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在阅读时，常常会遇到一些生词，从而影响同学们的阅读速度。其实，大部分生词是可以通过上下文的关系猜出来的。通过同义词和反义词的关系猜词是我们常用的方法之一。
通过同义词猜词，一是根据and或or来猜测词义。 我们通过下面一篇文章来具体分析： Headache is one of man's most common enemies. Most people get headache from time to time. What causes headaches and what can we do about them?
Probably more than 90 percent of all headaches are caused by worry or tension. Modern life produces tensions for everybody, at work, at school and at home. What can we do about tension and worry in our life? First, find out what is causing the tension. It may be caused by feelings or emotions. Do you worry too much over what people think of you, over your clothes, or what you did or didn’t say? Are you on good terms with your employer, neighbors, best friend, school friends or family? If not, why not? Next, find a way of reducing tension. Gardening, walking, running, swimming or any activity suitable for your age will help reduce tension. Then, look at your way of life. Ask yourself, where am I going? And why? Learn the secret of relaxation. Lie down in a dark quiet room and relax as much as possible by taking several slow breaths. Let all your muscles relax.
这篇文章是讲头痛与精神紧张的关系，因为90%以上的头痛都是由焦虑和紧张引起的，所以在日常生活中避免焦虑和紧张是防止头痛的最佳途径。文章中有两处通过同义词进行猜词的地方：一处是worry or tension。大家都知道worry这个词是“焦虑”的意思，通过连词or我们不难看出tension与焦虑、着急、烦恼有关，进而猜出tension一词为“紧张”或与“紧张”相近的意思；另一处是feelings or emotions。同样的道理，我们可以通过feelings（感情）来猜出同义词emotions的意思。
二是通过文中进一步的解释猜测词义，如：“Man has learned something about the planets Venus, Mars, and Jupiter with the help of spaceships.”。 此句中的Venus (金星), Mars (火星), Jupiter (木星)均为生词，但只要知道planets就可猜出这几个词都属于“行星”这一概念。
通过反义词猜词，
一是看表转折关系的连词或副词，如but, while, however等，如：“I made numerous mistakes in my exercises, but Jack made only a few.”。在这个句子中，numerous是生词，我们可以通过并列连词but后面的only a few（很少）推测出numerous意为“很多的”；
二是看not或其它表否定意义的词，如：“He is so homely, not at all as handsome as his brother.”。根据not at all 我们不难推测出homely的意思，即“不英俊的、不漂亮的”。
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