如：Annealing is a way of making metal softer by heating it and then letting it cool very slowly.
句子给予annealing 以明确的定义，即"退火"。
It will be very hard but also very brittle------that is , it will break easily.
从后面的解释中我们可以了解到brittle 是"脆"的意思。
The herdsman , who looks after sheep,earns about 650yuan a year.
定语从句中 looks after sheep 就表明了 herdsman 的词义为"牧人"。
b 同位法
如：
They traveled a long way , at last got to a castle, a large building in old times.
同位语部分a large building in old times 给出了 castle 的确切词义，即"城堡"。
We are on the night shift----from midnight to 8 a.m.---this week.
两个破折号之间的短语很清楚地表明night shift 是"夜班"的意思。
c. 对比法
She is usually prompt for all her class, but today she arrived in the middle of her first class.
but 一词表转折，因此but 前后的意思正相反。后半句的意思是她今天"第一节上了一半才来"，因此反向推理，可得出她平时一向"准时"的结论。
d. 构词法(前缀、后缀、复合、派生等)
Perhaps, we can see some possibilities for next fifty years. But the next hundred?
possibility 是 possible 的同根名词， 据此可以判断定 possibility 意思是"可能性"。
e. 因果法
The lack of movement caused the muscles to weaken。Sometimes the weakness was permanent。So the player could never play the sport again.
从后面的结果"永远不能再运动"中，可以推测 permanent 的意思为"永远的，永久的"。
六、 养成习惯，潜移默化结硕果。
良好的阅读习惯：
1、养成默读习惯，使注意力集中的文字符号上，纠正唇读，心读，喉读等做法，以免分散精力，影响阅读速度。
2、克服指读、回视、重读等不良习惯，因为这样容易使理解只停留在某个词或句子上，使获得的信息支离破碎。要善于抓住句子中的核心词，从一个句子快速地扫视到另一个句子，进行连贯性理解。如：
"Would you like to do some shopping together with me? If you are free, please ring me back to tell me about it."
这个句子，只要扫视划线的核心词，其语义就基本上清楚了。
英语阅读能力的培养是一个渐进的复杂过程，要养成每天阅读英语的习惯，循序渐进，持之以恒，精泛结合，广泛猎奇。在潜移默化中你会感觉到你的阅读能力又有了长足的提高。