Using Collocations for Natural English - Elizabeth Walter, Kate Woodford 2010
Collocations for success
Review Units 1-4
Keep trying
The collocations in these exercises show a variety of ways to express the idea of succeeding in doing or getting something. They are used in contexts such as work and careers, sports or achieving personal goals.
1 Match the two halves of the sentences.
1 After three days of negotiations, he
2 He's just landed a top job
3 She finally achieved her ambition to
4 We will have to explore other options if
5 She quickly acquired a reputation as
6 He earned his boss's respect by
7 We have to meet this deadline or
8 I get a sense of satisfaction when I
a in a law company.
b working hard and effectively.
c the talks fail to produce results.
d become a doctor.
e finally clinched the deal.
f a very good businesswoman.
g accomplish a task.
h the whole project will fail.
2 Look at the magazine article. Put the sentences in the correct order so that the paragraphs make sense.
3 How motivated are you? Answer these questions by choosing a, b or c, and our life coach Guy Grounded will tell you.
How motivated are you?
1 Do you always accomplish a task once you have started it?
a Yes, of course!
b I usually try to finish what I've started.
c To be honest, I'm not great at finishing off things.
2 How important is it for you to meet deadlines?
a Absolutely essential.
b It's important but you have to recognise that sometimes it just isn't possible.
c I don't think I've met a deadline in my life.
3 To land your dream job, what would you do?
a Anything. My career is everything to me.
b Send my CV to the relevant company, speak to the right people - you know, the usual things.
c Dream job - what are you talking about?
4 Do you have any ambitions that you want to achieve?
a Too many to list!
b Yes, like most people I have career ambitions.
c I've got one - to work as little as possible.
5 If something that you are trying to achieve does not immediately produce results, how do you react?
a I work at it until I get the results I want.
b I'm a bit discouraged but I keep trying.
c Oh forget it -life's too short!
6 If by the end of a meeting, you had failed to clinch a deal, how would you feel?
a Me, fail to clinch a deal? The word 'fail' isn't in my vocabulary!
b Pretty disappointed - I'd ask myself where I'd gone wrong.
c Whatever! That's life, isn't it? You win some, you lose some.
7 Have you acquired a reputation for being a hard-worker?
a Yes, certainly.
b Well, I hope so.
c Me, a hard-worker? Are you joking?
8 How do you, personally, earn the respect of your colleagues/classmates?
a By working hard and producing results. It's the only way.
b By doing my best and treating other people with respect.
c Don't ask me!
Guv Grounded says:
MOSTLY A'S
Wow! Your feet don't touch the ground, do they? You're always out there, chasing your dreams and achieving your ambitions and I admire that. People like you make the world keep turning. Just make sure you stop to smell the flowers once in a while!
MOSTLY B'S
Congratulations! You have achieved the all-important work-life balance. Yes, you have ambitions and goals and you work hard to achieve them, but you have a personal life too and that is important. Keep it up and you will enjoy a satisfying career and good relationships with the people you care about. And remember, your great strength is that you are not afraid to fail.
MOSTLY C'S
You slacker*! You can scarcely force yourself to get out of bed in the morning, can you? But I suspect that you are not being entirely truthful with me. Yes, you value your free time, but is there really nothing in life that you would like to achieve? Some small goal - short-term or long-term - that would give your life meaning and interest? Focus your thoughts on this for a little while and you might just find there is.
* slacker: (informal) a lazy person
Classroom extra
If this is being done in class, ask students to interview one another. rather than doing the questionnaire individually.
You can do it
4 Solve the anagram in brackets to complete the collocations in the sentences.
1 Eventually she fulfilled her ... and went to live in Australia. (radem)
2 The party failed to win the ... of the voters. (urppost)
3 Manchester United secured a ... last night in the third round of the tournament. (yrivtco)
4 As a teacher you have to work hard to capture your students' ... (ternites)
5 How do you suppose criminals gain ... to records such as these? (cescas)
6 Do you have to obtain ... to see these documents or can anyone see them? (pnrisseoim)
7 They've scored a great ... with their latest product - it's outselling all its competitors. (escuscs)
8 Work hard now and you will reap the ... later. (tenebfis)
5 Match the sentences 1-8 to the speakers a-h.
Study tip
Look at these collocations and think about where you would be likely to find them and when you might need to use them.
Classroom extra
Write the following people on the board: film director, businessperson, researcher, footballer, politician, ballet dancer. In pairs, students should choose two people and write sentences about them, using the collocations they have learned, as in Exercise 5. They then swap with another pair and guess which people the sentences describe.
a a parent e a supporter of a football team
b a politician f an author
c a jogger g a police officer
d a student h the chief executive officer of a company
6 Read the introduction to a radio programme, Speaking Personally. Complete the introduction with the collocations you have learned. Listen to the recording to check your answers.
My first guest, Emma Plant, has been writing all her life. By the time she was thirty, she'd had three novels published, none of which sold in great numbers. With her fourth novel, Lizie's Shoes, however, she scored a great 1 ... . The book has been in the top fifty best-seller list ever since its publication in 2008. Lizzie's Shoes tells the story of the real-life feminist and polar explorer, Elizabeth De Freville. To research the book, Plant managed to gain 2 ... to De Freville's private letters. It took all her powers of
persuasion to obtain 3 ... from De Freville's family to do so. The secret to storytelling, says Plant, is to capture the reader's 4 ... from the first page.
My second guest, Daniella Sparkes, is just back from Australia, having secured her first grand-slam 5 ... . She has won the 6 ... of fans the world over with her combination of brilliance and charm. Daniella is quite open about the fact that she is obsessive about her training, getting up at 5a.m. most days to swim and jog. Well, she's certainly reaping the 7 ... of all that training. Aged just twenty-three, she is among the top five women tennis players in the land. Whether she will this year fulfil her 8 ... by winning Wimbledon remains to be seen.
7 Complete the sentences using the collocations from Exercise 4.
1 They certainly ... a ... with their next album which rapidly became the best-selling album of all time.
2 These are top-secret documents - it's almost impossible to ... ... to them.
3 Her suggestions for radical changes in working practices failed to ... the ... of her colleagues.
4 When you're giving a talk, you have to start with something that will really ... your audience's.
5 She eventually managed to ... ... to visit her brother in prison.
6 Both teams, of course, hope to ... a ... that will take them through to the next round of the competition.
7 One day he hoped to ... his ... of becoming an actor.
8 They worked long hours to establish the company but they're certainly ... the ... now with fantastic sales.
8 Put the phrases in the correct order to make sentences. Add punctuation where necessary.
1 to gain/highly confidential information/she had managed/somehow/access to
2 of new/reap/medical advances/we all/the benefits
3 captured/the film/certainly/my interest
4 I fulfilled/later that year/of dancing/my dream/for the Royal Ballet
5 in winning/of 40 percent of the voters/they succeeded/the support
6 the first victory/United/of the season today/secured
7 with her second film/but she scored/a box-office failure/her first film was/a success
8 the records/to see/we obtained/eventually/permission