METU/SFL Fall 2024

DBE
RHO5

301 GROUP
Guessing Vocabulary and Identifying Parts of Speech
Objectives:
Students will have practiced
1. guessing the meaning of words in texts using clues and explanations provided in the text
2. deriving the probable meaning of simple unknown words from short contexts
3. finding and matching vocabulary items
4. gain awareness on the parts of speech
GUESSING VOCABULARY
STUDY THE SKILL
Guessing vocabulary is an important skill, which helps you understand texts better and increase reading
speed. In every text, there are various clues which give you the meanings of the unknown words, and you
can use these small pieces of information to make good guesses.
Purpose To deal with unknown vocabulary items in a reading text
Guessing vocabulary
Why?  enables you to understand unknown vocabulary,
 helps you understand the text better,
 While you are trying to guess the item, you also decide what to do:
Will you definitely need to guess the unknown word? Will you
ignore it? Is the vocabulary item necessary to understand the
paragraph?
How? Use some clues in the text
 punctuation
 connectors
 grammar
 context

Study the examples below and note how various clues can be used to guess the meanings of words we do not
know:
PUNCTUATION: Examples: commas [,], brackets [( )], dashes [--]

 There are about 28,000 species -- kinds -- of butterflies all over the world.
Clue: -- --
Therefore, species means kinds.

 The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. Clue: ( )
Therefore, to molt means to lose the old skin.

CONNECTORS: Examples: and, or, but in other words, that is, i.e., for example, such as, like

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 When butterflies age, or get old, the color of their wings fades. In other words, the wings lose their color
and become pale.
Clue: or
Therefore, to age means to get old.
Clue: In other words
Therefore, to fade means to lose color and become pale.

 The largest butterfly in the world lives in New Guinea and its wingspan, i.e., the distance between the two
ends of the wings, is 30 centimeters.
Clue: i.e.
Therefore, wingspan means the distance between the two ends of the wings.

 Some butterflies, such as the coppers and small blues, live for only a few days.
Clue: such as
Therefore, coppers and small blues are examples of butterflies which live for a very short time.

GRAMMAR: Examples: the verb “be” and structures like “be called”

 Most butterflies live on nectar. Nectar is the sweet liquid in plant flowers.
Clue: be
Therefore, nectar is the sweet liquid in plant flowers.

 Butterflies undergo a complete change during their life. This change is called metamorphosis.
Clue: be called
Therefore, metamorphosis means a complete change.

CONTEXT: Examples: information around the word, repeated information, words which look similar,
opposites.

 Many butterflies migrate to warm areas because they cannot live in adverse environmental conditions
such as cold weather. Most butterflies travel only short distances, but a few migrate thousands of miles to
find better conditions to live.
Clues: information around the word (to warm areas, travel, short distances, thousands of miles) Therefore,
to migrate means to travel to a different place to find better conditions to live.

Clue: such as and information around the word (cold weather, better
conditions) Therefore, adverse conditions are the opposite of good conditions.

 In the larva state, the butterfly hatches from an egg. When it comes out of
the egg, it starts eating leaves or flowers.
Clue: repeated information (from an egg, out of the egg)
Therefore, to hatch from an egg means to come out of an egg.
 Butterflies can live in all types of environments, hot and cold, dry and moist, at sea level and high in the
mountains.

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Clue: opposites (hot and cold, at sea level and high in the mountains) Therefore, moist is
the opposite of dry.
 Butterflies are very good fliers, but different kinds have different flying speeds. The fastest ones can fly at
about 30 miles per hour or faster. Slow ones fly about 5 miles per hour.
Clue: words which look similar (flying, fly) Therefore, flier comes from the word fly.

PRACTICE THE SKILL

Guess the meanings of the following words and note the clues.
1.Female pandas are called sows and males are called boars.
Sows are _______________________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
Boars are _______________________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
2.Giant pandas are white with black patches around the eyes, ears, shoulders, chest, legs, and feet.
This black-and-white coloring may camouflage, or hide, the panda in the snowy, rocky environment.

