如何猜测不认识的词语？
1. 利用构词法确定词义
通过观察构词部分，分析辨认单词，是提高阅读速度的技巧之一。一方面，读者不必停下来查词典，继续往下读；另一方面，也大大增加了读者的词汇量，读者通过已知词缀（包括前缀和后缀）和已知词根就能很好地猜出生词的含义。
例1：Many cancers have been arrested with the use of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy 是由chemo（意为chemical）和therapy （意为treatment），整个单词意思就是“化学疗法”。
例2：They overestimate the interviewee‘s ability and asked turn many difficult questions. overestimate ＝over （过分、过度）＋estimate （估计）。因此overestimate的词义可猜测为“过高估计”。
例3：The murderer had developed a poison which could not be tasted or smelled when mixed with food. Because it was imperceptible， he was able to murder a number of people without being caught.句中的imperceptible 一词由前缀im-（非，不）＋词根percept（感知、觉察）＋后缀 -ible（能……的）构成。几部分组合在一起，也就是“难以觉察的”之意。
例4：Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry which seeks to study humans and their endeavors in the same reasoned， orderly， systematic， and dispassioned manner that natural scientists use for the study of natural phenomena. （2003考研英语第62题）
其中的dispassioned为超纲词，我们可根据构词法dis + passion + ed知其大概意思：除掉激情的，也即是“冷静的”。
2. 利用语法知识确定词义，在很多情况下，各种语法知识可以帮助我们来判断词性、词义。
例1：This set of books is for children. The first book of the sequence， which is one of the most popular series of children‘s stories， is a group of stories about the inhabitants of a village.假定我们不认识sequence，利用定语从句which is one of the most popular series of children’s stories， 其中series就与sequence 同义，也就是“丛书”的意思。
例2：For their fishing and hunting the men used a kayak， a small boat for one person.利用同位语a small boat for one person我们知道kayak是一种单人小船。
例3：A solar eclipse—when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun—in an unusual and interesting phenomenon that occurs rarely.通过破折号解释我们知道solar eclipse为“日食”。
例4：Ventilation， as we know， is a system or means of providing fresh air. It plays a very important part in the field of engineering.通过后面的解释我们知道Ventilation为“通风，流通空气”之意。
例5：The modern age of medicine began with the stethoscope， an instrument for listening to a patient‘s heartbeat and breathing. Stethoscope一词大家都不熟悉，通过后面的同位语解释an instrument for listening to a patient’s heartbeat and breathing，我们便能理解stethoscope的确切词义，即“听诊器”或“听筒”的意思。
