Universitas Pamulang Sastra Inggris

MEETING 10
GUESSING WORD

A. GOALS OF STUDY
At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to be able to:
10.1 Have a good guess from the words that are around them and from
the topic of the paragraph.
10.2 Have a good guess from the rest of the sentence.
10.3 Guess the meaning from context of unknown word from the text
surrounding.
10.4 Improve vocabulary by providing additional vocabulary
exercises and tests on words.
10.5 Write a short paragraph related to the story in the text.

B. MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Goals of study 10.1:
Definition of guessing

Guessing Mean

Picture 10.2
Guessing the meaning
Picture Source:
SlidePlayer

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Goals of study 10.2:

Have a good guess from the rest of the sentence and guess the meaning from
context of unknown word from the text surrounding.

Reading from Context

The ability to infer the meaning of an unknown word by looking at
the vocabulary around it or its context is an important reading skill.
The context here refers to the sentence or paragraph where the
unfamiliar word appears, which provides the reader with information
to make sense of the term.

The term “adolescent parents, “however, has frequently been a

euphemism for" teenage mothers." As a result of the Adolescent
Health…

Unknown word Context

Types of Context Clues

Context clues are words or phrases in the sentence or paragraph that
help the reader to figure out the meaning of the unknown word. There
are 4 types of clues you could use to support your reading
comprehension; synonyms, examples and definitions, antonyms and
contrast, and general knowledge

Synonyms
Synonyms and Definitions
A synonym is a word or phrase that means the same or is very similar
to another word. Definitions state or describe the meaning of a word.

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These two context clues can be used to discover the meaning of an

unknown word. But…how?
Tip1:
ü Select the unknown word
ü Identify its the part of speech: is it a verb?
a noun? an adjective? Etc.
ü Check if there is a synonym in the
sentence that can provide the same
meaning of the unknown word.
ü Determine its positive or negative value:
Is it a good or a bad thing?

Days after he made a flippant remark in class, he regretted

sounding so disrespectful.

Signals of Synonyms in the Text

Signals of synonym in the text means, called, be
verbs, that is, also known as, or, is referred to
as, sometimes called, is/are known as, by [ ] is
meant.., similar to, can be defined as, commas
(,) or dashes (--) and synonyms.
Tip2
ü Use these signals to help you identify
synonyms or similar phrases that explain
the unknown word.
ü Bear in mind that the synonym may
appear before or after these signals.

The Milky Way is littered with dark obscuring clouds of

dust commonly referred to as "coal sacks”.

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1998; Wolffe, 2001) for people who are visually impaired

(that is, those who are blind or have low vision)

...and are proud of its cultural and moral legacy. If by

secularism is meant unbelief, there are few, if any,
secularists in the Arab-Muslim world.

...find his or her way to a destination: piloting and path

integration. Piloting means using sensory information to
estimate one s position at any given time, while path..

They had a close encounter with a dromedary, a one-

humped camel.

Activity

Peanuts develop underground. Unlike true nuts, peanuts

(Arachishypogaea, also known as pinders, goober peas,
ground peas, and groundnuts) are unusual
The primary dietary source of sodium is sodium chloride,
also known as table salt, he says.
Malaria can be more severe in children, and symptoms in
children are similar to those of other diseases.
If people could copy our software - in other words, create
cheap knockoffs of our products - we wouldn’t get paid for
our work.
Talent can take years to surface. When Robert was a young
boy, his great aptitude in physics was not all apparent to his
teachers.

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Examples and definitions

Examples can inform the reader about unknown words.
They can illustrate the meaning of the word that they refer
to. Signals of examples in the text: for example, (e.g.), for
instance, such as, including, like, as an example, cases of,
instances of, type of.
The Lehigh malware is an example of a computer virus.

Networks allow users to share high-tech gaskets such as

iPads, tablets, etc.
Since she retired from her job, she has developed new
avocations. For example, she enjoys internet, going to
the cinema and gardening.

Antonyms and contrast

Antonyms are words that mean the opposite of other words.
Antonyms can refer to the opposed idea of an unknown
word in the sentence or paragraph.
Tip 1:
ü Select the unknown word.
ü Identify its the part of speech: is it a verb? a noun?
an adjective? etc.
ü Check if there is a synonym in the sentence that can
provide the same meaning of the unknown word.
ü Determine its positive or negative value: Is it a good
or a bad thing?

