Can you get these 12 useful, common words?

   

Fill-in-the-blanks

cockroaches, to suck, an election, quid pro quo, a scumbag, prestigious, absurd, remote, ballistic, fishy, to sponsor, moral

Joe told me about a plan he had to make a lot of money for both of us, but the plan seemed _____________ to me and I rejected it.

Mary had a dilemma: she could go to a pretty good school on a full scholarship or a ____________ school but only by taking out a lot of loans.

I tend to avoid going to see Hollywood films and I go to see films from around the world. Yes, Hollywood films are generally bad so I would say that they ___________.

One of the first problems you might experience in a New York City apartment is ________________. These ugly and annoying bugs seem to be everywhere.

There are many talented foreigners who come to the USA who hope to find permanent jobs here. They need to find employers who will ________________ them for green cards, however, and not many companies want to support immigrant workers  to this expensive level.

When Bill told his father that he had crashed his dad’s car into a tree, Bill expected his father to go _________________. Instead, his dad began crying.

Roger was a very handsome guy and women were always flirting with him. He was very ______________ however, and felt it would be wrong to cheat on his wife.

I expected this lawyer to help me, but he turned out to be a _________________. He was  totally unethical and was charging me for work he never did and then he threatened to sue me when I complained!

Many Americans look forward to the next presidential ______________ which will be held in 2016. They are hoping for fresh ideas and new vision.

After 15 years in New York City I really began to hate this place. I started to think of living in a ____________ area far from any cities.

Life seems dominated by _________________ relationships. People are always offering to help you so that you will have to help them later. Or they will help you only if you promise to help them later.

Matt seemed kind of nuts. He claimed to be a police officer and a spy, but I found his stories to be ________________.

Answers:

fishy, 

prestigious, 

suck, 

cockroaches, 

sponsor, 

ballistic, 

moral, 

scumbag, 

election,  

remote, 

quid pro quo, 

absurd

Vocabulary review from: Erdogan and Turkish police.....

This vocabulary review comes from this entry:

http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/06/erdogan-and-turkish-police-attack.html

Please review the vocabulary from that entry before attempting this exercise.

Answers are below the exercise.

Words to be used:

objective, disgusted, to topple, authoritarian,
makeshift, to vow, to storm, a concession,
to erect, to spark, intervention, a riot,


1)  The American Revolution was started because it was felt that Kind George III had adopted a too _________________ approach to ruling the North American colonies.  For instance, the colonists did not have any chance to represent themselves in the English Parliament.

2)  Is there an _______________ newspaper in New York City?  No.  Each newspaper seems to have some bias (prejudice) toward a political party.  Can a newspaper exist which does not favor one political ideology over another? 

3)  Political authorities should always be careful in regard to how they deal with protesters.  If they allow the protesters to make their point peacefully, everything will be ok.  But if the police overreact and attack the protesters, a _____________ will likely break out.

4)  Syrian 'rebels' recently tortured and killed a teenage boy for religious reasons.  This is why I am ______________ that the president of the United States will now be giving weapons to these rebels. (A rebel group is a group that wants to overthrow a government and establish a new government.)

5)  The world has become more than disgusted with the constant attempts at _____________ which the United States government makes.  It seems that regardless of who the president is, the US government wants to get involved in the affairs of every possible foreign government.

6)  During the Cold War it was feared that one little incident might __________ a nuclear war.  Therefore, diplomacy between the US and USSR (Russia) was critical at that time.

7)  Although George W. Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, there were, obviously, other reasons as to why he wanted to ______________ that government.  Many people feel he wanted to gain access to more oil for his father's business friends.

8)  When gorillas (big apes) want to sleep, they make ______________ beds for themselves out of many tree branches and leaves.

9)  Although President Obama _________ to eliminate the illegal prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where various men captured in Afghanistan have been held without any court proceedings for many years, he did not do this.

10)  Many new buildings are being ___________ in New York City, but they are for wealthy individuals who want to move here and live here.  There is very little effort to create affordable housing for the poor or middle class.

11)  Thankfully the New York City police never ______________ Zuccoti Park, where the Occupy Wall Street protesters were.  They found another way to eliminate the protests without using violence.  Now Occupy Wall Street seems to be a dead movement, but at least people were not killed or harmed.

12)  In order for an immigration law to be passed in the USA, both political parties will have to make _________________.  Only by compromising can this law be passed.







Answers:

1. authoritarian
2. objective
3. riot
4. disgusted
5. intervention
6. spark
7. topple
8. makeshift
9. vowed
10. erected
11. stormed
12. concessions

Vocabulary Review 1 for "Is Erdogan mishandling..."

This blog has some AMAZING vocabulary review exercises.  These are all highly useful words you will hear and see a lot if you are learning English.

This review is from this link: http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/06/is-erdogan-mishandling-protests-will.html

Please review the vocabulary definitions from the link above, before you do this review.


