Attend a play是演员还是观众？

你真的认识attend吗？

我们先思考一个问题：

Attend a play 是演员还是观众？

我们在上课的时候一直在强调背单词要把单词放在情境里记，因为托福听力时间很短，所以必须完全理解词汇的含义才能理解整篇听力。很多同学非常认真，听力语感实力也不错，能够听到很多内容，无法更进一步的拿到高分，问题就在于词汇基础不扎实，很多词汇的含义不够清晰准确。

比如说Official43 set4 的这篇对话，先看原文的这一部分：

托福原文

FEMALEPROFESSOR: Oh! Andrew, before I forget—and, uh I will get to your question, but-now don't leave without taking the tickets for tomorrow's field trip.I have a last-minute meeting, so I can't make it after all.But since you helped organize the trip, I'll let you hand out the tickets... I've got everything you need right here.

MALE STUDENT:Sure, no problem.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:And... uh, you don't need directions to the theater—you've been there before, right?MALE STUDENT:Yup.

真题解析

这一段里的几个词组先解释一下：

1.don't leave without taking the tickets - 这是一个双重否定结构，即“一定要在离开前拿好门票”。

2. field trip - 这个词组的概念很像现在很热门的游学项目，指老师带学生进行实地考察活动。

英文释义：A field trip is an trip made by students and a teacher to see or study something, for example a museum, a factory, or a historical site.

例句：Rachel enjoyed the class field trip to the aquarium in Boston.

3. a last-minute meeting - 直译就是“最后一分钟的会议”，意思是突然安排的临时会议。

4. hand out - 这里指老师要学生来分发门票。

英文释义：If you hand things out to people, you give one or more to each person in a group.

例句：One of my jobs was to hand out the prizes.

Food is still being handed out.

总的来说，这组对话是教授让学生替她去参加一个和戏剧有关的游学项目，因为教授自己临时有事无法参加。

题目问到这篇对话主要在讲什么，其中一个选项对应到这部分，你觉得要不要选呢？

Arrangements for attending a local play.

这道题部分同学认为不选，理由是attend a play是指参与到戏剧中，那就是作为演员表演，或者是幕后工作人员，而对话中男学生只是作为观众前往，所以关键点就在于这句话的意思到底是学生作为演员参与到这部戏剧里，还是作为观众看这场表演呢？

先来看一下柯林斯词典对attend的定义：

① verb

If youattenda meeting or other event, you are present at it.

Thousands of people attended the funeral.

The meeting will be attended by finance ministers from many countries.

We want the maximum number of people to attend to help us cover our costs.

② verb

If youattendaninstitutionsuch as a school,college, or church, yougothere regularly.

They attended college together at the University of Pennsylvania.

③ verb

If youattendtosomething, youdealwith it. If youattendtosomeone who ishurtorinjured, you care for them.

The staff will helpfully attend to your needs.

There are more pressing matters to be attended to today.

The main thing is to attend to the injured.

看了上面详细的英文释义，应该明白了attend适用的情景，当attend表示“参加某个活动”时，是出席的意思，不是一定要参与到组织过程中。其实回想一下，当我们平时说attend a meeting,或attend a class是一定要在会上讲话或者作为老师讲课吗？

这其实是一个非常好的问题。对于长期身处英语环境的人来说，自然而然会培养出对词汇用法的“语感”,很容易分辨单词的细微差异。但作为非母语者，我们在托福这样高强度、时间紧张的听力考试中，就很容易陷入对单词定义的纠结。（此刻精听精读训练的实用高度持续上升.....）

背诵单词的精准含义又是一件费时费力的事情。所以我们应该专注于在大量阅读中培养语感。语感并非虚无缥缈，而是来自长期积累的扎实功底。通过持续阅读，我们可以自然而然掌握单词在不同语境中的用法，而不是死记硬背，才能在托福考试的短时间内准确把握整个听力段落的内容和意图。