To camouflage is to _______________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
3.The largest pandas grow to be about 250 pounds (115 kilos), about the weight of a large adult human.
250 pounds is ____________________________________________________________

Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
4. Giant pandas eat bamboo, but today the number of bamboo forests is not enough for the pandas. This
causes starvation among giant panda populations. In other words, today pandas have very little or no
food.

Starvation is the state of having ______________________________________________

Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

5. Because pandas spend most of their time eating tough bamboo, strong teeth and jaws are very
important to a panda's survival; that is, they need them to continue to live. Giant pandas have large
molars because they use these flat teeth to break their food into small pieces. They also have a few sharp
teeth, which they use to bite tough bamboo stalks.
Survival is the ability to ____________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
Molars are ___________________. Pandas use them to break their food into small pieces.
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

6. The habitat of giant pandas, i.e., the natural environment they live in, is cool, wet, cloudy mountain
forest land where bamboo grows. Today, giant pandas live in evergreen temperate forests, between 900-
3,200 meters in altitude. In the past, pandas lived at lower altitudes, but farming and land development
have pushed the pandas high into the mountains.
The habitat of an animal is ___________________________________________ it lives in.

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 Clue: ___________________________________________________________________
Altitude most probably means height ____________ sea level.
a) above b) below
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

7. Giant pandas are mostly solitary animals. They spend most of their lives alone.
If an animal is solitary, it ___________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

8. The giant panda's lifespan in the wild has not been accurately documented, but Chinese scientists
report that some pandas in zoos have lived to be 35 years old. Hsing-Hsing, who lives in the National Zoo,
turned 30 in 2000. Most animals live longer in captivity than in the wild.
Lifespan most probably means ________________________________________________
a) an amount of time b) a place to live
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

9. Panda cubs are small, white, blind, furless, and helpless at birth. Like new-born human babies, panda
cubs cry when they are hungry or need their mother.
A cub is a _________________________________________________________ panda.
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

10. Just like marsupials, such as kangaroos, giant panda cubs are very small when they are born.
A kangaroo is an example ___________________________________________________
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

11. Humans are the giant panda's greatest enemy. Poachers still hunt giant pandas for their fur, which
they sell. Also, leopards sometimes kill cubs.
A poacher is most probably a __________.
a) kind of leopard b) hunter
Clue: ___________________________________________________________________

READING 1: COMETS
Do While You Read

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A comet is a small member of the solar system. It is made up of a nucleus, a coma (a cloud of gases around
the center) and a tail. The tail consists of two parts, the gas tail and the dust tail. The tail of a comet can be
up to 250 million km long. A comet is like a dirty snowball. 80% of a comet is made
up of gas and water. The remaining 20% is chunks, or small pieces, of metal and
rocky material. The outer layer of the comet is made of ice, but when it passes by
the sun, it begins to evaporate.

Cross Section of a Comet

Coma Nucleus
A comet travels around the sun in an oval shaped path. In other words, it
has an elliptical orbit. The time it takes can vary, i.e., change, from 7 years
to millions of years. The velocity of a comet increases when it is near the Tail
sun and decreases at the outer orbit. A comet is visible only when it is near
the sun, but we cannot see it if it is far from the sun. Each time a comet passes close to the sun, it loses
some of its material. In the end, it disappears completely; that is, it doesn’t exist anymore. There is a
group of comets called sungrazers. They are called sungrazers because they get very close to the sun. Some
of the sungrazers crash into the sun. Some others don’t hit the sun, but just burn up.
Comets have always been of great interest to mankind, and some of them, such as the Great Comet of
1843, the Great Comet of 1884, the Hale-Bopp Comet, Donati's Comet, and the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet,
have become quite famous.
1A. Try to guess the meanings of the following words using the clues in the text.
1. We use to be made up of to talk about the parts of a comet. There is another word in the text
which is used to talk about the parts of its tail. What is this word? _____ to consist of __________
2. A coma is _______________________________________________________________________
3. 80% of a comet is gas and water. 20% remains. Therefore, remaining is the adjective form of the
verb ____________________________________________________________________________
4. Chunks are ______________________________________________________________________
5. Oval is a synonym of _______________________________________________________________
6. To vary means ____________________________________________________________________
7. To increase means “to become greater.” It has an opposite in the same sentence. What is it?
________________________________________________________________________________
8. If something is visible, we can ___________________________________ it.
9. To disappear means _____________________________________ anymore.
10. A group of comets travels very close to the sun. We call them _____________________________
11. To crash is another word for _________________________________________________________

1B. Do you remember the answers to the following questions? If you don’t, go back to the text and find
them quickly.

