三、如何猜测不认识的词语？ 4. 根据同义、反义关系确定词义 阅读中，特别是要注意表示反意的信号词：in contrast， on the other hand， rather than， however， yet， although， while， unlike， but， whereas， as opposed to等，利用这些同义、反义关系，可以帮助我们确定词义。 例1：My sister Mane is an optimist， while her boyfriend is one who is always gloomy and expects the worst to happen.从while的转折关系可知optimist意思是“one who expects the best‘’， 即”乐观的“。 例2：Mother was tall， fat， and middle aged. The principal of the school was an older woman， almost as plump as Mother， and much shorter.根据Mother was tall， fat 以及后面as plump as的同义关系，我们知道plump为“丰满的”之意。 例3：Sally liked to concoct all sorts of stories， but her mother always knew when she was lying. concoct一词大家不熟悉，根据but的转折关系我们知道在此句中与was lying的含义大体相同，由此可知concoct的大概意思是“编造谎话”。 例4：A gorilla always makes me think of the word aloof—not friendly， of distance from others.假定我们不认识aloof一词，破折号后的反义关系：“不友好，冷漠” 就解释了aloof一词的含义。 5. 利用逻辑推理和常识确定词义 有时候，逻辑推理和自身的生活经验及普通常识能帮助我们确定词义。 例1：Fishes live in water and have fins which help them to swim. Most fishes have slimy skins covered with scales， but in fishes such as eels the scales are very small and can hardly be seen.凭常识我们不难猜出fins， slimy和scales的确切意思分别是“鳍”、“滑溜的”和“鳞”，对于eels一词，我们只需知道是fish的一种（鳝鱼类）就行了。 例2：Not wanting to disturb the sleeping kitten， I gingerly lifted her from the box and put her on a blanket near the heater.根据前半句的Not wanting to disturb（不愿打扰），我们便可大致推测出gingerly一词的含义：“小心翼翼地”。 例3：A mercury thermometer is made of a glass tube with a bulb at one end.凭常识我们知道温度计下面的bulb是“水银球”。 例4：Most troubles can be avoided， but death and taxes are inevitable.凭常识我们知道死亡和税收是不可避免的（inevitable）事情。