Improve Your English: 297 [Archives:2006/998/Education]

Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
I. What to Say

Situations and Expressions (93)

Wishes for a sister (iii)

A brother and a sister share an ineffable memory of childhood. They grew up hand in hand with a strong bond of kinship that grew stronger and stronger as they grew older and older. Life holds out a special charm for a brother when he's in the precious company of a sister whose companionship is the reason for so many smiles for him.

– It's great knowing I can count on you for advice, help or just good conversation – that you care and understand and can make me laugh, when that's exactly what I need most. You're everything special a sister could be and I feel lucky to have you.

– Dear sister!You're too precious to me. You can relate to me like no one else can, whom I can laugh with to no extent; I can cry too when times are tough, the one who understands me even when my thoughts are not fitting into words. For me you're precious in the whole world.

II. How to Say it Correctly

Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences

1. She has to do lot of traveling in her job.

2. All seemed to go wrong.

3. The whole Sana'a was affected by the power cut.

4. Their both children had chicken pox at the same time.

5. Each buses owned by the company are washed once a week.

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. The Talibs (the Talib family) live in the house next door.

2. She plans to go to college after she's finished school.

We use zero article if the speaker is talking about 'college', 'school' as institutions, rather than a particular college and a particular school known to the hearer.

3. Did you buy any (or some) tomatoes when you went shopping?

'Any' and 'some' are not used with singular countable nouns. 'Some' might be used when we expect the answer to be 'yes'.

4. I've never seen anybody (or anyone) that tall before.

5. There isn't much traffic along the street where I live.

'Much', not 'many' is used with uncountable nouns.

III. Increase Your Word Power

(A) How to express it in one word

1. Short tale with animals in it and intended to give moral teaching

2. Front or face of a building towards a street

3. One of the many sides of a cut stone or jewel

4. Exact copy or reproduction of writing, printing or a picture etc.

5. Story, work of art, etc. that looks genuine but is not

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. A cheerful person who likes doing things rather than using his mind: extrovert (n)

2. State of overflowing: exuberance (n)

3. Oozing out of drops of liquid: exude (vt)

4. Small hole in clothes: eyelet (n)

5. Using cautious and slow strategy to wear out opposition: fabian (n)

(B) Words often confused

Bring out the difference in meaning of the following pairs of words

1. acquisition, requisition, inquisition

2. prescribe, proscribe, inscribe

3. collar, colour

4. conceive, perceive

5. compress, depress, repress

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. abuse (vt) (make a bad use of): Politicians often abuse their powers to further their own ends.

misuse (n) (using wrongly): Many EFL learners make misuse of prepositions 'in'/'at'.

disuse (n) (state of no longer being used): The machine is out of order due to long disuse.

2. concur (vi) (agree in opinion): The cabinet has concurred minister's draft proposal.

conquer (vt) (defeat or overcome enemies, bad habits, etc.): Alexander, the great, conquered many countries.

3. concave (adj) (an outline or surface that is curved inwards like the inside of a circle): I use concave lenses.

conclave (n) (private or secret meeting): Recently the conclave of cardinals met in the Vatican City to elect a new Pope.

4. concurrent (adj) (existing together): The seminar was organized in three concurrent sessions.

simultaneous (adj) (happening or done at the same time): Recently there were simultaneous blasts in several places of New Delhi.

5. hospitable (adj) (showing the wish to give attention to the needs of others): The Agabis are very hospitable people.

hospital (n) (place where the sick persons are treated): The university of Science and Technology has a super specialized hospital in Sana'a.

