Hi everyone,
Today, I decided to try the context clues strategy to expand my vocabulary. This involves figuring out the meaning of an unknown word by looking at the words and sentences around it. I chose this strategy because it's a practical way to learn new words while reading any text, without constantly stopping to look things up.
I was reading a news article about global economics and came across this sentence: "The government decided to alleviate the financial burden on citizens by reducing taxes." I didn't know what "alleviate" meant, but the context helped. The sentence mentioned the government reducing taxes to help with a "financial burden." The surrounding words—"reducing" and "burden"—suggested a sense of making something less severe or easier to bear. I correctly guessed that alleviate means to make a problem less severe.
This strategy worked well for me! I not only learned a new word but also understood its use in a real-world context, which helps me remember it better. I think this will be a valuable tool for me going forward.