How can you annotate a text to improve understanding?

• A. Add extra pages.
• B. Highlight or mark key ideas, unfamiliar words, and questions in the margins.
• C. Change the author’s opinions.
• D. Summarize aloud without writing.

Answer: (B)

Annotating a text means actively marking what you read and jotting notes in the margins to help you notice and remember important ideas, new words, and questions you have. This approach keeps your mind engaged with the material and gives you a handy road map for review. By highlighting or marking key ideas, you can quickly identify the main points later. Noting unfamiliar words helps you build vocabulary and understand the text more fully, and writing down questions in the margins lets you capture areas you want to clarify, which you can revisit after reading. All of this makes reading more interactive and strengthens understanding.

Adding extra pages won’t connect you to the text itself, so it won’t aid understanding. Changing the author’s opinions changes the content rather than your comprehension of it. Summarizing aloud without writing misses chances to capture details and revisit them later.