The World of Words: Vocabulary for College Success ... - eLibrary

Learning Strategy 41In which sentence does hot mean1. quick, emotional? ___________2. having a high temperature? ___________3. spicy? ___________Answers are on page 399.Let’s turn to a more difficult word. What are the meanings of theword concession in these sentences?a. He bought some food at the hot-dog concession.b. Because the country wanted peace, leaders made a concession of landto the enemy.In which sentence does concession mean1. something that is surrendered or given up? ___________2. a business that sells things? ___________Answers are on page 399.Context clues and the dictionary are natural partners in helping youdetermine the meaning of unknown words. Context clues usually suggestan approximate meaning for a word and allow you to continue readingwithout interruption. After you have finished reading, you can look up theword in a dictionary.You may be wondering exactly how to determine the meaning ofunknown words that you find in your reading. Many people find thefollowing steps helpful:Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.1. As you are reading, try to pinpoint words you do not know. This advicesounds almost silly, but it isn’t. Many people lose the opportunity tolearn vocabulary simply because they let unknown words slip by. Don’tlet this happen to you. Try to capture difficult words!2. Use context clues to make an intelligent guess about an unknownword’s meaning. The strategies you will learn in Chapters 2, 3, and 4will help you do this. Remember that context clues often give youapproximate—not exact—meanings.3. Mark the word and check it in a dictionary. This step will tell you howclose your guess was and will give you a more exact definition.How does a person learn to make “intelligent guesses”? This bookpresents three methods: substitution in context (this chapter), context cluesof definition (Chapter 3), and context clues of opposition (Chapter 4).