It is an excerpt of my book to-be about improving students' TOEFL vocabulary mastery. Currently, I am developing a language program that help my students get enganged in TOEFL vocabulary questions, especially about guessing meanings in context.

1. STUDY SKILL
Sometimes you can guess the meaning of a word from the words around it, that is, the context.
Identifying the part of speech also helps. Look at the example, rotate:
Hurricanes rotate anti-clockwise around an ‘eye’.
The word hurricanes helps you identify the part of speech.
1. What part of speech is rotate:
a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb?
The words anti-clockwise, around, help you guess the meaning.
2. What does rotate mean:
get bigger, move in a circle, rain a lot?
#Day 1
Read this passage carefully.
Zoosare hugelypopularattractionsforadultsandchildrenalike.But are they actually a good thing?
Criticsof zoos wouldargue thatanimalsoften sufferphysicallyandmentallybybeingenclosed.Even
the bestartificial environmentscan'tcome close tomatchingthe space, diversity, and freedom that
animalshave intheirnatural habitats.This deprivation causesmanyzooanimalstobecome stressed
or mentally ill. Capturing animals in the wild also causes much suffering by splitting up families.
Some zoos make animals behave unnaturally: for example, marine parks often force dolphins and
whales to perform tricks. These mammals may die decades earlier than their wild relatives, and
some even try to commit suicide.
Read the passage again carefully. Guess the meaning of the underlined words. First identify the
parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). Then choose meanings from the box to complete
the table.
friends variety relations
hurt separate synthetic
No Vocabulary Part of Speech Meaning Sentence
1 suffer Critics of zoos would argue that animals
often suffer physically and mentally by
being enclosed.
2 artificial Eventhe bestartificial environments can't
come close to matching the space,
diversity,andfreedom that animals have
in their natural habitats.
3 diversity Even the best artificial environments
can't come close to matching the space,
diversity,andfreedom that animals have
in their natural habitats.
4 split up Capturing animalsin the wild also causes
much suffering by splitting up families.
5 relatives These mammals may die decades earlier
than their wild relatives, and some even
try to commit suicide.