Reading Strategies

南昌十九中  宋焘推荐

When you read in English, you often see words that you do not know.
　　Each time you do, you probably reach for a dictionary to look the words up.
　　However, this slows down your reading. It makes it more difficult for you to understand the reading passage as a whole.
　　It is better if you can guess the meaning of a word from the context, that is, from the words around it. While this strategy is not perfect--you cannot always tell the exact meaning from the context--there are many situations in which it is useful to try to guess the meaning rather than look a word up in the dictionary.
　　Even for easy words, you often have to make use of the context to understand the meaning, because many words in English have more than one meaning. For example, a "party" can be a political group or a social gathering for food and amusement. However, in the sentence "The party is supporting this candidate," we can see that "party" is used here with the first meaning--a political group--because of the use of "supporting this candidate," which is related to the first meaning. As you can see, even with easy words, it may be impossible to understand the meaning of a word without looking at the words around it.
　　There are several strategies you can use to understand the meanings of words that you do not know. In this chapter, you will learn about some of these strategies. You will see examples and do exercises that help you understand and apply them.
　　Strategy Exercise--Meaning from Context
　　I. A writer might give the meaning of a difficult word in the passage itself. The explanation might follow a comma or a dash after the difficult word. This is especially used for place names, technical terms, and other words that even native English speakers might not be familiar with. For example, in the sentence, "'New' and 'knew' are homophones--words that sound the same but have a different spelling," "words that sound the same but have a different spelling" is the meaning of "homophones."
　　In the following sentences, put parentheses ( ) around the words that mean the same as the underlined word.
　　1. The conference was held in Cluj, a town in Romania.
　　2. John pulled his hamstring, a muscle in the back of his leg, playing football.
　　3. In Middle Eastern countries, falafel, deep fried balls made of mashed peas, are very popular.
　　Ⅱ. Another way you can guess the meaning of a word is through the relationships of the words around it. For example, in the sentence, "After the heavy rain, the ground was saturated with water," you should be able to guess that the word "saturated" means "completely wet," because that's what happens to the ground after a heavy rain.
　　Try to guess the meanings of the underlined words in the following sentences.
　　1. Conforming to the rules is very important. You should be sure to do so.
　　A. following 　　　B. deciding 　　　C. writing 　　D. predicting
　　2. The policy is a barrier to our plan. If it is changed, we can go ahead with our plan.
　　A. something which requires thought
　　B. something which is under the ground
　　C. something which involves politics
　　D. something which prevents an action
　　3. That bird is close to becoming extinct. Once it disappears, it will never come back.
　　A. singing a song 　　　　　　　　　B. dying out completely
　　C. sitting on a tree 　　　　　　　 D. increasing in number
　　4. The new watering system will transform this area from a desert into a garden.
　　A. change 　　　　B. damage 　　　　C. dry 　　　　D. claim
　　Ⅲ. The writer may refer to the same thing using a different word or phrase in another part of the sentence, or in a later sentence. In that case, if you know the meaning of the second word, that will help you understand the meaning of the word that you don't know. "That vase looks very fragile. With young children in the house, I have to be careful with breakable things." In these two sentences, "breakable" and "fragile" seem to mean something similar. Therefore, you can guess that something that is fragile must break easily.
　　In the following sentences, find the word that means the same as the underlined word.
　　1. I don't know why I have such an aversion to fish, but I really dislike it.
　　2. We cannot consider modifications of the plan now. Changes should have been considered last month.
　　3. This book is about etiquette.You can learn about American manners from it.
　　4. Dr. Jones is an esteemed researcher. The conference organizers were happy to get such a respected speaker.
　　Ⅳ. A writer might also contrast the word that you do not know with a word or idea that you already know. In that case, since you can see the opposite of what the word means, you can guess what the word means. "That statue is in a precarious position. Please move it somewhere that it won't fall." Here, "precarious" is contrasted with "somewhere that it won't fall." Therefore, a precarious position is somewhere that (something) is in danger of falling.
　　Try to guess the meanings of the underlined words in the following sentences.
　　1. American culture is thought of as being monolithic, but it actually has regional differences.
　　A. inside the country 　　　　　　B. difficult to learn
　　C. of one piece 　　　　　　　　　D. unable to change
　　2. According to one side, the settlement was equitable, but the other side thought it was unfair.
　　A. better 　　　B. expected 　　　C. decided 　　　D. even
　　3. The painting is an original. That dealer would never sell you a fake.
　　A. genuine 　　 B. expensive 　　 C. beautiful 　　D. colorful
　　4. This car is enormous--you'd do much better to get a smaller one.
　　A. cheap 　　　 B. huge 　　　　　C. attractive 　 D. old
　　Ⅴ. Your knowledge of cause and effect is useful in helping you understand words that you do not know. "Your statement of purpose is ambiguous, so we don't understand what you intend to do." If the result is that the reader does not understand, the cause may be that the statement was unclear, so "ambiguous" means "unclear." Try to guess the meanings of the underlined words in the following sentences.
　　1. It is said that the United States is a nation of immigrants, because all Americans once came from other countries.
　　A. people who once lived in the United States
　　B. people who belong to one nation
　　C. people who live in the United States
　　D. people who move to a new country to live
　　2. This computer is obsolete, so I'm going to buy a new one.
　　A. useful 　　　B. outdated 　　　C. large 　　　D. fast
　　2. You need to learn to be more autonomous, so I think you should take care of the problem yourself.
　　A. independent 　　　　　　　　　 B. comfortable
　　C. important 　　　　　　　　　　 D. surprising
　　3. We will need to postpone the meeting. We are not ready to discuss this issue yet.
　　A. pull over 　　　　　　　　　　 B. cover up
　　C. decide on 　　　　　　　　　　 D. put off
　　Ⅵ. A writer might give an illustration related to the word that might help you understand the word. For example, in the sentence, "Harry is so parsimonious that he won't spend an extra penny if he doesn't have to," not spending an extra penny is an illustration of being "parsimonious." You can see that parsimonious means "too careful with money."
　　Try to guess the meanings of the underlined words in the following sentences.
　　1. The tower was so colossal that we could hardly see the top of it.
　　A. unusual 　　　B. huge 　　　　C. interesting 　　D. bright
　　2. The judge made him pay a $10 fine, which was akin to no punishment at all.
　　A. like 　　　　 B. more than 　 C. below 　　　　　D. less than
　　3. The balloon floated aloft as if a hand were holding it up.
　　A. heavily 　　　B. down 　　　　C. overhead 　　　 D. colorfully
　　4. The gradient of the road was so steep that the bus could not make it up.
　　A. driver 　　　 B. surface 　　 C. side 　　　　　 D. slope
　　Ⅶ. In some cases, the writer will mention the purpose or use of an object, and this tells you what the object is. For example, in the sentence, "I used a cherry pitter to remove the seeds from the cherries," the writer tells you that a cherry pitter is something used to remove seeds from cherries. In the following sentences, put parentheses ( ) around the words that tell what the underlined object does.
　　1. Watch the speedometer. It will tell you how fast the car is going.
　　2. Jeanne used an ice pick to chip off some pieces of ice.
　　3. The scientist used a calipher to take measurements of the bones.