How to make use of context in reading passages

Most writers try hard to help their readers to understand the information in a reading passage.
They do this by providing cues, or aids in their writing to clarify, define, and explain difficult
concepts and keywords and expressions in the passages.
The following example sentences, common context cues in written discourse are illustrated for
word adversity.
1. Contrast : It was adversity, not prosperity, that shaped the lives of the early
American pioneers.
2. Example : Pioneer women met adversity head on; they used paper for windows,
carried water for miles for the weekly washing, and made do with corn meal
rather than flour for the daily baking
3. Definition: The adversities of the winter that is, the hardships and calamities
that the family lived with daily disappeared with the warmth of spring.
4. Appositive
: Locusts (the dreaded migratory grasshoppers of the prairies)
could destroy a familys whole corn crop in a matter of minutes. From these
adversities, the trials and tribulations of the times, came the legends of the
hardy American pioneers.
5. Series
: The diaries of the early farmers told the hardships, calamities, and
adversities, that made their lives miserable: lack of water for daily use, sudden
epidemics that wiped out whole families, and severe blizzards that kept people
house bound for weeks.

6. Parallelism
: The settlers never gave up. They struggled through the early
years, dealt with their difficulties, and in the end, overcame the adversities.
7. WH markers
: (where, when, which, who, whom, that, why), relative
pronouns often suggest the meaning of words and phrases. e.g.
The cold cellar was where the farmers stored their fruits and vegetables for
winter.
8. Reason logically : making sense of unfamiliar words and phrases in a reading
passage by
using other words in the sentence and the passage. e.g.
The settlers never gave up. They struggled through the early years, dealt with
their difficulties, and in the end, overcame their adversities.
9. Punctuation, italics, abbreviations. (the comma, semicolon, colon, dashes,
italics,
abbreviations) e.g. : The man is . , living a life of religious solitude.
Read the following sentences; write the meaning of the word in italics in the space provided as
well as the context cues that helped you to figure out the word meaning. Number 1 is as an
example.
1. Although the small goslings appeared misproportioned and unattractive, the adult swans were
elegant and graceful.
(contrast cue: although small / adult)_______

2. Not all newcomers turn out to be producers, directors, or Hollywood starlets; the majority end
up doing mundane tasks such as typing and filling in order to survive.
________________________________________________
3. The buffet was so extravagant, and the drinks seemed to come from an endless source. The
women paraded in gowns ornamented with furs and jewels, and the men smoked coveted
Cuban cigars. _________________________________________________
4. The sights and smells of the market were distinctive indeed; as vendors set out their wares,
the pungent aroma of spices and coffee pervaded the square.
_________________________________________________
5. The villages disappeared as the army advanced with tanks, guns, and short range missiles
such as aggression was appalling, but no one interfered.
_________________________________________________
6. In the ear, the eardrum (a thin membrane) is set into vibration by the pressure compressions of
the sound wave. ___________________________________________
7. It is only natural that children of tall, thin parents should be tall and thin themselves, rather
than plump like many children.__________________________________________
8. Unlike the innocuous garden snake, all vipers have a poisonous bite and all are dangerous to
man.
_________________________________________________
9. The young man spoke affably throughout the night, cracking jokes and telling stories until
dawn. _________________________________________________
10. Ice worms, highly specialized creatures that live only in glacial ice and snow fields, provide
food for the wild birds of the Arctic region.
_________________________________________________
11. During the Civil War in the United States, families were often tragically divided on the issue of
the Union. It was not unusual for brothers to be estranged for the rest of their lives.
_________________________________________________