Active Vocabulary General and Academic Words - Amy E. Olsen 2013
Chapter 19. Review
Part 2 Academic Words
Focus on Chapters 16-18
The following activities give you the opportunity to further interact with the vocabulary words you’ve been learning. By taking tests, answering questions, using visuals, doing a crossword puzzle, and working with others, you will see which words you know well and which ones need additional study.
Self-Tests
l Match each term with its synonym in Set One and its antonym in Set Two.
Synonyms
Set One
1. scrutinize
a. summary
2. charisma
b. inspect
3. asset
c. charm
4. synopsis
d. leaning
5. propensity
e. advantage
Antonyms
Set Two
6. jovial
f. explain
7. bewilder
g. lengthy
8. wrest
h. install
9. concise
i. sad
10. depose
j. restore
2 Pick the word that best completes each sentence.
1. Kate had to ... her exercise plans when the pool was closed for cleaning.
a. depose
b. modify
c. bewilder
d. wrest
2. I appreciated the ... when my friend said, “I’m going to have fun at the dentist
today!" I knew, like me, that he wouldn’t really get any enjoyment out of the visit.
a. regime
b. irony
c. propensity
d. charisma
3. Scott found his ... in making large ceramic pots after he noticed that his competition was focused on creating small and medium sized pots.
a. homonym
b. propensity
c. zenith
d. niche
4. Some people say I am a ... to the team, but I don’t think it is a disadvantage to have me on the team despite my failure to make four easy goals and then making one for the other team.
a. liability
b. cliche
c. coup
d. figurehead
5. The ... of the last college president was so disorganized that several people quit during his term.
a. venture
b. propensity
c. regime
d. euphemism
6. I hated to see the ... DNF next to my name at the end of the race, but my left knee began to hurt so much I just could not finish.
a. acronym
b. entrepreneur
c. realm
d. asset
7. Bridges are an important part of the ... for cities that are located near rivers or large lakes.
a. liability
b. irony
c. infrastructure
d. figurehead
8. I try to avoid using ... in my college papers, but occasionally a word like “gonna" slips in.
a. niches
b. homonyms
c. regimes
d. colloquialisms
3 Pick the vocabulary word that best completes the sentence. Use each word once.
propensity
figurehead
entrepreneur
coup
homonym
1. The military staged a ..., but their regime only lasted eight months before there was another revolt.
2. The ... pair that gives me the most trouble is hear and here.
3. The ... enjoyed watching her company’s growth—from her garage to a new office building downtown.
4. There is a(n) ... among students to put off writing a paper until the day before it is due.
5. As president, Victor was only a ...; the person with the real power was his brother, who held the title of vice president.
4 Complete the following sentences that illustrate collocations. The rest of the collocation is in italics. Use each word once.
bewildered
regime
venture
infrastructure
realm
prominent
1. I told my children that if they did well in school this spring a trip to Disneyland was in the ... of possibility.
2. I was afraid to ... out on my own when I first went to school in Madrid, but as my Spanish got better, I felt more confident about visiting places alone.
3. The widespread cruelty of the dictator made the country ripe to be taken over by a military ... .
4. I was ... by Sid's actions. He is usually such a calm man, but lately he has been acting extremely nervous.
5. My mother was so proud of my first place in the statewide spelling bee that she put my trophy in a ... place—on the mantel right next to Grandma’s ashes.
6. If we don’t do something about the crumbling ... in this state, we can expect to see several accidents due to bridges and roads collapsing.
5 Fill in the missing word part, and circle the meaning of the word part found in each sentence. Use one of the word parts twice.
vent
fer
pend
cis
ify
ism
pens
1. To make the seven o'clock movie we are going to have to mod... our dinner plans.
2. I only had time to give a con...e report on what happened at the morning meeting. I had to cut my report short because of an emergency in the marketing department.
3. The number of visitors continues to proli...ate each month. Our campaign to bring more people to town by having varied weekend festivals ha really worked.
4. My latest ...ure, a donut cart at the Saturday farmer's market, will help me to move toward opening two more bakeries in the area by getting my name before the public.
5. My im...ing visit to the dentist has been weighing on my mind. I haven’t been in three years, and I am afraid the dentist is going to discover a cavity.
6. When my friend moved here from the South, he often used the colloquial ... “y’all,” but this practice has diminished quite a bit during the six years he has lived in Vermont.
7. Zita’s pro...ity to hang out at dance clubs nearly every night until two or three in the morning is hurting her school work.
8. When a person uses a euphem..., the action may help him or her cope with a difficult situation, such as death or an illness.
6 Finish the story using the vocabulary words below. Use each word once.
irony
impending
realm
acronym
assets
scrutinize
liability
niches
zenith
cliche
Beyond the Garden Gate
I awoke as the (1)... goes feeling as fresh as a daisy. Then I remembered the (2)... garden tour. I wasn’t sure why I had agreed to let GAB into my (3)... . Really GAB was the perfect (4)... for the Garden Around Back club. Most of the members did more talking than gardening.
