我们在做英语四级复合式听写题时，可以根据空边上的词和语境来猜测填入词的词性。在这里我主要带大家看一下 “平行结构” 的强大作用。注意这里所提到的平行结构，是和空当中的词具有相同作用的词或短语。我们在做此类题的时候，应该有一个找“平行结构”的意识。
以2010年6月四级真题为例：
Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter, more______ (36) ,
我们看到上面的句子里面， smarter 和 more , 修饰同一个主语child，
我们可以判断空中需要填的应该是一个形容词原级，他与more一起组成了形容词比较级形式。而且根据形容词比较级的变化特征，这个形容词应该是三个或三个以上音节。
better at finding and ______ (37) things out,
我们现在找37空的平行结构，非常容易，两个词用了一个and连接，很显然finding和37空不仅词性相同，我们所填入的还应该是一个 “-ing” 形式的动词与finding 对应。
persistent and______ (38)
又看到了一个就为的 “and” 连接两个词，不用解释你也知道38空与 persistent词性相同
very ______ (39) and very lucky
看到了吗?第39空也不例外。
by paying close attention to and______ (40) with the world and people around him.
第40空，我们找平行结构的时候要看一下and前面的短语 “paying close attention to” 我们可以推断 “and” 后面也是一个短语，而且根据我们的结构这个动词短语应该与paying对应也是一个 “-ing” 动词。
看到这里，也许你已经意识到，在这类题目中，我们所说的“平行结构” 考点非常普遍，他们一般是短语或词，要么用“and” 连接，要么以排比并列句等形式出现。考生在做题的时候如果能正确的把它分辨出来，必定对我们有很大的帮助。
附 2010年6月四级复合式听写题（完整版）：
Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter, more (36)______, less afraid of what he doesn't know, better at finding and (37) ______ things out, more confident, resourceful (机敏的), persistent and (38) ______ than he will ever be again in his schooling – or, unless he is very (39) ______ and very lucky, for the rest of his life. Already, by paying close attention to and (40) ______ with the world and people around him, and without any school-type (41) ______ instruction, he has done a task far more difficult, complicated and (42)______ than anything he will be asked to do in school, or than any of his teachers has done for years. He has solved the (43) ______ of language. He has discovered it – babies don't even know that language exists – and (44) ________________________________________________. He has done it by exploring, by experimenting, by developing his own model of the grammar of language, (45) ________________________________________________ until it does work. And while he has been doing this, he has been learning other things as well, (46) ________________________________________________, and many that are more complicated than the ones they do try to teach him.
