Reading comprehension 101 for dumdums, Lesson 1, context.

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In an attempt to better help communicate with each other on forums, I have decided to dedicate some of my time to help some my peers on .org to jump over that low level barrier of written English language.
Some of us speak perfect english, some of us just ok and some of us only know the meaning of words, but never understand the meaning of sentence.

The latter group will be the target of this lesson.

So lets talk about Context in a sentence, how can we grasp a Context of sentence and what are Context Clues?

So, what are Context Clues?
Sometimes you won't understand every word in a reading passage. One thing you can do to figure out new words is to use CONTEXT CLUES.

The CONTEXT is the words, sentences, and ideas that come before and after a word or phrase.

When you read a passage, circle any new words that you don't understand. Then, look in the context to find clues--words or phrases that hint at what the new word means.

Remember, you don't have to understand every word in a reading! Circle only the new words that are key to understanding the passage.

Words are elusive, chimerical creatures. They shift connotations depending on the situation, rearing their heads in surprising contexts. A dictionary, or denotative definition, can become all but useless. So it’s no surprise that any attempts to cage the semantic beast in the static, one dimensionality of a flashcard will be doomed.

What would be a better way to explain it, then with an example?
For todays class a volunteer have approached me with difficulties in understanding the context of 2 of my unrelated replies because there was the same word present in both of them, which boiled his head over, so lets bring up the example and help him together!
Disclaimer:

Obviously, we can not discuss the context of the example sentences without, well, A CONTEXT in which they were presented aka what they were answering to, so I'll briefly bring it up as well

Example 1

Shermans and even USF ATG especially against vet2 P4(or OKW P4 in general) are cost inefficient and utility doesn't balance this out.

Context of the discussion:
Non M36 USA anti tank options versus mid and late game axis armor

As you can see, the replay here discuses cost efficiency of USF anti tank capabilities against high armor value targets comparatively to similarly priced alternatives and counterparts.
270mp USF anti tank gun is not going to be as efficient as 270mp puppchen agaist 230+ armor targets because of much lower penetration value.
In sherman case, while penetration value is higher then P4, the armor of units it is shooting at obviously is also higher in the CONTEXT of mentioned examples. Sherman is inefficient against high armor targets and all of its extra package is of no help here - smoke is ineffective therefore inefficient in dealing with high armor, so are crew repair and high explosive rounds - that makes sherman tank completely inefficient in context of engagements versus 230+ armor targets.

Example 2

Not most efficient.
That's still sherman with stock smoke, good mobility, above average pen, self repairs and HE shells.

This example is a replay about overall cost efficiency of sherman tank comparatively to T34/76 tank.
While the sherman is only slightly more expensive then T34, it comes equipped with weapons performing much better then these of T34/76 in all situations the two would come across, be it versus infantry, versus armored vehicles, in offense or while retreating, sherman outperforms 34/76 greatly in all of these aspects, while having similar price, making it overall much more efficient in the context of comparison between the two, or even between all 5 stock medium tanks, stock toolkit provides here, comparatively, unmatched cost efficiency.

I do hope this lesson will be of great help to everyone who struggles of grasping the context of sentence and being generally confused, just because the same word was used in 2 different concepts.
Remember, English is not native language of all of us and we need to help the lesser of us to understand it better when we see they struggle.

Posts: 2458 | Subs: 1

Your rambling is full of spelling and grammar mistakes. Maybe fix them first before teaching English to the coh2.org community?

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thanks to katitof for his persisting dedication to make coh2.org a more toxic place

Posts: 4183 | Subs: 4

Katitof: oh silly me, I again falsely accused vipper of being able to grasp a context of whole sentence put together instead of nitpicked words he fixated upon, why do I keep making that mistake?
Today, 07:17 AM

Yes because targeting someone not in the thread but in the shoutbox is going to let the thread fly. No sir.

/locked