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READING COMPREHENSION

I. RECOGNIZING PARTS OF SPEECH

When you try to figure out the meaning of a new vocabulary item from the context and to use the item
correctly in speaking and writing, it helps to know what part of speech the word is. Sometimes, you can tell
the part of speech from the suffix (the ending) on a word. Here are some common noun and adjective
suffixes.

NOUNS ADJECTIVES

SUFFIXES EXAMPLES SUFFIXES EXAMPLES

- er, -or, -ist Teacher, -ar Similar
Professor,
Tourist
-sion, -tion Discussion, -ic, -al, -ical Comic, legal, physical
Action
-ment, -ness Enrollment, -ful, -less Healthful,
Happiness Hopeless
-ure, -ture Pressure, -ive Expensive,
Temperature -ical Physical
-s, -es States, quizzes -er (than) Higher
(plural forms) (Comparative forms)

Exercise 1. Are the following words nouns or adjectives? On each line, write n (noun) or adj
(adjective). The first items are done as examples.

1 n Speaker 10 Individual 19 Equipment

2 n Education 11 Competitive 20 Wilderness
3 adj Harmful 12 Nutritionist 21 Spectacular
4 Management 13 Counselor 22 Expensive
5 Practical 14 Section 23 Temperature
6 Popular 15 Creative 24 Travelers
7 Technical 16 Powerful 25 Beautiful
8 Instructors 17 Forgetfulness 26 National
9 Assignments 18 Introduction 27 Recreation
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Exercise 2. Complete the following sentences with the noun or adjective from Exercise 1 that is
related to each underlined word. The first one is done as an example.

1. Students study management to become managers.

2. A native of English speaks English as a native language.
3. To become a better reader, you have to practice reading; reading is a ___________ skill.
4. Do your instructors assign a lot of homework? So they give many reading
____________ ?
5. Educators try to improve the quality of ____________ in schools.
6. Can smoking harm people? Is it a _____________ or a ___________ habit?
7. Vegetarians are nor usually __________ people. They don’t like to compete.
8. ___________ are experts in nutrition (the study of food and diet).
9. A _______________ person likes to create.
10. How can the weather have power over people? Weather can have a ____________
effect on people’s feelings. People are often ___________ against the forces of nature
(such as earthquakes, storms, floods).
11. I often forget things, and I worry about my _________________ .
12. Chapter 3 introduces you to parts of speech. It is a short ________________ .
13. _________________ are different from tourists; they travel for experience and
knowledge more than to see things.
14. My living expenses are high, so I can’t buy _______________ things.
15. I love _______________ scenery: the beauty of nature relaxes me.

Exercise 3. Circle the correct word (noun or adjective) in parentheses.

The first one is done as an example.

1. Words appear in a dictionary in (alphabet / alphabetical) order.

2. If you study (grammar / grammatical), you learn about parts of speech.
3. Travel is a time for (relaxation / relax) and (recreation / recreate).
4. In Japan, people use landmarks such as buildings in their (directions / directs).
5. The scenery in some areas is (spectacle / spectacular).
6. In Yucatan, Mexico, the (temperature / temperate) is usually high.
7. Do you know the (nation, national) parks of the western United States?
8. In the United States, do you have to fill out a (registration / register) form at the post
office if you move to a new community?
9. Is it (legality / legal) in your community to smoke in restaurants?
10. The main idea of a paragraph is more (generally / general) and less (specificity /
specific) than details

II. RECOGNIZING PARTS OF SPEECH

As you know, to figure out the meaning of a new word, it is useful to know what part of speech the word is.
The following chart has more common suffixes that will help you recognize words by their parts of speech.

NOUNS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS

SUFFIXES EXAMPLES SUFFIXES EXAMPLES SUFFIXES EXAMPLES

-ance Distance -ant Distant -ly Clearly
-ence Difference -ent Different
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-ty Ability -able Available -ally Scientifically

-ity availability -ible responsible

Exercise 1. Are the following words nouns, adjectives or adverbs? On each line, write n (noun), adj
(adjective) or adv (adverb). The first item is done as an example.

1 n Intelligence 7 Available 13 Community

2 importance 8 politely 14 responsible
3 Creativity 9 Personality 15 Responsibility
4 Pleasant 10 Directly 16 Identically
5 Magnificent 11 Quickly 17 Equivalent
6 magnificence 12 Convenience 18 Truly

Exercise 2. Fill in the chart with the missing parts of speech.

NOUNS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS

1 Intelligence Intelligent ________________

2 Responsibility _______________ ________________
3 _______________ Active ________________
4 _______________ Traditional ________________
5 _______________ _______________ Importantly
6 Happiness _______________ ________________
7 _______________ Pleasant ________________
8 Perfection _______________ ________________
9 Typicalness _______________ ________________
10 _______________ _______________ Recreationally
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Exercise 3. Read the following sentences. Most of the sentences have at least one incorrect word. Write the
part that is missing. IF you think a word is complete and doesn’t need anything, put an X in the
blank.

