Reading Comprehension 1:

- WORDS WITH MULTIPLE MEANINGS

- HOW TO USE DICTIONARY TO LOOK UP WORDS’ MEANINGS

1. LEAD

The receptionist led the way to the boardroom.

A. go in front of a person/animal to show the way

B. connect one subject or place to another
C. result in something
D. be in control of sth

Lead exposure can be harmful to everyone, especially young children and babies.

A. advantage
B. an action for other people to copy
C. a piece of information that may help you to find out the truth
D. a chemical element (Pb)

2. NOVEL

Her first novel was finally accepted for publication.

A. the type of literature that novels represent

B. a story long enough to fill a complete book, in which the characters and events are usually imaginary
C. new, interesting.

Job-sharing is still a novel concept and it will take a while for employers to get used to it.

A. different from anything known before; new, interesting and often seeming slightly strange
B. a story long enough to fill a complete book, in which the characters and events are usually imaginary
C. the type of literature that novels represent

3. PILOT

He has his own plane and a pilot's licence.

A. a person who operates the controls of an aircraft

B. a person with special knowledge of a difficult area of water
C. a single television programme made in order to find out whether people will like it a small flame that
burns all the time

The pilot programme of vaccination proved successful.

A. to fly an aircraft or guide a ship

B. to guide somebody/something somewhere
C. to test a new product, idea
D. done on a small scale in order to see if something is successful enough to do on a large scale
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 4. SEASON

Autumn is my favourite season.

A. a period of time during a year when a particular activity happens or is done

B. any of the four main periods of the year
C. a period of the year in tropical countries when it is either very dry or it rains a lot
D. a period of time in which a play is shown in one place; a series of plays, films or television programmes

Season the meat well with salt and pepper.

A. a period of time during one year when a particular style of clothes, hair, etc. is popular and fashionable
B. set of television or radio programmes that have the same characters or deal with the same subject
C. to add salt, pepper, etc. to food in order to make it taste better
D. a period of time during a year when a particular activity happens or is done

5. FABRIC

The city retains much of its historic fabric.

A. material used for making clothes

B. the basic structure of society, an organisation…
C. the basic structure of a building.

6. EVOLVE

The company has evolved into a major chemical manufacturer.

A. to develop over time, often many generations, into forms that are better adapted to survive changes in
their environment
B. to develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complicated form; to develop something in this
way

PRACTICE

Use your dictionary to idenfity the meaning of words in bold.

And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local
subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields.

key

lead to

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Rocha’s new study shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control
service by feasting on plagues of insects
study

vital

feast on

plague

The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was in continuous forest.

reveal

continuous

While the findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also found indications
that the bats were consuming pests of other crops.

finding

benefit from

In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient
settlement of Qumran.

tend

settlement

By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives, biologists have been working out
what genetic changes occurred as plants were domesticated.

genome

relative

work out

domesticate

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This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Lab in the
UK.
approach

obscure

If mutations prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will continue to thrive and perhaps
reproduce.

prove

thrive

reproduce