Language Study

● Word Study

Word list:

Appalling / assent / cessation / decay / decrease / destined / dreadful / eliminate / epoch / extravagant / insane / plunge / stagnation / upright

1. appalling

a. a. shocking; extremely bad

b. (informal) very bad

Examples:

● The prisoners were living in appalling conditions.

● The bus service is appalling now.

2. Assent

n. official agreement to or approval of sth.

v. to agree to a request, an idea or a suggestion

Collocation

assent to sth.

Examples:

● The director has given her assent to the proposals.

● He nodded (his) assent.

● There were murmurs of both assent and dissent from the crowd.

● The bill passed in Parliament has now received the Royal Assent.

● Nobody would assent to the terms they proposed.

3. cessation

n. (formal) the stopping of sth.; a pause in sth.

Examples:

● Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

● Therefore, Eta has decided the definitive cessation of its armed activity.

4. decay

n. a. the process or result of being destroyed by natural causes or by not being cared for(=of decaying)

b. the gradual destruction of a society, an institution, a system, etc.

v. a. to be destroyed gradually by natural processes; to destroy sth. in this way.

b. if a building or an area decays, its condition slowly becomes worse.

c. to become less powerful and lose influence over people, society, etc.

Examples:

● The landlord had let the building fall into decay.

● The smell of death and decay hung over the town.

● the decay of the old industries

● decaying leaves/teeth/food

● decaying standards of morality

● economic/moral/urban decay

5. decrease

Synonym

v. to become or make sth. become smaller in size, number, etc.

n. the process of reducing sth. or the amount that sth. is reduced by

Examples:

●The number of new students decreased from 210 to 160 this year.

●The price of wheat has decreased by 15%.

●There has been some decrease in military spending this year.

Examples:

●The number of new students decreased from 210 to 160 this year.

●The price of wheat has decreased by 15%.

●This species of bird is decreasing in numbers every year.

●There has been some decrease in military spending this year.

●a decrease of nearly 6% in the number of visitors to the museum

6. destined

Collocation

a. a. having a future which had been decided or planned at an earlier time; especially by fate.

b. on the way to or intended for a place

Examples:

● He was destined for a military career, like his father before him.

● We seem destined never to meet.

● goods destined for Poland

7. dreadful

Synonym

a. a. very bad or unpleasant

b. used to emphasize how bad sth. Is

c. causing fear or suffering

Example:

●What dreadful weather!

●It's dreadful the way they treat their staff.

●He's a dreadful snob.

●She's making a dreadful mess of things.

●They suffered dreadful injuries.

8. eliminate

Synonym

v. a. to remove or get rid of sth. / sb.

b. to defeat a person or a team so that they no longer take part in a competition, etc.

c. to kill sb., especially an enemy or opponent

Examples:

● The police have eliminated two suspects from their investigation.

● This diet claims to eliminate toxins from the body.

● All the English teams were eliminated in the early stages of the competitions.

● She was eliminated from the tournament in the first round.

9.epoch

n. a. a period of time in history, especially one during which important events or changes happen

b. a long period of time in the world's history or in the earth's development

Examples:

● The death of the emperor marked the end of an epoch in the country's history.

● geological epoch

10. extravagant

Synonym

a. a. spending a lot more money or using a lot more of sth.

b. costing a lot more money than you can afford or than is necessary

c. (of ideas, speech or behavior) very extreme or impressive but not reasonable or practical.

Examples:

●I felt very extravagant spending $100 on a dress.

●Residents were warned not to be extravagant with water, in view of the low rainfall this year.

I was embarrassed by all the extravagant praise I was getting.

11. insane

a. a. seriously mentally ill and unable to live in normal society

b. (the insane) people who are insane

c. stupid, crazy or dangerous

Examples:

● Doctors certified him as insane.

● The prisoners were slowly going insane.

● a hospital for the insane

● I must have been insane to agree with the idea.

12. plunge

v. a. to move or make sb./sth. Move suddenly forwards and/or downwards

b. (of prices, temperatures, etc.) to decrease suddenly and quickly

c. (of a road, surface ,etc.)to slope steeply

d. to move up and down suddenly and violently

n. a. a sudden movement downwards or away from sth.

b. a sudden decrease in an amount or the value of sth.

c. the act of becoming involved in a situation or activity

d. an act of jumping or diving into water

Examples:

●She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death.

