Vocabulary!!
Hi everyone!
As promised, here are the definitions for the vocab we’ve looked at over the past couple of weeks. For those of you who are new, the reason I don’t include a definition for the new words straightaway is I’d like you to try to guess them from the context (that’s a really good skill to have when dealing with vocab). I also try and reuse the new words in my other posts, if I can, so you can see other ways they are used.
To give you something to think about, I’ve organised the vocab in groups from each post, and done the answers as a matching activity. For example, number 1 in the first group (to have butterflies) matches definition f (to be nervous about sth (sth = something)). If anyone is really keen, there are couple of extra questions at the end! You don’t need to post the answers – just keep a record in your vocab book and I’ll give you the answers in my next post so you can check them then.
Also, just be aware that some of these words can have more than one meaning (especially the phrasal verbs!), and the meaning I’ve given is the one I used in the original post. I would really encourage you to look back at the posts and see the words in context, just to refresh your memory!
Here are a couple of other possible activities you could do to practise these words and expressions:
• write an example sentence using the new vocab
• choose seven or eight of the words and use them in a story
• use an online dictionary to see other example sentences
By the way, a big thank you for all your get well messages for Chris – he’s back on his feet again now & looking forward to the noodle markets on Thursday!
Catch you all soon – enjoy the vocab!!!
Rachel
1st October
1. to have butterflies (expression)
2. technophobe (n)
3. (to keep your) fingers crossed (expr)
4. to keep me on my toes (expr)
5. antics (n.pl)
6. start off (v)
7. hustle and bustle (n)
8. to pinch (v)
9. to figure out (v)
10. to get up to (something) (v)
a. to stay alert and busy
b. noise and activity
c. sb who fears new technology
d. find a solution to a problem
e. begin
f. to be nervous about sth
g. steal
h. to hope sth happens the way you want it to
i. to do sth (often sth that others would disapprove of)
j. amusing, silly or strange behaviour
3rd October
1. way back (adv)
2. to plot (v and n)
3. to let the cat out of the bag (expr)
4. to be bowled over (phr vb)
5. corny (adj)
6. a Sydney institution (n)
7. cheap and cheerful (adj –can be used as a noun informally)
8. upmarket (adj)
9. a doggy bag (n)
10. have a go (expr)
a. high quality and expensive
b. to reveal a secret
c. a long-established and well-known custom, tradition or business
d. a long time ago
e. to try
f. repeated too often to be interesting / lacking new ideas
g. a container provided by a restaurant to take home uneaten food.
h. inexpensive but pleasant (of restaurants)
i. a secret plan
j. to be surprised and pleased
4th October
1. get round to (phr vb)
2. keep up with (phr vb)
3. pick up on (phr vb)
4. cast a critical eye over (expr)
5. to be a bit picky (expr)
6. set myself up (phr vb)
7. takes over (phr vb)
8. snooze (vb/ /n)
9. ample (adj)
10. allot (v)
11. take pains to (expr)
a. notice
b. gain control
c. look at something and judge it
d. plenty
e. make time to do sth
f. a short sleep
g. to provide sb with necessary things
h. to try hard
i. to give or allocate
j. stay up-to-date with
k. to pay attention to small (maybe unimportant) details
7th October
1. to live up to your expectations (expr)
2. hands-on (adj)
3. to roam about (phr vb)
4. to have a ball (expr)
5. scorcher (n)
6. thrill (n)
7. deadly (adj)
8. diligent (adj)
9. put you off (phr vb)
a. a really hot day
b. likely to cause death
c. to discourage
d. to be as good as you hoped
e. to walk around freely
f. excitement
g. careful, making a lot of effort
h. practical and involved
i. have a great time
10th October
1. to keep an eye out for sth (expr)
2. to brush up (phr vb)
3. to make your skin crawl (expr)
4. a chinwag (n, informal)
5. to be pleased to bits (expr)
6. to provoke sb (v)
7. goodonya (Aus. slang)
8. disparaging (adj)
9. to be onto sth (expr)
10. there's light at the end of the tunnel (expr)
11. to pluck up (one's) courage (expr)
12. to bring (a memory or experience) flooding back (expr)
13. squeamish (adj)
a. force yourself to be brave about sth
b. have a good idea
c. easily upset by sth unpleasant
d. to make sb very anxious or frightened
e. to be very happy
f. to improve your knowledge of sth
g. to see hope for the future
h. to try to make sb angry
i. to watch carefully for
j. to criticise, show that you disrespect sb
k. a chat
l. make sb remember the past very vividly
m. well done
12th October
1. packed (adj)
2. to end up (phr vb)
3. downside (n)
4. to bolt (food) down (phr vb)
5. to go for (phr vb)
6. knackered (adj – informal)
7. gutted (adj – informal)
8. dodgy (adj – informal)
a. exhausted
b. disadvantage
c. very crowded
d. unpredictable
e. choose
f. to eat very quickly
g. very disappointed
h. to finally decide sth
15th October
1. to clamber (vb)
2. catch your breath (expr)
3. way out of my league (expr)
4. to be perched (vb)
5. poll (n/vb)
6. hideous (adj)
a. to be too good for sb
b. begin to breathe normally after exercising
c. a study in which people are asked for their opinions
d. extremely ugly or bad
e. to climb with difficulty
f. to be in a high position, or positioned on the edge of something
Extra questions – all you need to do is complete the gap with one of the words or phrases in the vocab lists. They’re in the same order as they appear above.
