| As you prepare and study for the CHP Reading | | | | good? By examining the surrounding context, you |
| Comprehension test, you may have noticed a | | | | can determine the importance of the unknown |
| particular stumbling block to efficient reading | | | | word or phrase to gaining an accurate |
| comprehension: unfamiliar words and phrases. | | | | comprehension of the passage. Sometimes, you |
| Most active readers conquer these unknowns by | | | | may encounter an unknown word that has no |
| grabbing a dictionary and putting a definition to the | | | | supporting context. This may be a sentence |
| word and busting through the comprehension | | | | where the unknown word is also the qualifying |
| barrier. But what if you don't have, or cannot | | | | word and it directly affects the accuracy of your |
| have, a dictionary available to you? During your | | | | overall comprehension of the passage. If this |
| CHP Reading Comprehension test, this is going to | | | | occurs during your CHP Reading Comprehension |
| be the case. Your unknowns may turn into true | | | | test, you still have weapons you can use to get |
| roadblocks to success if you don't learn how to | | | | back on a successful track. |
| discover meanings another way. | | | | First of all, you can take the unknown word and |
| This brings us to the context 'dictionary'. The | | | | think of any words that contain part of the |
| context dictionary is a deduction process that | | | | unknown word, such as adversity and adversary. |
| allows you to determine the meaning of unknown | | | | If you know the general meaning of either word, |
| or unfamiliar words or phrases through from | | | | it will help you know the meaning of the other. |
| other known information within the passage. | | | | Both are negative words, both convey difficulty |
| Hunting for definition clues demands careful | | | | or hardship when used in a sentence. |
| reading and gathering of related information. For | | | | Next, while there may not be directly supportive |
| example, the following sentence contains the | | | | context, the sentence with the unknown word is |
| word 'remiss'. This is not a commonly used word | | | | there for a reason - it will not simply be a |
| and could create a pause in your comprehension; | | | | contradictive statement and will not be |
| however, if you read through the sentence, you | | | | purposefully misleading or 'out of context'. If you |
| will note that there are sufficient clues to indicate | | | | can deduce the purpose of the sentence in the |
| a context definition. | | | | 'whole' of the passage, you may be able to also |
| In recent months, several new employees have | | | | deduce enough about the unknown word to feel |
| had their pay checks delayed because their | | | | more confident in your reading comprehension. |
| Supervisors were remiss in filing Hiring Approval | | | | Another simple, yet valuable, tool for enhancing |
| Forms on time. It is fairly simple to deduce that | | | | your skills at blasting blocks to your reading |
| by Supervisors being 'remiss' people didn't get paid | | | | comprehension is a vocabulary study guide. Most |
| on time. This gives the clue that 'remiss' is a | | | | guides are small books that can easily be tucked |
| negative action. It is also clear that Supervisors | | | | in a back pocket and contain thousands of not |
| are expected to file Hiring Approval Forms on | | | | commonly used words and their definitions. Any |
| time, but that has not always been the case in | | | | spare time you have can be spent reading |
| recent months. The context dictionary has | | | | through your vocabulary guide - you do not need |
| allowed you to deduce a fairly concise meaning of | | | | to memorize chunks of words, you simply need |
| the word 'remiss' - a negligent lack of action. | | | | to provide yourself with some degree of |
| Notice that one important element identified about | | | | familiarity. Even if you have only seen a word and |
| the unknown word was whether it was a positive | | | | its definition once, your mind stores that |
| or negative term. A furthering of this process | | | | knowledge and it can help you draw more |
| would be to determine the degree of positive or | | | | accurate conclusions when using your context |
| negative - is the term extremely bad or very | | | | dictionary. |