滕州市教育资源公共服务平台

   作者：滕州五中英语组 董洌明

在阅读教学中，对学生推理能力的培养很重要，最为常见的也是极为重要的一点即为对于文章中出现的陌生单词的处理上。每当有“拦路虎”出现的时候很多同学就会自乱阵脚，在平日的练习中更是常常见到不少同学手头备着本大块头的字典，以备不时之需，实则，全无这个必要。

在一篇文章中遇到六七个生单词是很正常的，或者说是命题者有意而为之，因为阅读考察的是对整个语篇的把握能力，单词和单词之间不是孤立的，而是相互联系的，我们要能够在“一穷二白，一无所知”的基础上通过它们彼此间纵横交错的关系“空手套得白狼”，要胆大心细地去考证去发现线索，这其实也是命题者要考察的能力之一——生单词的处理。

关于此，方法很多，在此不再一一赘述，结合一篇文章，以白话的方式来粗略阐述一下该策略。

Airport Health Inspector

        Mary Buendia once spent a day in an airplane, looking for a cat. She didn't find it that day.

The plane flew around all over the world for three weeks with the cat on board. She finally found it in the cargo hold and sent it home first-class. Another time, she found two suitcases full of birds from Turkey. But her strangest experience was when she pulled a snake out of a man's pants.

     Mary Buendia is an animal health inspector at JFK Airport in New York. She takes care of all the animals that pass through the airport and checks that they are healthy. In the Animal Health Center, there are areas for dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, and fish.        

  There is also an area for very big animals. The biggest they ever had was a black rhino. "It was no problem," she says.

 At the center, they receive all types of animals—monkeys, wild cats, poisonous spiders. It's impossible for one person to know  about all of these, but there are 20 people working with Mary. Between them, they understand how to take care of the animals. She recently had to feed a group of toucans, which are rare birds. "Luckily," she says, "there is a supermarket nearby which is open 24 hours. I had to go at 2 a.m. to buy bananas."

 Mary often works at night. "It's quiet between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.," she says, "because we don't have night flights. We try to give the animals a quiet night." Mary clearly loves her job. "You never know what the day will bring," she says, and goes off to feed the birds.

先说该文章的题目Airport Health Inspector，有同学可能会因为一开头就不理解Inspector的意思而觉得这篇文章没法做下去了，其实不然，接着往下读，我们就会有种豁然开朗的感觉。

文章在第二段一开头就指出，Mary Buendia is an animal health inspector at JFK Airport in New York.由此我们可以猜测inspector大概是某种职业或工种，而且工作场所是机场，具体是什么样的工作呢，不要着急，接着往下读，She takes care of all the animals that pass through the airport and checks that they are healthy.果不其然，这句话给出了较为细致的阐明。至此，inspector一词带来的困惑完全解开了。

     再比如，there are areas for dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, and fish.

     There is also an area for very big animals. The biggest they ever had was a black rhino.

或许我们完全不清楚在这两句话中提到的reptiles，rhino是什么意思，it doesn’t matter, 我们只要知道是两种动物就可以了，具体是什么动物则无关紧要。

     还有，She recently had to feed a group of toucans, which are rare birds.同样地，后面的定语从句对toucans给出了解释性的说明，我们知道它是一种珍惜的鸟类就可以了，有人问，可是我还是不知道是什么鸟啊，是啊，但是这有什么关系吗？这并不妨碍我们对文章的整体理解啊。如果你觉得还是不满意不过瘾，接着往下读你还可以得到一些其他相关信息，I had to go at 2 a.m. to buy bananas，哦，这种鸟是吃香蕉的啊。That’s ok! It’s enough!

    所以说，有时在文章阅读中我们还真是需要一种不求甚解的精神，抓住其大意足矣，至于细节嘛，完全可以忽略，“该放手时就放手”。

    我认为关于阅读理解的教学与复习，老师可以选择几篇有一定生单词，但是可以通过联系上下文，或者通过猜测完全可以将词义猜出的篇章对学生做一下在阅读中推理能力的辅导，关键在于转变学生思想，使其认识到文章中的几个生僻单词根本不是问题，不会成为阅读的障碍，要“大胆地往前走”，胆大心细，必要时可以不求甚解，必要的时候放弃一些细枝末节也是一种策略嘛。