Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

Review: Finding Facts
Here’s a quick review of what you learned in Lesson 1.
Reality TV has the ability to take ordinary people and
make them famous. However, another reason people
participate in reality TV shows is
2.
a.
for money.
b.
because they feel lucky.
c.
because they are bored.
A quick check of the facts in the paragraph will
tell you the answer is 
a
, for money.
What Does 
Proliferate
Mean?
Look again at the sentence in the passage in which
proliferate
is used:
Whatever their attraction, these shows are among
the most popular on television, and every season,
they 
proliferate
like weeds in an untended garden.
Again, even if you have no idea what 
proliferate
means, you can still tell what kind of word it is by the
way it is used. You know, for example, that these shows
proliferate like weeds in an untended garden. Therefore,
you can answer this question:
3.
Proliferate is a word associated with
a.
growth.
b.
reduction.
c.
disappearance.
The answer, of course, is growth. How can you
tell? Well, we all know that weeds have a tendency to
grow wherever they can.
Now that you’ve established that 
proliferate
relates
to growth, you can determine a more specific meaning
by looking for more clues in the sentence. The sentence
doesn’t only tell us that these shows 
proliferate
like
weeds. It also tells us that they 
proliferate
like weeds in
an untended garden. Just imagine a neglected garden,
one that has been left to its own devices. Weeds will
begin to grow in every nook and cranny of that garden.
In fact, they’ll quickly take over, to the detriment of the
plants. The phrase “weeds in an untended garden” is
quite descriptive, and as such, it serves as a wonderful
clue. Based on the words and phrases surrounding it,
an active reader should have no problem determining
the meaning of the word 
proliferate
.