I was sure they were going to (5)... every inch of my garden and find fault with my flowers, gazebo, and waterfall. I had several (6)...in the walls around my yard where I put pots filled with cut flowers. I thought they were one of the (7)... that made my garden special. Now I was wondering if others would see them as a(n) (8)... . I was so worried about people’s reactions to my garden that the day before the event I almost called to cancel, but I had promised to be part of the tour, and it was too late to back out.
The big day arrived, and the weather was wonderful. The flowers looked spectacular. People started arriving early in the morning and continued streaming through all day. And the great (9)... is that everyone was so friendly and complimentary about every part of the garden. Several people told me they wished they could grow lilies like mine. Instead of being the dreadfol day I had imagined, it might well be the (10)... of my time as a gardener.
Interactive Exercise
Answer the following questions to further test your understanding of the vocabulary words.
1. What two behaviors would a ruler have to exhibit to stimulate people to depose him or her?
2. What are two prominent challenges in your life right now?
3. Which cliche do you often find yourself using? Why do you think that is?
4. Under what conditions do you think a company would hire someone as a figurehead instead of letting the person have real control?
5. Name three people you consider charismatic leaders from any time period.
6. What are two reasons a person’s problems might proliferate?
7. What kind of reading material would someone have to wrest out of your hands?
8. List two euphemisms you have used or encountered.
9. What are two business ventures that you would be interested in pursuing as an entrepreneur?
10. Give a synopsis of a book or story you have enjoyed reading.
Associations
Use four words from the list below to write four sentences that compare or contrast the two photographs.
Write the words you want to use on the middle lines. This exercise calls on your critical- and creative-thinking skills to make associations between the photos and words.
Examples: Cities and houses both have infrastructures that need to be maintained and periodically updated. (Comparison)
The town features a prominent tower, while the house looks humble. (Contrast)
Vocabulary list
euphemism
homonym
scrutinize
cliche
colloquialism
coup d'etat
infrastructure
realm
zenith
depose
asset
jovial
liability
proliferate
prominent
Your sentences: ...
Crossword puzzle
Use the following words to complete the crossword puzzle. Use each word once.
Vocabulary list
acronym irony
bewilder jovial
charisma modify
colloquialism niche
concise propensity
coup regime
entrepreneur synopsis
figurehead venture
homonyms wrest
impending zenith
Across
3. to, too, two
5. to confuse or puzzle
8. a tendency
10. the highest point
12. "Folks, there ain’t nothin’ here to see."
14. Henry Ford, Oprah Winfrey, or Bill Gates, as examples
17. a clash between what is expected to happen and what really. does
18. a brief statement that gives a general idea
19. merry and cheerful
Down
1. expressing much in a few words
2. "Let’s brave the storm and go to a movie."
4. to change the form of
6. to take through force
7. a person in a position of leadership who has no real power
9. government
11. RSVP or NBA, as examples
12. Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Princess Diana had this.
13. President Juan Peron of Argentina was deposed during one of these in 1955.
15. "Put the statue in that recess."
16. opposite of distant
Mistakes Are beaming Experiences
Making mistakes is part of the learning process. When you learned to ride a bike, you probably fell over a few times before you learned to keep your balance. The same idea applies to learning vocabulary. When you take a test, you may not get a perfect score. Look at the mistakes you made. Try to decide what went wrong. Did you read a question too fast? Did you misunderstand a question? Did you not study enough? Don't be so disappointed in a bad grade that you can't learn from the experience. You will do better next time if you take the time to understand what you did wrong this time. Also ask your instructor if you are unsure about why you got a question wrong; he or she wants to help you do better next time.
Mix It Up
Motivating with Music
If you enjoy music, select some of your favorite tunes and get together with four or five classmates to see how music can aid in learning. Besides the music, you will need something to play it on, paper, and pens.
Decide on which words you want to study. If you are reviewing several chapters, each person should pick different vocabulary words to use so the group can cover more of the words. While the music plays, write a story that the music inspires using six or seven of the words to be studied (you may choose to write six or seven sentences each using a vocabulary word instead of writing a story). The ideas for the story or sentences may come from the tone of the music or the thoughts expressed in a song’s lyrics. Read your stories or sentences to each other, and discuss the ideas the music brought out in relation to the vocabulary words. It is interesting to hear the similarities and differences the music inspires within the group. To review more words, pick another piece of music and do the activity again.
Classical music works well, but music related to a chapter may also serve as inspiration and possibly as a memory aid. For example, use contemporary music containing wordplay for relating to Chapter 16, British music from the Victorian era or music from Africa for Chapter 17, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s ’’Takin’ Care of Business" or other songs that deal with work or business for Chapter 18. Have fun exploring how music, writing, and learning vocabulary can be creatively combined.