Which sentence provides an example of using structural cues to understand a word?

Which sentence provides an example of using structural cues to understand a word?

• A. unhappiness breaks into un- + happiness
• B. reading by memory
• C. predicting from pictures
• D. ignoring prefixes

Answer: (A)

Using structural cues means breaking a word into meaningful parts to figure out its meaning. In the sentence unhappiness breaks into un- + happiness, you can see the prefix un- attached to the base word happiness. The prefix un- signals negation, so the whole word means not happiness or the state of not being happy. Recognizing how the parts fit together helps you infer meaning without needing to memorize the whole word. The other options rely on different strategies: reading by memory uses recall of whole words, predicting from pictures relies on visual or contextual clues, and ignoring prefixes means not using the word’s structure at all.

Using structural cues means breaking a word into meaningful parts to figure out its meaning. In the sentence unhappiness breaks into un- + happiness, you can see the prefix un- attached to the base word happiness. The prefix un- signals negation, so the whole word means not happiness or the state of not being happy. Recognizing how the parts fit together helps you infer meaning without needing to memorize the whole word.

The other options rely on different strategies: reading by memory uses recall of whole words, predicting from pictures relies on visual or contextual clues, and ignoring prefixes means not using the word’s structure at all.