guessing word meaning - lia jalan baru

186Reading Comprehension Section

Unit 18–Guessing Word Meaning

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GUESSING WORD MEANING Finding Clues from

Punctuation, Restatements, and Examples

A number of questions in the paper-based TOEFL® Reading Comprehension section test your understanding of English words. If the words tested are unfamiliar to you, you can use context clues to guess their meanings. Context clues help explain or clarify the meanings of particular words. Some clues come in the form of:

1. Punctuation 2. Restatements 3. Examples

1. Punctuation

Punctuation marks such as parentheses [(…)], commas [, … or , …,], and dashes [ —… or —…—] indicates that a word is explained within the sentence itself.

2. Restatements

An unknown word in a sentence may be explained in a phrase or a clause that means the same thing as the word. This clause or phrase may be introduced by these signal words:

• or • that is or i.e. • in other words • that is to say

3. Examples

The meaning of an unknown word can also be guessed from examples mentioned in the passage because examples usually give some idea of what the unknown word means. The following signal words may introduce examples:

• such • such as • for instance • for example • like

• especially • as • e.g. • including

Reading Comprehension Section187


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Example

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Stress occurs when the pressure on a person seems to be overwhelming or

out of control. Stress can create feelings of conflict and/or anxiety within an individual. Some kinds of stress, such as increased financial responsibilities, are easily recognized. Other kinds of stress, such as trying to earn peer acceptance, may go undetected. If stress is not identified and resolved, it can gradually deteriorate one's ability to function. Thus, stressful people experience an imbalance between the demands placed on them and their ability to meet these demands. Stress can cause physical symptoms like sweaty palms, fast heart rate, and churning stomach.

Stress itself is not necessarily bad, but at times, is in fact, useful. Some stress is even inevitable. Take for example, if you experience a necessary change in your life. A certain amount of stress helps people focus and get things done. Stress helps people reach hard goals and do their best. A degree of stress boosts performance. In short, stress keeps people going. It is the mindset—the frame of thought, though, which determines if the stress becomes uncontrollable anxiety or not.

Adapted from www.crescentlife.com

Sample questions

1. The word “overwhelming” in line 1 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) unmanageable (B) influencing (C) worrying (D) unpredictable

2. The word “symptoms” in line 8 can best be replaced by _______. (A) illustrations (B) signs (C) weaknesses (D) declines

3. The word “mindset” in line 14 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) awareness (B) wisdom (C) self-discipline (D) way of thinking

Explanation

1. The clue that may help you to understand the word overwhelming is the word or—a sign of restatement. The word overwhelming has a similar meaning to out of control. Out of control means something beyond your capability, so the most logical answer is (A) unmanageable.



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2. The clue like that comes after symptoms indicates that the words following the clue are examples—sweaty palms, fast heart rate and churning stomach. These are not kinds of diseases. Instead, they are signs that one may suffer from a disease. Therefore, the most logical answer is (B) signs.

3. To answer the last question, look at the clue near the tested word. The word mindset is followed by a dash (—) indicating that the following phrase the frame of thought is a further explanation of the word mindset. The word that is closest in meaning to the word mindset is (D) way of thinking.

1. Find the word to be defined in the passage.

2. Read the sentence in which the word is located.

3. Look for a clue in the form of parentheses, dashes or examples to help you understand the meaning of the word.

4. Choose the best answer based on the clue.

Exercise 1

Directions: Read the passage and answer the questions.

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A pearl is formed when an irritant, that is some sort of small, bothersome object, becomes embedded into a marine mollusk’s body. In response, the mollusk secretes or releases nacre, a combination of crystalline and organic substances. The nacre then coats the irritant that eventually forms a pearl.

Based on the initial formation, pearls can be classified into natural pearls and cultured pearls. Natural pearls are those which are formed in nature, more or less by chance, by a parasite or a piece of food lodged in the gonad or mantle tissue of a host oyster. Cultured pearls, by contrast, are those in which humans intentionally insert a foreign object into a live mollusk. After an irritant is added, the same natural process of pearl creation takes place. The only difference is that in the former, the process was begun accidentally while in the latter it was begun intentionally.

Adapted from Cultured Pearls at www.pearl-guide.com

1. The word “irritant” in line 1 is closest in meaning to _______.

(A) unwanted thing (B) strange thing (C) responsive thing (D) common thing

Strategies



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2. The word “secretes” in line 3 can best be replaced by _______. (A) hides (B) produces (C) initiates (D) develops

Exercise 2


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The term verbal dyspraxia is used by some scientists and clinicians to describe the failure to produce the sequential, rapid, and fixed movements needed to produce speech. The child with verbal dyspraxia will have difficulty producing sounds, syllables and words. The problem is neurologically based, or within the brain. Nothing is wrong with the child’s vocal apparatus. However, the child’s brain cannot give correct, consistent messages to the speech apparatus i.e. tongue, lips, larynx, etc. The child cannot consistently find the correct placement for the structures of speech. As a result, the child has trouble producing sounds, syllables and words. This affects its ability to say certain sounds or sound combinations and to sequence the sounds into words and sentences. Verbal dyspraxia is typified by omission of many sounds. Some children, for instance, speak only in vowels, making their speech nearly meaningless. One little girl trying to say “My name is Cathy” can only manage “eye a eh a ee”. At other times, though, correct speech may be produced by accident.