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1. What are the parts of a comet’s tail and how long can it be?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

2.What happens when a comet passes by the sun?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

3.What are the names of some famous comets?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

IDENTIFYING PARTS OF SPEECH

When you are learning new words, you should consider the parts of speech, different meanings,
synonyms and antonyms, derivatives, collocations and connotations.
Knowing what kind of work any unknown word does in a sentence (that is, identifying whether the word
is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb) can help you understand a problematic sentence in the text you are
reading. Adding up clues in this way, you will be able to make better guesses and improve your
comprehension.
Review of Basic Parts of Speech

PART OF SPEECH BASIC FUNCTION EXAMPLES

noun names a person, place, or thing bag, desk, Cyprus

I, you, he, she, it, ours, them,

pronoun takes the place of a noun
who

verb identifies action or state of being sing, dance, believe, be

adjective modifies a noun hot, lazy, funny

modifies a verb, an adjective, or other

adverb softly, lazily, often, hard, very
adverbs

shows a relationship between a noun (or

preposition up, over, against, by, for, on, at
pronoun) and other words in a sentence

conjunction joins words, phrases, and clauses and, but, or, yet, because

article identifies and specifies a noun a, an, the

Example 1:
Study the sentences below to guess the part of speech of each bold word.
My daughter has a parrot as a pet. The talkative bird keeps repeating what we say all day long.
Sometimes it really makes me mad and I find myself shouting furiously: “Don’t parrot everything I say.”

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 Because there is the article “a” in front of the word parrot, we can understand that it is a noun, the
name of a thing. The next sentence tells us that this thing is a bird and it can repeat what we say. In
the last sentence, the same word is used with the auxiliary “don’t” so it must be a verb. From the
context, it is clear that the word parrot means “repeat.” The word talkative also gives us information
about a parrot. The word comes after an article and before a noun so it must be an adjective.

 Adjectives give us information about nouns. You can easily recognize the simple word ‘talk’ in ‘talkative’
so you can guess that ‘a talkative bird’ talks a lot. The word furiously comes after a verb and ends with
–ly. It must be an adverb. Adverbs give us information about verbs. The context tells us that furiously
must have a negative meaning because the person is shouting and is angry with the parrot.

Example 2: Read the following passage, identify the parts of speech of the words written in bold and write
them (adj., adv., v., n. or conj.) in the blanks.

T. was quinged (1)_______________ in Milan, Ohio, in 1847, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He
went to fickel (2)_______________ for a short maser (3)_______________. His gaga (4)_______________
hudgered (5)______________ him how to nader (6)______________ and write.

T. was a very duggery (7)_______________ person. He dabed (8)_______________ many goint

(9)_______________ jongincents (10)_______________. He precked (11)_______________ very little
maser (12)_______________ with his family uffisio (13)_______________ he worked very bimsily
(14)_______________ on his hinconts (15)_______________.

Now try to guess the words and complete the text!

READING 2: THE UNIVERSE

YOU ARE HERE SOMEWHERE!
(1) Astronomy is one of physics’ most fascinating subjects. It
studies many interesting things in the universe like galaxies, solar
systems, planets, meteors, comets, and asteroids. Astronomy also

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tries to explain the formation of the universe. The simplest explanation is called the Big Bang theory. This
theory says that in the beginning, the universe was the size of a molecule and all the matter in the
universe had a very tiny volume; that is, the universe was very small and dense. Then, something
unknown caused the universe to explode 15 billion years ago. This explosion created matter, energy and
also space and time in a few seconds. We cannot talk about the period before the Big Bang because there
was no before. There was no time or space then.

