1.What should a reader do if he or she is unable to determine the meaning of a word using context clues? pls help

Read the excerpt from "death by black hole."albert einstein's general theory of relativity, published in 1916, provides the insight to understand the bizarre structureof space and time in a high-gravity environment. later research by the american physicist john a. wheeler, and others, to formulate a vocabulary as well as the mathematical tools to describe and predict what a black hole will do toits surroundings.read the excerpt from "man listening to disc."and i bow deeply to thelonious monkfor figuring out a wayto motorize or whatever-his huge pianoso he could be with us today.these excerpts are similar because both texts

Which two passages in this excerpt from the death of ivan illych does leo tolstoy use to suggest that ivan ilych feels like his life is slipping away from him? "what's the use? it makes no difference," he said to himself, staring with wide-open eyes into the darkness. "death. yes, death. and none of them knows or wishes to know it, and they have no pity for me. now they are playing." (he heard through the door the distant sound of a song and its accompaniment.) "it's all the same to them, but they will die too! fools! i first, and they later, but it will be the same for them. and now they are merry . . the beasts! " anger choked him and he was agonizingly, unbearably miserable. "it is impossible that all men have been doomed to suffer this awful horror! " he raised himself. "something must be wrong. i must calm myself—must think it all over from the beginning." and he again began thinking. "yes, the beginning of my illness: i knocked my side, but i was still quite well that day and the next. it hurt a little, then rather more. i saw the doctors, then followed despondency and anguish, more doctors, and i drew nearer to the abyss. my strength grew less and i kept coming nearer and nearer, and now i have wasted away and there is no light in my eyes.

Nthis poem by ruskin bond, what does the use of the word heart-beats suggest about the narrator's attitude toward life?