The document provides guidance on how to effectively answer vocabulary questions. It explains that vocabulary questions will include 5 words from the passage and require the test taker to provide a similar meaning for each word using 1 word or short phrase. It then outlines 3 key steps to tackle vocabulary questions: 1) Determine the part of speech of the word, 2) Study the context of the word in the passage, and 3) Analyze the formation of the word by looking at prefixes, roots, and suffixes. The document also differentiates between lexical, grammatical, and situational context clues that can be used to determine a word's meaning.

1. The vocabulary question

2. Breaking down the question
 It has:
 5 words taken from the passage.
 You have to:
 Give a similar meaning for each word
 Use one word or a short phrase*
 *phrase= not more than 7words
4. Answer must be at most 7 words long.
1. If longer than 7 words, the first 7 words will be marked
only.

3. How to tackle this type of question?
1. Determine the part of speech of the word.
 Answer should have same part of speech.
2. Study the context* such as the words, sentences,
paragraph or the whole passage to determine
meaning of the word used it.
 context* = the meaning of a word when used in
different sentences.
3. Analyse the formation of the word
1. prefix + root word + suffix
2. analyse the meaning of each component.

4. Breaking down the answer
 Give only 1 answer.
 If more than one answer, only the first answer will be
marked.
 BUT if first answer is correct while the second answer
contradicts it, no marks will be awarded.
 If given two answers connected with the word „and‟,
marks will be awarded if both answers are correct.
 Label question number correctly
 If you write the wrong number, it will be marked wrong.

5. Type of context
 Lexical context
 Grammatical context
 Situational context

6. Lexical context
 Lexical: ( „lexis‟ means words in Greek.)
 To find meaning: Look for words around it
 Example:
 You have just been introduced to an exchange student called
Chinua, who comes from an exotic, faraway land, and has a
tendency to sprinkle his English sentences with words from his
native language. One day, he points outside the window, and
exclaims, “Look! A xikuptuk with multicoloured feathers just flew
away chirping to its nest!”
 What would you say “xikuptuk” means?
 Most probably you‟ll say it‟s a bird and its correct.
 Looking at the words „feather‟, „flew‟, „chirping‟ and „nest‟ can thus
conclude that „xikuptuk‟ must be a bird.

7. Grammatical context
 We study the parts of speech of word.
 If it is a noun,
 we see if it is plural or singular.
 If it is a verb,
 we look at the tense.

8. Various part of speech
Part of speech Definition Examples
Noun A word used to refer to a person, Candidate, citizen,
a place, a thing, or an abstract cinema, house, cat, car,
idea such as a feeling or quality rage, beauty, art, finery
(in short, a naming word)
Verb A word that denotes action. For Hiss, bark, drive, devour,
example, what people or thing do, clamber, flow, plummet,
or what happens to them heave, hurl, plunge
Adjective A word that modifies a Red, amazing, opulent,
noun/pronoun (or simply put, a fantastic, magnanimous,
word that describes a sadistic, towering
noun/pronoun)
Adverb A word that modifies a verb, or It happened inside the
give more information about it, or house, the poem was
about the following adjective or beautifully written. It was
adverb extremely boring.

9. Example:
Grammatical context
 Now, what if Chinua says to you, “A
talumba just growled at me!” What would
you say a „talumba‟ is?
 „talumba‟ is a noun because it follows the
article „a‟.
 find the word „growled‟.
 Put the two clues together, you can conclude
that „talumba‟ could be a bear or dog.

10. Example:
Grammatical context
 But what if he had said, “A grumpy old katumba
growled angrily at me, brandishing his walking
stick in the air.”?
 Looking at the grammatical context:
 katumba‟ follows 2 adjectives and precedes a verb.
 Looking at the lexical context:
 There is still „growled‟
 The „katumba‟ is grumpy (used on humans and not
animals.)
 Finally, the pronoun „his‟ indicates that the „katumba‟ is
a male.
 Thus, the „katumba‟ is a man.

11. Situational context
 According to its name, we look for situation
for this kind of context.
 i.e. what is happening, where it is happening,
and who are involved.

12. Example:
 Supposing your uncle telephones you from Las
Vegas and excitedly announces, “Hey! I‟ve got
wonderful news! My baby just won a one million
dollar jackpot at the casino!”
 What does “baby” mean in this context?
 Maybe an infant? You will know that it is not because “My
baby” has been using a jackpot machine at Las Vegas
casino and you need to be 18 years old to enter it.
 Who could a man call “baby”? His “baby” have to be 18
years old, thus we can conclude that his “baby” is
probably his wife, girlfriend, fiancee, daughter (who is 18
years old) or even son.