(2) The universe became very hot because of the explosion, and it began to expand. As the universe
continued to grow, it cooled off. When the universe was about 500,000 years old and was cool enough,
the first hydrogen atoms began to form. These atoms made up the stars and the galaxies. One of these
stars was on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. It had nine planets. Life started on one of these planets.
We call this planet the Earth.

(3) Today the universe still continues to expand. Some scientists say that it may just continue to
expand forever until it gets dark and cold. Others say that the Big Crunch, the opposite of the Big Bang,
may be the end of the universe. The universe may turn around and collapse in another big explosion.

Read, Understand, and Answer

2A. Write what the following words in the text refer to.
1. It (Paragraph 1): _____________________________________________
2. This theory (Paragraph 1): _____________________________________
3. then (Paragraph 1): __________________________________________
4. These atoms (Paragraph 2): ____________________________________
5. Others (Paragraph 3): _________________________________________

2.B Answer the following questions according to the text.

1.According to the Big Bang Theory, what caused the universe to explode?
______________________________________________________________________________________
2.Why can’t we talk about the period before the Big Bang?
______________________________________________________________________________________
3.What may happen to the universe because of the Big Crunch?

2C. Find the different forms of the following words in the text, and fill in the table. What is the
difference between these forms?

form
cause
explode
creation
expansion

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 growth

2D. Read each sentence, and underline the correct form.

1. The formation / formed of the school committee took several days.

2. Before they began the game, the children formed / formation a circle.
3. The cause / caused of the forest fire was a cigarette as usual.
4. Many people died in a gas explosion / exploded in a coal mine in Beijing, China last month.
5. Picasso was a great artist. He created / creation many famous works of art.
6. A bomb explosion / exploded at one of London’s busiest railway stations this morning.
7. Human babies don’t grow / growth easily. They need love, care, and attention.
8. He is a careless driver; he cause / caused three accidents in one month.
9. The statue of Venus is a great artistic creation / created.
10. Rain is necessary for the grow / growth of trees.
11. Metals expansion / expand when you heat them.
12. Expansion / expand into new areas of research is possible if we all work hard.

Vocabulary List for Handout 5

COLLOCATIONAL VOCABULARY

READING 1: COMETS (www.dbe.off-line.readings1 Unit2 Reading 4)

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  to remain (v): to continue to be in the same state or * The government wants the borders to remain
condition the same.
 remain silent / the same
 remaining (adj): people/things that are left when * As the kids remained silent, the class was very
the others have gone, been used, or been quiet.
dealt with * Mix in half the butter and keep the remaining
half for later.

 to pass (v): to go or travel along or through a place * When it passes by the sun, it begins to
 pass along/through sth evaporate.
* He passed along the corridor to a small room at
the back of the building.
 shape (n): the form that something has (round, * Our table is oval in shape.
square, etc.)
* A comet travels around the sun in an oval-
 round/square, etc. in shape shaped path.
 in the shape of sth
 shaped (adj): having a certain shape * She made a heart-shaped cake.
 to vary (v): to change or be different (from one * The time it takes can vary, i.e., change, from 7
occasion to another or from one item to another) years to millions of years.
 to vary from sth/sb to sth/sb / from place
to place * Test scores vary from school to school.

 to increase (v): to (make something) become larger * The velocity of a comet increases when it is near
in amount or size the sun.
 to increase in size / number / value * The number of employees increases during the
 the number / rate / level increases summer months to meet the demand.

 to decrease (v): to become less, or to make * The velocity of a comet decreases at the outer
something become less orbit.
 to decrease in size / number / value
* The country's total imports decreased by 6% in
 to decrease by 10% / 10 points, etc.
2009 as the exchange rate for US dollar rises.

