需要注意的是，一個單詞通常有好幾個意思，我們要解決的是這些詞在文中所表達(dá)的意思。因此，不可脫離上下文，只根據(jù)自己以前了解的詞義來確定其意義。通常，猜測詞義可采用以下幾種方法：
　　一、利用所出現(xiàn)生詞的上下文與其意義上的聯(lián)系或下文進(jìn)一步的敘述，猜測詞義。
　　例一：The female mosquito is a vampire and lives on blood.如不知道vampire的詞義，從下文lives on blood(靠吸血而生存)則可得知其詞義為吸血昆蟲。
　　例二：The old man put on his spectacles and began to read.如不知道spectacles的詞義，從下文戴上'spectacles'后開始閱讀可以猜得其詞義眼鏡。
　　二、利用文中的舉例猜測詞義例三：Some artists plan their paintings around geometric forms like squares, circles and triangles.如不知道geometric forms的意思，可從文中所列舉的三角形，正方形、圓形來猜得其意義為幾何圖形。
　　Today young couples who are just starting their households often spend lots of their money on appliances for instance, washing machines, refrigerators and color televisions.如不知道appliances的意思，從文中的舉例washing-machines(洗衣機(jī))，refrigerator(冰箱)，televisions(電視機(jī))可以猜得該詞的意思為家用電器。
　　三、利用文中說明詞義的同位詞或定語等猜測詞義例五：The invention of snorkel, a long air tube that reaches up to the surface, has made it possible for submarines(潛艇) to use their diesel engine even when they are submerged.句中snorkel一詞的意思，可通過其同位語a long air tube that reaches up to the surface來猜得。由此，我們可確定該詞義為通氣管。
　　例六：The type of meter is called multimeter, which is used to measure electricity.通過定語從句which is used to measure electricity(用來測量電的)，我們可將multimeter的詞義確定為萬用表。
　　例七：They will be on the night shift - from midnight to 6 a. m. - next week.由破折號之間的解釋內(nèi)容，我們可以了解到night shift意思為夜班。
　　四、利用文章中所出現(xiàn)的、與某生詞或詞組意思相反的內(nèi)容，猜測詞義例八：American businessmen expect employees to be punctual. They do not expect that the workers will come late.文中be punctual的意思，可理解為not come late，即準(zhǔn)時，不遲到。
　　例九：Unlike her gregarious sister, Jane is a shy person, who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends.根據(jù)文中unlike……的意思，可將gregarious理解為與文中a shy person who does not like to go to parties, or to make new friends.相反的意思，即：表示好交際的。
　　五、利用文章中用不同的話對同一概念的解釋，猜測詞義。
　　例十：Should the government regulate the cost of resources such as oil and gas? Some people do not believe that government control is the solution to the problem of the rising cost of fuel.文中regulate的詞義可猜測為與government control的意思相近。
　　例十一：One of the predominant concerns today is the future of our natural resources. This issue is of greatest importance because it is becoming clear to many people that our present resources will not last forever.文中predominant的詞義可猜測為具有與of greatest importance相近的意思。
　　例十二：Cleaning up waterways is an enormous task. The job is so large, in fact, that the government may not be able to save some of the rivers and lakes which have been polluted.文中enormous的詞義可猜測為與so large的意思相近。
　　六、利用基本的構(gòu)詞方法，猜測詞義。
　　例十三：They overestimate the interviewee's ability and asked him many difficult questions.在overestimate詞中over-是前綴，意為過分。因此overestimate的詞義可以猜測為過高估計(jì)的意思。
　　例十四：We were told that our's was the most spacious room in the hotel. That was why we had to pay so much for it. Spacious是由詞根space(空間)+ious(形容詞后綴)構(gòu)成。由此我們可以猜得其大概意思為有空間的，寬敞的。
　　然而，需要指出的是，不要花費(fèi)太多的時間去試圖猜出所有生詞確切的意思，因?yàn)橛械纳�詞只能猜出大概的意思，有的生詞則根本無法猜出其意思。一般來說，碰到一、兩個不會的詞，無關(guān)緊要。重要的是，要弄懂整篇文章表達(dá)了什么思想。在閱讀理解中要求判斷詞語意義的問題，通常有下列形式：
　　1. According to the author, the word …… means ___________ .
　　2. By ……the author means ___________ .
　　3. Which of the following is nearest(closest)in meaning to ……?
　　4. The word ……in the passage means ___________ .
　　5. ……is ___________ .
　　6. The word …… most likely means ___________ .