What is the reliable method for a word-in-context question?

Read the surrounding sentences and substitute each candidate meaning to see which fits

A passage gives reasons a city should ban single-use plastics and answers objections. The author's primary purpose is to:

Persuade readers to support a ban

From the pattern of word choices and emphasis across the passage

Conclude by reasserting the thesis and urging a response

Critical, because it disapproves without the anger 'indignant' implies

The feeling a word carries beyond its literal meaning

Indirect characterization: the reader infers the trait from actions

The reader is limited to the narrator's knowledge, so others' inner lives are filtered or hidden

Explaining the effect: how the feature shapes the passage

12questions. Pick an answer and you'll see why right away.

What is the reliable method for a word-in-context question?
In 'the dam was built to check the river's flow,' the word 'check' most nearly means:
A passage gives reasons a city should ban single-use plastics and answers objections. The author's primary purpose is to:
How do you read an author's point of view (stance)?
A passage names a town's flooding problem, then devotes the rest to proposed solutions. Its organization is:
The final paragraph of an argument restates the position and calls for action. Its function is to:
A narrator calls a town 'cramped, gray, and forever drizzling, a place that seemed to apologize for existing.' The tone is:
A passage objects to a policy calmly and reasonably, without anger. Which tone word fits best?
What is connotation?
A character says little but returns a dropped wallet and helps a classmate who mocked him. This is:
A literary passage is narrated in the first person. How does this point of view shape what the reader knows?
On a harder craft question, naming a feature earns little on its own. What earns the marks?