Collocations Ise - Kho Sách - Kho Sách Online Khoa Kinh .

CAMBRIDGECollocations inIseoHow words worktogether forfluent andnatural EnglishSelf-study andclassroom useMichael McCarthyFelicity O'Dell

ContentsAcknowledgementsTo the student (and the teacher)34Learning a b o u t collocations12345W h a t is a collocation?Finding, recording and learning collocationsUsing your dictionaryTypes of collocationRegisterGrammatical aspects of collocations6789Intensifying adverbsEveryday verbs 1Everyday verbs 2Everyday verbs 3highly unlikely, utterly ridiculous, strongly objectmake a mistake, do your best, do damagego bald, become extinct, fall illhave fun, take action, pay a complimentSpecial aspects of collocation10 Synonyms and confusable words 111 Synonyms and confusable words 212 M e t a p h o rclose a meeting, antique furniture, only childgain power, achieve your goals, defeat an opponentsunny smile, ideas flow, heated discussionTopics: Travel and t h e e n v i r o n m e n t13141516WeatherTravelCountrysideTowns and citiesstrong wind, blanket of fog, river bursts its bankstiring journey, aisle seat, family-run hotelsurrounding countryside, well worth seeinglined with shops, sprawling city, volume of trafficTopics: People and relationships1718192021People: character and behaviourPeople: physical appearanceFamiliesRelationshipsFeelings and emotionshave a vivid imagination, lose your patienceslender waist, immaculately groomeddistant cousin, expecting a baby, stable homecasual acquaintance, love at first sightlasting happiness, worried sick, emotional wreckTopics: Leisure and lifestyle222324252611Houses, flats and roomsEating and drinkingFilms and booksMusicSportHealth and illnessmove into a flat, spacious living roomnourishing meal, spoil your appetite, dying of hungerfilm critic, go on the stage, renew a library bookgive a performance, go on tour, strum a guitargo snowboarding, take a penaltycatch a cold, vigorous exercise, be taken illTopics: W o r k and study28293031ComputersStudy and learningWorkBusinessforward a message, e-mail bouncesdo research, attend a lecture, first drafthigh-powered job, hand in your noticeset up a business, launch a product, rival companyEnglish Collocations in UseI

32 Academic writing 1: giving opinions33 Academic writing 2: structuringan argumentkey factor, challenge a theory, carry out researchmake reference to, argue convincingly, researchsuggestsTopics: Society and institutions343536373839Laws and punishmentsCrimeNewsMoneyWar and peaceGlobal problemsbreak the law, bend the rules, fair trialhardened criminal, juvenile crime, tackle crimehit the headlines, hold talks, take hostagesquander money, price soars, go cheapwar breaks out, restore order, call a truceirreparable damage, eradicate poverty,earthquake hitsBasic concepts4041424344454647484950TimeSoundDistance and sizeColour and lightTextureTaste and smellN u m b e r and frequencyMovement and speedChangeWays of speakingWays of walkingsave time, ungodly hours, from dawn till duskbreak the silence, excessive noise, almighty bangwithin commuting distance, painfully thinbright colour, beam of light, shed some light onchoppy sea, soft pillow, ice meltsfragrant perfume, have a taste, smell dangersignificant number, come to a total of, rare speciesprompt payment, painfully slow, lose your balancemake an adjustment, break a habit, change the subjectbrief chat, raise a subject, drop a hintpace up and down, wander aimlessly, faltering stepsFunctions51525354555657585960Starting and finishingTalking about success and failureTalking a b o u t cause and effectRemembering and sensingAgreeing and disagreeingTalking about beliefs and opinionsDeciding and choosingClaiming and denyingLiking and dislikingPraising and criticisingKeyIndex2English Collocations in Use126159promising start, bring something to an endmake a breakthrough, fail miserablycause alarm, adverse effects, have a major impactvaguely remember, blot out a memory, have a feelingsettle a dispute, agree to differ, heated argumentfirmly believe, colour someone's judgementarrive at a decision, have second thoughts, tough choimake the point that, contradictory evidencehave a liking, state a preference, take offenceoffer your congratulations, speak highly of

