Quick questions on Vocabulary in context explained: H1 General Paper

A single word can mean very different things. "Arrest" can mean stop, detain or capture attention; "current" can mean present-day or a flow of water. The passage decides which. The question is testing reading, not vocabulary in isolation, so the task is to identify the sense the writer activates here and to render it accurately.

Connotation is the emotional or evaluative colour a word carries beyond its literal sense. "Slim", "thin" and "scrawny" all denote low body mass but connote approval, neutrality and disdain. When a writer chooses a loaded word, the connotation is part of the meaning, and a strong answer names it. Ignoring connotation gives a flat, incomplete reading, especially when the word is doing persuasive or critical work.

As with paraphrase, the answer must be in your own words and must actually substitute for the word in context. A good test: could your explanation replace the word in the sentence and preserve the meaning? If your gloss does not fit back into the sentence, you have given a definition of the wrong sense or a definition too generic to be useful.

If your explanation cannot replace the word in the sentence, it is either the wrong sense or too vague. Test the fit.

Explain why a dictionary definition can be marked wrong even if it is accurate. [2 marks]

A writer describes new regulations as having "teeth". Give the contextual meaning. [2 marks]

Explain how you would use context to decide which sense of an ambiguous word applies. [3 marks]