TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破
byXIAOLAIon2008/09/30·20 COMMENTS
五年前，我出版了《TOEFL核心词汇21天突破》（世界图书出版公司，ISBN: 7-5062-6219-3），再版三次，加印数次，销量（正版）超过20万册。成为很多备考托福学生手中必备的书籍。那本书在这五年之中当然也成为我心情愉悦的根源之一。既能帮助别人又能自己赚钱，除了努力之外多少还要靠运气。前些日子，我把《TOEFL核心词汇21天突破》制作成“简明网络版”，放在网上，希望那本书能够帮助更多的人。
我的新书《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》（暂定名）正在紧张制作之中；这次我有意独自出版，并只通过网络销售。（点击这里查看《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》的词汇文本。）
与《TOEFL核心词汇21天突破》不同，《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》更加强调的是“通过上下文记忆词汇”。这些年的教学经验告诉我，很多学生缺乏的不仅仅是词汇。更多的时候，即便已经背过许多单词，有些学生依然无法读懂文章。究其原因，学生缺乏的是“概念”以及“概念与概念之间的逻辑联系”。比如，大多数学生认识“destruction”，也认识“habitat”，但不知道“habitat destruction”是“濒临灭绝动物所面临的最大威胁之一”；再比如，很多学生背过“prey”，知道这个单词是“被掠食者”的意思，但根本就没有与刚刚背过的“predator”（掠夺者, 食肉动物）联系起来，尽管这两个单词都是“p”字母开头，所以通常在单词书的同一个列表之中；更进一步，很少有学生知道“birds of prey”是“食肉鸟”的意思。
托福考试是一个考试范围明确的考试。在《新托福官方指南》中，ETS清楚地说明，该考试的阅读文章、听力录音的内容在以下范围之内：
BASIC CATEGORY
- Arts
- Life Science
- Physical Science
- Social Science
Arts
- Architecture
- Industrial design/art
- City planning
- Crafts: weaving, knitting, fabrics, furniture, carving, mosaics, ceramics, etc; folk and tribal art
- Cave/rock art
- Music and music history
- Photography
- Literature and authors
- Books, newspapers, magazines, journals
Life science
- Extinction of or conservation efforts for animals and plants
- Fish and other aquatic organisms
- Bacteria and other one-celled organisms
- Viruses
- Medical techniques
- Public health
- Physiology of sensory organs
- Biochemistry
- Animal behavior, e.g., migration, food foraging, defensive behavior
- Habitats and the adaptation of animals and plants to them
- Nutrition and its impact on the body
- Animal communication
Physical science
- Weather and atmosphere
- Oceanography
- Glaciers, glacial landforms, ice ages
- Deserts and other extreme environments
- Pollution, alternative energy, environmental policy
- Other planets’ atmospheres
- Astronomy and cosmology
- Properties of light, optics
- Properties of sound
- Electromagnetic radiation
- Particle physics
- Technology of TV, radio, radar
- Math
- Chemistry of inorganic things
- Computer science
- Seismology (plate structure, earthquakes, tectonics, continental drift, structure of volcanoes)
Social science
- Anthropology of non-industrialized civilizations
- Early writing systems
- Historical linguistics
- Business, management
- TV/radio as mass communication
- Social behavior of groups, community dynamics, communal behavior
- Child development
- Education
- Modern history (including the history of urbanization and industrialization and their economic and social effects)
因为托福考试的考核内容范围清楚，所以，“radical”这个单词在托福中只能是“剧烈的、激烈的”，而不可能是“激进的”，因为托福的内容基本上不涉及政治；“cardinal”这个单词在托福中不可能是“红衣主教”的意思，因为托福的内容不涉及宗教，“cardinal”在托福中只能是形容词“重要的、首要的”，相当于“principal”。
我在编写《TOEFL核心词汇21天突破》的时候，主要依赖的是词频统计工具。当时为了准确统计词频，购买了Oxford University Press发行的词频统计工具“WordSmith Tools”，自己编制TOEFL语料库，而后在电脑统计结果的基础上再进行人工筛选，工作量之大是最初远远没有想到的。但是付出的辛苦有着巨大的回报——那本书的前言的标题就是“从12000到2140”。
这一次的《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》不仅仅是最大限度地包含“2140个核心词汇”，更重要的是，要让学生在语境中学习这些词汇，不仅了解这些词汇的基本含义，更重要的是要了解这些词汇所表示的概念与其它的概念之间的联系。细想想就能明白，如若一个学生认识“warp”（[纺]经线, 经纱）却不认识“weft”（[纺]纬线, 纬纱），那其实是相当荒谬的。