1. People from differ_____ cultural backgrounds may think different____ about family life.
For instance, there may be a big differ____ in their ideas about the import_____ of
marriage and children_____ .

2. Family members today may not share many family activit____ because they probably
lead very act____ lives outside the home. For example, a woman may active_____ run
her own business. In this case, she probably expects her family to take more
responsabil____ for housework and shopping.

3. Nobody in our family likes to clean up the kitchen after dinner. I guess we’re a
typical_____ American family. My brother and I had a terrible argu____ last night about
the dish____. Final____, after about ten minutes of screaming, we decided to do them
together. Unfortunate____, my brother and I are both care____ people. We broke
three glass____ and a very expens_____ plate.

III. LEARNING WORD FAMILIES

When you understand the meanings and uses of suffixes (word endings), you can better learn
vocabulary systematically. In other words, you can study word families – groups of related words with the
same stem, or main part, but different suffixes. In some dictionaries, these related words appear in the
same word entry; in other dictionaries, related words appear in separate entries. Here are examples of
word families.

NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS

Murder (thing) Murder Murderous Murderously

Murderer (person) Mystify Mysterious Mysteriously
Mystery
Mystification
mysteriousness
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Exercise 1. Complete the following story with words from the displayed words. For some blanks, more
than one answer may be correct. The first few are done for you.

murder murderer murderous

mystery mystify mysteriously

In my favorite story, someone murdered a hotel manager. No one seemed to have a motive, so this
murderous act mystified everyone except the detective. _____________, she figured out the answer to the
______________ quickly. The _______________ was the chef.
nerve nervous nervously
perfection perfectionist perfect

The chef was a ___________ - he insisted on _________ in the kitchen. Every meal had to be
_____________. Because of the cook’s perfectionism, the kitchen workers were always feeling
_______________ . One day the hotel manager had the ___________________ to talk to the cook about the
problem. _______________, he went into the kitchen.
surprise surprised surprisingly
critic criticism criticize

The manager’s ______________ was a complete _____________ to the chef. After all, no one ever
__________d the cook because all the meals from the kitchen were perfect. Also, the manager was not a
well–known food _____________. But ______________, the chef didn’t get angry at the manager. Then the
manager was ________________ and worried.

Possibility possible possibly

fortune fortunate fortunately

The next evening, the manager got a strange fortune cookie with his Chinese dinner. His _______________
said, “You are ____________ to get this warning about your ___________ death, _____________, you will
die tonight. But _________, now you know about the ______________.
stranger strange strangely
silencer silence silent

When a ______________ came into the dining room, no one said anything; everyone was ______________
_____________. Suddenly, a __________________ thing happened. A shout broke the _______________.
A kitchen helper yelled, “Help! The chef is shot!”
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IV. LEARNING TO USE WORDS WITH PREFIXES

A prefix is a word element placed at the beginning of a root. Prefixes are like suffixes in that they change
the meaning of the root and form a new word; however, prefixes do not change the word’s part of speech.

Knowing the meaning of a prefix will give a clue to the meaning of the word. The following prefixes mean
“no” or “not” and add negative meanings to words; that is, these prefixes create antonyms, or words with
opposite meanings.

dis- il- im- in- non- un-

Exercise 1. Which of these words contains a prefix with a negative meaning? Underline these prefixes.
Put an X on the lines next to the words without negative prefix. The first two are done as
examples.

1. incomplete 9. nonstop
2. X include 10. impolite
3. important 11. imply
4. uncommon 12. unfortunately
5. illegal 13. impossible
6. inherited 14. inhabitants
7. distance 15. illness
8. disagree 16. uncomfortable

Exercise 2. From your own knowledge, write the missing negative (dis-, il-, im-, in-, non-, un-)in each
blank. Then check your answers in the dictionary.

1 similar 8 sense 15 correct

2 appear 9 surprising 16 complete
3 balance 10 natural 17 honest
4 perfectly 11 popular 18 polite
5 active 12 mature 19 existent
6 ability 13 personal 20 successful
7 native 14 literate 21 ease
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SUMMARY ON AFFIXES (PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES)

a. Prefixes

Prefixes come before a root word and have an adverbial effect. That is, they modify the meaning of the
root word.

Time Place Negation

Mediated sent done responsible

Pre Ab Un Ir
View duct well replaceable

natal Here agreed perfect

Post Ad Dis Im
Mortem jacent pleased pede

In vade In complete

vert correct

b. Suffixes
They have two functions:
1) They show grammatical inflexion.

This mechanism decays ______________________ 3rd person singular.

Chomsky’s ideas ___________________________ genitive
They performed well ________________________ simple past.

2) They denote parts of speech

VERB NOUN ADJECTIVE ADVERB

-pose propose -ion action -ial special -ly badly

-duce produce -is basis -al general -ally diametrically

-ate create -ism mechanism -able capable -ward backward

-ize recognize -ment agreement -ive secretive -wise likewise