Exercise 1.1
Choose the most general word of each set:
Example:
spoon, knife, crockery, fork
1. furniture, table, cupboard, sofa
2. mammal, animal, dog, pet
3. car, vehicle, traffic, van
4. keeping to diets, going in for sport, keeping fit, doing exercise
5. learn words, study language, do grammar tasks, write quizzes
Exercise 1.2
Match sets of words with topics:
Language Practice
(Spelling)
Exercise 1.3 (Homonymy)
Choose the correct word (consult the dictionary if necessary):
1. To affect/effect the prices
2. To beat/beet the opponent
3. The cent/scent of herbs
4. Web cite/sight/site
5. Chili/chilly pepper
6. Complement/compliment of the chef
7. City council/counsel
8. To die/dye hair
9. Disc/disk jockey
10. Fare/fair hair
11. Finish/Finnish sauna
12. Cake made with flower/flour and eggs
13. Back and forth/fourth
14. Thunder and lightening/lightning
15. Marry/Merry Christmas
16. Minor/miner disease
17. My muscles/mussels began to ache
18. She passed/past away
19. The War and Piece/Peace
20. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain/plane.
21. The North Pole/Poll
22. The Newtonian principle/principal of inertia
23. Sole/soul mate
24. Walk up the stairs/stares
25. Keep quiet/quite!
26. To/too/two good to be true!
27. She tied the apron around her waste/waist.
28. I am not sure weather/whether this is true or not.
Exercise 1.4 (Suffixes & Endings)
Consult the dictionary if necessary:
Exercise 1.5 (Doubling Consonants)
Mind that consonants double except for:
Rate => rated (ending with —e)
Clear => clearing (two vowels before the last consonant)
Sharp => sharper (ending with two consonants)
Benefit => benefited (three and more syllables)
Fill in the gaps where needed:
1. Transfer_ing
2. Stop_ed
3. Forbid_en
4. Commit_ing
5. Prefer_ed
6. Run_er
7. Begin_ing
8. Avoid_ing
9. Benefit_ed
10. Occur_ed
1. Parallelism:
The crowd began to wave handkerchiefs and to shout good-byes.
He entered a university and she started to work.
Keeping fit is a hobby. But playing computer games is an addiction.
2. Inversion:
Very carefully, we moved from the room into the kitchen.
What experience teaches you, you never forget.
3. Participle clauses (or subordinate clauses):
The capital of Syria is Damascus. Damascus is probably the oldest city in the world. => Being the capital of Syria, Damascus is probably the oldest city in the world. OR The capital of Syria is Damascus, probably the oldest city in the world. OR The capital of Syria is Damascus which is probably the oldest city in the world.
4. Do not overdo with so:
His parents were poor, so they couldn’t afford to send him to college => Being very poor, his parents couldn’t afford to send him to college OR His parents, who were very poor, couldn’t afford to send him to college.
5. Do not overdo with pronouns:
After lunch our friends walked around the garden, and they left in an hour. => After lunch our friends walked around the garden and left in an hour.
Exercise 1.6
Rewrite sentences using parallel constructions:
Example: Don’t go too close to that dog: it may attack you and you may be bitten => Don’t go too close to that dog: it may attack and bite you.