《新思维英语阅读》教学辅导(第5章)

《新思维英语阅读》教学辅导（第5章）

《新思维英语阅读Ⅲ》教学辅导（第5章）

CHAPTER 5 AGING

Theme Introduction:

The search for the secret to long life has existed since time began. We all want a long, healthy life. We notice the signs of our own aging with concern. Why do we age? While medical science, and individuals consider ways to prolong human lifespan, the numbers of people over 60 — and particularly those over 80 — are growing fast. This rapid aging of global society brings many problems.

Reading Skill Practised: Word Analysis

As you learned in Chapter 4, learning to read without constant use of your dictionary will help you become a faster and more efficient reader. However, sometimes the context of the sentence does not give enough information for you to guess the meaning of unknown words. Another vocabulary strategy you can try is word analysis. In word analysis, the reader breaks down English words into common parts and guesses the meaning from the word origin.

Reading Skill: Word Analysis (Prefixes)

Sometimes the context of the sentence does not give enough information for you to guess the meaning of the unknown word. If that is the case, and you feel you need to know that unknown word's meaning to understand the sentence, then you should open your dictionary. However, there is another vocabulary strategy you might try: Word analysis. In word analysis, the reader breaks down English words into prefix (the beginning of the word), root (the middle of the word, and its basic meaning), and suffix

(the end of the word). An example is the word international, which can

be broken down like this:

Prefix Root Suffix inter nation al

(between) (nat = to be born. Nation means literally\ (about, a

way of being)

a group of people born together\and has come to mean a country.)

International is about the relations or exchanges between two or more

countries

You can use this strategy of word analysis to guess the meaning of the

word. Especially if there is some contextual information in the sentence

or paragraph, word analysis can be quite useful.

Here is a partial list of common prefixes.

Prefix Meaning Example ad-, af- move towards advance anti- against anti-aging

auto- self automobile bi- two biannual con-, corn-, co- with conversation en- to give

enlighten de- away from, down decrease

hyper- over hyperactive inter-,

intra- between, among, within international mini- small minibus maxi- large maximum mis- wrongly

misunderstand mono- one

monologue poly- many

polytechnic pre- before

preview pro- forwards, forth promote