W7 Vocab blog

In reading 1 we learned “karma” is the accumulated record of many lives. Let’s learn more about this word.

1. What does “accumulate” mean based on the article?

       to collect a large number of things over a long period of time

2. Find a synonym and antonym of “accumulate”.

      synonym-store, gather, pile up

      antonym-disperse, scatter

3. Compare “accumulate” and “increase”:

The table below shows the nouns following “accumulate” and “increase”, respectively.

(3.1) Can you find the features of the nouns following these two words, respectively?

       I think nouns following the word accumulate are more likely to be countable. In contrast, nouns following the word increase tend to be uncountable.

       

(3.2) What is the relationship of “accumulate” and “increase”? (e.g. Do they share the same meaning? Or what else can you find?)

      The word increase simply means to become larger in amount or size, while the word accumulate means to collect a large number of something. Therefore, two words share the meaning of having large number or amount of something.

 

4. Read the sentences below and choose the word, accumulate or increase, that best fits in the context.

(4.1) Dr. Day has found that under increased UV exposure, these plants produce smaller, thicker leaves and stock them with extra photosynthetic pigments and other chemicals. For every unit of surface area, says Day, " your construction costs are higher, " and these costs may increase over time.

(4.2) The recipe of the soup is to add green beans and crushed red pepper and stir in crumbled bacon, black pepper, and salt. Snap (or string) beans may be substituted. Accumulate cook time in all the steps to 5 minutes.
5. Make a sentence of "accumulate"

    My father acuumulated old newspapers.

W6 Assignment

Consume (v)

1.       What does “consume” mean in Reading 2?

to    use fuel, energy or time, especially in large amounts

       to eat or drink, especially a lot of something

2.       Make a sentence of “consume” as a verb.

  I    People consume more meat than vegitable in average.

3.       Find a synonym and an antonym of “consume”.

       synonym-spend, exhaust

       antonym-produce

4.       Read the sentences below and guess what “be consumed with” mean.

Ex1: The missionary is so consumed with passion that he travels to the remote areas to advocate the love from God.

Ex2: Parents should be fair to their children, or the one who gets less attention may be consumed with jealousy.

It means someone is concerned about or filled with a thought of something.

 

Investor (n)

1.       What does “investor” mean in Reading 2?

       a person who puts money into something in order to make a profit or get an advantage

2.       “Invest” is the verb form of “investor”. Make a sentence of “invest” as a verb.

       I invested all the money I had in stocks.

3.       Find a synonym and an antonym of “invest”.

       synonym-put or devote (money)

       antonym-divest

4.       Read the sentences below and guess what “invest sb with sth” mean.

Ex1: The chairperson invested the CEO with all the powers to remake the corporate culture.

Ex2: A family partnership invests the heir of the current chairperson the power to take over the company after the current chairperson steps down.

It means to give something(authority to do something) to somebody.

 

Reinforce (v)

1.       What does “reinforce” mean in Reading 2?

       to make something stronger

2.       Find a synonym and an antonym of “reinforce”.

       synonym-strengthen, enforce

       antonym-weaken

3.       What is the noun form of “reinforce”?

       reinforcement

4.       Make a sentence by using “reinforce” or the noun form of “reinforce”.

       To have a good discussion, you must reinforce a theory with more evidence.

W5 Assignment

Activity7 partB 1

1. The topic of passage
   The remarking of the American University

2. Categolize the the details
   The things older, part-time, and working students want from their college
   -convenience, service, quality, and low cost
  
3. Implied main idea
    Since higher education has become less important to students, older, part-time, and working students recently tend to seek convenience, service, quality, and low cost from their college.
  
  
  

W4 Vocab blog

Primitive

Let’s take a look at the five top nouns that follows “primitive” (=primitive + N.) in American English, namely  “art”, “life”, “people”, “sculpture”, and “man”. I screenshot the examples from an online corpus. Read the examples and make a guess about the meaning of “primitive”. Think about whether “primitive” has a positive, negative, or neutral meaning in the examples (Click the example pictures to see th enlarged images).

(1)    Primitive art



(2)    Primitive life

 

 

(3)    Primitive people

 

 

(4)    Primitive sculpture

 

 

(5)    Primitive man

 

 

(6)    What does “primitive” mean in the five phrases mentioned above.

