HOW TO MAKE USE OF CONTEXT IN READING PASSAGES
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.
APPOSITIVE
Locusts (the dreaded migratory grasshoppers of the prairies) could destroy a family's 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.
CONTRAST
WH MARKERS
SERIES
(where, when, which, who, whom, etc)
it was adversity, not prosperity, that shaped their lives.
The diaries of the early farmers told of hardships, calamities, and adversities that made their lives miserable.
Writers try to help readers to understand the information in the reading passage by providing "cues", or "aids"in their writings to clarify, define, and explain difficult concepts and key words.
The cold-cellar was where the farmers stored their fruits and vegetables for winter.
PARALLELISM
The settlers never gave up. They struggle through the early years, dealt with their difficulties, and in the end, overcame their adversities.
DEFINITION
PUNCTUATION, ITALICS, AND ABBREVIATIONS
The adversity of the winter -that is, the hardship and calamities that the family lived with daily-disappeared with the warmth of spring.
- comma (,)
- semicolon (;)
- colon (:)
- dashes (-) or parenthesis (...)
- italics
- e.g. (for example), i.e. (in other words)