考点二 同义词、近义词辨析
技巧点拨
英语中有大量的同义词（或近义词）译成汉语后意思相同或相近；还有一些译成汉语似乎是同义词或近义词，但在英语中并不是同义词；另有一些英语的同义词翻译成汉语不一定是同义词。即使是英语中的同义词，它们之间的内涵、用法、搭配以及使用场合也常常不同。
备选项是同义词或近义词的题目主要测试考生对常用同义词或近义词之间的细微差别的掌握情况。因此，考生在完形语篇中遇到备选答案为同义词（或近义词）辨析时，要分析每个词的内涵，区分其在用法和词义上的细微差别，提高词义的辨析能力，还要结合上下文的语义，符合语境，这样才能在遇到这类题时稳操胜券。
例1：
Indeed，more and more schools are discovering that foreign languages are best taught in the lower grades.Young children often can learn several languages by being exposed to them，while adults have a much harder time learning another language once the____of their first language have become firmly fixed.
A.regulations B.formations C.rules D.constitutions
分析：C。近义名词辨析。选项中的regulations和rules均有“规则，规定”的意思。regulation特指official rule及官方制订的规章制度，而rule指在特定环境或游戏中的规则、规章，还有习惯、惯例的意思。此句意思是：一旦母语的规则被深深印入脑海中，成年人就很难再学好另一种语言。
例2：
The stem family system was once common in Japan，but changes in inheritance laws，as well as broader social changes brought about by industrialization and urbanization，have____the tradition.In 1960 about80percent of Japanese over 65lived with their children；by 1990 only 60 percent did—a figure that is still high by U.S.standards，but which has been declining steadily.
A.undermined B.decreased C.diminished D.defeated
分析：A。近义动词辨析。选项中的undermined，decreased和diminished动词均有“少，低”的意思。undermine“削弱”，是指渐渐破坏（信心、权威等）；decrease“减少；变少；降低”，指数量上的减少；力量或者强度的减弱；diminish“减少，变小”，指因为不断消耗，在数量方面缓慢减少，也指素质或者价值的下降。与tradition搭配的动词最合适的是undermined。
典型真题
例1：
His team’s study，published in the journal Nature，concludes that between 443629bn tons of meltwater overall are added to the world’s oceans each year.This is 37 sea level by about l.5mm a year，the team reports，in addition to the 2mm a year caused by expansion of the warming ocean.（北京大学2012年）
37.A.rising B.arising C.raising D.rearing
【名师点评】C。rising和arising均为不及物动词，不能直接接宾语，排除。根据句意和常识，应该是导致海平面上升1.5 mm，rear意为“养育，抚养”，不符合句意，只有C项（举起，增加）符合要求。
例2：
In a significant tightening of legal controls over the press，Lord lrvine，the Lord Chancellor，will introduce a 33bill that will propose making payments to witnesses illegal and will strictly control the amount of publicity that can be given to a case before a trial begins.（山东大学2014年）
33.A.sketch B.rough C.preliminary D.draft
【名师点评】D。近义名词辨析。sketch“草图，素描”，通常指画家所作的草图或指简单的计划；rough“草图，草样”；preliminary“准备；预赛；初步措施”，通常指某些重大行动或重要问题的前期、初步准备；draft“草案，草稿”，draft bill是惯用搭配，由题意可知，bill是指在立法机关未通过之前由立法委员会提出的法律草案，与draft构成搭配。故答案为D。
例3：
In a significant tightening of legal controls over the press，Lord lrvine，the Lord Chancellor，will introduce a draft bill that will propose making payments to witnesses
34 and will strictly control the amount of publicity that can be given to a case before a trial begins.（山东大学2014年）
34.A.illogical B.illegal C.improbable D.improper
【名师点评】B。形近词辨析。选项中的形容词以il-or im-开头，但词义不同。illogical“不合逻辑的”；illegal“不合法的”；improbable“未必会的，不太可能的”；improper“不适当的”。根据题意，making payments to witnesses（向证人付款）显然是不合法的行为，故答案为B。
实战演练
1.Attracted by hundreds of free parking space，customers were drawn away from downtown areas to outlying malls.And the growing____of shopping centers led in turn to the building of bigger and better stocked stores.By the late 1970s，many shopping malls had almost developed into small cities themselves.
A.distinction B.fame C.popularity D.liking(https://www.daowen.com)
2.Never mind the obesity epidemic—Canada is____with an epidemic of bad ideas on how to fight obesity.The latest is to treat fast-food restaurants as if they were akin to porn shops，and bar them from—or at least limit their numbers in—neighborhoods with schools or hospitals.
