Identifying Meaning

Question 1

How to break a sentence to contextualize its meaning?

Answer 1

While reading the sentence take pauses once you encounter the below items and then relate them to the sentence

1. Verb like entities
2. Relative pronouns
3. Connectors
4. Contextual words such as As/because/Although/Though

Question 2

Example 1 of contextualizing the sentence

The three main canals dug in the 17th century around the city of Amsterdam, contribute significantly to the city’s ecosystem.

Answer 2

In the sentence, you would make pauses at below places

1. dug - verb like entities;
   Test 1 - No aiding verb so it’s not a verb
   Test 2 - Who dug in the 17th century - not the canals/ what dug in the 17th century - nonsensical question, hence dug is a verbal modifying the canals.
2. contributes - verb like entity
   What contributes significantly to the city’s ecosystem. The answer is “the three canals” (subject of the sentence) hence contribute is a verb