W h a t is a collocation?A collocation is a pair or group of words that are oftenused together. These combinations sound natural tonative speakers, but students of English have to make aspecial effort to learn them because they are oftendifficult to guess. Some combinations just sound 'wrong 1to native speakers of English. For example, the adjectivefast collocates with cars, but not with a glance.We say .We don't say .fast carsfast foodquick fooda quick glancea quick m e a la fes* glancea fest mealLearning collocations is an important part of learning the vocabulary of a language. Somecollocations are fixed, or very strong, for example take a p h o t o , where no w o r d other thantake collocates with photo to give the same meaning. Some collocations are more open,where several different w o r d s may be used to give a similar meaning, for example keep t o /stick to the rules. Here are some more examples of collocations.You must m a k e an effort and study for your exams ( N O T de an effort)Did you watch TV last night? ( N O T look at TV)This car has a very powerful engine. It can do 2 0 0 km an hour. ( N O T strong engine)There are some ancient monuments nearby. ( N O T antique monuments)Sometimes, a pair of words may not be absolutely wrong, and people will understand whatis meant, but it may not be the natural, normal collocation. If someone says / did a fewmistakes they will be understood, but a fluent speaker of English would probably sayI m a d e a few mistakes.C o m p o u n d s and idiomsC o m p o u n d s are units of meaning formed with t w o or more words. Sometimes the wordsare written separately, sometimes they have a hyphen and sometimes they are written as onew o r d . Usually the meaning of the c o m p o u n d can be guessed by knowing the meaning ofthe individual words. Some examples of c o m p o u n d s are car park, post office, n a r r o w minded, shoelaces, teapot.It is not always easy to separate collocations and c o m p o u n d s and, where they are useful forlearners or an important part of the vocabulary of a topic, we include some c o m p o u n d s inthis book t o o .Idioms are groups of w o r d s in a fixed order that have a meaning that cannot be guessed byknowing the meaning of the individual words. For example, pass the buck is an idiommeaning 'to pass responsibility for a problem to another person to avoid dealing with itoneself. We deal with idioms in detail in the book English Idioms in Use in this series.W h y learn collocations?Learning collocations is a good idea because they can:a) give you the most natural way to say something: smoking is strictly forbidden is morenatural than smoking is strongly forbidden.b) give you alternative ways of saying something, which may be more colourful/expressive ormore precise: instead of repeating It was very cold and very dark, we can say It wasbitterly cold and pitch dark.c) improve your style in writing: instead of saying poverty causes crime, you can saypoverty breeds crime; instead of saying a big meal you can say a substantial meal. Youmay not need or want to use these in informal conversations, but in writing they cangive your text more variety and make it read better: this book includes notes a b o u tformality wherever the collocations are especially formal or informal.6English Collocations in Use

ExercisesI. IRead A and B and answer these questions.1 What is a collocation?2 Which of these words does fast collocate with: car, food, glance, meal?3 Which of these are c o m p o u n d s : computer, narrow-minded, teapot, ancient monument,car park ?4 W h a t do we call expressions like pass the buck and be over the moon}1.2Make ten collocations from the words in the b o x .an eakfasthavemakesubstantialTVdarkmonumentLearning collocations will m a k e your English sound m o r e natural.Learning collocations will help you to express yourself in a variety of ways.Learning collocations will help you to write better English.Using collocations properly will get you better marks in exams.You will not be understood unless you use collocations properly.Put the expressions from the b o x into the correct category in the table below.make a mistakea storm in a tea cuplive musicpull somebody's legheavy snowvalid passportcompound1.5coldmealwatchAre these statements a b o u t collocations true or heckpointkey ringteapotbitterly disappointedidiomUnderline the collocations in this text.When I left university I made a decision to take up aprofession In which I could be creative. I could play theguitar, but I'd never written any songs. Nonetheless Idecided to become a singer-songwriter. I made eomerecordings but I had a rather heavy cold so they didn'tsound good. I made eome more, and sent them to arecord company and waited for them to reply.So, while I was waiting to become famous, I got a jobin a fast-food restaurant. That was five years ago.I'm still doing the same job.English Collocations in Use7

2Finding, recording and learning collocationsFinding collocationsThere are t w o main ways in which you can find collocations. You can train yourself to notice them whenever you read or listen to anything in English.Look at the collocations that are worth learning from this short text in English.After giving Mark a lift to the airport, Cathy m a d e h e r w a y home. What an exciting life heled! At times Cathy felt d e s p e r a t e l y j e a l o u s of him. She s p e n t h e r t i m e doing little morethan t a k i n g care of him and the children. Now her sister was g e t t i n g d i v o r c e d and woulddoubtless be m a k i n g d e m a n d s on her too. Cathy had promised to give her sister a call assoon as she got home but she decided to r u n herself a b a t h first. She had a s h a r p p a i n in herside and hoped that a hot bath might ease t h e pain.aGet into the habit of making a note of any good collocations you come across in any English t e x tyou read. You can find them in any good learner's dictionary.For example, if you look up the w o r d sharp you will find some of these pW h e n you look up a new w o r d make a point of noting it down in several different collocations.Recording collocationsT h e best way to record a collocation is in a phrase or a sentence showing h o w it is used.Highlight the collocation by underlining it or by using a highlighting pen.For example: I don't have access to that kind of secret information.O r : Jim gave me a very useful piece of advice.CLearning collocationsLearning collocations is not so different from learning any vocabulary item. T h e key thingsare to: regularly revise w h a t you w a n t to learn practise using what you w a n t to learn in contexts that are meaningful for you personally learn collocations in groups to help you fix them in your memory. You might grouptogether collocations relating to the same topic. Or you might group collocations basedon the same word, for example:I must find a way to help him.Can you find your way back to my house?I learnt the h a r d way that Jack can't be trusted.Please tell me if I'm getting in your way.You must give way to traffic from the left.I've tried every possible way to get him to change his mind.8English Collocations in Use