四、猜词实战

　　That's enough, kids

　　It was a lovely day at the park and Stella Bianchi was enjoying the sunshine with her two children when a young boy, aged about four, approached her two-year-old son and pushed him to the ground.

　　"I'd watched him for a little while and my son was the fourth or fifth child he'd shoved," she says." I went over to them, picked up my son, turned to the boy and said, firmly, 'No, we don't push," What happened next was unexpected.

　　shove

　　首先，我们可以判断shove是动词，表示动作。从上文得知这个小男孩"走到我两岁儿子前，把他推到了地上"，而且"我看到他一会功夫就shove了四五个孩子"。可以推断出，shove是与push相近的动作。

　　属于根据同义替代猜词词义。

　　"The boy's mother ran toward me from across the park," Stella says," I thought she was coming over to apologize, but instead she started shouting at me for disciplining her child, All I did was let him know his behavior was unacceptable. Was I supposed to sit back while her kid did whatever he wanted, hurting other children in the process?"

　　discipline

　　根据文中含义，我们可以推知，男孩的母亲生气了，对"我"大声嚷叫，责怪我"discipline"教训她的孩子。

　　属于内在逻辑关系之根据同义词的替代关系猜测词义。

　　unacceptable

　　我们非常熟悉accept一词，又知un-是否定前缀，-able是形容词后缀，可直接推出unacceptable是"不可接受的"。

　　属于构词技巧之根据前后缀猜词词义。

　　Getting your own children to play nice is difficult enough. Dealing with other people's children has become a minefield.

　　minefield

　　首先，我们已学mine（地雷）和field（场地），可以猜测minefield指"雷区"。但是，根据句意，minefield的本义在这里讲不通，又知上一句讲到：能让自己的孩子好好玩就已经是件棘手的事了，和其他人的孩子相处就是个minefield。从逻辑上看，这是个比较关系。联想minefield（雷区）的特征，我们可以猜测到minefield指非常危险的事情。

　　属于构词技巧之复合词的各部分以及内部推理之根据递进关系猜词词义。

　　In my house, jumping on the sofa is not allowed. In my sister's house it's encouraged. For her, it's about kids being kids: "If you can't do it at three, when can you do it?"

　　Each of these philosophies is valid and, it has to be said, my son loves visiting his aunt's house. But I find myself saying "no" a lot when her kids are over at mine. That's OK between sisters but becomes dangerous territory when you're talking to the children of friends or acquaintances.

　　"Kids aren't all raised the same," agrees Professor Naomi White of Monash University." But there is still an idea that they're the property of the parent. We see our children as an extension of ourselves, so if you're saying that my child is behaving inappropriately, then that's somehow a criticism of me."

　　inappropriately

　　Inappropriately为副词，修饰"behave"，表示"行为如何"。由下文"a criticism of me"可知，inappropriately为贬义词，我们可猜知是行为不当。

　　In those circumstances, it's difficult to know whether to approach the child directly or the parent first. There are two schools of thought.

　　"I'd go to the child first," says Andrew Fuller, author of Tricky Kids. Usually a quiet reminder that 'we don't do that here' is enough. Kids nave finely tuned antennae (直觉) for how to behave in different settings."

　　He points out bringing it up with the parent first may make them feel neglectful, which could cause problems. Of course, approaching the child first can bring its own headaches, too.

　　This is why White recommends that you approach the parents first. Raise your concerns with the parents if they're there and ask them to deal with it," she says.

　　Asked how to approach a parent in this situation, psychologist Meredith Fuller answers: "Explain your needs as well as stressing the importance of the friendship. Preface your remarks with something like: 'I know you'll think I'm silly but in my house I don't want…'"

　　preface

　　把Preface按构词法拆分，由前缀pre-(在……之前)和face(面)组成，可以推出preface指在……之前。

　　属于根据词根词缀猜词词义。

　　When it comes to situations where you're caring for another child, white is straightforward: "common sense must prevail. If things don't go well, then have a chat."

　　There're a couple of new grey areas. Physical punishment, once accepted from any adult, is no longer appropriate. "A new set of considerations has come to the fore as part of the debate about how we handle children."

　　For Andrew Fuller, the child-centric nature of our society has affected everyone:" The rules are different now from when today's parents were growing up," he says, "Adults are scared of saying: 'don't swear', or asking a child to stand up on a bus. They're worried that there will be conflict if they point these things out – either from older children, or their parents."

　　He sees it as a loss of the sense of common public good and public courtesy (礼貌), and says that adults suffer form it as much as child.

　　Meredith Fuller agrees: "A code of conduct is hard to create when you're living in a world in which everyone is exhausted from overwork and lack of sleep, and a world in which nice people are perceived to finish last."

　　exhausted

　　介词from表示"由于……"，根据句意，"overwork and lack of sleep超时工作，睡眠不足"，导致了"exhausted"疲倦的。

　　属于内在逻辑关系之根据因果关系猜测词义。

　　"it's about what I'm doing and what I need," Andrew Fuller says. "the days when a kid came home from school and said, "I got into trouble". And dad said, ‘you probably deserved it' are over. Now the parents are charging up to the school to have a go at teachers."

This jumping to our children's defense is part of what fuels the "walking on eggshells" feeling that surrounds our dealings with other people's children. You know that if you remonstrate(劝诫) with the child, you're going to have to deal with the parent. it's admirable to be protective of our kids, but is it good?

　　"Children have to learn to negotiate the world on their own, within reasonable boundaries," White says. "I suspect that it's only certain sectors of the population doing the running to the school –better –educated parents are probably more likely to be too involved."

　　White believes our notions of a more child-centered society should be challenged. "Today we have a situation where, in many families, both parents work so the amount of time children get from parents has diminished." she says.

　　diminish

　　父母都工作，陪孩子的时间当然就减少了（diminish）。

　　属于内在逻辑关系之根据因果关系猜词词义。

　　"Also, sometimes when we talk about being child-centered, it's a way of talking about treating our children like commodities(商品). We're centered on them but in ways that reflect positively on us. We treat them as objects whose appearance and achievements are something we can be proud of, rather than serve the best interests of the children."

　　One way over-worked, under-resourced parents show commitment to their children is to leap to their defence. Back at the park, Bianchi's intervention(干预) on her son's behalf ended in an undignified exchange of insulting words with the other boy's mother.

　　As Bianchi approached the park bench where she'd been sitting, other mums came up to her and congratulated her on taking a stand. "Apparently the boy had a longstanding reputation for bad behaviour and his mum for even worse behaviour if he was challenged."

　　Andrew Fuller doesn't believe that we should be afraid of dealing with other people's kids. "Look at kids that aren't your own as a potential minefield," he says. He recommends that we don't stay silent over inappropriate behaviour, particularly with regular visitors.

　　longstanding

　　将longstanding根据构词法拆分：long（长时间）+stand（站立）+-ing（形容词后缀），可知longstanding指长期存在的。

　　属于构词技巧之根据词根词缀猜词词义。