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Word practice
Instructions
You can improve your use of academic words by doing this two-part activity.
Read each sentence and select the best word choice from each drop-down box.
Instructions
Choose the best word in [brackets] from each choice. Answers will be given at the end of each question.
1. The results of the survey were [contrarily, somewhat] surprising, with more men than women reporting that they regularly shop on the Internet.
Answer: somewhat
2. The central office space has been designed to be flexible, [plus, thereby] eliminating the need for costly additional refurbishments.
Answer: thereby
3. In terms of reducing pollution, the most obvious benefit of this particular material is that if it is exposed to the air, it will [eventually, crucially] decompose.
Answer: eventually
4. This course will provide a [chart, foundation] in the theories and principles of systems, particularly in their application to complex problems.
Answer: foundation
5. This raises an interesting question – could the air that we breathe one day become a [topic, commodity] to be traded, like oil, on the world’s markets?
Answer: commodity
6. The [ideology, prospect] of being able to vaccinate against various forms of cancer has caused great excitement in the medical community.
Answer: prospect
7. Although this practice is [virtually, ultimately] unheard of in the West, it is common among many societies in Africa and the Middle East.
Answer: virtually
8. At times the rulings have appeared quite [graded, arbitrary], with judges frequently delivering different sentences for identical crimes.
Answer: arbitrary
9. Blogging is a relatively recent [paradigm, phenomenon], but one that has the potential to revolutionise the publishing industry.
Answer: phenomenon
10.Some activists argue that the donation of foreign [aid, mode] to countries with oppressive governments actually does more harm than good.
Answer: aid