read better remember more_part3

CHAPTER What do you do when you come across unfamiliar words but you don’t have a dictionary? This chapter will show you how to use context to figure out what unfamiliar words mean. 4 DETERMINING MEANING FROM CONTEXT magine you’ve applied for a job that requires a written test. You answer all the math questions with no problem, but the reading comprehension section gives you trouble. In the first passage alone, there are several words you don’t know. You’re not allowed to use a dictionary. What should you do? a. Pretend you’re sick, leave the room, and go find a dictionary somewhere. b. Panic and leave everything blank. c. Take random guesses and hope you get them right. d. Use the context of the sentence to figure out what the words mean. This is trial version 41 www.adultpdf.com 42 READ BETTER, REMEMBER MORE While you might be tempted to do a,b,or c,the smartest choice is clearly d. That’s because unless the exam is specifically testing your vocabulary, you should be able to use the context of the sentences to help you deter-mine the meaning of the word. That is, the words and sentences What’s Context? Context refers to the words and ideas that surround a particular word or phrase to help express its meaning. surrounding the unfamiliar word should give you enough clues to determine the meaning of the word. You simply need to learn how to recognize those clues. EXAMINING CONTEXT Imagine you receive the following memo at work, but you don’t have a dictionary handy. If you find any unfamiliar words in this memo, circle them, but don’t look them up yet. Just read the memo carefully and actively. TO: Department Managers FROM: Herb Herbert,Office Manager DATE: December 5,2000 RE: Heater Distribution As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the heating system has once again been behaving erratically.Yesterday the office temperature went up and down between 55 and 80 degrees. The problem was “fixed” last night, but as you know, this system has a history of recidivism. Chances are we’ll have trouble again soon. Building management has promised to look into a permanent fix for this problem, but in the meantime, we should expect continued breakdowns.To keep everyone warm until then,we have ordered two dozen portable heaters. Please stop by my office this after-noon to pick up heaters for your department. As you read, you may have come across a few unfamiliar words. Did you circle erratically and recidivism? You don’t need to look these words up because if you do a little detective work,you can figure out what these words mean without the help of a dictionary. This is called determining meaning through context. Like a detective looking for clues at the scene of a crime,you can look in the memo for clues that will tell you what the unfamiliar words mean. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com DETERMINING MEANING FROM CONTEXT 43 LOOK FOR CLUES Let’s start with erratically. In what context is this word used? As I’m sure you’ve noticed,the heating system has once again been behaving erratically. Yesterday the office temperature went up and down between 55 and 80 degrees. Given these sentences, what can you tell about the word erratically? Well, because the heating system has been behaving erratically, the temperature wavered between 55 and 80 degrees—that’s a huge range. This tells you that the heating system is not working the way it’s supposed to. In addition, you know that the temperature “went up and down” between 55 and 80 degrees.That means there wasn’t just one steady drop in temperature.Instead,the temperature rose and fell several times.Now, from these clues,you can probably take a pretty good guess at what errat-ically means. See if you can answer the question below. Which of the following means the same as erratically? a. steadily, reliably b. irregularly, unevenly c. badly The correct answer is b, irregularly, unevenly. Erratically clearly can’t mean steadily, or reliably, because no steady or reliable heating system would range from 55 to 80 degrees in one day. Answer c makes sense— the system has indeed been behaving badly. But badly doesn’t take into account the range of temperatures and the ups and downs Herb Herbert described. So b is the best answer and is, in fact, what erratically means. Parts of Speech The next clue is to find out what part of speech erratically is. You may have had to refer back to the definitions listed in Chapter 3, and that’s okay, but it would be good for you to memorize the different parts of speech as soon as possible.This will make your trips to the dictionary far more productive. The answer, by the way, is that erratically is an adverb. It describes an action: how the system has been behaving. If you looked carefully at the This is trial version www.adultpdf.com 44 READ BETTER, REMEMBER MORE suffix table in Chapter 3, you might have noticed the clue that erratically is an adverb—it ends in -ly. You probably also circled recidivism in the memo.What does it mean? The particular phrase in which it is used—“history of recidivism”— should tell you that recidivism has something to do with behavior or experience. It also tells you it’s something that has been happening over a long period of time.You also know that this history of recidivism leads Herb Herbert to conclude that there will be trouble again soon. In other words, although the system has been “fixed,” he expects it to go back to its old and erratic ways soon. Thus, you can assume that a history of recidivism means a history of which of the following? a. long-lasting, quality performance b. parts that need replacement c. repeatedly falling back into an undesirable behavior The answer is c. It should be clear that answer a cannot be correct, because the memo says that the heating system has a history of needing fixing.It may also have parts that need replacement (answer b),especially since the memo says that it breaks down regularly. But the memo clearly indicates that c is the best answer, because every time the system is fixed, it soon goes back to having the same old problems. Recidivism, by the way, is most commonly used to describe criminals who fall back into crime after they’ve served their sentence. PRACTICE 1 1. Determine the meaning of the italicized words in the sentences below. a. He was so nervous that his voice was quavering. b. thundering, booming c. trembling, shaking d. quiet, whispering 2. By the time our department meeting was over at 8 PM.,I was famished. I had skipped lunch and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. a. famous b. exhausted c. starving This is trial version www.adultpdf.com DETERMINING MEANING FROM CONTEXT 45 3. Sammy made a bogus phone call to the crime-stoppers hotline and pretended to be a witness to a crime. a. fake b. collect c. urgent Answers 1. b 2. c 3. a HOW MUCH CONTEXT DO YOU NEED? In the previous example,you would still have been able to understand the main message of the memo even if you didn’t know—or couldn’t figure out—the meanings of erratically and recidivism.(You don’t need to know what those words mean to know you should go pick up heaters for your department.) But sometimes your understanding of a passage depends upon your understanding of a particular word or phrase.Can you under-stand the following sentence, for example, without understanding what affable means? The new manager is a very affable person. The trouble with adjectives like affable is that it can be very difficult to figure out what they mean without sufficient context. If someone describes your new manager as “affable,” you’ll certainly want to know what it means,but a sentence like the one above doesn’t tell you much.Is affable something good or bad? Should you be worried or glad? No matter how good a detective you are, there simply aren’t enough clues in this sentence to tell you what this word means or even whether affable is positive or negative.You simply need more context. PRACTICE 2 Here is another sentence to expand the context for affable.Clearly affable is something good. Now can you determine more precisely what it means? This is trial version www.adultpdf.com ... - tailieumienphi.vn