{"id":711,"date":"2016-08-30T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T19:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/?p=711"},"modified":"2018-10-15T18:46:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T01:46:44","slug":"deal-unknown-words-ielts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Deal with Unknown Words on IELTS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you are going to take an IELTS test, you will probably come across some unknown words during the test, especially in listening and reading section. Actually, you <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong>do not need to understand every single word<\/strong><\/span> because some words are not important for answering the questions. If the word is unnecessary information, just skip it and keep reading or listening. If you have to understand the word to answer the questions, here are some tips for you about guessing the meaning of unknown words on IELTS!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-712\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720.jpg\" alt=\"deal with unknown words on IELTS-magoosh\" width=\"644\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720.jpg 960w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720-768x508.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/zh\/%E9%97%AE%E9%A2%98-%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88-%E9%97%AE%E5%8F%B7-%E9%97%AE%E9%97%AE-%E7%96%91%E9%97%AE-%E5%AE%A1%E8%AE%AF-%E6%B7%B7%E4%B9%B1-%E4%BF%A1%E6%81%AF-1038491\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tumisu<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Using Context<\/h2>\n<p>The most common way to guess the meaning of a word is to use the context. That is to say, you can use the other words in the same sentence or other sentences in the same paragraph to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word.<\/p>\n<p>In the IELTS, the unknown words are usually academic terms. In most cases, you can find the explanation of the terms in the text. Let\u2019s look at the following examples from <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/ielts-practice-test\/\">the IELTS practice tests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong>Example text 1:<\/strong><\/span> Discovered in the early 1800s and named \u2018<span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>nicotianine<\/em><\/strong><\/span>,\u2019 the oily essence now called nicotine is the main active ingredient of tobacco.<\/p>\n<p>To many students, <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>nicotianine <\/em><\/strong><\/span>is a word that they don\u2019t know. However, it is easy to get the meaning of this word from &#8220;<span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>the main active ingredient of tobacco&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/span> in this sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong>Example text 2:<\/strong><\/span> When it comes to humans, chronobiologists are interested in what is known as the <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>circadian rhythm<\/em><\/strong><\/span>. This is the complete cycle our bodies are naturally geared to undergo within the passage of a twenty-four hour day. Aside from sleeping at night and waking during the day, each cycle involves many other factors, such as changes in blood pressure and body temperature.<\/p>\n<p>You can guess the meaning of <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>circadian rhythm <\/em><\/strong><\/span>according to the second sentence in this paragraph. If it is hard for you to understand the second sentence,<span style=\"color: #003366\"> &#8220;<strong><em>sleeping at night and waking during the day&#8221;<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>in the next sentence also tells you about what circadian rhythm is: <span style=\"color: #003366\"><em><strong>a daily activity cycle of living things<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n<h2>Using Prior Knowledge<\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes, you can guess the meaning of a word based on your life experience and knowledge. Here is an example.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong>Example text 1:<\/strong> <\/span>The development of wind power at this time suffered not only from badly-designed equipment, but also from poor long-term planning, economic projections that were too optimistic, and the difficulty of finding suitable locations for the <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>wind turbines<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Some students don\u2019t know what <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>wind turbine<\/em><\/strong><\/span> is in this text. From common knowledge, we know that wind power is generated from a huge machine which needs a suitable physical location. Therefore, the wind turbine is probably the name of that machine.<\/p>\n<h2>Using Word Root, Prefix or Suffix<\/h2>\n<p>This is another useful way to guess word meaning. Here is an example.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong>Example text:<\/strong><\/span> Paper is also <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>biodegradable<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, so it does not pose as much threat to the environment when it is discarded.<\/p>\n<p>Suppose the word you want to guess is <span style=\"color: #003366\"><strong><em>biodegradable<\/em><\/strong><\/span>. We can break down this word into <em><strong><span style=\"color: #003366\">bio-de-grad-able<\/span><\/strong><\/em>. The prefix\u00a0<span style=\"color: #003366\"><em><strong>Bio\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000\">relates\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to life and nature.\u00a0<strong><em><span style=\"color: #003366\">Grad<\/span><\/em><\/strong> comes from the word grade and <span style=\"color: #003366\"><em><strong>degrade<\/strong><\/em><\/span> means to break down something complex into simple pieces. The suffix <em><strong><span style=\"color: #003366\">able<\/span><\/strong><\/em> indicates that the word is an adjective. Therefore, a good guess for this word would be <strong><em><span style=\"color: #003366\">capable of being naturally broken down into small parts<\/span><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are going to take an IELTS test, you will probably come across some unknown words during the test, especially in listening and reading section. Actually, you do not need to understand every single word because some words are not important for answering the questions. If the word is unnecessary information, just skip it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3995],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[5084],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ielts-resources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Deal with Unknown Words on IELTS - Magoosh Blog \u2014 IELTS\u00ae Exam<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you have to understand the word to answer the questions, here are some tips for you about guessing the meaning of unknown words on IELTS!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Deal with Unknown Words on IELTS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you have to understand the word to answer the questions, here are some tips for you about guessing the meaning of unknown words on IELTS!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2014 IELTS\u00ae Exam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-30T19:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-16T01:46:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2016\/08\/question-1038491_960_720.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kuangyan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kuangyan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kuangyan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/#\/schema\/person\/24d8ad54eb078e91414791a4923af4e8\"},\"headline\":\"How to Deal with Unknown Words on IELTS\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-30T19:00:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\"},\"wordCount\":569,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"IELTS Resources\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/deal-unknown-words-ielts\/\",\"name\":\"How to Deal with Unknown Words on IELTS - 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