An Armoury of English Language

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Too much attention is given to headline-grabbing disasters like earthquakes and floods. Governments should concentrate their resource on educating people about the risk they face nearer to their home, which can cost far more lives - IELTS part.3 - Writing

Structure

intro	TV news and broadsheets give too much attention to disasters and wars
reason 1	If we talk too much about disasters and natural catastrophes people become anxious.
reason 2	A second point is that governments should focus their actions on solving issues that involve youths, like drug addiction and alcohol abuse. The best way to solve problems is to prevent them from happening, that is educating the young generations.
reason 3	Governments should concentrate their resource on educating people about the risk they face nearer their homes. In fact in developed countries we have too many deaths among youngsters caused by car accidents, and major causes of deaths among adults caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.
conclusion	To sum up, talking about disasters does not inspire confidence in people. The best way to deal with disasters is to inform people about the causes and possibility a disaster might occur to them.

Implementation

TV news and broadsheets give too much attention to disasters and wars. This happens mainly because newspapers are eager to sell as many copies as possible. Beside news readers and TV editors are more interested in topping the audience index score to earn money from advertising rather then giving the correct information.

If we talk too much about disasters and natural catastrophes people become anxious. In fact people's minds are not able to discern between near or remote threats and distinguish between real or false risks. As a consequence giving general information about natural catastrophes like hurricanes and floods, which usually happen in tropical areas, or like earthquakes, which generally occur along geologic faults, can generate unjustified fears.

A second point is that governments should concentrate their resources on educating people about the risks they face nearer their homes. In fact in developed countries we have too many deaths among youngsters caused by car accidents, and deaths among adults caused by unhealthy lifestyles.

Moreover governments should focus their actions on solving issues that involve youths, like drug addiction and alcohol abuse. The best way to address these problems is preventing them from starting, that is educating the young generations. In my opinion, the best place for educating children about the risks of using drugs are families. Our governments should promote campaign of information over drug addictions that takes flyers and brochures into every house, as the same as our politicians do when they want our vote.

To sum up, talking about disasters does not inspire confidence in people. The best way to deal with disasters is to inform people about the causes that generate a disaster and the possibility that one might occur to them.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Collocations of give

to give a lecture on something, a class on something
to give a party
to give a demonstration on something
to give an indication of something
to give confidence to someone in something
to give emphasis to something
to give priority to something
to give someone a test on something
to give someone a call, a ring, a buzz, a bell
to give the possibility to do something
to give a choice between two things
to give permission to do something
to give one's consent for someone / to something
to give evidence of/for smt

Examples:

- If you were given a choice between fame or fortune, which would you pick?
- I am going to give you a test on cleaning kitchen before hiring you as a maid.
- Before undertaking any heathcare intervention you have to give informed consent.
- If I said anything wrong, you must give evidence for it.

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Collocations of do

to do a favour
to do a job
to do business
to do exercise
to do research
to do shopping
to do homework
to do housework

do the vacuuming
do cooking
do the ironing
do laundry
do cleaning
do washing-up
do washing
do the odd works around the house

to do a job interview =
to do the family accounts
to do the calculations / to do the maths / do the arithmetic
to do time (in prison) = to be in prison
to do time in a place = to spend time

Examples:
- 10 Reasons Why Employers Ask Candidates To Do A Job Interview Presentation
- I had to do a face-to-face interview followed by an entry test.
- My best friend is doing time for something he didn't do.
- Danny Trejo, after years in prison, now is doing time in Hollywood.

Collocations of make

to make a change / to make changes to something
to make a choice
to make a contribution to
to make a committment
to make a compromise with
to make conversation = to talk to someone who you do not know well, without having anything to say in order to be polite; to attempt to engage someone in conversation, with uncertain chances of success, by mentioning the weather, today's news...
to make deal
to make (a) difference
to make a decision
to make a guess at something
to make a habit of doing something
to make a mess
to make a purchase
to make an adjustment
to make an alteration
to make an attempt at something
to make appointments to do
to make acquaintance with
to make advances to someone = to flirt with someone
to make arrangements for
to make cake, dinner
to make claims
to make beds
to make effort to do
to make friends with someone = to work to become a friend of someone.
to make fun of something/someone = to make (someone or something) the object of unkind laughter [= to mock]
to make love
to make money
to make generalizations about smt = to make a statement about all the members of a group that is true for most of the members
to make phone calls
to make something
to make oneself comfortable
to make up your mind/make your mind up

