Problem Solving

" A piece of embroidered fabric is held in a circular wooden hoop. If the area of the fabric framed by the hoop is x square feet, and the hoop has a radius of x feet, then x equals ? "

Guys, So I have seen that there are occasions when I misinterpret or wrongly visualize certain terms in PS and make my own assumptions and get lost in those assumptions. The primary source of this problem is my verbal ability. The problem above mentions the word "hoop". To me a hoop is something like a basketball's hoop. But it can also mean something else. I mean The thickness of a hoop can vary. And the problem below mentions something framed within the hoop. Now the thickness of the frame i.e. hoop can vary from few millimaters to so many inches. I interpreted this problem as folows" the fabric was stretched and fitted within the hole of the hoop and the hoop was like a boundary to the fabric with some thickness. The radius of this enture hoop from the center was x. And I started proceeding and got lost. But this damn problem was easy when I saw the solution. It ignored the thickness of the hoop and directly equated the area of the stretched fabric to the area of the hoop. So in other words Pi*x^2 = x and got x = 1/PI.
Similarly there was another problem which mentioned the word "mitten" and I got lost. What do we do in such situations when you do not know the precise meaning of a certain word in word problems? It is not my fault of not using those words in my daily life isn't it?