Test your intermediate level English

15 (more) useful words - answers are beneath the exercise

I am in the process of updating my book for English learners: http://www.amazon.com/York-Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

The following exercise will be in the new version of the book (coming out in a couple months).  In the mean time, the first version of the book is available on amazon for only $3.50 - a real bargain. :)

Word bank:

corruption, vindictive, kinky, saga, to flirt, prodigious, to confront, the race, sarcasm, veracity, a scandal, unregulated, to screw someone, a rugged individual, a trend

1. The story of how the United States got involved in the second Iraq War is quite a _______________. It is a long, complicated story of greed and stupidity.

2. Every time you get into a cab, please remember that the driver wants to ________________ you.  He will try to overcharge you somehow.

3. Until the reforms made by Roosevelt in the 1930s, Americans were forced to live as ______________________. There were very few programs the government might offer to help people who were in trouble.  Everyone was supposed to try to take care of himself as well as he/she could.

4. Roberta sent email to Jane, telling her that Bob, Jane’s boyfriend, was cheating on her.  Yet, Jane did not know that Roberta had once been Bob’s girlfriend too.  So was Roberta concerned about Jane or was she just being ________________.

5. The 2008 financial crisis showed that the banking industry cannot remain __________________. Laws and monitors must be in place to make sure this industry is run properly.

6. As someone who is part German and part Polish, I have a quite ______________ nose.  It is much bigger than the normal nose in New York City.

7. Bob had begun to lose weight and he had started to look a bit sexier to women.  He was, in fact, surprised that, now, when he went to a bar, some women would try to ________________ with him.

8. Although Congressman Weiner initially denied everything, he had to resign due to a ______________ involving his selfies of his penis. (a selfie is a photo a person takes of him/herself, often with his/her smart phone)

9. The politicians who run the State of New York are very dishonest, but political ______________ seems to be especially bad in the State if Illinois, where many politicians have been thrown in jail recently. (Illinois is the state that has Chicago in it.)

10. Lyndon Johnson was such a corrupt politician, that some historians even believe he participated in the assassination of John Kennedy (so that he, Johnson, could become president).  The _______________ of this allegation/claim has never been established.

11. Nobody really knows, at this point, which Republican candidate will run in the next presidential ______________.  Republicans have become less popular in the USA than ever before because they only seem to care about the rich.

12. I went to a barber who only spoke Russian and he did not understand my instructions for my haircut.  He totally butchered my hair (slang for: he cut my hair very badly).  When I went to school a lot of the guys said, “Hey Bob – nice hair!  Really great haircut!”  I wasn’t sure whether they thought my hair was trendy or they were engaged in _______________.

13. Not everybody likes ‘normal’ sex.  Some people are ____________ and enjoy trying sexual activities that are legal but considered strange.

14. If you think that your spouse is cheating on you (your wife or husband is going out with another person), it might be a good idea to just _________________ your spouse with your suspicions.

15. Women have stopped buying blue jeans and are starting to buy and wear yoga pants.  The companies that make jeans hope this _______________ will not continue for long.

answers are below:

answers:

1. saga, 

2. screw, 

3. rugged individuals, 

4. vindictive, 

5. unregulated, 

6. prodigious, 

7. flirt, 

8. scandal, 

9. corruption, 

10. veracity, 

11. race, 

12, sarcasm, 

13. kinky, 

14. confront, 

15. trend

Test your vocabulary...9 useful words from previous postings

I think this blog is one of the best resources on the internet for foreign students who want to improve their reading and vocabulary.  Here are 9 useful words I took from the last 3 or 4 postings.  

If you don't know what each word means, please review the words in the last few postings. :)  Going through current and past postings on this blog will help your vocabulary to soar (increase rapidly).  Every few days there are new and interesting postings and more useful words.

Word Bank:

hereditary, to be offended by something, to be slain, deliberately, to collaborate with, abundant, to plummet, to emit something, to accommodate someone, 


1. The difference between murder and manslaughter depends on whether a person was killed _______________ or accidentally.  If it was an accident but the death was caused through carelessness, a person can be charged with manslaughter.

