友好词汇题，顾名思义，出题者比较友好，并不是故意刁难你（实际上即使不友好词汇题也不见得是出题人在刁难你），即使对于高亮的单词的含义不确定甚至干脆不认识，也可以依靠上下文的信息作出关于该单词释义、内涵或者感情色彩的判断，从而得出正确的选项。在下面的例子中，我们都假设自己不认识高亮单词（即使读者已经认识了，也可以这样体会一下思路，当然，如果词汇量足够大，托福核心词汇完全熟悉的话，这里介绍的方法也没有太多必要了），看看仅从原句或者上下文的内容中可以得出什么样的信息。
比如TPO中的这样一道题：
Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century, may be a universal sign of anger. As the originator of the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of language.
1. The word despondent
in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Curious
○Unhappy
○Thoughtful
○Uncertain
Despondent是这里主要考察的词汇，而原文中直接将它与happy做了一个并列，即使并不能直接得出它一定与happy相反的结论，但也可以知道二者是互斥的关系，这时候看一下四个选项，显然1、3、4都跟happy没有直接关系，只有2合适，而且代入原句之后让我们觉得这句义通顺得简直令人发指，即使在这里无法确认，逗号前面的半句话其实给了我们更多的线索，这里的happy or despondent分明就是与joy and sadness一一对应，despondent对应的就是sadness的名词的意思，同样可以得出选项2.
再来看这样一道题：
Supporting evidence comes from research showing that aggressive people often distort other people's motives. For example, they assume that other people mean them harm when they do not.
10. The word distort
in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Mistrust
○Misinterpret
○Criticize
○Resent
这道题看似考察的是distort这个单词，但实际上原文中已经在后面给出了它的具体意思，含生词的句子中说，富有侵略性的人们经常（ ）他人的动机，后面则举例说，他们会认为他人意图伤害他们，而实际上别人并没有这个意思，其实这已经解释得非常明白了，就是误解、歪曲了别人的动机，于是选出选项2.
再来看一道，
The semiarid lands bordering the deserts exist in a delicate ecological balance and are limited in their potential to adjust to increased environmental pressures.
3. The word delicate in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Fragile
○Predictable
○Complex
○Valuable
在原句中没有给出太多关于delicate这个词的信息，但是我们可以看一下用and构成并列的另一个分局的含义：limited in their potential to adjust to increased environmental pressures表示这样的半干旱地区适应愈发严峻的环境压力的能力十分有限，由此可以判断出与其并列的前面句子大致感情色彩也该相近，想要表达的意思也是说半干旱地区的生态平衡状况不容乐观，看下四个选项，只有1表达了这个含义，于是选出1.
Although limited to a skull, the Pakicetus fossil provides precious details on the origins of cetaceans.
3. The word precious in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Exact
○Scarce
○Valuable
○Initial
