How can you determine the meaning of a difficult word using context clues?

• A. Use surrounding sentences and phrases as clues to guess the word's meaning.
• B. Look at the number of letters in the word.
• C. Skim the title only.
• D. Read the last paragraph.

Answer: (A)

Using context clues from surrounding text to deduce a word's meaning is a key strategy. When you come across a difficult word, look at the sentences before and after, and notice any clues the author gives—definitions, examples, contrasts, or the overall idea being discussed. Those nearby words help you infer what the word means in that moment, making it easier to understand the sentence as a whole.

This is why using surrounding sentences and phrases as clues to guess the word's meaning is the best approach: it relies on information already in the passage and helps you make sense of the text without needing a dictionary. The other options don’t provide that immediate, contextual help—the number of letters doesn’t reveal meaning, and skimming just the title or the last paragraph often misses the necessary context.