2020-04-29 TOEFL: word roots, reading purpose

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Word Roots (list 2) - Try to remember one or two meanings for each root.
cert (certain, ascertain, certificate) = sure
chrom (monochrome, achromatic) = color
chron (chronological, anachronism, synchronize) = time
circum (circumscribe, circumspect, circumnavigate) = around
claim/clam (exclaim, proclamation, clamor) = shout/yell
clar (clarify, declare) = clear
cline (inclination, decline, recline) = lean
co (coworker, coeducational, coauthor, copilot) = together
col before L: (collaborate, colleague)
com before M,P,B: (communicate, composition, combine)
cor before R: (correlate, corroborate)
con before other consonants besides H: (connect, convention, contemporary)
(co before vowels and H, and in new words)
cogni (cognizance, incognito) = know/think (This is actually “co” plus “*gno”, which is also the root of “know” in English.)
contra (contrast, contradict, controversy) = against (This is also the root “co(n)”, plus the “tra” ending that adds a sense of direction.)
corp (corporation, corpse, incorporate) = body
cred (credible, credit, credulous) = believe/trust
crypto (cryptography, cryptic, encrypt) = hide/hidden (Especially hiding information by encoding it.)
dem/demo (demographics, democracy, epidemic, pandemic) = people/population
di/de (decelerate, dethrone, decrease, divide, diverge) = down/away/apart
di (dilemma, dihedral) = two
dia (diameter, dialect, dialogue) = across/between
dict (dictator, dictionary, contradict) = speak/say/tell
domin (dominate, dominion, predominate) = master/control
don (donate, pardon) = give
duce/duct (introduction, deduct, conduct) = lead/take
dyna (dynamic, dynamite, dynasty) = power/energy/movement
dys (dysfunction, dystopia, dyslexia, dysphoria) = bad (The opposite prefix is “eu”.)
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Reading Question Types:
- fact
- negative fact
- vocabulary
- paraphrase
- purpose/method
- reference
- inference
- sentence insertion
- summary
- organization/chart
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Purpose questions ask why the author does something. Method questions ask how.
- Usually they ask about specific phrases or examples.
- Sometimes they ask you to identify connections between paragraphs.
- Identifying references to other sentences and understanding the use of transitions are both useful for answering purpose and method questions.
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The root “xero” means “dry”, so “xerography” means something like “dry writing or drawing”, as opposed to using liquid ink.
Longman p. 5-6 - Take 8 minutes to answer the 8 purpose questions about the first passage.
1 D (Not necessarily that they’ve already been discussed, but at least that other uses exist. Not B, because it’s xerography that requires photoconductive materials, not electrochemistry in general.)
2 A
3 C
4 C (The first example was the photocopier.)
5 C (It emphasizes the improvements by explaining that the user only needed to push a button.)
6 B (We don’t know that people disliked them, we just know they were too big for the home.)
7 D (This is the transfer stage, not the development stage.)
8 A (It’s the final step. Neutralization happens before this step.)
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BREAK
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Take 8 minutes for the second passage
9 D
10 A (“Nonetheless” shows contrast. The author is pointing out that even though people had started moving to cities, most still lived in small towns at that time.)
11 C
12 B
13 D (“Some of the change is from healthcare, and some is from changing birthrate.” = Healthcare and birthrate are two separate factors, so A and B are wrong. The population is older now, so C is wrong.)
14 C (The Baby Boom was the 1940s to the 1960s, so their existence influenced aging in the second half of the century.)
15 A (Everywhere except seven Western states.)
16 B
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Passage 3
17 B (The telescopes on Earth are mentioned as a contrast to Hubble.)
18 A (Like “in other words”, it’s another way of expressing the same information.)
19 C
20 B
21 D (“In a sense” is another way to say you’re expressing the same information, used especially if now you’re giving an analogy to help illustrate the previous information.)
22 B (You should figure out from context that “dismay” is something like “unhappiness”. People who were against the mission were unhappy when it was approved.)
23 C (Not A, because the other delays weren’t in the construction of the telescope.)
24 C
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Passage 4
25 B (The comma means this is a description or definition of “territoriality”.)
26 C
27 A
28 B (This is usually the purpose of “in other words”, and this passage is no exception.)
29 D (There’s no judgment about the beauty of the songs.)
30 D (They’re not being affectionate or only pretending. They each want to kill the other swan.)
31 B
32 D
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Homework (optional): do the other two exercises on the handout