Context Clues

1. Context Clues Practice

2. Concealed • Most pirates stole coins to spend, not bury. One pirate who did bury treasure was Captain Kidd. In 1699, he hid gold and silver on an island near New York. People have dug up some loot, but more may still be concealed.

3. Designate • According to pirate lore, pirates who buried treasure would make a treasure map. On the map, they would mark an “X” to designate where they had put their treasure. In reality, pirates probably did not make treasure maps, let alone bury treasure.

4. Plundered • Pirates led dangerous lives. They knew they could be killed at any moment. Therefore, they often wasted little time in spending what they had plundered. Burying treasure and going back for it would take too much time and effort!

5. Marooned • Treasure Island is a novel about the search for treasure a pirate named Flint buried. Other pirates return to the island but cannot find the riches. They do find Benn, a man Flint had maroonedon the island. Before the searchers arrived, Gunn had found Flint’s treasure and stashed it in his cave.

6. Allegedly • In the 1500’s, Spanish explorers searched South America for a city that was allegedly made of gold. It was known as El Dorado. At times, people put El Dorado on maps of South America even though no explorer has ever found it.

7. Entitled • If a person today finds valuable items that were buried long ago, he may be entitled to keep them. The person who buried the items is dead and it may not be possible to find relatives of that person. There is truth in the saying “finders, keepers.”

8. Apparatus • Some people hunt for lost coins on beaches using an apparatus called a metal detector. It has a long stem that ends in a circular part called a search head, which hovers just over the ground. When in passes over metal, it makes a sound.

9. Artifacts • Many metal detectors are not able to locate metal that is deeper than a food underground. Some people who use metal detectors are hoping to find gold or silver. Others are interested in historical artifacts, such as buckles or weapons.

10. Impediments • Something was buried on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. No one knows who buried it or what it is, but many people have attempted to find it. Since the early 1800’s, group after group has dug deep—and been stopped by various impediments such as wooden platforms, small artifacts, metals, and flooding.

11. dissuade • A legend states that Captain Kidd buried treasure on an island in the Connecticut River. The crew determined which of them would be killed and buried above the treasure chest. They believed the dead pirate would dissuade future treasure seekers. No known treasure has been found there.

12. bounty • In 2005, adventurers uncovered what has been called “the biggest treasure in history” off the coast of Chile. Buried 50 feet, the bounty included 600 barrels of jewels and gold coins. The adventurers found the riches on Robinson Crusoe Island, named for the fictional castaway.

13. probe • In 2005, adventurers found a $10 billion treasure on Robinson Crusoe Island in the Pacific Ocean. Actually, it was a robot who detected the massive fortune. This robot was able to probe the foil for metal. It had previously been used to find buried weapons and even a murdered man.

14. yielded • In 2007, scientists in Norway found what they believed was a Viking burial site. The site yielded pearls and jewelry, including a bronze brooch featuring two bear heads. These items date back to the eigth and ninth centuries, yet they were well-preserved.

15. elaborate • Since the late 1700s, people have searched for a rumored treasure on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. They have dug and drilled more than a hundred feet down, encountering elaborate booby traps along the way. They have found shoes and tools, but almost no treasure---just three gold links.

16. safeguard • Someone built a deep and complex series of booby traps on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. They possibly safeguard a buried treasure. Many have searched for it, and six have died in the process. Who created it? Some believe it was pirates, French or British soldiers, or perhaps even Vikings.

17. excavating • While excavating a possible treasure site on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, someone once found a stone with a message in symbols carved into it. It is not a commonly known language. According to one translation, it reads “forty feet below two million pounds are buried.”

18. Cache • People worldwide play a game called geocaching. Geocaching is a high-tech “treasure” hunt. The goal is to use a GPS device to find a small, hidden cache. The cache may be everyday items such as books, toys, or coins in a waterproof container.

19. Lionize • In 1847, outlaw Sam Bass died in a Texas shootout on this twenty-seventh birthday. Stories tell how he’d buried stolen loot in caves and other places around the state. Though he was a bank and train robber, some lionize him as an Old West hero.

20. Fabricated • In 2005, several men in Massachusetts claimed they discovered a box buried in a backyard filled with cash. The old bills were from 1899 to 1929 and worth $125,000. However, the men had fabricated the story. They were arrested for stealing the money.

21. Lucrative • The Crater of Diamonds is an Arkansas park that contains the only diamond mine in the world open to the public. Anyone can search and keep what they find. Many diamonds there are too small to be valuable. However, some people have made lucrative finds.

22. Saunter • When Lake Wendouree in Australia dried up, people were able to saunter onto the lake bed. Some were treasure hunters looking for items people may have dropped or thrown into the water. One such item is a medal from the 1956 Olympics, which has not yet been found.

23. Endeavor • In the 1990’s, divers searched a Scottish river for a historic shipwreck. They found what they believed was a ship of King Charles I that sank in 1633. It may hold royal treasures. The ship is buried in mud. It would be a challenging endeavor to unearth it.

24. Staggering • 1n 2002, three friends using metal detectors in Wales made a staggering discovery. Buried in a field were gold and bronze jewelry and ceramic tools. They were approximately 3,000 years old. A museum paid a substantial sum for the pieces—half to the land owner, half of the discoverers.

25. Descendants • People debate who owns sunken treasure—the country it came from or the people who find it. Some feel it belongs to the descendants of whoever it belonged to. People who find wrecks sometimes have to go to court to get the right to claim them as their own.