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Flashcards: Context-Dependent Meanings of Words and Phrases in Narrative Social Science Passages
Adapted from Early European History by Hutton Webster (1917)
Perhaps the most striking feature of a medieval village was its self-sufficiency. The inhabitants tried to produce at home everything they required, in order to avoid the uncertainty and expense of trade. The land gave them their food; the forest provided them with wood for houses and furniture. They made their own clothes of flax, wool, and leather. Their meal and flour were ground at the village mill, and at the village smithy their farm implements were manufactured. The chief articles which needed to be brought from some distant market were salt, used to salt down farm animals killed in autumn, iron for various tools, and millstones. Cattle, horses, and surplus grain also formed common objects of exchange between manors.
Life in a medieval village was rude and rough. The peasants labored from sunrise to sunset, ate coarse fare, lived in huts, and suffered from frequent diseases. They were often the helpless prey of the feudal nobles. If their lord happened to be a quarrelsome man, given to fighting with his neighbors, they might see their lands ravaged, their cattle driven off, their village burned, and might themselves be slain. Even under peaceful conditions the narrow, shut-in life of the manor could not be otherwise than degrading.
Yet there is another side to the picture. If the peasants had a just and generous lord, they probably led a fairly comfortable existence. Except when crops failed, they had an abundance of food, and possibly wine or cider drink. They shared a common life in the work of the fields, in the sports of the village green, and in the services of the parish church. They enjoyed many holidays; it has been estimated that, besides Sundays, about eight weeks in every year were free from work. Festivities at Christmas, Easter, and May Day, at the end of ploughing and the completion of harvest, relieved the monotony of the daily round of labor. Perhaps these medieval peasants were not much worse off than the agricultural laborers in most countries of modern Europe.
The underlined word “manufactured” most nearly means __________.
destroyed
sold
made
perfected
improved
All SSAT Middle Level Reading Resources
Our SSAT Middle Level Reading Comprehension Flashcards each contain one question that might appear on the Middle Level Reading Comprehension section of the SSAT. You can use them to get a comprehensive overview of each topic covered by the SSAT Middle Level Reading Comprehension section one problem at a time, or to do problem drills that focus on particular problem types or content areas found on the SSAT Middle Level Reading Comprehension section.
Is your child taking the SSAT test soon? Make sure to encourage him or her to study for the Reading section of the test. Even if your child reads well, they need to get used to the format of this section of the test and work up their reading speed. The SSAT Middle Level Reading test will contain 40 questions that your child will have to answer in 40 minutes. The questions will assess their comprehension of several literary passages. They will have to ready quickly to make sure they have enough time as possible to concentrate on the questions.
To make preparing for this important section of the SSAT easier, Varsity Tutors' Learning Tools offers many SSAT Middle Level Reading study help activities, including free flashcards online. The flashcards offer a great way for your child to squeeze in a little test preparation when they don't have time to take a practice test or a full diagnostic test. Learning Tools Flashcards for SSAT Middle Level Reading can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. That means that your child can study them when on-the-go between extracurricular activities, while riding to and from school, or any time they have a little unexpected downtime during their day.
The SSAT Middle Level Reading study flashcards were produced in a format similar to the reading question format on the SSAT. Each flashcard contains a passage your child must read, and then asks a question based on the passage.
The types of passages on the flashcards include literary fiction, poetry, science, social science, humanities, and several other types of passages that they may encounter on the SSAT. The questions they must answer after reading the passages include determining tone and purpose, making inferences, determining authorial attitude, determine the meaning of words based on context, and many more types of questions they may later encounter on the SSAT.
When helping your child with their SSAT Middle Level Reading review, you may also want to take advantage of the flashcards maker. This Learning Tool provides blank flashcard templates that can be filled out with additional literary passages and multiple-choice questions based on them. If your child is an avid reader, then find out what book they are currently reading for fun and what chapter they are on in it. Then, enter passages from the next chapter they haven't read yet and questions based on them. This can help them look forward to studying, because it allows them to read their favorite book as they learn!
An additional way you can use the flashcards creator is to simply pull the ready-made cards that your child needs to study most into a new, customized deck. Once you create a new deck of flashcards using either method, you can then save it, and your child can access it from their computer, tablet, or smartphone any time they want to study it until test day.
The SSAT Middle Level Reading test can be challenging, so encourage your child to study as much as
they can until test day. Practice reading passages and answering questions based on them can help your child improve their reading and comprehension skills.
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