It is an excerpt of my book-to-be about improving students’ TOEFL vocabulary mastery. Currently, I am developing a language program that helps my students get engaged 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?
#Day6
Read this passage carefully.
The end of life on Earth?
Could a meteorite collision really mean the end of life on Earth? Read this to find out what
happenswhen small meteorites collide with Earth, and just how much damage a big one could do.
It weighedabout10,000 tons,enteredthe atmosphere ata speedof 64,000km/h and explodedover
a city with a blast of 500 kilotons. But on 15 February 2013, we were lucky. The meteorite that
showered pieces of rock over Chelyabinsk, Russia, was relatively small, at only about 17 metres
wide. Although many people were injured by falling glass, the damage was nothing compared to
what had happened in Siberia nearly one hundred years ago. Another relatively small object
(approximately 50metresindiameter) explodedin mid-air over a forest region, flattening about 80
milliontrees.If ithadexplodedoveracity suchas Moscow or London,millionsof people wouldhave
been killed.
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.
explosion roughly become flat
late crash harm
No Vocabulary Part of Speech Meaning Sentence
1 collide Readthisto findout what happens when
small meteorites collide with Earth
2 damage what happens when small meteorites
collide with Earth, and just how much
damage a big one could do.
3 blast exploded over a city with a blast of 500
kilotons.
4 approximately Another relatively small object
(approximately 50 metres in diameter)
exploded in mid-air over a forest region
5 flatten Another relatively small object
(approximately 50 metres in diameter)
exploded in mid-air over a forest region,
flattening about 80 million trees.