Lesson 3: Vocabulary Skills

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Lesson 3 Vocabulary Skills

• Competency Goal 6.01

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Numismatist? Indefatigable? Quisling? Traduce?
Zyzzyva?
How am I supposed to know these words?
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RELAX!!!

• Theres no way to know EVERY word that youll see
  on the EOG.
• However, knowing other basic words, will help you
  figure some of these words out.

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Lets see how this works

• Spencer, usuallly a quiet guy, became positively
• garrulous whenever anyone mentioned his all-time
• favorite TV show, The Brady Bunch.
• 1. What is the meaning of the word garrulous as
  it is used in the sentence?
• Frantic
• Friendly
• Talkative
• Disturbed

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Look at other words that you know!!

• You saw the words positively and all-time
  favorite used to describe Spencers feelings
  about The Brady Bunch, right?
• Use process of elimination rule out any negative
  words (frantic, disturbed)
• Friendly sounds good, BUT because we are told in
  the statement that Spencer is usually quiet,
  garrulous must mean the opposite.

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Tip 1

• Look for other words in the sentence or paragraph
  that have a meaning similar to the unknown word.
• Remember synonyms? Words that have the same
  meaning.
• Ex. Moe was obviously vexed Larry never had seen
  him looking so annoyed with Curly.
• Which word is similar to vexed?

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Moe was obviously vexed Larry had never seen him
looking so annoyed with Curly.

• In the sentence about Moe, what is the meaning of
  the word vexed?
• Bored
• Irritated
• Idiotic
• Entertained

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Tip 2

• Look for causes and effects connected to the
  unknown word.
• The amateur magician grew more and more chagrined
  as members of her audience yelled out the
  supposed secret to every trick.
• What does chagrined mean (use cause/effect
  method)?
• Enthusiastic
• Frightened
• Confident
• Embarrassed

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Tip 3

• Look for clues showing that the unknown word fits
  into a category.
• If a word appears in a list of things or in a
  description of a scene, you should be able to
  guess its meaning by the way it fits into a
  category.
• Example Tom, the native North Carolinian and
  well-known sculptor, prefers to work with pliable
  materials, such as clay, wire, and soft metals.
• What do clay, wire, and soft metals have in
  common?
• Pliable lightweight? Sturdy? Flexible? Colorful?

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Tip 4

• Look for clues that point to the opposite meaning
  of the unknown word.
• Antonym (opposite)
• Example What a shock! We had expected him to be
  morose, but he showed up at the party and danced
  until dawn, wearing a constant smile on his
  untroubled face.
• What words mean the opposite of morose?
• What does morose mean sad? Late? Odd? Pleasant?

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Tip 5

• Watch out for multiple-meaning words.
• What does court mean in the following statement?
• Hillary knew that Big Ed meant to court her the
  moment he offered her the first swig from his
  diet root beer.
• Place where trials are held
• Surface for playing tennis
• To provoke or incite
• To seek the affections of

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Words can have multiple meanings!!

• Denotative a word at its basic, dictionary
  definition.
• Connotative when a word has extra meaning
• Ex. hot
• Denotative having a high temperature
• Connotative impressive, emotional, excited,
  fresh, stolen, etc.

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Tip 6

• Learn your common roots, prefixes, and
  suffixes!!!
• Copy the chart with prefixes in your notes from
  page 34.
• Copy the chart with suffixes in your notes from
  page 36.

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Tip 7

• Plug in answer choices.
• If youve tried all the previous strategies, do
  like you would in a math problem, insert the
  answer choices in the sentence and see which word
  fits best.
• Ex. Melvin believed that someday the finger holes
  in bowling balls would be obsolete people would
  simply bowl telepathically, with their minds.
• Figure out what obsolete means creative,
  difficult, outdated, or plentiful?

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Tip 8

• Use vocabulary techniques to answer questions
  about idioms, technical terms, figurative
  language, and dialect.

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Tip 9

• Create a sentence to help you answer analogy
  questions.
• An analogy is a comparison between two things.
  You must understand the relationship between the
  two words given, in order to determine the
  correct answer.
• Look at the examples on the next slide.

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• Which of the following is most similar to the
  relationship below?
• surgeon doctor
• Foot body
• Nurse study
• Painter artist
• Hospital emergency

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What about this one?

• 2. Which of the following relationships is most
  similar to the relationship below?
• Ship fleet
• Star galaxy
• Crew airplane
• Planet orbit
• View skyscraper

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Tip 10 and 11

• Use a dictionary when availabledont just skip
  over words you dont know.
• Learn new words wherever you canin the grocery
  store, at the mall, road signs, etc.