熟悉GRE填空题的小伙伴们一定都不陌生,**令人窒息的一大题型,当属“熟词僻义”。当你把GRE的所有词汇背了一遍又一遍,到了真实的考场上却一筹莫展:这些单词看着很熟悉,可做选择时却无从下手,可真让人对这些“*熟悉的陌生人”又爱又恨!今天小编贴心地为大家总结了GRE填空题中八大常见单词,附带真题举例讲解,希望能帮助各位更好地应对熟词僻义的考察。结尾还有GRE单词制胜法宝,大家千万不要错过啦!
1. Queen Elizabeth I has quite correctly been called a ______ of the arts, because many young artists received her patronage.
A.connoisseur
B.critic
C.friend
D.scourge
E.judge
【正确答案:C】
看到friend,我们的*反应一定都是朋友,好友,代入原句是说不通的;但是在GRE中,它被考察的含义是资助者,赞助者 (One that favors or promotes something, such as a charity),原句选择C后意思是:由于许多年轻的艺术家都得到她的赞助,英国女王伊丽莎白一世被地称为艺术界的资助人。这里的的patronage和friend相互对应。
A. connoisseur: 鉴赏人;D. scourge: 灾祸/鞭打
2.The author affects _____ in the tone of his novels that is quite at odds with his predilection for invective in his nonfiction publications.
A. a tenacity
B. a neutrality
C. a pugnacity
D. an effusiveness
E. an irascibility
【正确答案:B】
在选项前的affect一词,通常会被理解成为“影响”的意思,而在这里考察了其“假装”的含义(to put on a false appearance of sth. / to pretend to feel);at odds with = 相反,不一致,与作者恶言谩骂的倾向(predilection for invective)相反的是其假装*持中立(affects neutrality)
其余选项的释义如下,对单词不熟悉的小伙伴们都可以积累起来啦~
A. a tenacity韧性,坚韧;C. a pugnacity好斗,好战;D. an effusiveness 吐露,叨唠;E. an irascibility 易怒,脾气暴躁
3.In order to emphasize the erect posture of his subject matter, the painstaking painter has startlingly contrasted it with the ______ of the windswept trees.
A. tilting
B. instability
C. uprightness
D. perpendicularity
E. exaggeration
F. listing
【正确答案:AF】
题目中后半句的it代指前文的erect posture,也就是说选项要和笔直的姿势(erect posture)形成对比,A选项tilt大家应该都不陌生,动词/名词都有倾斜的含义,然而作为一道双选题,同学们往往会在选项中找不到tilt的同义词。
让我们来一起看看F选项的含义:list作为名词,有“条/列”的含义,但它的另一个名词意思是倾斜(a deviation from the vertical);因此,AF的*终答案是显而易见的
4.Whereas biologists must maintain a (i) ______ attitude toward the subjects of their research, social scientists must, paradoxically, combine personal involvement and scholarly (ii) ______.
A.scrupulous
B.casual
C.disinterested
D.sympathy
E.detachment
F.abandon
【正确答案:(i)C (ii)E】
whereas是一个清晰的指示词,告诉我们前后取反,也就是*个选项和personal involvement取反,我们选择了disinterested公正的,不偏袒的;而第二个选项我们从paradoxically(悖论式的)得知,也是和personal involvement取反。
在这里,detachment的另一层意思是”客观公正“(freedom from bias or prejudice),而不是我们熟知的“分开,分离”
5.The recent exhibition on Dadaism is nothing if not _____, for the visual arts are currently awash in Dadaist gestures and gambits of one variety or another.
A. sensational
B. timely
C. daunting
D. ill-advised
E. opportune
F. misguided
【正确答案:BE】
Awash大家通常认为的熟悉意思都是“被水冲洗的,与水面齐平的“,在这里考察的意思却是“充满”(filled ,covered, or completely overrun as if by a flood), 理解为“当前的艺术形式充满了达达主义的内容”。
这里有一个GRE常考短语,nothing if not,是“极其,非常”的意思,recent和current形成时间对比,不久前的展览选对了时间 – opportune恰当的/timely及时的
6.Given the flood of information presented by the mass media, the only way for someone to keep abreast of the news is to rely on __________ accounts.
A.synoptic
B.abridged
C.sensational
D.copious
E.lurid
F.understated
【正确答案:AB】
account在日常生活中常作为“账户,账单”的意思,在这里结合上下文考察的是“报道”这一含义(a statement or exposition of reasons, causes, or motives), 代入上下文理解原句,“日常的信息量很大,为了能跟得上时事的脚步,只能依靠简短的、总结性的(synoptic/abridged)报道”
7.Word order in a sentence was much freer in old French than it is in French today, this _____disappeared as the French language gradually lost its case distinctions.
A.restriction
B.license
C.similarity
D.rigidity
E.imperative
【正确答案:B】
逗号后的this指代前半句话的much freer word order,那么this之后的填空我们希望补充一个free的同义词。
选项中乍一看并没有合适的选项,但当我们查阅英文词典后发现,license除了有熟悉的“执照/许可证/特许“的含义,还有“自由”(freedom that allows or is used with irresponsibility)的含义,因此它就是正确选项。
8.The major _____ of much popular history is that it betrays no interest in making intellectual contributions to our understanding of an issue.
A. characteristic
B. shortcoming
C. dilemma
D. quandary
E. ploy
F. fault
【正确答案:BF】
betray作为一个常见词汇,大家通常理解为“背叛/出卖”,而在这道题中,它的意思是“表现,表露”,(to reveal sth. Unintentionally)
betrays no interest = 没有表现任何兴趣,这样一个负面评价对应到选项的负评价词,B-shortcoming缺点,F-fault缺点。
这8道题和相应的8个熟词僻义,希望大家都能好好吸收、巩固一下!以下是三个练习小建议,希望能帮助同学们日常的积累。
一、背单词的英文释义
同学们都喜欢直接背英文单词的中文解释,而忽略单词的英文释义。实际上,用英文释义学习单词是一个很好的方法,能够帮你辨析相近单词间的细微差别,使用场景也会更准确。
二、勤练习,勤刷题
有的同学会说吐槽:“我GRE的单词都会背了,可为什么填空题还是做得这么糟糕呢?”要知道,GRE和托福/SAT不同,仅了解单词的意思是完全不够的,你必须把学到的单词运用到具体的例子中,联系上下文研究它在句子中的用法。所以,在这里还是鼓励大家要积极练习,多刷题噢!
三、做个有心人,记录熟词僻义
熟词辟义往往变化多端,建议大家在平时练习的时候准备一个错题本,把不确定的、做错的题目和对应单词都记录下来,记录模式可以是 “单词,意思1.意思2”,并重点勾画不熟悉的释义,这样日积月累下来,你就有了一本*专属的错题集。考前有针对地刷上几遍,在考场时自然能更有自信!
说了这么多,还是祝愿大家早日考出GRE的理想分数!