1. Annealing is a way of making metal softer by heating it and then letting it cool very slowly. 句子给予annealing明确的定义，即“煅烧，热处理”。

2. It will be very hard but also very brittle―that is, it will break easily. 从后面的解释中我们可以知道brittle 是“脆”的意思。

3. The herdsman, who looks after sheep, is now living a better life. 定语从句中 looks after sheep 就表明了herdsman 的词义为“牧羊人”。

重述也是一种解释方式，即换用不同的词语重新表达同一内容。重述部分可以是单词、短语或句子。另外，句中常用破折号、冒号或括号来表示，或者用or, in others words等连接。如：

1. They traveled a long way, at last got to a castle, a large building in old times. 同位语部分a large building in old times 给出了 castle 的确切词义，即“城堡”。

2. We are on the night shift―from midnight to 8 a.m.―this week. 两个破折号之间的短语很清楚地表明night shift 是“夜班”的意思。

在 but, however, yet, otherwise, although等这些表示转折意义的连词出现的句子中，其前后有明显的对比关系。根据已知内容，通过这种对比关系，就很容易猜出生词的含义了。如：She is usually prompt for all her classes, but today she arrived in the middle of her first class. but一词表转折，因此but 前后的意思正相反。后半句的意思是她今天“第一节上了一半才来”，因此反向推理，可得出“她平时一向‘准时’”的结论。

最常用的英语构词方法有以下三种：    ‘

1. 转化法 (conversion) ， 即把一个词从一种词类转成另一种词类。如：water n. 水→v. 浇水；picture n. 图片→v. 描绘；tidy adj. 整齐的→v. 弄整齐；slow adj. 慢的→v. 减慢； hot a. 热的→heat v. 加热。

2. 合成法 (composition) ，即把两个或两个以上的词组合成一个复合词。如：woodcut (木刻); handbag (手提包); three-year-old (三岁的); 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 山东卷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。此题为猜测词义题。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后面的关键词“to be shown”可判断“有很多部各种题材的电影将在此次电影节上上映”，因此九个shorts，应该是九部短片电影。

值得注意的是，近几年来除了猜测单个的生词词义外，还涉及了短语或句子的含义理解。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

作者与一个朋友在伦敦逗留五周期间，每个星期天一起去探索这个古老的城市，发现许多美好的东西，直至分别。所以，根据本段内容，不难看出“We gave London to each other.”这句话意为“our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us.”