my %input;
    $input{$_} = undef for @$inputs;  # make this a hash

    $/ = undef; # look up $/ in perldoc perlvar
    unless ( open( FILE, ...)) {
        #blah
        next;
    }
    $text = <FILE>;  # $text holds entire file content.
    $text =~ s/\n\n/ &lt;P&gt; /; # (optional: preserve paragraph boundaries)

    @words = split( /\s+/, $text );

    for my $i (0..$#words) {
        next unless ( exists( $input{$word[$i]} ));

        # get here when there's a match, output matched
        # word along with "N" words of surrounding context
        # (left as an exercise...)
    }