Question

【題目】Oh, the places you’ll go!

When it comes to habitat, human beings are creatures of habit. It has been known for a long time that, whether his habitat is a village, a city or, for real globe-trotters (周游世界者), the planet itself, an individual person generally visits the same places regularly. The details, though, have been surprisingly obscure. Now, thanks to an analysis of data collected from 40,000 smartphone users around the world, a new property of humanity’s locomotive (移動的) habits has been revealed.

It turns out that someone’s “l(fā)ocation capacity”, the number of places which he or she visits regularly, remains constant over periods of months and years. What constitutes a “place” depends on what distance between two places makes them separate. But analyzing movement patterns helps illuminate the distinction and the researchers found that the average location capacity was 25. If a new location does make its way into the set of places an individual tends to visit, an old one drops out in response. People do not, in other words, gather places like collector cards. Rather, they cycle through them. Their geographical behavior is limited and predictable, not fancy-free.

The study demonstrating this, just published in Nature Human Behavior, does not offer any explanation for the limited location capacity it measures. But a statistical analysis carried out by the authors shows that it cannot be explained solely by constraints on time. Some other factor is at work. One of the researchers draws an analogy. He suggests that people’s cognitive capacity limits the number of places they can visit routinely, just as it limits the number of other people an individual can routinely socialize with. That socialization figure, about 150 for most people, is known as the Dunbar number, after its discoverer, Robin Dunbar.

Lehmann says his group is now in search of similar data from other primates (靈長目動物), in an attempt to work out where human patterns of mobility have their roots. For those, though, they will have to rely on old-fashioned methods of zoological observation unless they can work out a way to get chimpanzees to carry smartphones.

【1】The underlined word “obscure” in paragraph 1 can be replaced by .

A. clear B. little known

C. accurate D. long forgotten

【2】How can the researchers get similar data from other primates?

A. Observe the primates or let them carry smartphones.

B. Work together with Robin Dunbar.

C. Carry out statistical analysis.

D. Publish essays in Nature Human Behavior.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【解析】

通過搜集大量智能手機用戶的數(shù)據(jù)，研究者得出一個人通常會定期訪問相同的地方，這與人的位置能力有關，動物也是如此。

【1】猜測詞義題。研究表明一個人通常會定期訪問相同的地方，盡管細節(jié)還出人意料地模糊不清。上句是人們得出的結論，下句是數(shù)據(jù)的來源。句中though 表示意思轉折，“obscure”指模糊不清的，與little known同義，故選B.

【2】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一段For those, though, they will have to rely on old-fashioned methods of zoological observation unless they can work out a way to get chimpanzees to carry smartphones.可知人們研究其他靈長類動物，可以通過讓黑猩猩攜帶智能手機或依靠老式的動物學觀察方法得到數(shù)據(jù)。故選A.

詞義猜測題要根據(jù)詞、詞組、句子所在的語境上下文來判斷其意義。因此熟練掌握一些猜詞技巧是做好這類題的關鍵。命題者在出這類題時慣用常規(guī)詞義來麻痹考生，我們要特別注意熟詞生義，切不可脫離語境主觀臆斷。

下面結合文本及近幾年高考試題，對詞義猜測的技巧加以解讀。

1.根據(jù)定義或上下文解釋進行猜測

有時短文中出現(xiàn)一個需要猜測其意義的詞或短語，下面接著出現(xiàn)其定義或解釋，這就是判斷該詞或短語意義的主要依據(jù)。例如：It will be very hard but also very brittle—that is, it will break easily.從后面that is(也就是說)的解釋中我們可以了解到brittle 是“脆”的意思。

2.根據(jù)同位關系進行猜測

閱讀中出現(xiàn)的難詞有時后面緊跟一個同位語，對前面的詞進行解釋，這時可利用同位關系對前面或后面的詞義或句意進行猜測。例如：The “Chunnel”, a tunnel(隧道) connecting England and France, is now complete.此句中a tunnel connecting England and France是Chunnel的同位語。因此，The “Chunnel”就是英法之間的海底隧道。

3.根據(jù)構詞法(前綴、后綴、復合、派生等)進行猜測

在英語中，有很多詞可以在前面加前綴，在后面加后綴，從而構成一個詞，乍看起來，這個詞可能是新詞，但掌握了一定的構詞知識，就不難猜出它的詞義。例如：“Our parties are aimed for children 2 to 10,” Anaclerio said, “and they’re very interactive and creative in that they built a sense of drama based on a subject.”文中interactive是由前綴inter-(相互的)和active(活動的，活躍的)而構成的，同時根據(jù)上下文的意思可以判斷，該詞的含義應是“互動的”。

4.根據(jù)轉折或對比關系進行猜測

根據(jù)上下句的連接詞，如but, however, otherwise等就可以看到前后句在意義上的差別，從而依據(jù)某一句的含義，來確定另一句的含義。另外，分號也可以表示轉折、對比或不相干的意義。例如：A child’s birthday party doesn’t have to be a hassle; it can be a basket of fun.從前后兩句的意思可以看出，hassle和a basket of fun肯定是近乎相反的意義。所以不難判斷hassle的意思是“困難，麻煩”。