If you are reading an article in a history textbook and realize that you do not understand a lot of the words, which steps should you follow?

1. look up the words you don't know

2. re-read the article and replace the word you didn't know with the definition of that word

3. If you still don't understand, discuss it with another fellow classmate or what I do is try to find information about the article such as when was it written and who is the audience. Knowing when the article was written helps the reader understand the context of the article and will clear up some confusion.

4. If after finding info about the article and you still don't understand it, email your teacher, inform him/her what you have done to try to understand it  as well as tell them what you think the article is about,  and ask them if you are thinking in the right direction. If they see that you have put some effort, then they will be willing to help you out.

Hopefully this helped and good luck.

the following key ideas correctly express the key sentence.

restate key idea: most people can learn to swim in ten short lessons.

restate key idea: the majority of water-accident victims require mouth-to-mouth breathing.

restate key idea: an empty, tightly closed gallon jug will support a tired swimmer.  

restate key idea: first aid is to prevent accidents as well as assist in rescue.

explanation: the key idea needs to have the same topic as the key sentence (drowning and safety).

where is the writing? (so i can answer)