3 Practice
Study the following sentences and decide which of the features listed on p. 163 each
illustrates.
(a) He said that getting a B minus for his essay had been the worst shock of his
life. ( __ )
(b) The President said she regretted the loss of life in the disaster and sympathised
with the survivors. ( __ )
(c) At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Chang told them about the strange habits
of her first boss. ( __ )
(d) He warned them that there was no such thing as a free lunch. ( __ )
(e) The author of the report passed away on 21 November. ( __ )
(f) He told the class that their Economics course was a voyage over an uncharted
ocean. ( __ )
(g) After his laptop was stolen, with the only copy of his dissertation on it, he said he
felt rather annoyed. ( __ )
(h) She said that the older she got, the less she seemed to know. ( __ )
(i) After the price rise, sales fell like a stone. ( __ )
(j) It is said that the early bird catches the worm. ( __ )
(k) Their teacher explained that the project consisted of two parts; the first a literature
review, the second a survey report. ( __ )
(l) He was over the moon when he won the scholarship. ( __ )
(m) ‘Finger lickin’ good’ has sold millions of chicken meals. ( __ )
(n) His feelings towards his old school were a mixture of love and hate.
( __ )
(o) Paris is the capital of romance; the city for lovers. ( __ )
4 Confusing pairs
Certain common words cause confusion because they have similar but distinct spellings and
meanings:
The drought affected the wheat harvest in Australia.An immediateeffectof the price rise was a fall in demand.‘Affect’ and ‘effect’ are two different words. ‘Affect’ is a verb, while ‘effect’ is commonly used
as a noun.
164 Part 3: Vocabulary for Writing
exaggerationidiom