Najwa Najellina Safinka

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UNIT 7 : WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT

Exercise 3
Use the context to help you choose the correct meaning of each underlined word.
1. The signal from the cable is too strong for our television. We’ll have to use a filter to attenuate it.
When you attenuate something, you_______________.
a. watch it carefully
b. take good care of it
c. make it be less
d. get past it

2. “If you knew the gravity of the situation, you wouldn’t be laughing,” Mr. Farmer said quietly. He
didn’t have to say more to get everyone’s attention.
What does “gravity” mean in this context?
a. a force that draws different objects toward each other
b. seriousness
c. humor
d. enjoyable, or comfortable

3. Her cardinal rule is this: Be kind to others! She believes that everything else in life will fall properly
into place if one follows that rule.
What does “cardinal” mean in this context?
a. main, or most important
b. red
c. like a bird
d. not worth remembering

4. The owner of the restaurant wouldn’t allow Samantha to walk through the door. “I’m sorry,” she
said, “but you started a food fight the last time you were here. You may not have ingress to my
restaurant!”
What does “ingress” mean in this selection?
a. a kind of bird that lives by the sea
b. any food that can be thrown
c. a good price for a meal
d. the right to enter

Exercise 3
1:
The world described by physics is a surprisingly strange world, somewhat distant from our regular
experience. Many high school students likely suspect this fact, given the difficulty that they often
experience when taking physics courses. However, they are rarely instructed in the explicit difference
between the world expressed by their equations and the world that they experience. Many of the
concepts used in physics are related to the figures, facts, and equations that are learned in mathematics.
The world is recast into a form that looks more like a geometry problem than the world as experienced
in day-to-day life. All of this at first seems strange to the budding young physics student. However, after
performing a number of experiments, he or she soon sees that these mathematical formulas seem to
“work.” That is, these equations really do predict the outcomes of experiments in the real world, not
merely in mathematical equations on paper.

Still, it is interesting to notice some examples of how much is overlooked in these kinds of mathematical
models. Most obviously, there are few (if any) objects in reality that perfectly match the form and shape
of a pure geometric figure. Few physical triangles are exact triangles in the manner of the shapes used in
geometric problems. Likewise, motion becomes merely something to be expressed in an equation that
has time as a variable. Finally, all of the physical descriptions of light waves tell us about everything
except for what it is like to experience color. This last reason is perhaps the most interesting reason of
all. No matter how many equations and shapes are used to describe color, none of these will have
anything to do with the experience of color itself. To speak of a “rectangular surface” or an
“icosahedron-like body” does not tell us anything about colors. Rectangles and icosahedrons can be any
color. That is, color does not enter into their definitions at all—a red rectangle is just as much a
rectangle as is a green one.

What is the meaning of the boldfaced word “recast” in its context?

Possible Answers:
Deceptively altered in meaning
Molded to fit a necessary shape
Presented in a new form
Expressed in a poetic manner
Expressed in a dramatic manner

2.
"Comparing Technologies: A Difficult Endeavor" by Matthew Minerd (2014)
Comparisons of technology are often difficult to make, not only because of the rapid pace of
improvements but also because of the many new applications that are available as time progresses. If
we were to consider the contemporary graphing calculator and the calculation capacities of computing
machines from fifty years ago, there would be astounding improvements between these two devices.
However, the improvements are not reduced merely to speed improvements. A graphing calculator also
has numerous output capacities that far exceed those available much older computers, none of which
had the ability to represent their output in any manner even closely resembling that of contemporary
devices. Merely consider the display capacities of such a device. These enable users to input many new
kinds of information, enabling design engineers to design new hardware functions to match the new
means of collecting user input.
The situation is even more obvious when one considers the numerous functions performed by a modern
“smartphone.” These devices are equipped with a panoply of features. With all of these new functions
come many new types of computational capabilities as well. In order to process images quickly,
specialized hardware must be designed and software written for it in order to ensure that there are few
issues with the phone’s operation. Indeed, the whole “real time” nature of telecommunications has
exerted numerous pressures on the designers of computing devices. Layers of complexity, at all levels of
production and development, are required to ensure that the phone can function in a synchronous
manner. Gone are the days of asynchronous processing, when thecomputer user entered data into a
mainframe, only to wait for a period of time before the processing results were provided. Today, even
the smallest of digital devices must provide seamless service for users. The effects of this requirement
are almost beyond number.

What is meant by the underlined word “applications”?

Possible Answers:
Practical uses
Formal requests
None of the other answers
Employment opportunities
Computer software

3.
Adapted from Cassell’s Natural History by Francis Martin Duncan (1913)
The penguins are a group of birds inhabiting the southern ocean, for the most part passing their lives in
the icy waters of the Antarctic seas. Like the ratitae, penguins have lost the power of flight, but the
wings are modified into swimming organs and the birds lead an aquatic existence and are scarcely seen
on land except in the breeding season. They are curious-looking creatures that appear to have no legs,
as the limbs are encased in the skin of the body and the large flat feet are set so farback that the birds
waddle along on land in an upright position in a very ridiculous manner, carrying their long narrow
flippers held out as if they were arms. When swimming, penguins use their wings as paddles while the
feet are used for steering.
Penguins are usually gregarious—in the sea, they swim together in schools, and on land, assemble in
great numbers in their rookeries. They are very methodical in their ways, and on leaving the water, the
birds always follow well-defined tracks leading to the rookeries, marching with much solemnity one
behind the other in soldierly order.
The largest species of penguins are the king penguin and the emperor penguin, the former being found
in Kerguelen Land, the Falklands, and other southern islands, and the latter in Victoria Land and on the
pack ice of the Antarctic seas. As they are unaccustomed from the isolation of their haunts to being
hunted and persecuted by man, emperor penguins are remarkably fearless, and Antarctic explorers
invading their territory have found themselves objects of curiosity rather than fear to the strange birds
who followed them about as if they were much astonished at their appearance.
The emperor penguin lays but a single egg and breeds during the intense cold and darkness of the
Antarctic winter. To prevent contact with the frozen snow, the bird places its egg upon its flat webbed
feet and crouches down upon it so that it is well covered with the feathers. In spite of this precaution,
many eggs do not hatch and the mortality amongst the young chicks is very great.

Based on the way it is used in the passage, what is the most likely meaning of the underlined word
“gregarious”?
Possible Answers:
Argumentative
Dedicated
Sociable
Having a large appetite