Examples of Vocabulary Exercises

A. Fill in the blank

1. When people are asked what kind of housing they need or want, the question _________ a variety of answers

a. defies mediates magnifies evokes

B. Matching Pairs

Draw a line between a word and the description that fits the word

muggy
breeze
shower
haze
flurry
sleet		 light snow
brief rainfall
particles in the air that reduce visibility
light wind
describes warm, wet air
partly frozen rain

C. Odd Man Out

Underline the word that doesn't belong.

Example
sock bench hat shirt

1. oak willow maple tomato
2. coat jacket watch pant
3. bed table desk fork
4. often short seldom always
5. dark yellow orange pink

D. Sorting Words: Arrange the following words into five categories.

mountain
table
sock		 shirt
river
grape		 chair
glove
plate		 skirt
chopstick
lake		 fork
jacket
love seat		 apple
spoon
forest		 knife
stocking
desk		 sofa
hat
banana

The follow exercises are from Michael Lewis's "Pedagogical implications of the lexical approach" in J. Coady and T. Huckin, eds. Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, CUP, 1997)

E. In each of the following, one word does NOT make a strong word partnership with the word in capitals; which is the odd word ?

1. HIGH season price opinion spirits house time priority
2. MAIN point reason effect entrance speed road meal course
3. NEW experience job food potatoes baby situation year
4. LIGHT green lunch rain entertainment day work traffic (3 and 4 may lead to discussion and doubt)

F. Choose from these words four that make strong word partnerships in business English with each of the verbs below.

 bill presentation invoice discount debt lunch
deal calculation mistake service message expenses

 

PAY  

 

MAKE

 

GIVE

G. Complete the table with five adjectives and five verbs that form strong word partnerships with the noun VISIT.

 Verb

Adjective

VISIT
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5

H. Make dialogues following the examples.

-- His behavior was very strange.
-- Yes, very odd.

-- Her work is very careless.
--Yes, she's not careful at all.

I. Use the following words and expressions to make dialogues following the examples below :

Example:

-- It must have been difficult.
-- Difficult! It was absolutely impossible.

-- You must have been really fed up.
-- Fed up! I was absolutely suicidal.
 1. tired -- exhausted 2. interesting -- fascinating 3. dangerous -- treacherous 4. surprising-- astonished  
5. irritated -- furious 6. sure -- certain 7. pleased -- over the moon 8. expensive -- a rip-off

J. Complete the following by adding one word. Only one word is possible in each case.

1. I've no idea where my bag is -- it's just disappeared into ... air.
2. We weren't expecting her. She just turned up out of the ....
3. It's ... time something was done about it.
4. It's a difficult ... of affairs. I'm not sure what to do.
5. It might have been quicker to take the car ... all.
6. He might have changed his job by now, ... all I know.
7. Oh, no! I've spilled coffee all ... the place.
8. Revise carefully, but ... all, don't panic during the exam.

H. Some pairs or words can only be used in a particular order: Ladies and gentleman, but not Gentlemen and ladies. Make such pairs from these words:

bread now rights down then ins back
forth outs butter out wrongs there here