考研英语原版英文文章阅读、单词积累及长难句解析

考研英语原版英文文章阅读、单词积累及长难句解析（2011.05.09）2011年考研英语真题完形填空文章词汇拓展与长难句分析Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.” But despite some claims to the contrary, laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness. Laughter does produce short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels, boosting heart rate and oxygen consumption. But because hard laughter is difficult to sustain, a good laugh is unlikely to have measurable benefits the way, say, walking or jogging does.In fact, instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the opposite. Studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that laughter relaxes muscles, decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down.Such bodily reaction might conceivably help moderate the effects of psychological stress. After all, the act of laughing probably does produce other types of physical feedback that improve an individual’s emotional state. According to one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted in physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry because they are sad but that they become sad when the tears begin to flow.Although sadness also precedes tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow from muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Würzburg in Germany asked volunteers to hold a pen either with their teeth—thereby creating an artificial smile—or with their lips, which would produce a disappointed expression.Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles reacted more exuberantly to funny cartoons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown, suggesting that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around. Similarly, the physical act of laughter could improve mood.单词积累：1. view…as… “把……看做……”。

与此相似的短语还有consider/think of…as (to be)…以及regard…as…，它们都有“认为……是；把……认为是/看做……”的意思。

2. boost v. /n. 增加, 提高；促进, 改善；提升；抬高(价格)boost是“提升，增强，推进”这类表示更大更强意义的词，要记的话，可以记booster “推进器”这个词，然后在脑海中想想航天飞机后的那个巨大喷气式的推进器，这样就印象深刻了。

这叫联想记忆法。

booster 就是在boost后面加上名词后缀-er 而成，记住booster 这个“推进”的概念后，boost的意思就好记了。

3. sustain v. vt. 支撑，撑住；维持，持续，经受，忍耐。

这个词有种“辛苦支撑，勉强维持”的感觉在里面。

a. sustain 做“持续，维持”讲时，可以和last“持续”、persist“坚持不懈，持续”及insist“坚持认为，坚称，主张”一起记忆。

b. sustain 做“支撑”讲时，可以和support“支持，支撑”一起记忆。

c. sustain 做“经受，忍耐”讲时，可以和bear“忍受，容忍；负担；结果实，生子女”、endure“忍受，持久，持续”、put up with“忍受, 容忍”和tolerate“容忍，默许；对(药物、毒品等)有耐力”一起记忆，这几个词和短语都有“不喜欢但勉为其难忍受”的含义。

4. strain v. 拉紧；紧张；扭伤；竭尽全力n. 拉紧；负担。

这个词有“碰到困难，因而紧紧巴巴、艰难应对”的意思。

a. strain如果要指“绷紧”某一身体部位的话，一般都含有“绷太紧因而有可能受伤”的意思；brace指“绷紧”某一身体部位时，一般是说做好生理准备来应对……，一般不涉及身体受伤。

b. 记忆strain时，可顺便记忆其形近词：constrain“vt. 限制，约束；克制，抑制”；restrain“v. (from)抑制，制止”；restraint“n. 抑制，制止”。

5. muscle tone 肌肉紧张度，肌肉张力6. conceivably adv. 令人信服地，可以想象得到的a. 这个单词看似考纲里面没出现过，但是考纲里面的确出现了其动词形式conceive“v. (of)设想，构思，想象；以为；怀胎，怀有”。

conceive的三个英文解释分别为：to imagine a particular situation or to think about something in a particular way；to think of a new idea, plan etc and develop it in your mind和to become pregnant。

b. 其形容词形式为conceivable“可能的，可想象得到的；令人信服的”，其英文解释为ableto be believed or imagined。

7. moderate adj. 有节制的，中等的，适度的，温和的，稳健的；v. (使)减轻[缓和]; 节制moderate做形容词，意为“中庸的，温和的，适度的”这一用法最常见，做动词的用法有可能不太熟悉，但是根据形容词“中庸的，温和的，适度的”这类意思，我们可以大概猜测动词应该是“变得没那么严重”的意思。

8. precede v. 领先(于)，在(……之前)；优先，先于a. 其名词形式为precedent“先例”；其形容词形式为preceding“a. 在前的，在先的”，preceding与previous to意思相近。

b. 可能会产生联想的词有procedure“n. 程序，手续，步骤”；proceed“v. 进行，继续下去；发生”；proceeding“n. 程序，进程；行动，进行”；process“n. 过程，进程；工序，制作法；工艺；v. 加工，处理”；procession“n. 队伍，行列”。

长难句解析：1. Laughter does produce short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels, boosting heart rate and oxygen consumption.解析：这个句子中出现的一个主要结构就是现在分词短语做结果状语，而且这时的现在分词短语完全可以转换成一个非限定性定语从句，以整个前面的主句为先行词。

这样的结构，本篇文章中还有三处：a. Studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that laughter relaxes muscles, decreasingmuscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down.b. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University ofWürzburg in Germany asked volunteers to hold a pen either with their teeth—therebycreating an artificial smile — or with their lips, which would produce a disappointedexpression.c. Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles reacted more exuberantly to funnycartoons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown, suggesting thatexpressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around.这种结构在翻译时，可以用个冒号把结果状语和主句分隔开来。