2. The two political parties in the USA rarely ________________ each other.  This is why the US government recently had to shut down for several days.

3. There are two types of the disease called diabetes.  Type one diabetes is _____________ while type two is acquired through bad eating habits and other factors a person can control.

4. A supervisor has to make it clear to an employee that he/she should not be ________________ by any type of job evaluation.  An evaluation is meant to help an employee assess how he/she has been doing and to also allow the employee to provide some feedback on what he/she might need in the future.

5. Everyone read some terrible news over the weekend in New York City.  A mother and her four children were ________________ by a mentally ill relative in Brooklyn.  He killed the entire family.  

6. The air in Los Angeles is polluted because of all the carbon monoxide gas that is ____________ by all the cars in that city every day.

7. The waiter was very kind.  Even though we were a large group and we had very specific and hard to meet requests, he was able to ___________________ us and give us the types of  meals we wanted.

8. The stock market can often be quite unstable.  If investors are confident in the government, stock prices can soar.  If investors lose confidence at any time, stock prices can _________________.

9. Many people think there is hunger throughout the world because we lack food.  No. Food is actually __________________.  But, even though there is more than enough food, political and economic systems are not efficient enough to distribute the food adequately.

Answers are below:





Answers:

1. deliberately
2. collaborate with
3. hereditary
4. offended
5. slain
6. emitted
7. accommodate
8. plummet
9. abundant

12 higher-level words - test yourself!

to intervene – to get involved in a situation in order to resolve it

to exacerbate – to make something worse

to impeach – to remove a president who had committed a crime; or, to cast doubt on a statement

to absolve – to provide forgiveness for some wrong action, to make someone pure again

to feel antipathy for s/t – not to like something

primitive – very old, original, not modern

sanctioned – approved

analgesic – something that reduces pain

punitive – something done as a punishment

meticulous – very detailed

belligerent – warlike, aggressive

a harbinger – something that predicts something else

 

1. I felt that my back pain was probably not due to anything serious, so I just went to the pharmacy and bought an over-the-counter ______________. 

2. Some people believe that the USA should act as the world’s ‘policeman’ and it should ___________ in any situation around the world where there is trouble. 

3. I saw some of the old space capsules from the 1960s at a museum.  I looked into the capsule and saw the wiring/circuits.  I was shocked by how ____________ it all looked compared to today’s technology. 

4. When Richard Nixon received a presidential pardon from President Gerald Ford, Nixon was ___________ of all guilt that he might have had due to the Watergate scandal. 

5. When the dictator used a small amount of chemical weapons to attack the rebels, the US was afraid this might be a ______________ of even worse actions.  Therefore they sought military intervention. 

6. The Republicans in Congress did not try to ___________ Bill Clinton because he had had an affair with one of his young interns.  They claimed he had lied to Congress about the affair. 

7. These days Sweden is not known as a __________ country. Yet, in the past, Sweden had a huge military and fought with the great powers of Europe.

8. I told Bob not to scratch his itch, but he did and he only _____________ the problem. 

9. Sometimes a bride’s family will feel some amount of _________ for the groom (and vice versa).  Yet, everyone has to learn to live together peacefully in a family. 

10. Bob was one of the best auditors at his company.  He was super ___________ and would spend as much time as needed to go over all the details to make sure he was doing a good job. 

11. The boxing match was just an exhibition because it had not been ____________ by the appropriate boxing authority. 

12. In a courtroom the judge or jury can award ____________ damages.  This means that one party has done something so wrong that he/she should be punished and the other person should receive extra money.  (In court, 'damages' refers to the amount of money a victim will receive to make the victim feel better about what had happened.)

 

Answers are below:

 

 

 

 

Answers:

 

1. analgesic

2. intervene

3. primitive

4. absolved

5. harbinger

6. impeach

7. belligerent

8. exacerbated

9. antipathy

10. meticulous

11. sanctioned

12. punitive