【技能點撥】

許多同學在閱讀中遇到生詞時首先想到的是查詞典。若每次遇到生詞都去查詞典就會降低閱讀速度、影響對語篇的整體把握。事實上，閱讀材料中的每個詞與它前后的詞語或句子甚至段落都有聯系。我們可以利用語境（各種已知信息）推測、判斷某些生詞的詞義。每年的中考閱讀理解題一般都有一到兩個小題考查學生猜測詞義的能力。因此，掌握一定的猜詞技巧，對突破中考閱讀理解、提高我們的英語語言能力都有非常重要的意義。

我們就通過下面這篇文章了解一下如何利用上下文（主要是段落層次和語篇層次）猜測詞義。

【材料呈現】

If you are interested in caves, then you must go to Mexico to take a look at the 330-meter-deep cave named Sótano de las Golondrinas. The Spanish name means basement (地下室) of the Swallows (燕) because many birds live in holes on the cave’s walls.

Photographer Amy Hinkle took a series of photos of the cave during a week-long trip toMexico’s amazing caves. She went there with a group of cavers who like to travel and discover something new together. After Ms Hinkle and her friends went down into the cave, they found it deep enough to fit the Eiffel Tower or the Chrysler Building, a famous 319-meter-high building in New York. There is a secret garden at the bottom of the cave. The garden is the size of three football fields and it is covered with insects, snakes and even scorpions (蝎子). Cavers can build tents at the bottom and stay the night there to watch the sun come up in the morning.

Though the pit is worth visiting, Ms Hinkle warns that going there without proper knowledge and training is dangerous. “only the most experienced cavers are able to have a try at the huge cave,” said the young lady.

【我來搶答】

The underlined word “pit” in the last paragraph means “_____” in Chinese.

A. 旅途 B. 探險者

C. 照片 D. 深坑

答案

D。通讀全文可知該材料介紹的是墨西哥的一個洞穴，此處的pit（深坑）就是指上下文中提到的cave（洞穴）。

來源 | 英語周報

責編 | 張俊

審稿 | 尚繼明

校稿 | 李晨暉