托福高效备考战略、词汇背诵速成方法分享

　　在备考路途中不管是要考托福、SAT还是ACT等考试，单词都是最基础最重要的基石。很多同学花费很长的时间和精力死磕单词，但是效果却并不理想。通过老师们的教学实践发现，背诵单词最有效的方法是把单词应用到语境中记忆，而不仅仅是记住单词的自身意思，下面老师将教同学们如何高效处理单词问题。

　　这是大家备考托福考试单词储备的minimum。

　　2252个单词对于超级学霸来说基本1周左右可以搞定，但对于绝大多数基础一般的初高中同学来说基本都要1-2个月左右的时间反复记忆才能记熟。很多同学需要兼顾学校的课业，准备托福的时间只有每周的周末，投入时间少无形延长了备考时长。

　　在数月的漫长备考中，如果大家没有办法高效处理单词问题，就会困在单词的泥藻中无法自拔，直接影响到整个备考的效率和同学们自信心。通过教学实践我们发现，背诵单词最高效的方法就是应用。

　　我们鼓励大家在最开始背单词的时候就加入适当的托福听说读写去应用所学单词，做到学以致用。这样做的好处实在太多了，最明显的就是大家学到的不再是一个孤零零的单词，而是在真实语言环境中活灵活现的表达，扩大了阅读的阅读单位，写作文也不再会出现奇怪的Chinglish。可是有的同学会有畏惧心理，觉得我单词才知道那么一丢丢，怎么能开始应用呢?

　　众所周知，托福考试听说读写中，阅读对单词识别要求最高，本文以阅读为例说明如何在单词量有限的情况下进行单词应用。

　　我们以TPO5第二篇文章《The Origin of the Pacific Island People》太平洋群岛居民起源中第二段内容为例，原文如下：

　　Speculation on the origin of these Pacific islanders began as soon as outsiders encountered them, in the absence of solid linguistic, archaeological, and biological data, many fanciful and mutually exclusive theories were devised. Pacific islanders are variously thought to have come from North America, South America, Egypt, Israel, and India, as well as Southeast Asia. Many older theories implicitly deprecated the navigational abilities and overall cultural creativity of the Pacific islanders. For example, British anthropologists G. Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry assumed that only Egyptians would have been skilled enough to navigate and colonize the Pacific. They inferred that the Egyptians even crossed the Pacific to found the great civilizations of the New World (North and South America). In 1947 Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl drifted on a balsa-log raft westward with the winds and currents across the Pacific from South America to prove his theory that Pacific islanders were Native Americans (also called American Indians). Later Heyerdahl suggested that the Pacific was peopled by three migrations: by Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest of North America drifting to Hawaii, by Peruvians drifting to Easter Island, and by Melanesians. In 1969 he crossed the Atlantic in an Egyptian-style reed boat to prove Egyptian influences in the Americas. Contrary to these theorists, the overwhelming evidence of physical anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology shows that the Pacific islanders came from Southeast Asia and were skilled enough as navigators to sail against the prevailing winds and currents.

　　很多同学看到这个段落第一时间的反应就是好长，其次就是好乱，不知如何下手。

　　可是仔细一看，第一句话Speculation on the origin of these Pacific islanders began as soon as outsiders encountered them, in the absence of solid linguistic, archaeological, and biological data, many fanciful and mutually exclusive theories were devised.虽然有33个单词，多层次句子叠加还用上插入语，但去掉修饰成分剩下的核心信息是如下图：

　　“Speculation on the origin of these Pacific islanders began as soon as outsiders encountered them, in the absence of solid linguistic, archaeological, and biological data, many fanciful and mutually exclusivetheories were devised.” 即Speculation began;many theories were devised。“推测以……一种方式开始，很多理论被提出。”也就是说大家只需要理解这8个单词，就可以掌握本句话的意思，而在这8个单词中，除了speculation可能会有障碍以外，其他不会有任何难度。因为第一句话告诉我们说many theories were devised(很多理论被提出)，根据托福行文方式，可以推测接下来讲不同的理论。

　　文章第二句的North America, South America, Egypt, Israel, and India, as well asSoutheast Asia就给出了具体的例子。第三句以Many older theories开头，明显的时间标志词older，让我们可以预判到文章接下来已时间顺序展开举例。这个时候同学们可能对implicitly deprecated the navigational abilities 不熟悉，尤其是对implicitly deprecated不了解，没关系，后一句for example给出了本句的例子。例子的结论是only Egyptians would have been skilled enough to navigate and colonize the Pacific只有埃及人有能力殖民太平洋。接下来they开头的句子进一步解释说明older theory。In 1947是一个明显的近代时间标志词，人物从Norwegian adventurer转换到Norwegian adventurer说明了这是一个新的理论。文章通过2句话说明该理论，结论是Pacific was peopled by three migrations太平洋岛国居民来自三个地方，后在1969进一步添加Egypt完善该理论。至此，原文第二个理论讲述完毕。

　　本段最后一句话的前4个单词Contrary to these theorists说明马上要讲到一个与以往不同的新理论，虽然也有36个单词那么长的一个句子Contrary to these theorists, the overwhelming evidence of physical anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology shows that the Pacific islanders came from Southeast Asia and were skilled enough as navigators to sail against the prevailing winds and currents.，最主要的信息就是结论Pacific islanders came from Southeast Asia 岛国人民来自东南亚。

　　为了大家看的清楚，我们把整体的分析贴出来：

　　Speculation on the origin of these Pacific islanders began as soon as outsiders encountered them, in the absence of solid linguistic, archaeological, and biological data, many fanciful and mutually exclusive theories were devised. Pacific islanders are variously thought to have come from North America, South America, Egypt, Israel, and India, as well as Southeast Asia【前文举例】. Many older theories implicitly deprecated the navigational abilities and overall cultural creativity of the Pacific islanders【单词看不懂没关系，后文举例可帮忙】. For example, British anthropologists G. Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry assumedthat only Egyptians would have been skilled enough to navigate and colonize the Pacific. They inferred that 【对前文的进一步解释说明】the Egyptians even crossed the Pacific to found the great civilizations of the New World (North and South America). In 1947 Norwegian adventurer 【新时间新人物暗示新理论】Thor Heyerdahl drifted on a balsa-log raft westward with the winds and currents across the Pacific from South America to prove his theory that Pacific islanders were Native Americans (also called American Indians). LaterHeyerdahl suggested that the Pacific was peopled by three migrations【结论】: by Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest of North America drifting to Hawaii, by Peruvians drifting to Easter Island, and by Melanesians. In 1969 he crossed the Atlantic in an Egyptian-style reed boat to prove Egyptian influences in the Americas. Contrary to【与以往不同，暗示新信息】 these theorists, the overwhelming evidence of physical anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology shows that the Pacific islanders came from Southeast Asia【结论】 and were skilled enough as navigators to sail against the prevailing winds and currents.

　　通过以上的分析，我们可以看出在单词量有限的情况下，可以通过上下文的内部的逻辑关系帮助理清原文内容，再也不要因为自己单词量小而久久不开始真正的应用，注意会用才是最好的学习方式。