Answers are below the exercises:

Words to be used:

undeterred, a bum, to compromise,
to reject, palpable, a confrontation,
to overreact, to convey, authoritarian

1)  The protesters in the park were acting peacefully.  They were engaged in what Americans call "civil disobedience."  This is when citizens peacefully act in a way to show their displeasure toward the government or a government policy.  They did not expect to have a violent ________________ with the police in which hundreds of people were injured and some killed.

2)  The methods that have been used to ___________ information around the world have changed over the centuries.  Once information had to travel from the USA to England through a trans-Atlantic cable.  Now, in a millisecond, a person can communicate with anyone in the world over the internet.

3)  Even though the USA, Japan and South Korea have imposed sanctions (economic punishments) on North Korea, this country's government seems to remain _______________. They continue taking threatening actions against South Korea, the USA and Japan.

4)  Many people in New York City have learned that they should not give money to __________ who beg on the street.  There are numerous programs where the homeless can receive free food, medical help and clothing, as well as job training (if they want it).

5)  The US Constitution tried to make it impossible for a president to become too _______________. Although he is called 'the most powerful person in the world," this is not true.  The president's power is limited by The Congress and the Supreme Court.

6)  When a person buys flowers for his/her lover on Valentine's Day, he/she shows his/her affection in a quite ______________ way.

7)  When protesters had taken over Zuccotti Park in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg did not _______________ by sending in the police to attack the demonstrators.  He waited until the right time before he took action and peacefully removed the protesters who had illegally camped in the park.

8)  Although Bob needed a job, he felt that the salary offer of the company that wanted to hire him was too low; therefore he ______________ the offer.

9)  When Bill Clinton was president, he was known to _____________ a great deal.  This meant that he found some middle ground with people who disagreed with him, and he was able to get his policies passed as laws.


Answers:






Answers:

1) confrontation
2) convey
3) undeterred 
4) bums 
5) authoritarian
6) palpable
7) overreact
8) rejected
9) compromise

Vocabulary Exercise For: Riots in Sweden

The vocabulary words are taken from this article (please review the definitions of the words at this link before doing the exercise): http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/05/riots-in-sweden.html

Words to be used:

to beef up, a suburb, a riot,
to abate, to vandalize, to hurl,
to be sparked by, to confirm, ambivalence,
to swell, looting, to be deprived,


Exercises:

1)  In the story of David and Goliath, David is able to ___________ a stone at a giant and kill him, thus saving his own army from defeat (losing a battle).

2)  During riots, young people often express their outrage (extreme anger) by ______________ various buildings around town.  Often they will break windows or set buildings on fire.

3)  The pain in my back would not go away until my doctor prescribed some very strong medication.  Slowly but surely the pain began to ____________ until finally it disappeared.

4)  Although my new website was not receiving many views, once people started recommending it to their friends and information about it started to spread, I noticed that the number of views began to _____________.

5)  When people argue about controversial issues, they rarely show a sense of ________________.  In regard to abortion, capital punishment and gay marriage, people usually have very strong and well-defined beliefs.

6)  One of the most famous ___________ in America happened in 1993 in Los Angeles.  After police officers were found 'not-guilty' of beating a black man, many black people took to the streets and began burning cars and buildings.

7)  Whenever there is an increase in crime in a city, the city government will usually try to ________________ its police presence.  This is often a short-term solution - a long term solution might be to try to eliminate poverty and violent neighborhoods in the city.

8)  When I was younger my parents seriously thought of moving from Chicago to a nearby ______________.  The thought of living away from the city horrified me, and they stayed in the city for my benefit.

9)  The divorce between my friend and his wife was _______________ by the fact that his wife was seeing another guy.

10)  It seems that the more economically ______________ a neighborhood is, the more violence there will be there.

11) After natural disasters in America, there always seems to be _____________; people take advantage of the situation to break into stores to steal things.

12)  Although Bob claimed that Joe had stolen his smartphone at school, the police were not able to ________________ that this happened, and they did nothing to help Bob.


Answers are below:









Answers

1) hurl
2) vandalizing
3) abate
4) swell
5) ambivalence
6) riots
7) beef up
8) suburb
9) sparked
10) deprived
11) looting
12) confirm

Vocabulary Review from "North Korea" Article

Here's a vocabulary review exercise from this previous article:
http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/02/north-korea-creates-video-of-new-york.html
Please review the vocabulary words at this link before doing the exercise.

Words to be used (two words are used twice):

to stem from, a sanction, hostility
to retaliate, imminent, a double-standard
to ban, billowing, to resemble
apparent, a PR stunt, provocative

Exercise:

1)  These days, many parents are concerned because performers like Lady Gaga and Rhianna try to make their songs and music videos as sexually _______________ as possible, to draw attention to themselves and to sell their music. This sends the wrong message to young people about women and interpersonal relationships. 

