1. in turn

大多数同学会理解为 “反过来”，认为前后语义是对立的，但实际上阅读中也可能表示顺接关系，翻译为“接着会…(发生)…”

The conventional theory is that people yawn when bored or sleepy because yawning raises blood oxygen levels, which in turn raises alertness.

 

2. account for

大家背四级单词时更多的理解为 “(比例上)占…”的含义，实际上account for还有“解释，说明……”这个意思。

Heavy rain accounts for most of the water that enters into lakes.

Scientists will not be able to account for climate changeover the past century until they learn more about the urban heat island.

 

3. precipitation

这是个话题词汇，大多数文章中翻译为 “沉淀”，不过也有“降水”的意思。

Ordinary meteoric water is water that has soaked into the ground from the surface, from precipitation (rain and snow) and from lakes and streams.

 

4. game

不是游戏哦，在学术文章中经常用来表达“野生猎物”这个意思。下次课别再困惑了。

They had experienced great difficulty finding game west of the Rockies and not until the second of December did they kill their first elk.

 

5. solution

除了“解决方案”，还要知道另一个常见含义“溶液”。这个词在小作文流程图写作中也是一个得分高级词汇。

Mineral deficiencies in many plants can be cured by misting their roots with a nutrient solution or by transferring the plants to a soilless nutrientsolution.

 

6. current

又一个学科背景词汇。常见的是形容词表“当下的”，实际还有“洋流、电流、气流”等含义。

The same thing happens to this day, though on a smaller scale, wherever a sediment-laden river or stream emerges from a mountain valley onto relatively flat land, dropping its load as the current slows: the water usually spreads out fanwise, depositing the sediment in the form of a smooth, fan-shaped slope.

 

7. browse

家熟知的是“浏览”的含义，而实际上托福阅读中更常表达得是“觅食”这个意思。

Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer browses on huckleberry, salal, dogwood, and almost any other shrub or herb. But this is fair-weather feeding.

 

8. impact

除了“影响”，还衍生出“冲击、撞击”的意思。这里提醒大家impact指代的影响也常常是负面含义的影响，大家在写作中要注意。

In view of these facts, scientists hypothesized that a single large asteroid, about 10 to 15 kilometers across, collided with Earth, and the resulting fallout created the boundary clay. Their calculations show that the impact kicked up a dust cloud that cut off sunlight for several months, inhibiting photosynthesis in plants; decreased surface temperatures on continents to below freezing…

 

9. complex

作为名词的时候可以表达“建筑群”的含义。

It had over 2,000 apartment complexes, a great market, a large number of industrial workshops, an administrative center, a number of massive religious edifices…

 

10. readily

别因为长得像“ready”就是准备好的意思，这个词其实是“容易地”意思。

The release of heat energy is retarded by the tall vertical city walls that do not allow infrared radiation to escape as readily asdoes the relatively level surface of the surrounding countryside.

 

11. evident

又一个大家习惯想当然的词。都说成“证据”就不对了，还要知道“明显的”。

Wind velocity also increases with altitude and may cause serious stress for trees, as is made evident by the deformed shapes at high altitudes.

 

12. collectively

不能望文生义为“收集地”，还有“共同地”这个释义较为常见。

Eventually, six round forms of handwriting, composed of three pairs of big and little scripts known collectively as the Six Pens, became the standard repertory of every calligrapher.

 

13. evenly

别以为“even”加个“-ly”就是甚至的副词形式，别忘了 “even”本来就是个副词。这个词是“均匀地”。

Petroleum forms best when organic matter is evenly distributed over …

其他常被误解的单词

sweet water 淡水 (不是“糖水”)

confidence man 骗子(不是“信得过的人”)

criminal lawyer 刑事律师(不是“犯罪的律师”)

service station 加油站

rest room 厕所(不是“休息室”)

sporting house 妓院或赌场(不是“体育室”)

horse sense 常识(不是“马的感觉”)

capital idea 好主意(不是“资本主义思想”)

familiar talk 庸俗的交谈(不是“熟悉的谈话”)

black tea 红茶(不是“黑茶”)

black art 妖术(不是“黑色艺术”)

mine 矿，矿产(不仅仅有“我的”的意思)