 

   relating to human society at a very early stage of development, with people living in a simple way without machines or a writing system

       

(7)    Does “primitive” in the following five cases have a positive, negative, or neutral meaning?

Primitive + N.	Positive	Neutral	Negative
Primitive art		〇
Primitive life		〇
Primitive people			〇
Primitive sculpture		〇
Primitive man			〇

Primarily

(1)    What does “primarily” mean in the article. You may want to refer to the article to decide what it means.

　　　mainly

(2)    Find a synonym of “primarily”.

        essentially principally chiefly

(3)    “Primary” is the adjective of “primarily”. One of its meanings is “happening first”. Compare “primary” and “primitive”. Do you think the two adjectives have the same meaning in this sense? Why?

        I do not think they have exactly the same meaning. To me "primary" sounds simply "the first"  or "beginning," but "primitive" gives me a sense of "undeveloped" as well. Therefore I think they are similar but not the same.

     

W3 Vocabulary in Ch2

Feature (n)

1.     What does “feature” mean in the article?

        feature(n)  ˈfiː.tʃər //-tʃɚ/

        a typical quality or an important part of something

2.     “Feature” can be a verb. What does it mean?

        to include someone or something as an important part

3.     Make a sentence of “feature” as a verb.

        The car accident was featured on TV news this morning.

4.     Find a synonym and an antonym of “feature” as a verb.

        synonym - characterize, distinguish

        antonym - disregard, ignore

Perspective

1.     What is the part of speech of “perspective”?

        noun

        (It could be an adjective, but in this article it is used as a noun.)

2.     What does “perspective” mean in the article?

        perspective(n)  /pəˈspek.tɪv//pɚˈspek-/

        a particular way of considering something

3.     Find a synonym of “perspective”.

        viewpoint, standpoint

4.     Make a sentence of “perspective”.

        I share his political perspective.

5.     Read the following text from Journal of Environmental Health and think what “put…in perspective” means.

People tend to view factors that are beyond their control, such as pesticides on their food, as more menacing than known risks that they can control, such as smoking. In addition, most people find it difficult to place environmental risks in perspective, especially when the risk is relatively low. Clear communication and education are vital to help the public recognize the hazards, put them in perspective, and learn what can be done to reduce the risk to health.

                 "Put something in perspective" means "to compare something to other things so that it can be accurately and fairly judged. Therefore, "put them in perspective" in this text means that factors such as pesticides on food or smoking should be recognized by the public through communication and education to be judged accurately and fairly.

Unique

1, What does “unique” mean in the article?

    being the only existing one of its type

2. Make a sentence of “unique”.

    The plant is unipue to that country.

3. Find a synonym and an antonym of “unique”.

    synonym - extraordinary, singular, particular

    antonym - common, normal, usual

4. What is the noun form of “unique”?

    The noun form of unique means someone or something that is the only existing one of its type.

Homework Aug 29th, 2011

Overlapping
1. What does the "overlap" in the text mean
    /ˌəʊ.vəˈlæp/
     to share the same parts in common

2. Write one synonym and antonym of "overlap". (Make a sentence of each word, if need be.)
   synonym-duplicate
   He duplicates the same error again and again.
   antonym-divide
   Germany was divided into two countries in the past.

3. Make a sentence of overlapping (or "overlap").
   Petals of the flower overlap with each other.


Survey
1. What does "survey" in the text mean?
   /ˈsɜː.veɪ/
   to look at and examine all of something

2. What does "survey" in the following sentences mean:
The survey is about the best restaurants in Honolulu. 
John surveyed the attitudes of the college students toward the library service
   The "survey" in this sentence means an examination of something made by asking people questions.


 

Week1 Introduction

Ensure

1.    1 What does “ensure” in the text mean? 

/ɪnˈʃɔːr /
to make something certain to happen

       2Write one synonym of “ensure”.                                    
         insure

3.    3Make a sentence of “ensure”.
        I have to call my mother to ensure my letter has arrived.

4.    4The meaning of “ensure” sometimes is similar to “insure”. However, “insure” has another meaning which “ensure” does not have. What is the different meaning?
      The meaning of "insure" that "ensure" does not have is "to provide insurance for someone or something."  The meaning of "insure" is actually "to do something in order to prevent something unpleasant from happening or from affecting you," while "ensure" only means "to make sure something would happen."

For your references:
1. Cambridge dictionary online:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
2. Thesaurus.com
http://thesaurus.com/