此例中,如果考生能对reversal这个词有准确理解的话,答案会很迅速被选出。在《韦氏大学词典》中,reversal的解释为:a change to an opposite arragement, process or course of action. 很显然最高法院既然更改了以前的判决就损坏了其立法的延续性,答案选B.
每次SAT考试都会放出“新”单词,所谓“最熟悉的陌生人”就是熟词僻义。例如:
(1)OG-454-S2-5: Just as glass windows offer buildings both light and insulation, certain atmospheric gases___ incoming sunlight and___ heat radiated from the ground, preventing warmth from escaping. (正确答案:admit….. contain)
(2)2008.01-S5-3:The attempts of epidemiologists to___ the infectious disease ultimately proved futile: as soon as they managed to___ it in one community, it would emerge somewhere else。(正确答案:contain…check)
多义单词也是SAT填空部分放难题的地方,比如第一题和第二题的contain都是“抑制”的意思,常见的熟词僻义可能在SAT填空或者阅读的词汇题中出现:bear: 包含,fashion: 形成,deliberate: 深思熟虑,address: 做演讲,指出,appropriate: 挪用公款,champion: 支持,balloon: 上升,flag: 削弱,spring: 涌现,table: 列举,sugar: 使赏心悦目,crude: 粗鲁的,hatch: 沉思,associate: 支持等。另外一种熟词僻义是单词“变形”后意思产生变化,比如加了ed或者ing等之后意思发生了变化:commit(犯罪,衷心)——committed(衷心的)——noncommittal 不表示意见的(refusing to bind oneself to a particular course of action or view or the like)。
通过以上的分析可以看出我们做题的出发点是题干中的逻辑关系同时还需对单词的意思有透彻和升级版的全新理解,做到这些就可以实现一词填空题定天下。