Guessing The Meaning of Words

Guessing the Meanings of Words

Guessing the meaning of words is the best strategy when you are reading.

1. It is fast since you do not have to interrupt your reading. 2. It helps your comprehension because you stay focused on the general sense of what you are reading. 3. It helps build vocabulary because you are more likely to remember the words. 4. It allows you to enjoy your reading more because you do not have to stop often.

1. Often you can find related ideas in the context, that is, the text or sentences that contain the word.

3. Some words are not important and you can understand main idea of a paragraph without them.

2. Sometimes you have to read several sentences to guess the meaning of a word.

How to Guess the Meanings of Words

Try to guess the X’ed words in the following paragraph from Chapter 1, Reading 1 in College Reading 2.

Du Yun XXXXX the large orange shopping cart into PriceSmart’s parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged groceries. “I come here once a week, sometimes twice – it’s so XXXXX,” said Ms. Du, a working actress. “There was nothing like this in China in the past.”

Even though you do not know the X’ed words, what is the main idea of the paragraph?

Du Yun XXXXX the large orange shopping cart into PriceSmart’s parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged groceries. “I come here once a week, sometimes twice – it’s so XXXXX,” said Ms. Du, a working actress. “There was nothing like this in China in the past.”

Ms. Du likes to shop at PriceSmart.

Here are some context clues that might be helpful for the first word.

Du Yun XXXXX the large orange shopping cart into PriceSmart’s parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged groceries.

Here is a guess. Du Yun pushed the large orange shopping cart into

PriceSmart’s parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged groceries.

Compare the guess and the original word. Du Yun maneuvered the large orange shopping cart into

PriceSmart’s parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged groceries.

Here is a context clue that might be helpful for the second word. popped open the trunk of her gray XXXXX Buick

Here is a guess.

popped open the trunk of her gray *luxury Buick

Compare the guess and the original word.

popped open the trunk of her gray *economy Buick

*incorrect guess – check adjective order

There are different clues you might use for the third word.

PriceSmart’s … “I come here once a week, sometimes twice – it’s so XXXXX,” said Ms. Du, … “There was nothing like this in China in the past.”

Here are different guesses.

PriceSmart’s … “I come here once a week, sometimes twice – it’s so cheap/ quick/ new,” said Ms. Du, … “There was nothing like this in China in the past.”

Compare the guesses and the original word.

PriceSmart’s … “I come here once a week, sometimes twice – it’s so convenient,” said Ms. Du, … “There was nothing like this in China in the past.”

Guessing Meanings to Find the Correct Definition

How can you choose the correct definition for a word in a sentence when there are many definitions in the dictionary?

If you guess the meaning of the word using clues in the sentence or paragraph, then you will probably be able to select the correct definition.

Use other words in the following sentences to guess the meanings of the X’ed words. After you guess, choose the definition from the list.

Definitions were taken from the Longman web dictionary at: http://www.ldoceonline.com/

What is the XXXXX of the problem?

1. everything in the physical world that is not controlled by humans, such as wild plants and animals, earth and rocks, and the weather

2. someone's character

3. the qualities or features that something has

What is the XXXXX of the problem?

Click on each definition.