Context Clues (B)

As you're reading, you can often figure out the meaning of an unknown word by looking at the words and phrases that surround it. The familiar words and phrases that help you determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word are called _______.

clue: unscramble these two words [ctexont ceslu]

 

Read the passage and then answer the question.

When people think about the Medieval period in Europe, also known as the Middle Ages or Dark Ages, they often conjure up images of war, plague, and famine. Many imagine people living in squalor—with dirty houses and little personal hygiene—and believe that scientific and intellectual progress came to a standstill during this time. There is a popular tendency to discount the Medieval era as an inferior period between the glory of the Roman empire and the splendor of the Renaissance.

What is the meaning of squalor as used in the passage?

filthy conditions

constant fear

crowded cities

risky circumstances

 

 

Read the passage and then answer the question.

Wanting to help the family, the geologists made numerous gifts of seeds, clothing, utensils, and other goods. This largess was lost on Karp Lykov and his older children, who maintained a deep distrust of all things modern and were very timid around outsiders. His younger son and daughter, Dmitry and Agafia, were not nearly so diffident. They were fascinated and delighted by the technologies—like flashlights and television—that had been invented during their forty years of isolation. Ultimately, however, the Lykovs chose to pass up the comforts of modernity and live out the rest of their natural lives in the Siberian wilderness.

 

What is the meaning of diffident as used in the passage? --

stingy

shy

silent

different

Read the passage and then answer the question.

People with Parkinson's Disease often suffer from tremors, or uncontrollable shaking. Tremors vary widely in intensity and disruptiveness; some are barely perceptible, while others are so severe that they interfere with patients' ability to feed themselves. The invention of an eating utensil designed to give tremor sufferers some help during mealtimes has been a tremendous boon for Parkinson's patients.

What is the meaning of boon as used in the passage? :-

• reward or compensation

• honor or award

• aid or benefit

• surprise or unexpected event

The spoon, called Liftware, was created by Anupam Pathak, a skilled engineer with a background in rifle stabilization technology. Pathak's design was based largely on such technology. Liftware first uses a motion sensor to detect all movements made by the user. A specially designed algorithm then determines whether each movement is intentional or caused by a tremor. Finally, the head of the spoon moves in response to each tremor to compensate somewhat for the displacement the tremor causes. With the effects of their tremors mitigated in this way, Parkinson's patients are able to feed themselves with greater ease.

What is the meaning of mitigated as used in the passage? -

• made less severe

• permanently cured

• removed

• tolerated

Gandhi may be best remembered for his hunger strikes, which have come to epitomize his brand of peaceful protest. Gandhi participated in many of these strikes—most famously, to protest British support for a new Indian constitution. That constitution would have relegated India's lowest caste to a separate, inferior democratic process. Without resorting to violence, Gandhi made salient the injustices of the proposed system, drawing attention to the inequalities of the day.

What is the meaning of epitomize as used in the passage? :

• balance or moderate

• represent or typify

• diminish

• honor

Gandhi may be best remembered for his hunger strikes, which have come to epitomize his brand of peaceful protest. Gandhi participated in many of these strikes—most famously, to protest British support for a new Indian constitution. That constitution would have relegated India's lowest caste to a separate, inferior democratic process. Without resorting to violence, Gandhi made salient the injustices of the proposed system, drawing attention to the inequalities of the day.

What is the meaning of relegated as used in the passage? :-

• kept hidden

• granted a special favor

• put in a less desirable position

• lost forever

It's a summer night in New Mexico. A great deluge has just swept over the desert landscape, creating ponds out of roadside ditches, once-empty watering holes, and playas. The conditions are now right for spadefoot toads to gather in these ponds and lay their eggs, all in a single night. As hundreds of male toads call for a mate, the normal stillness and silence of the desert is broken by the cacophony of their quack-like calls. By morning, up to 2,500 eggs may have been laid by each female.

What is the meaning of cacophony as used in the passage? -

• chaotic noise

• peacefulness

• melody

• restlessness

Spadefoot toads, so named for the dark, spade-like pads on their hind feet, which they use for digging, spend much of their lives underground. By lowering their metabolic rate, the toads can remain below ground for as long as two years at a time without feeding. Once the weather turns warm and wet, spadefoots emerge to eat, mate, and lay eggs in the desert summer's ephemeral ponds. The fleeting nature of these pools necessitates rapid development. Spadefoot tadpoles can grow into toadlets in as little as fourteen days, leaving them the rest of the summer to eat and grow.

-What is the meaning of ephemeral as used in the passage?  

• short-lived

• necessary

• natural

• deep

The 1993 movie Jurassic Park explores dangers that can arise from using technology to resurrect extinct species. In the film, scientists extract dinosaur DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber and use it to create living dinosaurs for an island theme park. However, the dinosaurs prove to be less tractable than predicted. They escape from their enclosures and begin attacking the humans, creating chaos on the island. The movie serves as a warning about the revival of extinct species—a process known as de-extinction.

What is the meaning of tractable as used in the passage?  :-

• easy to train

• easy to maintain

• easy to control

• easy to breed