例如,雅思出题者总爱在文章之一的题目中用一个难词。以“biometrics”为例。说英语的人也不大可能知道这个词,因为这个词相对较新且不常用。但出题者并非只给出这个词而不作解释。在文章中就给出了“biometrics”的定义。我们得知它是一种:“little-know but fast-growing technology that involves the use of physical of biological characteristics to identify individuals.”这样我们就知道了词意。如果我们密切留意并不要忘记黄金法则,我们总是可以找得到这些生词的定义。在这一点上雅思出题者似乎对我们很是关照。
举关于port city的一篇文章为例。同样,大多数说英语的人可能也不能区分a port和a harbour.这些词就可能存在问题。那出题者会怎样使其简单化呢?他们会在文章中给出明确的定义。“Harbour is a physical concept, a shelter for ships; port is an economic concept a center of land-sea exchange which requites good access to a hinterland even more than a sea-linked foreland.”在对它们提问之前,混淆就已经澄清了。出题者不会不对关键的词汇作出解释。不用担心。只需仔细阅读,在文章中找到这些定义,就没有问题啦。
“The genetic inheritance a baby receives from its parents at the moment of conception fixes much of its later development, determining characteristics as varied as whether it will have blue eyes or suffer from a life-threatening illness such as cystic fibrosis…In 1986, American researchers identified the genetic defect underlying one type of muscular dystrophy. In 1989, a team of American and Canadian biologists announced that they had found the site of the gene which, when defective, gives rise to cystic fibrosis.”
如果我们被要求完成下面的句子:
“The second success of research sin to genetic defect was to find the cause of…”