…, the glass might absorb so much acoustic energy that it

will shatter; the other glasses remain unaffected.

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To keep healthy, people need to be active. If they remain

stagnant, it could result in loss of vitality and health.

Tip 2:
ü Use these signals to help you identify contrast or
opposition phrases that may explain the unknown
word.
ü Bear in mind that the antonym may appear before or
after these signals.

Signals of antonyms in the text: however, but, yet, in contrast,

although, on the other hand, despite, while, in spite of, even
though, unlike, nevertheless.

It kept me dry and warm even though I was soaked, and all
of the moisture on my body passed right through.

The big trees, lush vegetation, and wildlife are in stark

contrast to withered areas in the city, which……..

General Knowledge
Sometimes it is necessary to rely on your own experience
and background knowledge to figure out the meaning of a
word. Read all the words surrounding the unknown term to
help you draw conclusions based on the complimentary
information found in the text.

What is the meaning of abate?

.…physicians usually allow football players to resume play
once symptoms abate, perhaps within days. For the sailors,

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the wind continued to abate and you could feel their

frustration.

What is the meaning of surrogate?

A patient or his or her legal surrogate may also refuse the
artificial administration of food and fluid through a feeding
tube.
.…machine that’s going to land on the surface. And it is
essentially a surrogate for a human geologist exploring
Mars.

The Power of Knowledge

Chances are that you may know what word should go on
the blank spaces solely on your knowledge or life
experience. See if you can guess which word fits best with
the context and write it down.

1. What word best fits in the blank space?

Michael Chamberlain was a pastor with the Seventh-day
Adventist _______, a protestant denomination.

I believe in an America where the separation of

________ and state is absolute. Dr. William Estes, an
Old Catholic __________ bishop, put a finer point on
this temptation:

2. What word best fits in the blank space?

…study did not break out the specific number of middle
and high _______teachers. In each grade level at each
_________an intact classroom of students in a required
course
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…results from this study may not generalize to youths

who do not attend _______
…in the yearbook and think, who was she again? Did I
go to _________with her?

Multiple Meaning through Context

1. …coauthor and Harvard University psychologist Elizabeth Spelke
argues that evolution has endowed people with “core knowledge”
about several domains.
2. The microstructure of calcium carbonate endows the shell with an
unexpected combination of properties.
3. Ph.D., Brenda Brodie is the only Endowed Professor of Special
Education in Visual Impairment, School of Education.
4. …professor, and. the holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair
in the department of mechanical engineering at Texas A &M;
University
5. The "krithians" those lucky few born with fully endowed blood that
complete command over the craft of magic, were protected.
6. …Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, recently gave $3 million for
endowing a chaired professorship in mental health
7. …Her awards include a grant from the National Endowment for the
Arts.

Conclusions
1. We can decipher the meaning of unknown words by using context
clues such as synonyms, examples, opposites, and our general
knowledge.
2. The context is the source of hints that will help you determine the
meaning of an unknown word.
3. We should not employ the dictictionary every time we find an
unknown word when reading. Instead, we should be able to
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propose or hypothesize the meaning of a word based on the

context.
4. At this point, the dictionary should only be used for verifying our
conclusions or suppositions from our text analysis.

C. QUESTIONS FOR EXERCISE/ ASSIGNMENTS

Guessing meaning from context – Practice
Look at the reading below. Some of the words are in italics and bold. They
are quite difficult words so you may not know them. Try to guess their
meaning from the sentence it is in, or sentences around it, and from the
topic of the paragraph. When you think you have guessed, choose from the
words below the reading.

Tips: How to guess meaning from context:

1. Determine the part of speech.
2. Look at the words that are used with it.
3. Think about the meaning of the sentence.

Thai Museum Catalogues Opium Dreams and Nightmares

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand, Wednesday December 04 (Reuters).

1) First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden

Triangle are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical
heat, but then disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 100-acre
complex through a long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base
of a hill past bas-reliefs of distorted human figures before emerging
suddenly into bright sunlight in front of a field of poppies. "This is the
mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles Mehl, head of research
for the Mae FahLuang Foundation, which has just completed the $10 million
museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have for treating chronic
pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one of the worst,
destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial gain."

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2) Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand,
the museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is
about 470 miles north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders
of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden
Triangle is a largely lawless region that last year produced more opium and
heroin than Afghanistan and more synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest
of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put together, drugs agencies say.

3) Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into

the picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy
souvenirs on the Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in
nearby villages. The museum, which will open officially early next year,
aims to exploit this tourist business, luring the curious with the promise of
entertainment and impressive audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But
as visitors progress down the labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three
floors, the warnings against narcotic abuse gradually become more
powerful. "People think at first they know what they will see -- a quaint
presentation about hill tribes growing opium. But that's only a small part of
the story," said Mehl.

4) Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and
addiction in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs
crop-substitution program in Asia. Lessons from that program, which has
succeeded in the nearby Thai mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering
farmers of opium poppies a better income from alternative crops such as
coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into the museum. But it also offers a
thorough lesson in the history of opium, its derivatives such as heroin and
laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has helped change the world for
hundreds of years.

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Tragedy and Trauma

5) Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean,
archaeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland
dating from the Neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt
and Greece before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a
key commodity that was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the
British and Dutch. With 360-degree special effects, the museum traces the
19th century opium wars between Britain and China before looking at
prohibition in the 20th century and official efforts, often spectacularly
unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs.

6) The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best
approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes,
decriminalization or legalization -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy
and trauma inflicted by drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery
recounts the powerful true stories of victims of drug abuse around the world
through intimate video testimonies by their families.

7) "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change

toward the very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that
drug abuse produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the
Vienna-based UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of
drugs should be fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means
law enforcement for sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and
treatment are equally important."

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By guessing meaning from context, choose the answer that has the closest
meaning to the word:

TIPS: How to guess meaning from context; determine the part of speech, look
at the words that are used with it, and think about the meaning of the
sentence.

1. The word "disorientation" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:

a. being introduced
b. total confusing; nothing being clear
c. happiness
d. understanding
2. The word "distorted" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
a. famous
b. extraordinary, very unusual
c. bent; twisted; strange shape; unclear
3. The word "poppies" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
a. cattle
b. flowers
c. crops
d. sheep
4. The word "contradiction" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
a. opposite of something else
b. illegality
c. beauty
d. wonder
5. The word "exploited" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
a. firings; loss of jobs
b. promotions; raises
c. used unfairly; developed in a bad way
d. employed

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6. The word "synthetic" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to:

a. fast
b. cheap
c. natural
d. artificial
7. The word "illicit" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:
a. unlawful; not allowed
b. free
c. cheap; inexpensive
d. exciting
8. The word "curious" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:
a. interested; eager to know
b. middle class
c. bored; disinterested
d. rich and famous
9. The word "narcotic" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:
a. drug
b. physical
c. local
d. international
10. The word "addiction" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to:
a. sales; export
b. encouragement
c. cruelty; meanness
d. hooked; unable to stop
11. The word "alternative" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to:
a. new
b. different
c. fast growing
d. legal

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12. The word "prohibition" in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to:

a. sales
b. banning; stopping; making illegal
c. promoting; encouraging
d. increases
e. rises
13. The word "eradication" in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:
a. making mistakes
b. removing completely; getting rid of
c. explaining; giving information about
d. nuture; propagate; grow
14. The word "tragedy" in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:
a. difficulty c. expense
b. damage; harm d. great sadness and pain

Exercises Instructions: Read a short passage from the back cover a graded
reader set in Thailand.

A last the fishing net lay in the bottom of the boat. Lek stepped forward and
opened the net. He picked up the blue and white thing. It was a plate. Lek
started to laugh.

“We’ve caught a plate – an old plate! Shall I throw it back into the sea?’ he
asked Daeng.

“No, no, wait a minute!” said Daeng. “Give it to me.” He looked at the plate
carefully. “I saw a picture of a plate like this in a newspaper,” he said. “The
plate was very old. It was worth a lot of money.”

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What kind of story do you think it will be? You can choose more than one
answer.
1. Horror 5. Detective 9. Travel
2. Romance 6. Adventure 10. Thriller
3. Mystery 7. Spy
4. Ghost 8. Science Fiction

Now read part of the story.

A Sudden Death
Mark and John walked quickly toward the small fishing boats. As they arrived
at the boats, the first light of the sun appeared over the town. The stars
disappeared. There was no wind and the sea was calm. Some fishermen were
already in their boats. They were mending their nets. They were going fishing.