Adapted from www.education.kulichki.net

1. The word “apparatus” in line 5 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) objects (B) organs (C) figures (D) collections

2. The word “omission” in line 10 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) absence (B) spare (C) realization (D) intervention

Exercise 3


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Auroras are beautiful curtains of light in the night sky in the far north and south. Occasionally an aurora appears as an arch of light across the heavens from east to west. The light is produced when charged particles from the sun are guided by the earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere near the poles. When the particles contact atmospheric molecules, primarily oxygen and nitrogen, at altitudes



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from 300 down to 100 km, a part of the energy of the collisions transforms into visible light. During this luminous, glowing meteoric phenomenon, colorful light appears in streams, ascending towards the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the polar horizon. Because an aurora sometimes assumes a wavy appearance, the streams of light are then called merry dancers. They have a variety of colors, from pale red or yellow to an eerie deep red, or blood color. When reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms a corona or ring-shaped light.

Adapted from www.webexhibits.org

1. The word “luminous” in line 7 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) emerging (B) shining (C) heavenly (D) wonderful

2. The word “eerie” in line 11 can best be replaced by _______. (A) bright (B) unnatural (C) dim (D) frightening

3. The word “corona” in line 12 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) circle of light (B) streak of light (C) movement of light (D) range of light

Review 1


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Schizophrenia is a mental disorder caused by genetics, brain physiology, and other risk factors. Its course is perhaps influenced by a person’s surroundings, as well as biological makeup. People suffering from schizophrenia do not express emotion and may appear distant and unresponsive. Schizophrenia tends to be a chronic, or persistent, pervasive disease, so it is perhaps the most destructive of all mental disorders.

Schizophrenia keeps people from functioning at school, at work, in relationships, and in society. Teenagers may have trouble in school, as their attention span dissolves and their thinking becomes impaired. Unlike their normal peers who develop new skills and new ways of thinking, teenagers with schizophrenia may lack the ability to think abstractly and to solve problems.

REVIEW



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Schizophrenic people typically have a hard time keeping jobs. Some have been known to switch jobs, or to be fired several times a month. Many work at lower level jobs than their parents. Thus, they often earn less money and make fewer advances instead of surpassing, or doing better than their parents’ socioeconomic level. The ability to form and maintain relationships is usually hindered, in both social and occupational settings. About 65% of schizophrenic people never marry.

Adapted from mentalhealthchannel.net

1. The word “chronic” in line 5 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) varying (B) risky (C) unbearable (D) constant

2. What does the author say about people with schizophrenia at work? (A) They cannot perform well. (B) They cannot work in a team. (C) They are lazy workers. (D) They have more than one job.

3. In what lines does the author compare teenagers with schizophrenia to normal ones? (A) Lines 8-9 (B) Lines 9-11 (C) Lines 13-14 (D) Lines 14-16

4. The word “they” in line 14 refers to _______. (A) schizophrenic people (B) times (C) jobs (D) parents

5. The word “surpassing” in line 15 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) obtaining (B) changing (C) exceeding (D) finishing

Review 2


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Small animals, as compared to large animals, have more advantages in terms of food supply. Small animals such as raccoons need little quantity of food, and the animals can usually find it in a limited area. A small area of forest can support many raccoons. On the other hand, large animals need more food than smaller animals, and their size restricts where they can find it. The average black



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bear may need as much as one hundred times the space required by a raccoon. When a forest is disrupted, for example by the building of a highway through it, small forest dwellers may cope with the change readily, but larger animals may find themselves confined to only a fraction of their former range. The place has become too small a space to sustain them.

Another benefit of smaller animals is the flexibility to live in an area. Smaller animals do not have trouble getting around in either an open environment or a dense forest, while big creatures might have trouble moving through the dense undergrowth of a forest. For instance, while polar bears and kodiaks may have difficulty living in a forest, smaller black bears, though they prefer forests, have no problem living in an open region. In western North America, because open spaces have been divided up for agriculture and pastures, the large brown bears that once lived there have disappeared, and smaller black bears have replaced them.

