Type Three: Vocabulary

not correct. You may have an opinion as to whether HTML is or is not easy to learn but

remember that you need to stick with what is presented in the passage and not rely on what

you know from other sources, so you need to eliminate option D from consideration.

You may or may not be familiar with computer programming. If you are not, you might have

gotten a little bit nervous to see a passage about programming and an answer choice that

mentions recursion—a concept that you might have never heard of. But notice that you should

be able to figure out the correct answer to this question without knowing what recursion is. All

you need to do is to observe what the passage says about which languages do or do not

support recursion—you don’t need to be able to define the word to answer the question

correctly. It is important that you do not lose confidence when you see a passage or a question

that contains concepts that you are not familiar with. This is to be expected. Remember, this is

not a test of subject matter but rather a reading test. You will be able to answer the questions

correctly using your reading skills even if you are not familiar with the subject matter. So do not

worry if the topic or the details of the passage are new to you. Stay calm and focus on the

question.

TYPE THREE: VOCABULARY

You will probably see some questions on the PRAXIS that ask you about the meaning of a word.

The most important thing to know about these questions is that they will always ask you about

the meaning of a word in the context in which it is used, not about the meaning of that word in

general. The reason that this difference is important is that many words have more than one

meaning, and you need to focus on how the word is used in the passage, not on how it might

be used in other contexts. Think about this sentence: “He vacationed at the cape.” In that

sentence, a cape is a place along the coastline. It has nothing to do with the piece of clothing

that is also called a cape. Some test takers are tempted to save time by answering the

vocabulary questions without checking how the word is used in the passage. Do not be tempted

to do this. Be sure to check how the word is used in the passage.

When you are asked about the meaning of words, it will probably be with a question similar to

these:

Which word could be used to replace the word “elevate” in the passage?

The phrase “curry favor” means to do what? What does the author use the phrase “collateral damage” to refer to?

For all of these questions, you are being asked to show that you understand how a word or

phrase is used in the passage. Once you have selected an answer choice, you should re-read the

sentence in the passage, substituting your answer choice, to be sure that it makes sense. This is

a good way to check your work.

Do not panic if you do not know the meaning of the word. Let’s look at an example that shows

how you may still be able to answer the question correctly, even if you are not sure of the

meaning of the word. Imagine that one of the sentences in the passage read, “Because he was

in a hurry, he blah-blah-blah the other drivers on the freeway.” Here, we are using “blah-blah-

blah” in place of a word that you don’t know. Then a question asked, “Which of the following

words is the best substitute for the word “blah-blah-blah” in the passage?” followed by these

answer choices:

A. yielded to

B. assisted

C. passed

D. evaluated

We might not know what the word “blah-blah-blah” means, but we can use the other words in

the sentence as clues about what would be a good replacement for it. Notice that the sentence

involves a man who is in a hurry. Does it make sense that someone in a hurry would yield? No,

it does not, so option A is unlikely to be correct. Would being in hurry lead you to assist other

drivers? Probably not, so option B is not correct. Would being in a hurry lead you to pass other

drivers? Yes, so option C sounds pretty good, but we should check option D. Would being in a

hurry lead you to evaluate other drivers? This is unlikely, so we should settle on option C.

Notice that we were able to select the best answer to this question even without knowing what

the word “blah-blah-blah” means. This can be a powerful strategy to use on the vocabulary

questions if you are unsure of the meaning of the word that the question is focused on.

You may be asked questions that ask you to distinguish between the literal and figurative uses

of language. Words and phrases can be used literally or figuratively. A figurative meaning is

anything other than the actual, physical, literal meaning of a word or phrase. Think about these

examples:

One. “He won’t stop talking. He’s driving me up a wall.”

Two. “He is playing with a blue toy car. He’s driving it up a wall.”

In the first sentence, no one is literally driving you up a wall—that’s an expression that means

that something is annoying. So, this is an example of figurative language. In the second

sentence, a toy car is literally, actually being driven up a wall, so this is literal language. It isn’t

figurative. Some vocabulary questions may ask you to distinguish between literal and figurative

meanings of words. Think about this sentence that you might find in a reading passage:

She thought that her lack of promotion after seven years as a vice president was due to the

glass ceiling.

Now consider this question:

The phrase “glass ceiling” most probably refers to what?

A. an expensive office complex

B. a policy limiting women

C. environmental design choices

D. a commitment to solar energy

In the context of the sample sentence, the glass ceiling refers to the fact that the woman

believes that she was denied opportunities to advance because she was a woman. The phrase is

not meant to be taken literally, which means that options A, C, and D are not correct; option B

is correct.

Let’s try another short reading passage and vocabulary question.

He devoured the works of Augustine, driven by his passion for the ancient world’s wisdom.

Question: Which word is the best substitute for “devoured” in the passage?

A. considered lackadaisically

B. skimmed petulantly

C. read voraciously

D. ignored tiredly

This question is testing your ability to recognize a figurative meaning of the word “devoured.”

Clearly, the person in the sentence is not eating books. Instead, you can use clues in the

sentence, especially if you are unsure of the meaning of the word “devoured.” We know that

the person in the sentence is interested in the topic of the books. So we are looking for an

answer choice that implies this. Option C is the best answer, because it suggests that the

person in the sentence is positive and enthusiastic about what he is reading. On the other hand,

options A, B, and D all imply something negative about the relationship between the reader and

the books, but that isn’t what the reading passage suggests. This is why C is the best answer.

If you struggle with vocabulary questions, there are steps that you can take to improve your

vocabulary. One is to study Greek and Latin roots. Many of the more sophisticated English

words contain parts of words that come from Greek and Latin, so studying these roots is an

effective way to improve your vocabulary. Use the three charts of Greek and Latin roots in

Figures 1, 2, and 3 to study.