在复习考研英语的时候，许多同学只注意记单词，很少花时间熟悉词组。这是复习的一个误区，也是学习的一个误区。后果之一是句子里的词都认识，但是无法理解其意思，或者自以为明白了，其实理解的意思是错的。套用英语里的一句话，叫做“不熟悉词组所造成的危害再怎么说也不为过”。下面以2005年考研英语阅读部分第一篇文章首段为例：
Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behavior is regarded as all too human, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.
文中的黑体（系本文作者所加）代表的是同一个词组：all too（非常，太）。如果不认识这个词组，对原文的理解就会打折扣，而对于文章后面的问题（正确答案为[B]）也难以驾驭：
The statement it is all too monkey（Last line, Paragraph 1） implies that
[A] monkeys are also outraged by slack rivals.
[B] resenting unfairness is also monkeys nature.
[C] monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other.
[D] no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions.
无独有偶，这一年阅读部分第四篇文章的第一题的正确答案也包含all too这个词组。
According to McWhorter, the decline of formal English
[A] is inevitable in radical education reforms.
[B] is but all too natural in language development.
[C] has caused the controversy over the counter-culture.
[D] brought about changes in public attitudes in the 1960s.
由上可知，熟悉词组的意义重大。小至考试，大至学习，成毁有时系于小小的词组。为何如此？理由是词组为语言中已结晶的一部分，很难由其中的单词判断其准确意思。鉴于此，必须下大功夫熟悉这两天列出的核心词组。注意：这些词组是按年总结的，不按字母顺序。
今天的结束语是美国英语中的一个表达法：six of one and half a dozen of the other（半斤八两——字面意思是“一个六个，另一个半打”）。
核心词组（1994-2000）
interfere with 干扰
break down 中断，出故障
at all 完全，根本
cast light on 使明白，阐明
by contrast 与之相反，与…形成对比的是
be marked by 特点是，以…为特点
coupled with 加上；与…相结合
respond to 对…作出 [1] [2] [3] 下一页 |