Adapted from www.peabody.yale.edu

1. The word “disrupted” in line 7 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) disturbed (B) modernized (C) supported (D) abandoned

2. The word “it” in line 7 refers to _______. (A) black bear (B) raccoon (C) forest (D) highway

3. According to the passage, where do large animals usually live? (A) In a farming area (B) In a dense forest (C) In a piece of pasture (D) In an open environment

4. Where in the passage does the author mention about the disappearance of certain animals because of a reduced space? (A) Line 11 (B) Lines 12-14 (C) Lines 14-16 (D) Lines 16-19

5. According to paragraph two, what is another advantage of being smaller animals? They can _______. (A) find food easily (B) get accustomed to the climate (C) adapt to a new habitat (D) live longer



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Supplementary Exercise 1


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One of the most dangerous intakes for pregnant women to consume is alcohol. The human fetus, a human before birth after the organs have started to develop, is particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol, i.e. it is unprotected from the consequences of exposure to alcohol. In fact, the negative effects on a fetus are so pronounced that at birth the baby will be suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, which may include heart defects, limb and finger deformities, hyperactivity, etc.

Alcohol is absorbed quickly into the blood and passes quickly into the tissues and membranes. As a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it goes into her bloodstream right away. Then, the alcohol goes directly into the bloodstream of the fetus because its bloodstream is inextricable from that of the mother. Shockingly, the concentration of the alcohol in the fetus is exactly the same as that in the mother. For the mother, this concentration is not a problem because her liver can remove one ounce of alcohol per hour from her system. However, the fetus can remove the alcohol from the blood only at a much slower rate because its liver’s development is not yet complete due to the early stage of growth. The alcohol will finally return to the mother’s system by passing through the placenta, but this process takes place very slowly. By the time this process is complete, major neurological damage may have already occurred. Research has shown that as little as one drink of alcohol can produce significant, irreversible or incurable impairment to the fetus.

Adapted from testwise.com

1. The phrase “vulnerable to” in line 3 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) in danger of (B) in contrast to (C) in control of (D) in support of

2. The word “pronounced” in line 5 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) unpleasant (B) strong (C) realistic (D) active

SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES



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3. The word “its” in line 14 refers to _______. (A) the mother (B) her liver (C) the fetus (D) the blood

4. What made the alcohol have serious effects on the fetus? (A) The amount of alcohol is more in the fetus. (B) The fetus’ liver is not yet fully developed. (C) The absorption of alcohol from the mother is slow. (D) The removal of alcohol from the fetus’ system is not complete.

5. In what line does the author mention the quantity of alcohol that can cause damage to the fetus? (A) Lines 4-6 (B) Lines 7-8 (C) Lines 13-15 (D) Lines 18-20

6. What term in the passage does the author define? (A) Human fetus (B) Fetal alcohol syndrome (C) Placenta (D) Neurological damage

7. The word “irreversible” in line 19 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) definite (B) permanent (C) controllable (D) notable

Supplementary Exercise 2


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The Alaska pipeline is one of the largest pipeline systems in the world. The pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean in Prudhoe Bay, stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in the United States, and finally ends in Valdez, a remote ice-free seaport village nearly 800 miles away from where it begins. Built after oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay, the pipeline is the only way to get crude oil off the formidable or dreadful Alaskan North slope to the oil tankers waiting in Valdez, the nearest ice-free port. Up to 2 million barrels or 84 million gallons of crude oil can be pumped through it daily.

The steel pipeline, with a diameter of 48 inches and coated with zinc anodes to ward off corrosion, is extremely intricate because of Alaska’s unique environment. It crosses windswept plains and endless miles of delicate tundra topping the frozen ground. It weaves through crooked canyons, climbs sheer



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mountains, plunges over rocky crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or under hundreds of rivers and streams. Long sections of the pipeline rest on H-shaped steel racks called bents, following a zigzag course elevated high above the frozen earth to span rivers or to allow wild life to cross under the pipe. Other long sections drop out of sight 3-12 feet buried beneath spongy or rocky ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the pipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the harsh demands of the arctic and sub arctic climate, the tortuous lay of the land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, and permafrost or permanently frozen ground.

Adapted from Fairbanks-alaska.com and www.alyeska-pipe.com

1. Where is the location of the oil drilling? (A) In Prudhoe Bay (B) In the Alaska State (C) In Valdez (D) In an ice-free port

2. The word "it" in line 5 refers to _______. (A) pipeline (B) edge (C) state (D) village

3. The word “formidable” in line 6 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) strange (B) large (C) frightening (D) lengthy

4. What makes the pipeline complicated? (A) Alaska’s natural structure (B) The amount of oil pumped (C) Its special material (D) The diameter of the pipe

5. Where in the passage does the author mention about the reason for building the Alaska pipeline? (A) Lines 1-5 (B) Lines 5-7 (C) Lines 7-8 (D) Lines 9-11



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6. The word “elevated” in line 15 is closest in meaning to _______. (A) kept (B) added (C) ended (D) raised

7. Where in the passage does the author provide a term for an earth covering that always remains frozen? (A) Line 11 (B) Line 12 (C) Line 17 (D) Line 21

guessing word meaning - lia jalan baru

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