(C ) Synonyms and Antonyms

(i) Synonyms

Choose the word that is closest in meaning to the one given at the top

1. circumlocution

a. expressing an idea in more words than are necessary

b. evasive talk c. a long winding speech

d. irrelevant details in speech

2. circumspect

a. looking round on all sides carefully

b. wary c. cautious d. prudent

3. clandestine

a. concealed b. hidden

c. private d. on the sly

4. coalesce

a. to grow together b. unite into one body

c. fusion d. combination

5. cognition

a. knowledge b. apprehension

c. knowing in the widest sense

d. to be conscious of

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

Word Synonym

1. assiduity diligence

2. axiom a self evident truth

3. baroque exuberant style in architecture and art

4. boisterous noisy

5. cacophony discord of sounds

(ii) Antonyms

Choose the word that is most opposite in meaning to the one given at the top

1. effeminate

a. virile b. feminine

c. philogynist d. misogynist

2. epilogue

a. epigraph b. prologue c. prelude d. vogue

3. extolled

a. condemned b. sang

c. criticized d. praised

4. esoteric

a. concentric b. categoric

c. rhetoric d. none of these

5. endemic

a. epidemic b. hateful c. assaulting d. lethargic

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

Word Antonym

1. debonair inelegant

2. delicious odious

3. deviate abide

4. diligent lazy

5. emerge disappear

(D ) Choose the correctly spelt word

1. a. libarty b. liberty

c. leberty d. liberety

2. a. libbrery b. librrary

c. lebrary d. library

3. a. maintennance b. manteinance

c. maintenance d. maintenancee

4. a. magnifikant b. magnificient

c. maginificiant d. magnificent

5. a. mathematics b. mathmatics

c. methemetics d. mathamatics

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. interrogative 2. immediately 3. journey

4. knowledge 5. litterateur

(E ) Phrases and idioms

Use the following phrases in sentences

1. in hot water

2. belle of the ball

3. in seventh heaven

4. a different kettle of fish

5. change horses in midstream

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

1. hold your horses (to wait for a moment, not to act hastily): You should hold your horses and have a second thought before giving up your job.

2. bite (someone's) head off (to answer someone sharply and angrily): Shamlan bit my head off when I expressed my inability to pay off the loan now.

3. run a mile (to go to great lengths to avoid someone or something): I would run a mile rather than go to the night club with my friends.

4. what's up with (someone/something) (what's wrong with someone or something): What's up with Ayid – he is putting a long face?

5. be not getting any younger (to be getting older): Don't forget that I'm ageing and am not getting any younger to participate in such fun and frolic.

(IV) Grammar and Composition

(A)Grammar

Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it means exactly the same as the sentence printed before it.

1. Running a big car like that can't be at all cheap.

It must ))

2. Ahmed Azzam started teaching six years ago.

Ahmed Azzam has )-

3. What do you find most interesting about the film?

What interests ))

4. 'What's happened to your knee?' Khalid's mother asked him.

Khalid's mother asked him ))

5. I was amazed by the things he said.

I thought what ))

Suggested answers to the previous week's questions

Verb + preposition

1. On her birthday, many friends came to wish/congratulate her.

2. In my dream, every one was laughing at me.

3. You really remind me of your brother. You look like him and you sound just like him, too.

4. She was so terrified of speaking in the debate she was frozen with fear and her hands were shaking.

5. The court passed orders to prevent him from keeping animals again.

6. I'm not interested in concert.

7. We might have a picnic tomorrow or we might not – it all depends on the weather.

8. As she didn't know the town, she asked the bus driver to tell her where to get off.

9. She succeeded in passing her driving test at the third attempt.

10. I have employed a nurse for looking after my baby girl.

11. Our dog is very clever at doing tricks.

12. She got top marks in all her exams, so her parents were very pleased with her.

(B)Composition

Expand the central idea contained in the maxim

115: THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM

Suggested answers to the previous lesson's questions

114: A BIRD IN THE HAND

IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH

A bird in the hand symbolizes something certain or known. Two birds in the bush signal something uncertain or something that one may or may not be able to get. To put it in another way, something which one has really got is better than a lot of nice things which one hasn't got. In practical life we often come across some people who are not content with what they have. They fruitlessly run after uncertain things which appear to be more alluring, neglecting things which are already theirs or are at their disposal. The grass on the other side of the hedge looks greener. They deceive themselves into believing that the thing far away is a worthier possession than the thing which is already theirs. In running after mirage they lose both and come to grief. Hence it is never prudent to forsake that which is certain for the sake of something that seems to be attractive but is uncertain. It is wiser to make the most of the one bird in the hand than to wishfully run after the two birds which are away in the bush. The core of the maxim is a warning against being a star-gazer and an advice to be practical and realistic.

V. Pearls from the Holy Quran

“Your Lord is full of mercy all-embracing; but from people in guilt never will His wrath be turned back.” S6:A147

VI. Food for Thought

“The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be”)Paul Valer
——
[archive-e:998-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-11-13-p:education]