1. Technophile is the opposite of …
2. Work out has a similar meaning to …
3. To give the game away has a similar meaning to …
4. Cheap and nasty is the opposite of …
5. Downmarket is the opposite of …
6. A nitpicker is someone who is …
7. Scorching is the adjective of …
8. To be thrilled to bits has a similar meaning to …
9. Upside is the opposite of …
10. … can also mean risky OR likely to cause pain OR dishonest
Comments
Hi! I am just new around and I would like to improve my english everyway, so if you can help me somehow, please, let me know it. Thanks a lot and greetings from Spain. Rossana
Good night Rachel!!! How are you doing? Is your cute troublemaker around? Maybe he´s already sleeping :-). Anyway, I´m glad to know Chris is back on his feet, and I hope you all( now together) have a great time next Thursday. And oh, it was fab the way you organized the vocab as a matching activity. This is a great exercise to my loaf and it helps me also to understand and memorize the new words better. By the way Rachel, if you have time, could you please talk a bit about Australian writers and books? I´ve read a book called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and I enjoyed very much indeed. However, I´ve read it in Portuguese, and I was really impressed by the Portuguese words used in this book. They are so beautiful and sophisticated that makes me bought this book in the original version in order to find out the equivalents words for English. Well, I´m looking forward to the book´s delivery :-). All the best, see you soon, Ana Paula.
Dear Rachel!You don´t need to guess. Again I drove out of the town taking one impressive curve on a road after another up the hills to the place of a pure beauty. I am really fed up with driving on a sneil speed in the town. I plucked rose hips half an hour and than only admired the landscape. Meadows in gilded shades of dry grass with coloured apple trees and further wreath of hills covered with forests. Actually, you could it imagine like big waves on the sea, there wasn´t a bit of a flat land. Those red rose hips were almost frivolous in shining sun! But, at home I recognized mistakes in my last comment on my concept. Your timeline I saw never befor and realized that I tend to use only present perfect and not past perfect in my writing. But now I´ve found out that by typing I changed spontaneously both places where mistakes were (is less visitors, and -as I´ve seen the greeting changed for seeing). As I said, you are one perfect teacher! Enough, you might be fed up with me!
Hello and G´day Rachel! Your walk is great! Sydney is a beautiful place and I wish I could do your walk some time myself! Thanks for the beaches´ photos. We all´ve got a wonderful earth.-------------As I haven´t been here to read and work on the blog I´ll have to catch up to you and I am going to do that. :-) <3 Yvonne
Hello,Rachel You are not a spoon-feeding teacher at all,are you? I am pretty sure you are just twinddling your thumbs and enjoy our agony while we are trying very hard to answer your vocabs. you are so heartless!!!(you could imagine me poking my nose into a dictionary and fell asheep becase of tireness and headache which you cause)NO,I am kidding you and I do love to be given the way of your homework to bits.thank you again and I'll do my best.i am glad to hear Chris is better.PS:What has Owen been up today? see you soon
G'Day Rachel, I wonder what magica lamp the BBC LE have that they get such wonderful teachers on the board? It's an interesting way to choose the correct meanings from the list,thank you!. Now that Chris (May you have good health!)is back on his feet that means we should look forward to some exciting pictures at the Night Noodle Markets. Happy good food month to you! Naheed:)
Chao co Rachel! The way you explain vocab is very clear and easy to understand. I've finished matching all vocab, hope they're true. I've been learning E for a long time, but not good. I pronounce very badly. I can't distinguish sip/ship, shop/chop, chin/gin...Help me????? Have a great time in the noodle markets! Thanks!
