听、说、读、写哪一项对于中国学生最重要？四项基本能力中听力和阅读都属于信息输入，口语和写作属于信息输出，良好、高效的输入是完美输出的保障。然而，听力和阅读究竟哪一项对于我们的长期英语学习最重要？毋庸置疑是阅读！相比听力，阅读才是我们获得信息的主要途径，中文学习也不例外。因此，阅读的质量和效率影响着我们的口语和写作，决定着英语学习的质量和速度。
那么，究竟什么叫阅读？广义上讲，阅读分为精读和泛读。对于高中英语水平以上的学生，阅读更多地意味着泛读，也就是在一定的词汇和语法基础上，对文章中观点的属性和关系认知和分析的过程。因此阅读的三要素可以定义为：词汇、语法和对观点的把握。纵观阅读课的学习，更多的时间是花费在了对词汇和语法的扩充上，而对文章观点的把握基本处于荒废状态。其实三者之间必须讲究一定的平衡，阅读才能变成一项有意义的行为。
首先，对于词汇，阅读主要考察的是认知能力和推断能力。任何阅读都是以一定的词汇为基础的，因此所阅读材料的生词量必须要控制在一定的范围内。在这方面，一直没有最权威、科学的概括。一般来讲，生词量不能超过8%，最好维持在4%左右，即阅读时对于词汇有"蹦高"的感觉。一旦超过10%，阅读就变成了生词查阅的游戏。结果虽惹得满眼的奇花异草，但最终只会疲惫不堪、徒劳而归。推断能力也是建立在此基础上，若超过一定的生词量， 重要信息之间的联系就必然会割裂，生词推断也变得 "untuiable" or mission impossible。由于英文的vocabulary and syntax variety写作原则，作者对于关键信息（动词、形容词和副词所承载）往往会paraphrase， 即释译。所以无论是从获取信息还是从词句学习的角度，理解并熟悉词句的paraphrase特征都至关重要！概括来讲，paraphrase主要体现在三个方面：同义词替换（对于名词还可解释），变换同根词词性和变换句型。我们以经典作品《新概念英语》为例：
Children always appreciate small gifts of money. Mum or dad, of course, provide a regular supply of pocket money, but uncles and aunts are always a source of extra income. With some children, small sums go a long way. If fifty pence pieces are not exchanged for sweets, they rattle for months inside money boxes. Only very thrifty children manage to fill up a money box. For most of them, fifty pence is a small price to pay for a nice big bar of chocolate.
---《新概念三册》L15
这段话反复出现了"零花钱"，即pocket money，可是表达方式迥异。零花钱的固定说法是'pocket money', 但对于家长而言，属于'small gifts of money'；对于孩子而言, 父母给了，叔叔阿姨再给就属于 'extra income'. 这些小数目的钱（small sums）可能在当时那个年代基本都是'五毛钱'，所以文章接着使用了象征词 'fifty pence pieces'和 'fifty pence.'
再以"喜欢"的表达为例：
1. Cats never fail to fascinate human beings. ---修辞 + 同义词替换
2. Kidnappers are rarely interested in animals, but they recently took considerable interest in Mrs. Ramsay's cat. ---词性变换
3. This idea has never appealed to me. ---同义词替换
4. Antique shops always exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. ---词性变换
---以上句子分别出自《新概念三册》第9，19，23和34课
把握这一特征对于做阅读理解中的词汇猜测题有着非凡的意义。
例一：I looked at it closely. She had made a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched a piece of cloth with these words: 'My mother made many quilts. She didn't get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt.'(CET 4 2005.6)
A. unfinished B. broken
C. bent D. unusual
分析：原文中与crooked相关的信息为 "…didn't get all lines straight."，所以可以推测crooked意为not straight，所以答案为C.
例二：Growth, reproduction and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a process of budgeting, just as finances are budgeted. If all of one's energy is spend on clothes, there may be none left to buy food or go to the movies. Similarly, a plant or animal cannot squander all its energy on growing a big body if none would be left over for reproduction, fir this is the surest way to extinction. (托福Official Guide)
The word squander in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. extend B. transform C. activate D. waste
分析：通过similarly可以判断上下例子为类比关系，即性质同样的例子。所以，上句话中同样位置的表达与squander应是同义词，即all of…is spend on…，因此判断答案为D.
