托福阅读技巧之语篇中的词义

在一篇讲述十二世纪中国对于日本的学术影响的真题中（China’s Twelfth-Century intellectual Influence on Japan）

有这样一句话：

One of the earliest and most important results of this new wave of cultural transmission from the continent was a revival of interest in Japan of pure scholarship.

学生往往脱口而出：重新开始追求奖学金了。

scholarship作为奖学金的意思太深入人心，学生这么理解也无可厚非；

但也足以说明，语境至上这件事情还可以不断的被强调。

除了根据语境判断某些词的某个语义是否能说通之外，还要注意语篇中对于词汇的解释说明。

在学术类文章中，对于词汇的解释说明从内容上来说可以是同义词解释、给出集合名词中的例子进行解释、直接下定义精准描述。

从形式上看，可以是or后引出同义词，或是用破折号、括号引出解释说明，亦或是用同位语、定语从句等进行解释说明。

我们以刚刚结束的4月27日托福阅读真题中的一个段落为例：

Beginning in the fifteenth century, monarchs (kings and queens) across Western Europe looked for ways to increase their own power whilediminishing the power of noblemen, or aristocrats. One development that made such a shift in power relations possible was the introduction of gunpowder, in earlier centuries in Europe,battlefields were dominated by noblemen who fought while mounted on horses. When firearms (weapons using gunpowder) came into use, however, this way of fighting declined, and peasants (poor people who worked on the land) came to play a significant role in the armies because peasant foot soldiers were more numerous and could be trained relatively quickly to use gun powder. Armies rapidly grew larger.

This meant that kings who wanted to remain powerful had to gain control over the raising of troops, a function formerly performed by noblemen. At the same time, kings gained a new powerful ally in the powerstruggle with the aristocracy: a rising middle class of townspeople and merchants, who opposed aristocrats by favoring a more meritocratic social structure in which ability and hard work were better appreciated and rewarded. Merchants and townspeople also objected to local nobles' intrusion both in their towns, which were situated near the nobles' lands, and in their long distance trade activities, which the nobles taxed.

在这个段落中文中有相关解释说明的表达有五个：

1/monarchs (kings and queens)

括号中的词相信大家都是认识的

2/noblemen, or aristocrats

如果不认识aristocrats的话，等同于noblemen

3/firearms (weapons using gunpowder)

根据解释是使用火药的武器

4/peasants (poor people who worked on the land)

根据解释是耕农

5/a more meritocratic social structure

根据描述，在这种社会结构中，能力和努力更被重视更能得到回报

以上五个表达在阅读的过程中如果有一点点让大家感到困扰的话那大可不必啦。