A.inflicted B.afflicted C.anguished D.wounded
3.Yet the youthful idolizing of athletes，which tends to upset a boy’s concept of values and may do____harm to the objects of this hero-worship，is a very different matter.
A.factual B.genuine C.conceptual D.visual
4.With the baby boom，the focus of educators inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and____.The system no longer had much interest in offering nontraditional，new，and extra services to the older youths.
A.conference B.symposium C.seminar D.discipline
5.As time went by，computers became smaller and more powerful，and they became“personal”too，as well as institutional，with display becoming sharper and storage increasing.They were thought of，like people，in terms of generations，with the distance between generations much smaller.
A.ability B.capability C.capacity D.faculty
6.Design of all the new tools and implements is based on careful experiments with electronic instruments.First，a human“guinea pig”is tested using a____tool.Measurements are taken of the amount of work done，and the buildup of heat in the body.
A.regular B.usual C.common D.constant
7.We may see how another photographer failed at one shot，and instantly，we know how to make it better.We may see how another photographer used a____technique to incredibly deliver a wonderful message and we take that into our own.
A.especial B.particular C.specific D.special
8.We live in a materialist society.We are trained from our earliest years to be greedy.Our possessions，“mine”and“yours”，are clearly____from early childhood.When we grow older enough to earn a living，it does not surprise us to discover that success is measured in terms of the money we earn.
A.marked B.titled C.signed D.labeled
9.Every course of studies must lead somewhere i.e.to a bigger wage____.The demand for skilled personnel far exceeds the supply and big companies compete with each other to recruit students before they have completed their studies.Tempting salaries and“fringe benefits”are offered to them.
A.package B.packet C.baggage D.socket
10.Over the past several decades，though，experimental psychologists have____which methods reliably lead people to concede，comply，or change.Their research shows that persuasion is governed by several principles that can be taught and applied.
A.studied B.learned C.examined D.investigated
答案解析
1.C。近义名词辨析。distinction“声望”；fame“卓越，好名声”；popularity“名声很大，知名度很高”；liking“喜爱，喜好”。根据语义可知，越来越大的应该是名气。故答案为C。
2.B。inflict“使……遭受危害或损失”，惯用的结构是inflict harm or damage on sb.；afflict“引起悲伤或痛苦”，be afflicted with可以看成一个固定的短语，意为“因为……而痛苦”；anguish指肉体或精神上的“痛苦”，一般用作名词；wound“伤害，破坏”，一般指肉体上的。根据语义，此处意为加拿大在与肥胖作斗争时有着流行的错误观念，这让它在痛苦中煎熬，afflicted符合语义。故答案为B。
3.B。近义形容词词义辨析。句意为：这会对崇拜的对象（这里指运动员）产生真正的害处。genuine“真实的，真正的”；近义词factual则表示“事实的，根据事实的”；对英雄的崇拜不可能产生视觉上的和概念上的伤害，所以排除visual和conceptual。
4.D。近义名词词义辨析。因为回归到基本技能和学科，所以选择discipline“学科”。其他选项中，conference“学术会议”；symposium“座谈会，讨论会”；seminar“研究会，讨论会”，均与上文“回归到基本”意思不符。
5.C。近义名词辨析。选项都有“能力”的意思，而capacity更强调“潜能”，并能表示“（存储）的容量”，所以，填入本句更恰当。故答案为C。
6.A。近义形容词辨析。regular“常备的，合格的”；usual“通常的”；common“普通的”；constant“持续的，不变的”。根据上下文，这里指的应当是使用常规工具，所以是regular tool。
7.C。近义形容词辨析。这里是指specific（具体的）某种技术，而不是指especial（特别的）、particular（特殊的）、special（专门的）技术。故答案为C。
8.D。近义动词辨析。label“贴标签于，分类”，是指为了识别贴上标记。句中的mine和yours均使用了引号，说明这是两类东西，符合label的使用语境。故答案为D。mark“做记号”，而此处并不是真的给每件事物做标记，故排除A；title“赋予头衔，加标题于”；sign“签名”，都不符合句意。
9.B。近义名词辨析。packet“小包裹”，wage packet“工资袋”，用在句中是指人们在意学习的课程是否能够带来更多的收入，故B符合语境。package“包裹”，既可以指大的包裹，例如邮包，也可以指小一点儿的包，但不与wage一起使用；baggage“行李”；socket“插座”，均不符合句意。
10.B。近义动词辨析。study与examine都有“仔细研究”的意思；investigate是“调查研究”的意思；learn除了有“学习”的意思外，还有“认识到”的意思。由于下文中具体讲述了这些原则和方法也就是研究的结果，因此这里的意思应是这些实验心理学家们已经认识到了哪些方法是可以使人让步、服从和改变的，因此learn是最恰当的。故答案为B。