Improve Your English – 267 [Archives:2005/824/Education]

Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
I. What to Say

Situations and expressions (76):

Job advertisement (IV)

The language of advertisement is chiefly characterized by persuasion. It is essentially persuasive discourse which, like any other form of discourse is an interactive public or mass mode of communication with a rich 'persuasive intent.' It is based on a resource-given-receiver-received framework. The ultimate objective of advertising is 'promoting' and 'selling' goods and services in the most appealing 'persuasive manner.'

– An opportunity waiting just for you.

– Unleash your talent, realize your dreams.

– Looking for a life- time opportunity. Life can be as big as you dream it to be.

– 6 months of your time can lead to a global career.

– Join )) and connect to the future (a customer knowledge company)

– We'll make you your own boss.

– Looking for a few influencing minds.

– Discover yourself at )).

II. How to say it correctly

Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences

1. Scarcely had we gone out than it began to rain heavily.

2. we reached at Taiz at 8 p.m.

3. Telephone was discovered by Graham Bell, an American scientist.

4. The gentry of the city was present at the meeting.

5. I have collected all the informations about this case.

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. Unless you speak the truth, you will be dismissed.

2. One ought to perform one's duty to the best of one's ability.

3. You must work hard if you want to achieve success.

4. The police was successful in capturing the culprit.

5. The political leaders should refrain from telling lies in their speeches.

III. Increase your word power

(A) How to express it in one word

1. Person, animal, or plant much below the usual size.

2. To become gradually fewer or smaller.

3. The science that deals with matter in movement.

4. Machine for changing steam-power, water-power etc. into electrical energy.

5. Succession of rulers belonging to one family.

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. Make another sound track for a cinema film in a different language: dub (vt)

2. To lower one's head or body so as to avoid being hit: duck (vt&i)

3. A person or behavior that is easily influenced or controlled: ductile (adj).

4. Goods on which customs duties must be paid: dutiable (adj).

5. Goods that are allowed to come into the country without tax: duty-free (adj).

(B) Synonyms and Antonyms

i) Synonyms

Given below are some words followed by four answers. Mark the answer, which is nearest to the meaning of the given word.

1. aura

a) frame b) crown

c) subtle emanation d) enthusiastically.

2. solicit

a) to command b) to worry

c) to sympathize with d) to ask for

3. envisage

a) to face b) to seek

c) to foresee in imagination

d) to understand

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

Word synonym

1. entail to impose or result in

2. thwart to block

3. assiduously persistently

II. Antonyms

Given below are some words followed by four answers. Tick the answer, which gives the opposite meaning of the given word.

1. Ignominious

a) selfish b) villain c) honorable d) victorious

2. Magnanimous

a) dishonest b) covetous c) gracious d) faithful

3. Penitence

a) penniless b) cowardice c) naughty d) remorseless

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

Word Antonym

a. laud to censure

b. reverence disdain

c. sycophant slanderer

(C) Words Commonly Confused

Bring out differences in meaning of the following pairs of words.

1. madding, maddening

2. gage, gauge, gaze, gauze.

3. exhausting, exhaustive.

4. dependant, dependent

5. epidemic, endemic.

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. partiality (n) (favoritism; inclination of the mind towards something) A teacher should not show partiality to any particular student.

bias (n) (undue mental inclination towards or away from something) He is biased against Americans.

prejudice (n) (opinion, like or dislike formed before one has adequate knowledge or experience) The Britishers in India were guilty of racial prejudice.

2. locate (vt) (look for and find something; discover or show the position of) Can you locate Yemen on the map? The mechanic could not locate the source of the strange noise in the engine.

find (vt) (to come upon something not as a result of deliberate search) I found a purse on the road.

3. jealous (adj) (feeling unhappy because of the better fortune of others) He is jealous of his neighbour's prosperity.

zealous (adj)( full of enthusiasm) He is a zealous worker.

4. hoard (vt&i) (save and store) She likes to hoard gold.

horde (vt) (crowds of people) Hordes of people gathered outside.

5. excursion (n) (short journey by a group for pleasure) We organized an excursion to the mountains .

incursion (n) (sudden attack or invasion) There have been many an incursion into our territory by foreign invaders.

(D) Phrases and Idioms

Use the following idioms in sentences

1) the more the merrier.

2) dead to the world

3) turn upside down

4) cross swords with

5) laugh one's head off

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions.

1) be tied up (to be busy, to be occupied with): I am tied up with several things this week.

2) burn the midnight oil (to study or work until very late at night): Students burn the midnight oil nearer the dates of exam.

3) hit the nail on the head (to be absolutely accurate or exact): The advocate hit the nail on the head when he produced the inviolable evidence against the accused.

4) twist someone's arm (to try to persuade someone to do something against his/her will) He was unwilling to fight the election, but the party workers twisted his arm and made him agree to contest.

5) have a stab at (something) (to try to do something); He had no previous experience of paratrooping; but he decided to have a stab at the sport.

IV. Grammar and Composition

A) Grammar

Use who, which or whose to complete the following sentences.

1. Marsupials are animals . young are carried in a pouch.

2. There are a number of mammals live in the sea.

3. An ornithologist is a person studies birds.

4. Amphibians, . are cold, blooded animals, can live on land or in the water.

5. David Attenborough is a naturalist films have been seen all over the world.

6. Spiders feed on smaller creatures . they catch in their webs.

7. There are some scientists spend their entire lives studying one kind of animal.

8. There are a number of birds are not capable of flying.

9. Mammals are animals abies are born fully formed rather than as eggs.

10. Crocodiles and lizards are related to the dinosaurs ived millions of years ago.

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. Dr. Adel's upstairs are getting changed, but he will come down in a moment.

2. When they heard the sound of the helicopter, they looked up and waved.

3. The enquiry team are looking into exactly why the accident happened.

4. I can't remember her number- could you look it up in the phone book for me?

5. At the end of the concert, the audience went on clapping until the singer came back and did an encore.

6. When they looked into the nest, they saw three baby birds.

7. When I last visited the Eiffel Tower, the lift wasn't working ,so I came down the stairs.

8. Although unemployment is high, the government says it will come down soon.

9. When he went to the fair, Ali wanted to go up the big wheel.

10. He was pleased to hear that the value of his house had gone up since he had bought it.

Composition

Expand the idea contained in the maxim

92. Might is right

The previous week's topic

91. Prosperity gains friends.

But adversity tries them

When a person enjoys power, position or wealth, he is surrounded by many admirers who like to curry favor with him. These are but fair-weather friends whose ostensible objective is to buttress their selfish designs. But if that person, who was once Dame Fortune's favored child, falls in bad days and loses his glamour, the admirers don't hesitate to desert him unscrupulously, except a very few who are steadfast in their loyalty to this person even though he is haunted by the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune. This proves that adversity or blind misfortune is a kind of acid test for friendship. It discriminates between the true and faithless friends and separates them like grain from chaff. It exposes the masks of the time servers whose only motive was fulfillment of their narrow, petty, selfish interests. So, unless a man faces adversities, he may not know the true worth of friends.

III. Pearls from the Holy Quran.

“Obey Allah, and obey the

Messenger. And beware (of evil):

If ye do turn back, know ye that it is

Our Messenger's duty to proclaim (the Message) in the clearest manner.”

S.5 A.92

IV. Food for thought

'With love one learns the best manners.'

)Mir
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