The novel The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins tells a story about a diamond of inestimable value that is given to a young girl, Rachel Verinder, on her eighteenth birthday. She wears the diamond to her birthday party, and after the party is over, the diamond is missing. The book, which is considered the first mystery novel in the English language, is told by a series of different narrators. In the passage below, the second narrator, Drusilla Clack, relates what she overheard from behind a curtain.

In Part I of this passage from The Moonstone, Miss Clack is surprised by Godfrey Ablewhite, a cousin of Rachel’s and a supporter of several charitable organizations. She has just overheard him say to himself, “I’ll do it today!”

Read through the passage and think about the strategy you might use to get to know each of the highlighted words below. When you finish reading, click on each highlighted word to learn more about pursuing a friendship with it.

Before you move to the next part of the excerpt, consider what you now know about the highlighted words and about the vocabulary strategies we applied to understand them.

When applicable, one strategy for getting to know a word is to think about its suffixes and prefixes. If the word is still unclear, you can apply context clues. You might also look up a word’s origin if a dictionary is handy on your phone, computer, or in your classroom.

Part II of the passage reveals Miss Clack’s questions about what Mr. Godfrey intends to do. She fears that he is going to withdraw his support from her favorite charity.

Read Part II of the passage, think about your strategy for getting to know the highlighted words, and then click on them to learn more.

Before you move on to Part III, take another minute to consider what you now know about the words from Part II of the passage and about vocabulary strategies.

In Part III of the passage, Drusilla’s guessing is brought to an end when a third person enters the room. Read Part III, consider your strategies for getting to know the highlighted words, and then click on them to learn more.

By now you are probably thinking that if you read this way all the time—looking up or figuring out every word of interest—you would never be able to read a short story, much less a book. While that may be true, the point is that you should be interested in words. Looking up as many words as you can will help make those words your friends.

You now know the words from the Part III list better, or if you already knew some of them, you may think of them in a different way than you did before our investigation. Your vocabulary will grow best if it grows the way your group of friends grows: by following up on natural interest.

If you reread the passage now, you might be more sensitive to the “feeling of the language,” including the connotations of the words the speaker chooses. You may understand the passage better, too.

For instance, what do you think of the character in the passage above who says of another person’s voice, “It was loud, it was bold, it was wanting in every female charm”? How is this person different from one who might say, “It was loud and bold and didn’t have any female charm”? Many readers might agree that “wanting in every female charm” is a more formal statement, without even taking into consideration what the speaker is saying.

You should also note the connotations of words like “loud” and “bold.” Describing a voice—especially a young girl’s voice—as “forceful” and “assured” would be quite different. The writer specifically chooses “loud” and “bold” to create a powerful connotation.

In the three-part passage, you saw examples of many prefixes, suffixes, and roots. You also found words you needed to study by looking them up in a dictionary, and you encountered words that carry positive and negative connotations. Some words came from other languages (although the ones you learned about in this section have all become “naturalized” citizens of English.)