：
The invention of snorkel, a long air tube that reaches up to the surface, has made it possible for submarines(潜艇) to use their diesel engine even when they are submerged.
句中snorkel一词的意思，可通过其同位语“a long air tube that reaches up to the surface”来猜得。由此，我们可确定该词义为“通气管”。
例六：
The type of meter is called multimeter, which is used to measure electricity.通过定语从句“which is used to measure electricity”(用来测量电的)，我们可将“multimeter”的词义确定为“万用表”。
例七：
They will be on the night shift — from midnight to 6 a. m. — next week.
由破折号之间的解释内容，我们可以了解到“night shift”意思为“夜班”。
四、利用文章中所出现的、与某生词或词组意思相反的内容，猜测词义。
例八：
American businessmen expect employees to be punctual. They do not expect that the workers will come late.
文中be punctual的意思，可理解为“not come late”，即“准时，不迟到”。
例九：
Unlike her gregarious sister, Jane is a shy person, who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends.
根据文中“unlike...”的意思，可将gregarious理解为与文中“a shy person who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends.”相反的意思，即：表示“好交际的”。
五、利用文章中用不同的话对同一概念的解释，猜测词义。
例十：
Should the government regulate the cost of resources such as oil and gas? Some people do not believe that government control is the solution to the problem of the rising cost of fuel.
文中“regulate”的词义可猜测为与“government control”的意思相近。
例十一：
One of the predominant concerns today is the future of our natural resources. This issue is of greatest importance because it is becoming clear to many people that our present resources will not last forever.
文中“predominant”的词义可猜测为具有与“of greatest importance”相近的意思。
例十二：
Cleaning up waterways is an enormous task. The job is so large, in fact, that the government may not be able to save some of the rivers and lakes which have been polluted.
文中“enormous”的词义可猜测为与“so large”的意思相近。
六、利用基本的构词方法，猜测词义。
例十三：
They overestimate the interviewee’s ability and asked him many difficult questions.
在overestimate词中over-是前缀，意为“过分”。因此overestimate的词义可以猜测为“过高估计”的意思。
例十四：
We were told that our’s was the most spacious room in the hotel. That was why we had to pay so much for it.
Spacious是由词根space(空间)+ious(形容词后缀)构成。由此我们可以猜得其大概意思为“有空间的，宽敞的”。
然而，需要指出的是，不要花费太多的时间去试图猜出所有生词确切的意思，因为有的生词只能猜出大概的意思，有的生词则根本无法猜出其意思。一般来说，碰到一、两个不会的词，无关紧要。重要的是，要弄懂整篇文章表达了什么思想。
在阅读理解中要求判断词语意义的问题，通常有下列形式：
1. According to the author, the word “...” means ___________ .
2. By “...”the author means ___________ .
3. Which of the following is nearest(closest)in meaning to “...”?
4. The word “...”in the passage means ___________ .
5. “...”is ___________ .
6. The word “...” most likely means ___________ .
- 考试辅导