2)  Although there will probably be immigration reform (changes) in the USA, the changes are not ________________.  The new laws will probably not be passed until next year and it will take some time before the laws can take effect.

3)  The mayor of New York City tried passing a law making it illegal for fast-food establishments (like McDonalds) to sell very large containers of soda.  This _____________ of large soft drinks, however, was ruled "unconstitutional" by a judge (the judge decided that it is a person's right to drink whatever he wants to drink).

4)  The novels of Dostoyevsky are among the most _______________ novels ever written.  They cause you to think, feel a variety of emotions and even become angry at times. 

5)  The current world financial crisis _________________ a terrible decision by the US Congress to force banks in the USA to loan money to people who had bad credit histories.  Obviously these people were not be able to pay back their loans, and so they defaulted (were officially not able to pay the loans back) and banks lost billions of dollars.

6)  Many of the world's great religions teach that if a person harms us, we should not __________________.

7)  The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is one of the largest parades in the world and, of course, takes place on the American holiday of Thanksgiving each year.  Tens of millions of Americans watch this parade on TV and about a million people show up in downtown Manhattan to see it.  Therefore, it is a huge ________________ stunt by Macy's, which generates lots of publicity and new customers.

8)  Don't you think the world should be concerned about whether the nation of Iran acquires nuclear weapons?  Most people would think so, but how can we stop that government from doing so?  Israel would like to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, but the Obama administration prefers to use economic ________________.

9)  On 9/11/2001, I was teaching in the Bronx.  Indeed, The Bronx is quite far from where the World Trade Center attacks occurred.  Yet, even from the Bronx I could the smoke ________________ up into the sky from lower Manhattan on that day.

10)  There was an immense (strong) feeling of ______________ between the US and Soviet governments during the Cold War (1945 to 1989), but, thankfully, another World War in Europe did not occur.

11)  The pain in Bob's back ______________ an accident he had had 3 years ago.

12)  In some countries, young men are required to do military service.  Many of these young men feel that there is a _______________ involved in this situation.  Women and men might have equal rights in their country, but only the men are expected to make a two year sacrifice for their society.

13)  Three women had inexplicably (without explanation) disappeared in the city of Cleveland 10 years ago.  It suddenly became ______________, however, that these women had been kidnapped (captured) and held as prisoners in a man's house.  This was realized one day when one woman was able to scream for help, and was heard by a neighbor who took action to save her and the others.

14)  Bob's brother looks more like his father while Bob tends to _____________ his mother more.


Answers are way below:





Keeping going down please:




Father, please:




OK, here they are:


Answers:


1) provocative
2) imminent
3) ban
4) provocative
5) stems from
6) retaliate
7) PR stunt (here's a good web site of PR stunts: http://www.taylorherring.com/blog/index.php/tag/top-50-pr-stunts/
(the peanut protest is my favorite!!!!! so creative!)
8) sanctions
9) billowing
10) hostility
11)  stemmed from
12) double standard
13) apparent
14) resemble

Vocabulary Review for "Japanese Politicians...War Shrine"

This vocabulary review is from this article:
http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/05/japanese-government-officials-will.html

Words to be used:

to pledge, a memorial, an outcry
a protest, to elaborate, an atrocity
a landmark decision, to be convicted, a symbol

Exercise:

1)  Brown vs. The Board of Education was a ____________________ by the US Supreme Court, which made it illegal for a public school system to prevent African American students from attending schools with white students.

2)  When Coca Cola tried to change the formula of its drink a few years ago, there was an ______________ and many people pledged that they would not drink the new version.

3)  The American Eagle is the official ____________ of the United States of America.  It holds arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other.  What does this mean?  Basically it means that the US wishes to have peace with other countries, but will fight if necessary. (a 'claw' is a bird's foot)

4)  Recently many organizations around the USA raised a lot of money so that a ______________ could be built to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights activist.

5)  Although Richard Nixon did many things that were morally wrong as president of the United States, he was never actually ______________ of a crime.

6) Hiroshima was a Japanese city which did not have any military purpose.  When the USA dropped an atomic bomb on that city, many innocent people died.  Yet, this has never been classified as an ________________ in history books, since the US government claimed it was necessary to drop the bomb to end the war quickly.

7)  When I went off to college, my parents _____________ that they would support me as well as they could financially, even though they were relatively poor.

8)  I didn't quite understand the plan fully.  It seemed to vague.  That's the reason why I asked him to ___________________.

9)  Many historians believe that the Vietnam War might have lasted longer if so many young Americans had not ______________ the war as being morally wrong.


Answers are below:




Farther down:




Answers:

1) landmark decision
2) outcry
3) symbol
4) memorial
5) convicted
6) atrocity
7) pledged
8) elaborate
9) protested