See if you can put your knowledge of word parts to use on a more challenging scientific explanation. Click the link below to read “Biological Diversity,” an article that appears on the website for the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Parts of the article may be difficult for you to read because of the technical and scientific language used. Don’t worry if you don’t understand every detail in the article. Instead, notice how many words you can define just by looking at the word’s prefixes, suffixes, and root words.

How did you do? Were there some words that you could figure out, even though you’d never seen them before? Compare your approach to the strategies described in the tabs below. You may learn a few more word attack moves to use in the future!

Break It Down Find Common Ground Consider the Context

Even when you do not recognize a word, you might be able to recognize some of its parts. Consider microclimate, for example. You probably already know what a climate is. You probably also know that micro– means “small.”

Question

Based on these clues, what is a microclimate?

Answer

a small area that is defined by specific environmental conditions

Here are some more words that might have presented problems for you. See if you can define them using the clues provided for each word. Once you think you know the definition, click the word to check your answer.

Define This	Clue	The Solution
facilitate	The suffix –ate means “to be acted upon in a specific way.”	Try thinking of a facility―a guided walk, a visitor center, or a bathroom―as something that is designed to make person’s park visit easier. You could decide that facilitate means “the act of making something easier to do.”
preservation	The suffix –ation means “the act or process of.”	If you know that preserve means “to make something last,” you might guess that preservation means “the act or process of making something last.”
ecosystem	The prefix eco– means “environment.”	You should know that a system is a group of things interacting together. When you add eco– to system, you get a word that describes how a group of related organisms interact within their environment.