Como persona adulta con experiencias vividas y con cierto dominio del inglés puedes usar el contexto de la lectura (el conjunto de ideas) para encontrar el significado de las palabras inglesas nuevas. Así muchas veces podrás llegar al sentido de las nuevas palabras. Podemos llegar a entender muchas palabras en su contexto, o sea al vuelo, al leerlas sin usar un diccionario. Así gozarás más de la lectura en inglés, evitando el uso aburrido del diccionario. Además. al leer sin el diccionario, irás sintiéndote dueño de tu nuevo idioma.

Your knowledge of the meanings of surrounding words helps you discover the meaning of a word or of a sentence. The background information you find in these frameworks helps you get the meanings of new words. Common sense and your knowledge of the parts of speech also help in defining unknown words. You combine your experience with what the text contains to determine meaning.

Un ejemplo del significado de una palabra que sale del contexto mismo, o sea, el use del "Framework Based Clue": El chofer furioso gritó vehementemente durante la discusión con el otro conductor.

¿Qué sigifica la palabra vehementemente? Bueno, una persona que aprende el español seguramente sabe lo que significa la palabra furioso y sabe como se expresa la gente durante una discusión. Con este contexto, esta persona puede suponerse que "vehementemente" tiene algo que ver con una emoción fuerte. De esta forma podrá encontrar el significado de una palabra nueva a base de su propia experiencia.

El mismo ejemplo en inglés: The angry driver shouted vehemently during his fight with the other driver. What does vehemently mean? You know what angry means, and you know how people feel when they argue. From this, you can figure out that vehemently has something to do with strong emotion or intense feeling. This is an example of using framework-based context to find the meanings of new words. The meaning you find comes from your personal experience.

A veces, cuesta un poco más llegar al sentido de una palabra desconocida. Es una ayuda formular una pregunta basada en el lugar de la palabra en el contexto. La respuesta a la pregunta te dará el significado de la palabra. Todas las siguientes frases que te presentamos tienen una pregunta asociada que te ayudará a llegar al sentido de la palabra desconicida del contexto mismo.

Sometimes it takes a bit more detective work to puzzle out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. In such cases, you must draw conclusions based on the information given with the word. Asking yourself questions about the passages may help you make a fairly accurate guess about the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Each of the sentences below is followed by a question. Think about each question; using your common sense and asking yourself a question about the sentence you should be able to know the correct meaning of the italicized word.

OTROS EJEMPLOS
1. A former employee, irate over having been fired, broke into into the plant and deliberately wrecked several machines. (What would be the employee's state of mind?)

2. John always praised his bosses; he always agreed with what they said. He said he was just a good employee but his friends said he was a sycophant. (What behaviors were his friends describing with the word they put on John?)

3. The car wash we organized to raise funds was a fiasco -it rained all day. (How successful would a car wash be on a rainy day?)

PISTAS ENCONTRADAS EN EL CONTEXTO DE LOS EJEMPLOS
The first sentence provides enough evidence for you to guess that irate means very angry. Sycophant in the second sentence means sweet-talker. And a fiasco is a complete disaster. (These are not exact dictionary definitions of the words. But by using context clues, you will often be accurate enough to make good sense of what you are reading. And the good thing is that you save time in your reading because you don't have to look up every word!)

First Practice: NOW DO THESE!... Usa las preguntas para ayudarte a encontrar el significado de la palabra en cursiva.

1. Jamal didn't want to tell Tina the entire plot of the movie, so he just gave her the gist of the story. (What would Jamal tell Tina?)

2. The lizard was so lethargic that I wasn't sure if it was alive or dead. It didn't even blink. (How active is this lizard?)

3. After the accident, I was angered when the other driver told the police officer a complete, fabrication about what happened. He made it seem that I was the only person at fault. (How truthful was the other driver's information?)

4. The public knows very little about the covert activities of CIA spies. (What kind of activities would the CIA spies be involved in that the public wouldn't know much about?)

5. Whether or not there is life in outer space is an enigma. We may never know for sure until we are capable of space travel or aliens actually land on our planet. (What would we call something to which we have no answer?)

6. Suicide rates tend to fluctuate with the seasons, with much higher rates in the winter than in the summer. (What happens to the suicide rate from season to season?)

7. Human beings are resilient creatures -they can often bounce back from negative experiences and adjust well to life. (What point is the author making about the nature of human beings ?)

8. A major accomplishment of the field of sociology is dispelling the myths and prejudices that groups of people have about each other. (What would teachers of sociology do to "myths and prejudices" that could be considered a "major accomplishment"?)

9. When he first heard the news that he had lost the job, Peter showed a pugnacious attitude. But later when other alternatives were explained to him, he became less hostile. (What attitude would you feel when you lose your job and which could get better ?

Second Practice: NOW DO THESE!... Ahora, haz tú la pregunta necesaria para las oraciones que siguen.

1. In an attack of delirium, the crazed patient hit the nurse.

2. The actor played his role in the farce with a straight face controlling his laughter as he read his lines from the script.

3. The buyers considered the older models of the machines to be obsolete. They said that the newer machines had more modern technology, better features, and were more economical.

4. Lucy's exhilaration about the good pay and generous benefits of her new job disappeared after she realized that she had to move to another city.

5. The farmer impaled the poisonous snake with a sharp stick.

6. The man made a lascivious remark to the woman which made her highly embarrassed and angry.

7. Headhunters in the jungle kill animals with a small but lethal dose of poison.

8. The old man was always morose. He never smiled or expressed any pleasure.

9. Perhaps a refund will pacify the unhappy customer.

10. Ramón likes to tinker with computers as a hobby.

Trata de encontrar el significado de estas palabras.

¡Chequea tu dominio del método de la pista del contexto!