Aurelio Arago Memorial National High School: Leido, Victoria Oriental Mindoro

AURELIO ARAGO MEMORIAL NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Leido, Victoria Oriental Mindoro
*USE CONTEXTUAL CLUES IN UNDERSTANDING UNFAMILIAR WORDS
Context Clues
Context Clues – word or words in a sentence or a paragraph that help you find the
meaning of an unknown word.
Activity I
In each of the following sentences decide on the meaning of the underlined word by
using context clues. Select your answer from the three choices given after each sentence.
1. Liza was reluctant to join the contest, but her classmates convinced her to join it
A. unprepared B. ashamed C. unwilling
2. The meager amount of food placed on his plate was not enough to satisfy his hunger.
A. little B. cheap C. poor
3. Like a thief in the night, the boy stealthily entered the house without being noticed by
anyone.
A. noiselessly B. secretly C. fearfully
4. All machines stopped abruptly because of the power failure.
A. suddenly B. slowly C. briefly
5. The mountainsides are fertile and abound in vegetation, but the low-lands are rocky and
barren.
A. hard B. unproductive C. dry
Activity II
Read the paragraph carefully. Through the use of context clues give the meaning of
the underlined words. Then answer the questions that follow.
The Rice on Our Plate
We Filipinos are so used to eating rice that whenever speak of food we always think
of a plate of rice steaming hot from the pot. A luncheon or supper is not complete unless
there is rice to go with other dishes. Hence, any rumor of rice shortage has always caused
much alarm not only to the housewives, but also to every one who eats rice.
But have we ever stop to think of the long trip the rice has to make before it reaches
our plate? Have we ever thought of the rice planters “beat from morn till the set of the
sun,” the harvesters reaping the grain-laden stalks in the sweltering heat of the sun, and a
number of other workers doing their share in providing us with this staple food?
The backbreaking tasks of rice planting, the hard but more rewarding job of
harvesting, not to mention the many little chores that have to be done in between planting
and harvesting time…all this is done by the farmer. But the work doesn’t end with the
harvest of the palay. There is the rice miller powdered with rice dust, as he husks the
golden grain called palay and transform them to white grains called bigas. There is the
strong cargador, bent with the heavy sack, as he load and unload hundreds of sacks of rice
from the truck to the bodega or bodega to the truck. There is the rice dealer, always
thinking of how he could buy a large amount of rice at a low price to hoard if he can, and
later sell it at a much higher price. There is the rice retailer, too, measuring gantas and
gantas of these precious grains or weighing kilos and kilos of them all day. And finally
there is the ingenious housewife, who has learned a hundred ways of cooking rice- from
plain boiled rice to the different kinds of rice cakes like puto, cuchinta, maja, bibingka, and
other delicacies.
What a long trip a grin of rice has to make before it reaches the plate we eat on!
How many hands have taken care of it along the way!
Comprehension check
A. 1. What is the selection mainly about?
A. the production and selling of rice
B. the different ways of cooking rice
C. the people involve in providing us with rice
D. the Filipins fondness for rice
2. Which of the following is not mentioned in the selection?
A. the production of rice
B. the selling of rice
C. the cooking of rice
D. the importance of rice
3. To what does them in the following sentence refer?
A. gantas C. kilos
B. grains D. gantas and kilos
4. Which of the following does not appeal to the sense of feeling?
A. sweltering heat of the sun
B. whitened with rice dust
C. bent with the heavy sack
D. backbreaking task of rice planting
5. Which of the following may cause artificial rice shortage?
A. poor harvest
B. unequal distribution
C. rice hoarding
D. poor milling
B. What does each of the italicized words mean?

1. reaping the grain-laden stalks
A. watering B. gathering C. separating
2. in the sweltering heat of the sun
A. oppressively hot B. very uncomfortable C. extremely bad
3. the backbreaking tasks
A. test B. load C. job
4. the many little chores
A. daily work B. minor duty C. heavy responsibility
5. husks the golden grains
A. cuts the stem B. removes the shell C. separates the grains
Activity III
Read each of the following sentences carefully. Then pick out the context clues that
help you discover the meaning of the underlined word.
1. Earthquakes, typhoons, flood, fires, and other disasters contributed to the decrease in
population.
2. Because the package contains things that are easily broken, it is marked “fragile.”
3. Today’s inclement weather is not like yesterday’s fine weather.
4. When we started boating, the sea was smooth and calm. After a while, the wind blew
hard and the weather became turbulent.
5. Try as we would, we couldn’t bore a hole through the thick wall. It was impenetrable.
PREPARED BY:
FE T. SAIDALAVI
AURELIO ARAGO MEMORIAL NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
ENGLISH 7 – Q4

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AURELIO ARAGO MEMORIAL NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Leido, Victoria Oriental Mindoro

*USE CONTEXTUAL CLUES IN UNDERSTANDING UNFAMILIAR WORDS

B. What does each of the italicized words mean?

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