一下是《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》的两段摘录：
135
The three majorsubdivisionsof the world ocean are the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, which areboundedby thecontinental masses. The two minor subdivisions of the world ocean are the Southern Ocean, bounded by theAntarctic Circumpolar Currentto the north andAntarcticato the south, and theArctic Ocean, almostlandlockedexcept between Greenland and Europe. From theshorelinesof the continents asubmergedpart of thecontinental mass, called thecontinental shelf, extends sea ward an average distance of 75 km; it varies in width from nearly zero to 1,500 km. Theshelfgives wayabruptlyat a depth of about 200m to asteeperzoneknown as thecontinental slope, whichdescendsabout 3,500 m. The continental rise, a graduallyslopingzone ofsedimentthat is considered part of the ocean bottom, extends about 600 km from the base of the continental slope to the flatabyssalplains of the deep-ocean floor. In the central parts of the oceans are the midoceanridges, which are extensive mountain chains with innertroughsthat are heavilyintersectedbycracks, calledfracture zones. The ridge system seems tomergeinto the continents in several areas, such as the Red Sea and the Gulf of California, and such areas are regions of greatgeologic activity, characterized byvolcanoes, orearthquakesandfaults. The midocean ridges play a key role inplatetectonics(movements in the earth’scrust), for it is from the inner troughs of these ridges thatmoltenrockupwellsfrom the earth’smantleand spreadslaterallyon both sides, adding new material to the earth’s rigidcrustal plates.
- oceanography n. 海洋学
- subdivision n. 部分
- bound v. 标明界限
- continental mass n. 大陆块体
- Antarctic Circumpolar Current n. 南极绕极流
- Antarctica n. 南极洲
- Arctic Ocean n. 北冰洋
- landlocked adj. 被陆地包围
- shoreline n. 海岸线
- submerged adj. 水下的
- continental shelf n. 大陆架
- shelf n. 大陆架
- abruptly adv. 突然地
- steep adj. 陡峭的
- zone n. 地带
- continental slope n. 大陆斜坡
- descend v. 下降
- sloping adj. 倾斜的
- sediment n. 沉积物
- abyssal adj. 深海的
- ridge n. 海脊
- trough n. 深海槽
- intersect v. 交叉
- crack n. 裂缝
- fracture zone n. 断层带
- merge v. 并入
- geologic activity n. 地质活跃带
- volcano n. 火山
- earthquake n. 地震
- fault n. 断层
- plate tectonics n. 板块构造论
- crust n. 地壳
- molten adj. 熔化的
- upwell v. 涌起
- mantle n. 地幔
- laterally adv. 侧面地
- crustal plate n. 地壳板块
150
The farther a glacier moves from its source of accumulation into warmer, lower-elevationregions, the more likely it is toablate, ormelt. As the ice ablates, it begins to deposit the material it haserodedin the mountains, as well as any rockdebristhat has fallen into itscrevasses. Just as streams of liquid water create landforms when they deposit their load of material, streams of frozen water—glaciers—drop theirburdenand shape thelandscapeas theyrecede.
- elevation n. 海拔
- ablate v. 融化
- melt v. 融化
- erode v. 侵蚀
- debris n. 碎片
- crevasse n. 裂缝
- burden n. 负载
- landscape n. 地形
- recede v. 后退
《TOEFL iBT® 词汇专题突破》总计包括192个小单元。为了保证“最少文本中涵盖最多核心词汇”的同时保证“地道且有意义的文字”，这些单元中的文本摘录、改编、缩写自微软的在线百科《Encarta》。在最终的版本中，这些文本还将配有mp3朗读文件。