Reading Strategy: Context Clues When you come across an unfamiliar word in your reading, you can often determine its
meaning from its context—the words, phrases, and sentences which surround it. For example,
notice how the context provides clues to the meaning of avail in the sentence that follows:
But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no
more to keep you from falling than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Since we know that "these things are nothing" and that "they would avail no more than
"thin air" to keep a person from falling, we can figure out that avail must mean "help."
DIRECTIONS: As you read these sentences from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, use con-
text clues to determine the meaning of each italicized word. Write your definition on the lines
provided, along with an explanation of how you used context clues to help determine the word's
meaning.