What is theme, in relation to poetry?

You are reading an informational text for english class, and you find a lot of words you don't know. your teacher says you don't need to look up all of them in the dictionary, only the ones you need to get the main point of the text. how could text features you figure out which words to look up?

Andy bernard laughed at my joke, spitting out his water. complete thought incomplete thought

In 250 words, discuss the ways in which the novel relates to the historical context in which it was published.