= Partner SiteContext Clues
Context clues are hints or definitions that a writer uses in the text to help the reader understand the meaning of new or unfamiliar words. These clues can appear within a sentence, a paragraph, or in other areas of a passage. Want to learn more about Context Clues? Here’s a refresher on the different types of context clues.
Over the years, movies and books have used tornadoes to sweep their characters off to magical lands, to destroy entire cities, or to defeat a superhero’s dangerous super villain. All of these tornadoes have one thing in common: they are incredibly powerful. Tornadoes are large, destructive columns of spinning air…
The Oregonian is a daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon. It has been published daily since 1861. This is a newspaper article from The Oregonian published October 12, 1918. The flu epidemic is believed to have begun in late 1917 or early 1918. The U.S. had entered World War I on…
Famed naturalist John Muir went with a group of shepherds into the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1869. The shepherds were taking their flock to summer pasture. It was Muir’s first trip into these mountains, and he would return many more times. This passage is from his diary of the trip.…
O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, wrote the short story “The Gift of the Magi.” It was published in 1910. Below are the opening paragraphs of the story. ———————- One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved…
From stormy seas, As waters churned, A gruesome lesson Once was learned By a foolish sailor One terrible day. He risked it all, He’d later say, For the love of a lady, A mermaid, it’s true, A beautiful creature From the ocean blue. He sailed his ship From here to…
A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a successful but tight-fisted English businessman who hates Christmas. Scrooge has been told by the ghost of his dead business partner that three spirits will visit him. These spirits are the last chance Scrooge has to avoid the fate of his…
There was once a Wolf who got very little to eat because the Dogs of the village were so wide awake and watchful. He was really nothing but skin and bones, and it made him very downhearted to think of it. One night this Wolf happened to fall in with…
“Bye, Mom; bye, Dad; don’t worry. We’ll take care of everything!” Carly waved from the front door of the shop as her parents drove off. They were headed for a well-deserved vacation from their candy store, and Carly had promised them she’d be able to run it by herself. Her…
Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama. As a small child, she became seriously ill. She recovered, but she lost her sight and her hearing. Because she was so young when she became ill, she never learned to speak. Helen’s parents knew she was very bright and found a…
The Time Machine is the story of a scientist referred to as “the Time Traveller” who builds a machine to travel through time. During one of his trips, he goes over 800,000 years into the future. There he meets the human residents, called Eloi. He rescues an Eloi woman named…
