同义词线索

One night Mrs Green succeeded in setting the house on fire. Mr Green managed to lead the servants to safety and then went back into the mansion to rescue his wife.第二句中的mansion是生词，从前后两句看，发现mansion即第一句中的house。

用途线索

They like their house as it has a few elms in the back yard that will give them shade and keep the house cooler.

通过elms的作用，具有提供荫凉使屋里凉快些，可猜出elms是种树。

环境线索

She is pleased if she lives near the ocean because she loves to eat flounder.

从the ocean可得知flounder是种水产。

因果线索

I can’t play football now because I can’t find my white sneakers.

已知sneakers和玩足球有关，从white和sneakers的复数形式，可猜出sneakers是球鞋的意思。

对比线索

I usually prompt for all my classes, but yesterday I arrived in the middle of my first class.

But表示意思上的转折，由此可看出前后句意思相反。后半句说我昨天迟到了，第一节课上了一半时我才来，由此可见我平时应该是“准时”的。

说明线索

Helen is very intelligent. She always knows the answers to all the teachers’questions.

第二句是对第一句的补充说明。一个能回答老师所有问题的女孩子，Helen一定是很 “聪明”的。

顺序线索

After Mr Green put the letters in the envelope, he sealed it and put a stamp on it.

在发信时，先把心装入信封，然后封上口，再贴上邮票，是正常合理的动作顺序，可见seal是封口的意思。

定义或解释线索

Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender shoots(嫩芽), or young leaves of trees.

通过“encourages the growth of tender shoots(嫩芽), or young leaves of trees—鼓励树木嫩叶或新芽的生长”的解释，可推断pruning跟树木的修建有关。

In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today.

根据后面的同位语“an endangered wild cat—一种濒危野生猫”的解释，可知ocelot是一种猫科动物。

领用各种已知信息推测、判断生词的词义是一项重要的四六级阅读答题技巧。当然，猜词测义的方法不只这七条，这仍需广大应试生在平时的阅读理解联系中，自己去归纳总结并掌握。在实践中，如果能够灵活运用，排除生词的障碍，便可顺利理解文章的思想内容。