 to disappear (v): If people or things disappear, they * In the end it disappears completely.
go somewhere where they cannot be seen or found
* These flowers are disappearing from our fields
 to disappear entirely / suddenly
and woods and we are loosing this beautiful bio-
 to disappear from sight / view / from a
diversity.
place

visible (adj): able to be seen * A comet is only visible only when it is near the
 visible to sth / to the naked eye sun.
 highly / clearly / barely visible
* Many stars become highly visible outside cities

 to exist (v): to be, to be real, or to appear in the * In the end it disappears completely; that is, it
real world doesn’t exist anymore.
 actually / really exist
 continue to exist * I don't think ghosts exist.

 to crash (v): to hit something hard, making a loud * Some of the sun glazers crash into the sun.
noise and often causing damage

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  to crash sth * While driving, he fell asleep and crashed into a
 to crash into sth tree.

 to hit (v): to touch / move into something or * Some others don't hit the sun.
someone quickly and with force * Some small asteroids hit the Earth.
 to hit sb on his / her leg / head
READING 2: THE UNIVERSE
(www.dbe.off-line.readings1 Unit2 Reading 1)
 subject (n): the thing which is being discussed, * Astronomy is one of physics’ most fascinating
considered or studied subjects.
 a simple / complex subject
* She wrote many books on the subject of family
 to talk about / discuss a subject
relationships.

 solar (adj): relating to sun * Our solar system consists of the sun, nine
planets, an asteroid belt and may comets and
 solar heat / energy
meteors.
* Scientists in Japan have made the first device
that can convert solar energy into electricity.
 to explain (v): to make something clear or easy to * Astronomy also tries to explain the formation of
understand by describing or giving information the universe.
about it
* The teacher explained the rules to the children.
 partly / fully / briefly explain sth (to sb)
 explanation (n): the details or reasons that *I asked for an explanation and an apology.
someone gives to make something clear or easy to
understand *What was her explanation for her lateness?
 explanation about / for sth *I had no explanation for her strange behavior.
 give / ask for an explanation

 formation (n): the way something is naturally * Astronomy also tries to explain the formation of
made or the way it has been arranged the universe.
 cloud / geological formation
* These days a lot of people are complaining
about the formation of stones in their kidneys.
 tiny (adj): extremely small * All the matter in the universe had a very tiny
volume; that is, the universe was very small and
dense.
* These earrings are tiny, so it is impossible for me
not to lose them.
 dense (adj): (of a substance) containing a lot of * The universe was very small and dense.
matter in a small space
* Because the fog was so dense, we couldn’t see
 very / quite dense
the road ahead of us.

to cause (v): to make something happen, usually * Something unknown caused the universe to
something bad explode 15 billion years ago.
 to cause damage / problems / trouble
 to cause sb /sth to do sth * The storm caused widespread damage.

to explode (v): to (cause to) break up into pieces * Something unknown caused the universe to
violently explode 15 billion years ago.

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  a bomb explodes * A bomb exploded at one of London's busiest
 explosion (n): the act of something such as a bomb railway stations this morning.
exploding * The universe became very hot because of the
 a big /loud /chemical /nuclear /gas explosion.
explosion * The fire was caused by a gas explosion.
 in an / the explosion * The explosion of nuclear devices in the Bikini
Atoll was stopped in 1958.
* 3 people were injured in the explosion.
to create (v): to make something new, especially to * This explosion created matter, energy and also
invent something space and time in a few seconds.
 to create sth (from sth)
* The fashion magazines were full of the latest
Paris creations.
 creation (n): the act of creating something, or the
thing that is created * The government is to provide more money for
 to encourage / support the creation (of sth) job creation.

to expand (v): to increase in size, number or * The universe became very hot because of the
importance, or to make something increase in this explosion and it began to expand.
way
* The water froze inside the pipe and caused it to
 to expand significantly
expand and burst.

to make up (phrasal v): to come together and make, * These atoms made up the stars and the
form something galaxies.
* Different groups of people make up society.

to collapse (v): to suddenly fall down, fail, or stop * The universe may turn around and collapse in
existing another big explosion.
 completely / suddenly collapse (under the
* Thousands of buildings collapsed in the
weight of sb/sth
earthquake.

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