Mark and john walked to Daeng’s boat. It was new and it was tidy. There were
nets and baskets along the sides of the boat. Everything was ready for fishing.
But there was nobody on board.

The two men jumped down into the boat. They searched the boat carefully.
“There are no messages here,” said Mark. “Look, we’ve been here almost an
hour. I don’t think Daeng is going to come. Let’s go. We’ve got work to do.”

By now, most of the fishing boats had left and the sun was quite high in the
sky. Mark and John climbed out of Daeng’s boat.

John looked down at Daeng’s boat for the last time. Suddenly he stopped and
went back to the quay.

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“There’s something in the water,” John said. He pointed down at the sea.
“What is it?” asked Mark.
“I don’t know,” replied John. “But I can see something shining there.” Mark
walked back and stood beside John.
“That’s strange,” Mark Said.
They got back into the boat and looked over the side.
“Hold my legs,” said Mark. I’ll lean over the side.”
Slowly Mark leant over the side of the boat. Now he could see the thing in the
water.
“Pull me up! Pull me up! Mark shouted suddenly.
“What’s the matter? What did you see? What was shining down there?” asked
John.
Mark sat down suddenly in the boat.
“It is – it’s a watch,” said Mark. “The sun is shining on the glass of a watch.”
“A watch?” repeated John. “What’s frightening about a watch?”
“The watch is on Daeng’s hand. Daeng is down there.” said Mark. “He has
been down there all this time.”
Mark’s face became pale. He was frightened.
“I’ll call the police,” said John.

General Understanding: Decide if the sentences are True (T), False (F) or
the information is Not Given (NG) in the text.

1. The blue and white plate came from the sea. T F NG

2. The plate is worth a lot of money. T F NG
3. John and Mark went to see Daeng in the morning. T F NG
4. Daeng left a message on the boat. T F NG
5. Mark finds Daeng because John saw his watch in the water. T F NG
6. Daeng is dead because of the plate. T F NG

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Vocabulary in Context 1: Match a word or phrase in the text to the

definitions.
For example:
Not much movement (connected to water) calm, line 3
1. On a boat or ship _________
2. A place by an ocean or river where boats can stop _________
3. To show something by holding out your finger _________
4. To move your body by bending at the waist to bring yourself closer to
something _________
5. Skin that is lighter than usual because a person is sick, shocked or worried
___________

Vocabulary in Context 2: Notice the difference between the two adjectives

frightening and frightened in the reading:

What’s frightening about a watch? Mark was frightened.

Decide whether the following adjectives should have –ing or –ed endings.
1. “I really want to know how Daeng died” “Yes I am interesting / interested
too.”
2. “That book was so funny!” “Yes, it was really amusing / amused.”
3. I like reading before I go to bed if I am not too tiring / tired.
4. “I have to spend all weekend studying.” “How boring / bored!”
5. Stop reading over my shoulder; it’s annoying / annoyed me.
6. I’m disappointing / disappointed; my favorite magazine has sold out.

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Writing: think about what happened to Daeng. How did he die, and why?
What will happen to Lek, Mark, and John? Write a short paragraph.

Daeng was killed by__________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
He was killed because________________________________________
After the murder, Lek________________________________________
I think John and Mark________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

D. REFERENCES

Davies, Mark. (2008) The Corpus of Contemporary American English:

450 millionwords, 1990-present. Available online at
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/.All examples in this presentation were
taken from the corpus above.

Drayton, Anne Marie and Skidmore, Charles. 1985. In good company.

USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Gough, Chris. 2008. Essential Reading 1. Oxford: Macmillan

IELTS Buddy. IELTS Lesson (available online). Taken 14-09-2016
www.ieltsbuddy.com › IELTS Lessons
Langan, J. Ten steps to improving college reading. Fith edition, Townsend
Press,USA, 2008. 628 pp.

Miles, Scott. 2008. Essential Reading 3. Oxford: Macmillan

Singhal, M. Teaching Reading to adult second language learners.

TheoreticalFoundations, Pedagigical Applications, and Current
Issues. The Reading Matrix Inc.USA, 2005. 249 pp.

Slide player. Guessing word meaning. Taken 14-09-2016

http://slideplayer.com/slide/6183365/

Sonka, A. Skillful Reading. A text and Workbook for students of English

as asecond language. Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey, USA,
1981. 278 pp.

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