二、怎样尽量正确地理解生词
阅读过程中遇到的生词，有的可以通过本句上下文作为参考，有的还可以通过段落或整篇作为参考，来进行意思猜测。比如：
1. Towards evening, there was a threat of rain and the little fish in the pond opened their mouths in the surface of the water like honeycomb.
2. The people who survived the earthquake cried bitterly over the bodies of their relatives.
3. The pupils assembled in front of the school hall. They came together to listen to the headmaster announce the result of the sports meeting.
4. By the end of 1995, more than 60,000 deaf and dumb children had received training in hearing and speaking.
在例1中生词threat之后有rain 一词，后一分句是下雨前的明显征兆，所以这个词很容易猜到是“征兆”的意思。
例2中的“人们”的亲属死了，这些“人们”还在哭，显然他们在地震中没有遇难，而是survive了，这survive不就是“幸存”的意思吗？
例3中的后一句有came together （聚到一起）， 这可能就是assemble的解释，显然学生们是“聚集到”学校大厅里听运动会结果的。
在例4中，dumb一词跟deaf并列，而对应的接收训练方面有并列的两个内容：hearing和speaking。 deaf需要训练听力，那么需要训练说话能力的dumb，显然是“哑”了。
有的生词尤其是新闻报导及科普文体文章中的生词，往往在其后有对该词进行解释说明性的短语或句子。留心阅读就可以断定它们的意思。例如：
1. The current, flow of electricity, makes the glower hot and thus light is sent out. （current 即flow of electricity“电流”也。）
2. From the eighth to the eighteenth century, people wrote with quills. A quill is a bird feather. Most quills were strong goose or swan feathers. （看到后面的解释，quill的意思不就一目了然了吗？）
3. The burning of oil produces large amount of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas. （原来carbon dioxide是组成温室效应的最主要的气体--二氧化碳。）