Master the NPST 2025: Unleash Your Reading Comprehension Skills with Confidence!

Context clues are essential for enhancing reading comprehension as they provide hints about the meaning of unknown words through the surrounding text. When a reader encounters a word they do not understand, the context in which that word is used—such as surrounding sentences or phrases—can reveal its significance or suggest its meaning. For example, if the word is found in a sentence that describes an action, its meaning can often be inferred from the description or from nearby synonyms and antonyms.

The other options do not effectively capture the function of context clues. While understanding the author's intent is important for overall comprehension, context clues specifically relate to word meanings rather than intentions. Simplifying complex sentences is a broader skill that involves restructing ideas rather than deriving meanings from words. Summarizing the main idea is a separate reading comprehension skill that focuses on overall content instead of individual word meanings. Context clues specifically focus on helping readers decode difficult vocabulary, which is why this answer is the most accurate.