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COMPREHENSION/ READING SKILLS:
INTRODUCTION TO ANSWERING COMPREHENSION
Table of Contents
CONTENT
Comprehension simply means understanding
Basic Guide
Carefully check the instructions you are given.
Read the passage through very quickly to grasp the general sense idea
Quickly look at the questions thoroughly and keep them in mind.
Read through the passage again more slowly trying to understand the details as well as meanings of most of the words
Answer the questions
Limit your answer only to the information provided in the passage. Avoid including materials not found in the passage i.e. extraneous materials.
Test on Synonyms or equivalent meaning
Synonyms for the word costly include: expensive; extravagant, precious
The substitute must fit into the passage perfectly if the original word is removed.
A plural noun or verb requires a plural substance, and a singular noun or verb requires a singular substance e.t.c. The substitute, you provide must be of the same grammatical category as the original word or phrase e.g.
The car gets (singular present tense) here at 3.00 p.m.
The correct substitute arrives (also singular present tense) not arrived
Put down a number with five digits.
The correct substitute for digits is figures and not figures.
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VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: WORDS ASSOCIATED WITH RELIGION
Relevant words
Religion is the belief in the existence of a god or gods, and the activities that are connected with the worship of them.
Relevant words
| Atheist | A person who believes that there is no God. |
| Crucifix | Cross with the figure of Jesus Christ crucified on it |
| Doctrine | What is taught as the belief of, for example, a religious, political or scientific body of persons? |
| Ethics | Moral principles by which a person or group is guided. |
| Worship | Take part in a religious ceremony in which reverence is paid to God or a god; the religious ceremony itself. |
| Supernatural | Things that cannot be explained by the laws of science and seems to involve gods or magic |
| Clergy | A group of people ordained for Christian religious service.
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Others are trinity, denomination, inter-denomination, creed, pew, benediction, monotheism, processional hymn, recessional hymn, warden, protestants, orthodox churches, and Pentecostal churches.
SPEECH WORK: FORMAL AND INFORMAL CONVERSATION: EMPHATIC STRESS
The emphatic stress
Examples
The stressing of a particular word more than other words in a sentence is referred to as EMPHATIC STRESS
EXAMPLES
Consider the following sentences and notice how its meaning changes according to the word that has been stressed
JAMES borrowed the novel (i.e. James, not anybody else borrowed the novel.)
James BORROWED the novel (i.e. James didn’t, for example, steak or buy the novel; he borrowed it)
James borrowed the NOVEL. ( i.e. James borrowed the novel, not the magazine, not the journal e.t.c.
Test on emphatic stress requires the candidate to select the question to which the given sentence is the appropriate answer. An example is given below:
Example: My mother’s FRIEND hates pets.
Does your mother’s boss hate pets?
Does your mother’s friend love pets?
Does your mother’s friend hate pets?
Does your father’s friend hate pets?
The correct answer is A.
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