Example:
- When we make changes to a verb, we call it conjugating. English verbs have different forms: go, goes, went, gone, going.
- How to make friends in 25 steps.
- Many people make a habit of blaming others for all their problems.
- Taking something specific and applying it more broadly is making a generalization.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Improving your English vocabulary

On the left side there are some common expressions, in place of those try to use the more advanced adjectives on the right side:

common expression	advanced expression
a bad problem	a critical problem a key problem a serious problem a challenging problem
a great issue	a controversial issue an outstanding issue a sensitive issue a crucial issue an engaging issue a complex issue a current issue a popular issue a widespread issue a worldwide issue an attention-grabbing issue
a difficult situation	a hard situation a tough situation an awkward situation a critical situation a complicated situation an intricate situation a confusing situation a pertinent situation
a good idea	a novel idea a fantastic idea a smart idea an inspired idea a clever idea a weird idea an innovative idea
a nice plan	an attractive plan a brilliant plan a bright plan a plausible plan a feasible plan a structured plan an astonishing plan an exhaustive plan an innovative plan a forward-thinking plan

Friday, July 15, 2011

Animal Idioms

When there's someone who does the donkey work developing software, a good team leader always find on opportunity to reward him.

Impudent people use euphemism to describe their behaviour, for instance: it's like water off a duck's back.

I was like a fish out of water when I started my first job.

You think that your job is going good, don't count your chickens, because someone could say that the team doesn't need you anymore.

Some mothers decided to take the bull by the horns and denounce the drug dealer who sell drugs to their sons.

The most domineering among brothers get the lion's share after the death of their parents.

Every woman is a dark horse when she is asked about her age.

I'm in the doghouse because I have forgot to buy a present for my girlfriend's birthday.

All the people that have gone on a cruise say that have spent their time on the boat making a pig of themselves.

When she discovered that her husband had had a love affair, that was the last straw and she asked for divorce.

The company has lost the majority of its customers and I smell a rat when they say that they are not going to make anybody redundant.

I got a new job that I like better and found a girlfriend, so it was like killing two birds with one stone.

One of my university teachers was always threatening noisy undergraduates in class that he would take action against them in an exam but his bark was worse worse than his bite.

After the police had fined the man for jwalking he went away with his tail between his legs.

People let sleeping dog lie so as not to be the first one to raise an argument at work.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Animal debates

People should not be allowed to keep very aggressive breeds of dog such as Rottweilers as pets.

PROs

Families should not be allowed to keep aggressive dog breeds as pets. The news confirms that aggressive dogs can cause harm to children. Indeed the dogs can confuse small children with prey and attack them.
People buy aggressive dogs and keep them in a garden or a courtyard to watch over their properties. They train dogs to be aggressive to strangers. But I think that it isn't fair, because dogs can't replace men in doing jobs that require responsibility.

CONs

People should be allowed to keep any kind of dog in their house and in their gardens and even let dogs play with young children.
I think that it does not exist any kind of dog breed that are naturally aggressive or dangerous for men. When a dog attacks a man it is because of the dog's owner who is responsible for having made the dog aggressive.

In civilized society there is no place for entertainment which involve cruelty to animals

PROs

Animals are born to be free and to live in their natural habitat. Animals we see at the circus or the zoo suffer from a loss of their freedom. Captive animals live in cages that are far smaller than the habitats like forests and savannas where they would roam freely.
The animals that live at the circus are subject to physical abuse and torture. In fact the trainers use violence as means to make the animals perform degrading tricks.

CONs

Animals that live at the circus or the zoo are fed and are provided with a shelter to live and sleep. Animals living in the wild would naturally die because they become prey for their natural antagonists.
Circus animals are not subject to violence by the trainers. Trainers teach animals using food and caresses as a reward.