Word it Well: how to determine relevant vocabulary in complicated texts
Most of the vital language exams involve reading tasks. A key to successful understanding of the texts is fishing out the most important vocabulary – but if the source material is hard, the reader might find words unknown to them or even ones they have not seen at all! It is not a reason to panic, though. Using root forms of the unknown words it is possible to find meanings where one didn’t see them before.
Should the reader be trying to recognise the most important vocabulary, verbs are to be most focused on – as they might be preceded by epithets or nouns of different forms. If there are questions present, look for the exact things – and only use the text as your source, never outside knowledge.
In the following text, try your best to think of the meanings of the words in bold. Its author was Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), American fantasy, science-fiction and horror author known for his extensive usage of English vocabulary. Then, answer a few questions on your own. After the text, some meanings will be explained!
| Double Cosmos Clark Ashton Smith It is for the reader to decide how much importance can be attached to the manuscript left by Bernard Meecham. Doubtless few will consider it anything more than a record of delirium induced by the strange drug that Meecham had compounded. Even from this standpoint the record possesses a certain medical interest: for it throws a startling light on the possibilities of human sensation. And if one accepts Meecham’s experiences at his own valuation, it will be seen that the veil of a new and heretofore unsuspected world has been lifted. Meecham, a brilliant young chemist, had made from the beginning a special study of narcotic drugs. He had been freed by an ample inheritance from the necessity of commercializing his knowledge and his talents, and was thus able to give his whole time to the specialty which absorbed him so deeply. A recluse, he was incommunicative regarding the aim of his researches; and the revolutionary theory he had conceived was not known to his colleagues. This theory, as well as the outcome of his experiments, he confided only to the manuscript written and dated shortly before his unexplained disappearance. The manuscript was found lying on his laboratory desk. It is now published in accord with a brief, unaddressed note of instructions also left behind by Meecham. The Manuscript Even in my childhood, I began to suspect that the world about us was perhaps only the curtain of hidden things. The suspicion was born following my recovery from an attack of scarlet fever attended by intervals of delirium. In that delirium, recalled dimly afterwards, I had seemed to live in a monstrous world peopled by strange misshapen beings whose actions were fraught with terror and menace; or, when not menacing, were wholly cryptic and unearthly. This realm of shadow had seemed no less real than the world perceived by my normal senses; and during my convalescence I believed that it still existed somewhere beyond the corners of the familiar room; and I feared that its horrible specters might reappear at any moment. […] |
Questions:
- Who was Bernard Meecham and how was he able to pursue his goals?
- What was the fate of the man and what did he leave behind?
- In what world did Bernard suspect people live?
Explained meanings:
| Importance, coming from important | Waga, pochodzi od wyrazu ważny |
| Attached, without suffix – attach | Przyłożony, forma dokonana; bez suffixu – dołączyć |
| Doubtless, without suffix – doubt | Niewątpliwy, bez suffixu – wątpliwość |
| Compounded, without suffix – compound | Złożony, bez suffixu – mieszanka |
| Valuation, coming from value | Wycena, pochodzi od wyrazu wartość |
| Heretofore, similar to here, before | Jak dotąd, złożony z innych wyrazów |
| Freed, without suffix – free | Uwolniony, bez suffixu – wolny |
| Commercializing, coming from commerce | Komercjalizacja, pochodzi od wyrazu biznes |
| Incommunicative, coming from communication | Niekomunikatywny, pochodzi od wyrazu komunikacja |
| Revolutionary, coming from revolution | Rewolucyjny, pochodzi od wyrazu rewolucja |
| Confided, without suffix – confide | Zawarty, bez suffixu – zwierzać się |
| Disappearance, coming from appear | Zniknięcie, pochodzi od wyrazu wyglądać |
| Unaddressed, coming from address | Niezaadresowany, pochodzi od wyrazu adres |
| Suspicion, coming from suspect | Podejrzenia, pochodzi od wyrazu podejrzewać |
| Afterwards, similar to after | Następnie, podobny do wyrazu po/dalej |
| Misshappen, archaism; mishappen | Nieszczęśliwy – archaizm |
| Beings, similar to be | Istoty, wywodzi się w języku angielskim z wyrazu “być” |
| Menacing, coming from menace | Groźny, pochodzi od wyrazu groza |
| Cryptic, similar to decryption | Tajny, podobny do deszyfracji |