What this lesson covers
- Cover, predict, substitute: the three moves, in that order
- What to do when two choices both seem to fit (read for direction, not meaning)
- A practice question with the clock running
- The three ways this question goes wrong
Questions worked in the video
- 0:17The 1908 ordinance did little to improve conditions in the mills, but it did check the practice of hiring children under twelve. What does "check" most nearly mean?
- 1:43Her early novels were dismissed as slight, though critics now credit them with a curious economy of language. What does "economy" most nearly mean?
- 2:21A graduate student arrested the whole project with a single question. What does "arrested" most nearly mean?
Worked examples
The questions the video works, written out: the setup, each step, the answer and the trap.
0:17Example 1
The 1908 ordinance did little to improve conditions in the mills, but it did check the practice of hiring children under twelve, which fell sharply in the two years that followed. As used in the text, what does the word "check" most nearly mean? A) Verify B) Restrain C) Inspect D) Reward
- Cover the four choices before you read them. The most common meaning of the underlined word is almost always sitting among them, and it is almost always the trap.
- Predict from the sentence alone. The practice of hiring children fell sharply after the ordinance, so whatever the ordinance did to that practice, it held it back. Your own word: held back, or slowed.
- Uncover and substitute each choice into the line. It did verify the practice of hiring children: the sentence now says nothing about the drop that follows. It did inspect the practice: that fits a mill, not this sentence. It did reward the practice: rewarding it would make it grow, and it fell.
- It did restrain the practice of hiring children under twelve, which fell sharply. The sentence works, and the second clause now explains the first.
Answer: B) Restrain
Fell sharply tells you the ordinance pushed the practice down, and only restrain carries that direction. The trap is A, verify, the dictionary meaning of check that students take on trust without reading it back into the line; C, inspect, is the same trap in a mill costume, matching the topic instead of the sentence.
1:43Example 2
Her early novels were dismissed as slight, though critics now credit them with a curious economy of language. As used in the text, what does the word "economy" most nearly mean? Two choices survive a first pass and both sound fine: A) Thrift with money B) Efficiency, saying much in little. Which one fits?
- When two choices both sound acceptable, stop reading for meaning and read for direction. Find the connective in the sentence: though.
- Though turns the sentence. The first half dismisses the novels as slight; the second half, after though, has to praise them. So economy here is a compliment.
- Check what the word attaches to. It is an economy of language, not of money. Thrift with money is the everyday meaning and the wrong register for a sentence about prose.
- Substitute: critics now credit them with a curious efficiency of language, saying much in little. Praise, about language. Both facts point the same way.
Answer: B) Efficiency, saying much in little
The connective sets the direction (praise) and the noun the word modifies sets the register (language), and only efficiency satisfies both. The trap is A, thrift, the everyday sense of economy; a student picks it by reading the word alone instead of the sentence around it.
2:21Example 3
For years the survey results were treated as settled, until a graduate student arrested the whole project with a single question about how the sample had been drawn. As used in the text, what does the word "arrested" most nearly mean? A) Detained B) Halted C) Accused D) Completed
- Cover the choices. The sentence says the results were treated as settled until the student's question, so the question stopped something that had been running along.
- Predict your own word: stopped, or brought to a standstill. A single question about the sample cannot detain or accuse a project; it can only stop it in its tracks.
- Substitute. Detained the whole project: the police meaning, and a project is not a person. Accused the whole project: also police-flavored, and nothing is charged. Completed the whole project: the reverse, since the question reopened the work rather than finishing it.
- Halted the whole project with a single question. The sentence reads cleanly and matches the prediction.
Answer: B) Halted
Halted is the only sense in which one question can act on a project, and it matches until, which marks the moment the settled results stopped being settled. The trap is A, detained, the loudest everyday meaning of arrested, chosen by students who never substitute their pick back into the line; D reverses the sentence.
Chapters
- 0:04The word is already there
- 0:17Not a blank to fill
- 0:51The method: cover, predict, substitute
- 1:43When two choices both fit
- 2:21Your turn
- 2:53Three ways this goes wrong
- 3:27Cover. Predict. Substitute.
Lesson transcript
The narration of the video, word for word, under its chapter headings.
This is the other half of Words in Context. Not a blank to fill. A word already sitting there, and a question about what it means right here. The most common definition of that word is almost always one of your four choices.
Three moves. Cover the choices. The sentence says the practice fell sharply, so predict your own word: the ordinance held it back. Now uncover and substitute. It did verify the practice: that means nothing. It did inspect the practice: that fits the mills, not the sentence. Restrain. The sentence works.
Sometimes two choices both sound fine. Then stop reading for meaning and read for direction. Though. That one word turns the sentence from dismissal into praise, and the word attaches to language, not to money. Efficiency.
Your turn. Arrested. Eight seconds.
Three ways this goes wrong. Taking the common meaning on trust. Matching the topic instead of the sentence. And never reading your answer back into the line.
Cover, predict, substitute. Every time.
Read the written version: the Words in Context strategy guide, then try 25 hard Words in Context questions with full explanations. Both are free, no account needed.