Reading Part 1.1-Basic Understanding

Section I: Basic Comprehension

When you read in English you should be able to understand the meaning of words in order to understand the whole text. Sometimes you will see words you are not familiar with. If you examine a passage or sentence closely you can make a good guess what the meaning of a word is. Examples below:

1. Some people find the smell of durian to be very rank.
2. My father has a high rank in the Thai military.

Both sentences use the word rank but the definition is different in each sentence.

In sentence “a”, you can make a guess that the word rank means unpleasant or strong by using the words smell and/or durian as clues to figure out the meaning of the word rank.In sentence “b” the word rank means position or standing. The words in the sentence that may act as “clue words” are “military” and the adjective “high”.

Another example:

1. The life jackets are kept at the stern of the boat.
2. Ajarn Sudarat always gives me a stern look when I give the wrong answer in class.

In sentence “a” the word stern refers to a location, specifically the back or rear of a boat. The word that acts as a clue to the definition is the preposition “at”.

In sentence “b” the word stern functions as an adjective and means unkind or mean. The clue in the sentence could be the phrase “wrong answer”.

Another example:

1. a) US president Donald Trump will address the American public tomorrow night on TV.
2. b) You can find the address of RMUTP on the school’s webpage.

In these two examples the word address is used as both a verb and a noun.

In sentence “a” the word address is used as a verb because the word “will” is used as a modal auxiliary verb or helping verb that supports the verb address which, in the sentence means to speak or communicate.

In sentence “b” the word address is used as a noun because the definite article precedes the noun which in this sentence means location.

In the sentences below the same word is used in each example, however the form and meaning of the word is different.

1. My brother is a good student because he works
2. My brother is a lazy student because he hardly

In these sentences each meaning is the opposite of the other. In sentence “a” the word hard is an adjective and means diligently or a lot. In sentence “b” the word hardly works as an adverb and means very little.