Hi Amy, The technique you are using to develop our vocabulary is fantastic. It is innovative. I tried to get the meaning of the words in bold letters relating with the context. I succeeded in some sentences. For some I referred the dictionary to know the meanings. I failed in some words to get a clear meaning even in dictionary I have, particularly some of the expressions. I really find it hard use to use new words while writing. I’ll try to follow your suggestions. I like the way you match the meaning or definitions with the words. I know it’s all to motivating us to adopt new methods. Definitely this will help us to improve our vocabulary. I will write story using your words. Actually you forced me to revise your blogs(positively) from 1st Oct. because I want to get clear meaning with the context. I don’t have the habit of revising. I think it’s really a must for learning a language or any subject. If we don’t revise, there are more chances to forget what we had learnt earlier.
G'day Rachel! Your vocabulary homework really has helped me to brush up my English. You've been onto something with this exercise. I started off by keeping my fingers crossed, because I'm a bit of "Englishvocabularyphobe". But I ended up having a go and taking over the homework. This month teacher really is living up to my expectations. Today I've had a ball. Goodonya! All English learners should keep an eye out for BBC-blog, and they will see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Phew! I am absolutely knackered after I've plucked up the courage to write this comment. Bye for now.
Hi Rachel! I really like your photos…they make you want to go to the seaside right away. Are these beaches entirely swimmable? It seems to me that you do not have many bathing establishments over there. It is the opposite over here. I love Chinese food. :-9 Bye for now
Hello Rachel! As you can see I have changed my original way of greeting from “Hi Rachel” to “Hello Rachel”, very innovative, isn’t it? By the way I’m curious to know other ways to greet someone, till then you’ll have to resign yourself to my always original “Hi”. As regards the vocabulary you gave us, I tried to make the matching without looking at my notes, but as I had so many doubts I had to check them frequently. In the exercise in which we had to complete the gaps were two sentences that I couldn’t complete therefore I’m wating for your answers eagerly. Yesterday I promised to write about a walk I have done, but after thinking for a while I found that I have never done such an interesting walk like yours so I decided to tell you about an 80-kilometre walk (I’m not exaggerating nor mixing up the numbers) that takes place here in Argentina. And guess what? I have walked the 80 kilometres nonstop! Of course that I ended up having my feet full of blisters but I think that it’s worh the sacrifice. I wouldn’t say that this walk is really good fun, mainly because it has another purpose, a religious one. I’m talking about the procession of the Virgin Our Lady of Lujan. As you must know latinamerica is predominantly Catholic, and this walk which takes place every October, has as it’s aim to honour Our Lady. People pray, sing or simply walk in silence during the day and night that lasts the pilgrimage from Buenos Aires to the City of Lujan. In the morning, the walk finishes with a Mass in the “Basilica of Lujan”. And that’s it! Well Rachel I hope I didn’t bore you to death with my story! Good night! In Argentina is 2.30 am...and I’m half asleep ...Bye!
Hi Rachel, I am really sorry, instead of addressing to your name I mentioned Amy name. I realised the mistake once I submitted. I thought Paul would not publish it. but he allowed it to apperar. Thanks Mr. paul.
Hi there How are you ? What a about lovely Owen and Chris ? I really enjoyed with reading your walking from Coogee to Bondi . It sounds very fantastic and a bit difficult . Did you go walking with Owen ? I can 't believe it .It 's absolutely hilarious that you have many beach in Sydney . And I wonder why you clime rocks and don't go down beach , easily . I think , probably there are some private land that you can't pass them , are n't there ? And I have another question , when you are at work , who baby sits Owen ? At the end very thanks for the vocabulary 's answers . You forced me to look again to your previous Blogs . About my son 's anticks , i think every mother can write a book about it ,some silly sentence , their fears , their tricks and their strange toys in the past , their habits for keeping motheres occupied all the time and so on . I regret Why I did n't write them . Have a grate moments with your lovely family and a special pinch for Owen 's face Xxx
Hi Rachel and everyone! This is my first post to you, although I've browsed some of your entries recently. It's really a good quizze to summarize vocab you used in your past post. I think if I want to complete it well, I should spend my time on going over your entries closely. Wow! It's not breeze, is it? Another useful way to recall vocab is to put sentences incomplete and words to fill in. This way provides some clue to figure out the best fit and assists learning vocab in a context. By the way, I've a problem to improve English vocab, please share your experience. Tks in advance!
Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.
