What are contextual clues? Guess the meaning of the words underlined in the following sentences and tell what contextual clues have helped you in arriving at the meaning. （a） Their greatest fear was of a conflagration, since fire would destroy their flimsy wooden settlement before help could arrive. （b） As the fighting on all fronts reached its peak, the economy neared its nadir.
(1) Context may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. In many cases, when a new word (thought to be) appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints which might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea. (A) Synonymy: similar with fire (B) Antonymy: the opposite of nadir.
