Vocabulary

1. prior

a. happening, existing, or done before a particular time

e.g. Joe walked off his job without prior consultation.

Phrase: prior to

2. priority

n. something important, that must be done first or needs more attention than anything else

e.g. A fire engine must have priority as it usually has to deal with some kind of emergency.

Noun:priority

Phrase: take/have priority over

3. dominant

a. more important, powerful, or successful than the other people or things of the same type

e.g. The company cannot preserve its dominant position in the market.

v. (1) to control something or someone, often in a negative way, because you have more power or influence

(2) to be the most important issue, activity, problem etc. in a particular situation

e.g. She tends to dominate the conversation.

4. oblige

vt. [usually passive] (fml) force someone to do something because it is the law, a rule, or a duty

e.g. Employers are legally obliged to pay the minimum wage.

Noun: obligation

5.vanish

(1) disappear in a sudden and mysterious way

e.g. With a wave of his hand, the magician made the rabbit vanish.

(2) stop existing completely

e.g. Many types of animals have now vanished from the earth.

6.immigrant

n. [C] someone who comes to live in a country from another country

e.g. There has been a rise in the number of immigrants coming from Eastern Europe, especially Poland.

Verb:immigrate

Noun:immigration

7.historic

(1) adj. important in history, of or concerning history; of the past=historical

e.g. That was the first eruption in historic times.

(2) famous or important in history, or potentially so

e.g. This is a historic occasion.

Noun:history

8.invasion

n. [C, U] an occasion when one country’s army goes into another country to take control of it by force

e.g. As is well known, we love peace and hate invasion.

Verb:invade

Noun:invader

9.basically

ad. used for saying that you are talking about the most important aspects of sth. and not mentioning the specific details

e.g. Basically, their goal is to promote healthier eating habits.

Noun:basis

Adjective:basic

Phrases

1. hand down

to give knowledge or skill to someone who is younger than you and will live after you have died

e.g. These skills have been handed down from generation to generation.

2. end in

to have something as a final result

e.g. His attempt to persuade the boy ended in failure.

3. follow suit

do what someone else is doing

e.g. One shop began to prolong the shop hours, and all other shops along the same street followed suit.

4. derive from

have sth. as an origin

e.g. These English words derive from Greek.

Sentences

1. After the Norman Conquest of England , the new rulers (from Normandy in northern France) of the realm obliged people to adopt fixed surnames for administrative reasons, as a form of registration for the census and for taxation.

A complete land survey and population count was carried out to discover what resources there were and tax them. In the interests of efficiency and record-keeping, surnames became required.

2. There are as many rules about this as there are names but we can suggest some very general guidelines about given names.

The sentence means every name is an individual case but one can set out some general rules about personal names.