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Description:
Grab your detective coat and weird hat, we're clue-hunting today. We may not be solving murder-mysteries...but we'll definitely figure out some definitions of words. And trust us, that's pretty much just as important.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:13
Have you ever wanted to be like Sherlock Holmes? [Man dressed like Sherlock Holmes]
- 00:16
You know, just pick up a magnifying glass, solve a mystery, and save a bunch of people?
- 00:20
Well, here’s your chance, because today, we’re looking at context clues. [Sherlock Holmes and a man tied to a chair in a room]
- 00:24
Okay, so you might not save any lives.
Full Transcript
- 00:26
But you'll figure out the meanings of unknown words, which is pretty much the same thing. [Boy collapses to the floor in class]
- 00:31
…Maybe.
- 00:32
Don't think too hard about that.
- 00:33
Anyway, let's get started!
- 00:35
Clue #1: Definition Clues. [Magnifying glass held over definition clues]
- 00:37
Definition clues are when the meaning of the word you don’t know is actually contained
- 00:41
in the sentence.
- 00:42
For example, let’s say we came upon the word feeble in a sentence…and would you
- 00:46
look at that, we happen to have a sentence right here!
- 00:49
What are the odds…? [Book appears with short paragraph]
- 00:50
“The man seemed very feeble and I was sure that he was as weak as he was old.”
- 00:55
We may not know what the word feeble means…
- 00:57
But look at the last part of the sentence…
- 00:58
“He was as weak as he was old.”
- 01:00
That's a definition context clue if we ever saw one. [Paragraph stamped with definition clue]
- 01:03
In fact, “feeble” actually means “weak due to old age.”
- 01:07
Okay, so you’ve mastered the definition clue.
- 01:09
But that’s kid stuff.
- 01:10
We know you can handle some more advanced detective work.
- 01:14
Lucky for you, we've got just the thing. [Magnifying glass held over example clues]
- 01:16
Clue #2: Example clues.
- 01:18
Example clues are when an example of the word appears in the sentence or elsewhere in the text.
- 01:22
Let’s look at one with the word hazard. [A hazard sign post]
- 01:25
“The road was full of hazards.
- 01:27
There were holes, nails, and giant bumps everywhere.”
- 01:30
So even if we don’t know the meaning of the word hazard…
- 01:32
The next sentence gives us examples of different hazards, [A bumpy road with holes and nails]
- 01:35
including “holes, nails and giant bumps.”
- 01:38
So, hazards?
- 01:38
Probably not a good thing...
- 01:40
…and definitely something to avoid when riding around in your detective-mobile. [Man screaming as car is on fire]
- 01:43
This case isn't solved yet, gumshoes…
- 01:45
Let's check out clue #3: Inference Clues.
- 01:48
Inference clues are words or phrases that might help us figure out – or infer – the [Coop teaching inference clues]
- 01:52
meaning of the word that we don’t know.
- 01:53
For example, the word nonchalant.
- 01:56
“She was very nonchalant about context clues. [Girl looking at a PC screen and plays with her hair]
- 01:58
She sat back at her desk, yawned, and played with her hair.”
- 02:02
We may not know the meaning of nonchalant, but picture the person described…
- 02:06
From the description, we can infer that “nonchalant” probably means something like calm and unconcerned.
- 02:10
Which is the exact opposite of us and this whole "detective" thing.
- 02:13
You can tell by our trench coat that we're taking this seriously. [Girl walks in room with two detectives and man tied to a chair]
- 02:16
…Maybe too seriously.
- 02:18
But it takes a seriously good detective team to figure out clue #4: Synonym clues.
- 02:23
Look for words in the sentence that seem to have the same meaning. [Dino teaching about synonym clues]
- 02:26
For example, with the word obsolete…
- 02:28
“Cassette tapes are obsolete and so out-of-date that you can’t even find them anymore.”
- 02:33
The synonym for “obsolete” is “out-of-date”.
- 02:36
Which may also be a synonym for us… are Walkmans not cool anymore…? [Man walks by with a walkman]
- 02:40
Anyway, that leads us to – dun, dun, dun – the final clue.
- 02:43
Clue #5: Antonym clues.
- 02:45
As you may have guessed, antonym clues are the opposite of synonym clues. [Coop discussing antonym clues]
- 02:49
So, look for a word that means the opposite of the word you don’t know.
- 02:52
Like this…
- 02:53
“Cassette tapes are obsolete because people prefer modern ways of listening to music.”
- 02:57
Here, “modern” is clearly the antonym for “obsolete”.
- 03:00
So we know obsolete still means out-of-date.
- 03:02
And there you have it.
- 03:04
You just cracked the case. [Detectives, kid and man with walkman walk out of a room]
- 03:05
Congratulations, gumshoe!
- 03:06
We're not quite sure what the case actually was, but…whatever, you did a great job.
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