1. Understanding complex vocabulary
Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
Understanding complex vocabulary

2. Comprehension means understanding.
Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
Comprehension means understanding.
The best way to understand a text is to ask yourself questions as you read it.
The answers to some questions are easy to find, while the answers to others are more difficult to work out.

3. Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
When you’re reading, you often come across words that you are unsure of or don’t know.
You can’t always look up the meaning of a word in a dictionary, but you can try to work out its meaning by using clues in the text.

4. Let’s work out the meaning of the red words.
Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
Let’s work out the meaning of the red words.
Lucas started watching the program on the secrets of the universe, but found it incomprehensible. Instead, he turned his attention to a magazine, and was soon engrossed in an article on the dirty habits of young boys — which Lucas found fascinating because it seemed a very good description of himself!

5. How do we know which answer is correct?
Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
If Lucas found the program on the secrets of the universe incomprehensible and stopped watching it, it could mean that:
he found it boring.
he found it scary.
he couldn’t understand it.
How do we know which answer is correct?
Comprehensible sounds a bit like comprehension, which means “understanding”, and the prefix “in-” stands for “not”. From these clues, we can work out that incomprehensible means cannot be understood.

6. How do we know which answer is correct?
Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
If Lucas became engrossed in a magazine article, it could mean that he:
became disgusted by what he was reading.
became interested in what he was reading.
was surprised by what he was reading.
How do we know which answer is correct?
The text tells us that Lucas found the article fascinating, which suggests that he was interested in it.

7. Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
To fully understand the meaning of a text, you need to know what all of the words in the text mean.
Sometimes it is possible to work out the meaning of a word from clues in the text. But to be absolutely sure, it’s always best to look it up in a dictionary.

8. Comprehension Toolkit
Complex vocabulary
The End