Resolve the scope of the instruction
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
The ambiguity in the recycling club's notice, 'Bring bottles and bags with labels,' left volunteers unsure whether both kinds of container needed identification. Lina's interpretation required labels on the bags alone, while another volunteer understood the phrase as applying to everything. An unambiguous replacement notice instructed participants to label every bottle and every bag before arrival. The club tested the new wording with two readers before printing another batch, asking each reader to explain exactly what a participant should prepare.
At the collection table, the earlier ambiguity became a practical problem because volunteers had prepared their containers differently. Lina explained her interpretation without claiming that it was the only reading the original notice could support. The unambiguous revision gave the team a shared instruction for future collections, but it could not retroactively tell earlier readers which meaning the writer intended. The coordinator accepted both preparations that afternoon and used the clearer notice when arranging the following event with the same volunteers.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.