●Stock markets plunged at the news of the coup.

●The track plunged down into the valley.

●His heart plunged.

●The calm water ends there and the river begins a headlong plunge.

●a dramatic plunge in profits

●She went for a plunge.

13. stagnation

n. a. a state of inactivity (in business or art etc.)

b. inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation

Example:

● Yet in doing so, they are condemning their economy to years of stagnation.

● Moving feet in this manner encourages blood flow in the calf muscle veins, thus reducing blood stagnation.

14. upright

a. a. not lying down, and with the back straight rather than bent

b. placed in a vertical position

c. (of a person) behaving in a moral and honest way

n. a. a long piece of wood, metal or plastic that is placed in a vertical position, especially in order to support sth.

Examples:

●She sat upright in bed.

●He managed to pull himself upright.

●an upright bar

●an upright citizen

● Phrases and Expressions

List:

be destined to / die out / do away with / get about / go overboard / in place of / keep track of / one thing at a time / plunge headfirst into / rest on / to and fro / to begin with

1. be destined to

to determine beforehand; preordain

Examples:

●They were destined never to see each other again.

●He feels that he was destined to become a musician.

●We will be destined to face higher risk in updating their old function.

2. die out

to die one after another until few or none are left; become extinct

Examples:

● Disease germs begin to die out slowly after elimination from the body.

● Once the fire has died out, the salvage team will move in.

● These endangered animals may even die out.

3. do away with

to make an end of; eliminate; to destroy; kill.

Examples:

● The long-range goal must be to do away with nuclear weapons altogether.

● We must do away with illiteracy.

● That city has decided to do away with overhead wires.

4. get about

●go to different places and visit different people;

●to becomes well known

Examples:

●Nowadays people get about much more than they used to.

●The story had soon got about that he had been suspended.

●Since he broke his leg, he can't get about.

5. go overboard

to go to extremes, especially as a result of enthusiasm

Example:

● Everyone appreciates being complimented, but you need not go overboard.

● John, let's not go overboard and get a new car right now.

6. in place of

Examples:

● Plastics are now often used in place of wood or metal.

● We use chopsticks in place of knives and forks.

7. keep track of

keep informed of fully aware to follow the passage, course, or progress of

Examples:

●As a doctor, Brooks has to keep track of the latest developments in medicine.

●The pilot was ordered to keep track of the strange object.

●Her mother used to keep track of every penny she spent.

8. one thing at a time

一时专一事

to focus on one thing only

Examples:

●The shortest way to do many thing is to only one thing at a time.

●Devotion means to do one thing at a time and give up all your thoughts.

9. plunge headfirst into

投身于;跳入，落入

to throw oneself earnestly or wholeheartedly into an activity or situation; to fall or throw oneself into a substance or place

Examples:

●We plunge into the icy mountain lake.

●Now chief executives of about two dozen companies have decided to plunge headfirst into this politically unsettled debate.

10. rest on

be based on; of theories and claims

Examples:

●Our policy should rest on the basis of self-reliance.

●His argument does not rest on reasoning or on experiment, but on authority.

●The bridge rests on stone arches.

11. to and fro

back and forth

Examples:

●They travel to and fro between London and Paris.

●Branches waved wildly to and fro.

●The girl's pigtails swing to and fro as she runs.

12. to begin with

in the first place

Examples:

●To begin with, the government must act with conviction.

● Word Building

List:

●1. Prefix–im

●2. Suffix–able

● Grammar

Present Participles as Object Complement

The basic verbs of sensation see, hear, feel, smell, and the verbs listen (to), notice and watch can be followed by object+present participle as object complement.

Example:

●I found myself sitting on a broad couch in some kind of museum. (Para. 9)

●I saw the naughty boy hitting the dog.

●One could hear her singing as she ran upstairs.

●I felt the house shaking.

●We found him waiting to receive us.

●She smelt something burning and saw smoke rising.