Thousands of English words are built from a small set of Greek and Latin roots. Learn that “tele” means far and “scope” means look, and telescope explains itself — as do telephone, television and microscope.
Apa yang akan dipelajari anak anda
- Know the meaning of common roots such as tele, micro, aqua, bio, graph, port and geo
- Find the root inside a longer word
- Use roots to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word
- Group words that share a root
Words are built from parts
Biology is bio (life) plus logy (study): the study of life. Geography is geo (earth) plus graph (write): writing about the earth. Once you know the parts, a long word stops being a mystery.
A tool for every subject
Roots turn up everywhere — thermometer in science, century in history, triangle in maths. Because many languages borrowed the same roots, they often help with words in other languages too.
Contoh soalan
Berikut ialah beberapa soalan seperti dalam misi pertama. Bolehkah anda menjawabnya?
1. What does the root “graph” mean, as in “autograph”?
- see
- write
- walk
- hear
Tunjuk jawapan
Jawapan: write. An autograph is a signature you write yourself.
2. What does the root “geo” mean, as in “geography”?
- sky
- sea
- star
- earth
Tunjuk jawapan
Jawapan: earth. Geography is the study of the Earth.
3. What does the root “bio” mean, as in “biology”?
- earth
- two
- book
- life
Tunjuk jawapan
Jawapan: life. Biology is the study of living things.
Tip untuk orang dewasa
- Pick a root of the week and collect every word you find with it.
- Invent a new word from two roots and ask someone to guess its meaning.
- When you meet a long word, cover the ends and look for a part you know.