ELSAC Workout: Vocabulary 3, Learn New Words thru' Reading

ELSAC Workout: Vocabulary 3, Learn New Words thru' Reading

Get Vocabulary Fit!

develop your skill of guessing meaning from context
practise using some new words

Level: Advanced
Time: approx. 30 mins
Suggested next workout: This is the final vocabulary workout. Choose the next workout depending on your learning needs.

Work through the practice activities in order, by clicking on the tabs at the top of the next page. After completing all practices, the Result tab will summarize your workout. Record your results as proof of independent learning and as motivation to repeat the workout and beat your score. Practice makes you fitter!

Material developed by Hebe Wong, Fiona K P SIU, Alison Wood.

Strengthen knowledge

Stretch usage

Energize practice

*** All ELSAC Workouts ***

Practice 1 Practice 2 Practice 3 Practice 4 Practice 5 Result

1. Warm up for the workout

Skim read A New Form of Splittism and decide which sentence below is the best summary of the article. You don't need to read or understand every word, so do not use a dictionary or google translate. Just skip over any words you don't understand (or guess their meaning). In fact, just reading the first and last sentences of each paragraph should help you.

Which is the best summary?

a. Rising divorce rates in China are a sign of improved human rights.

b. Getting divorced is a new phenomenon in China.

c. Many people in China are upset by the rise in divorce rates.

A New Form of Splittism

It is an age-old truism that growing economic wealth fuels divorce, and China, with its soaring income levels, is hardly immune to this new splittism.

Since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, divorce cases have spiked sharply three times. The first time was in the early 1950s when the newly installed Communists denounced the centuries-old practice of arranged marriage, encouraging adults to pick their own spouses. This inspired many men to divorce the wives that had been arranged for them. Few of these divorce cases were initiated by women because they were inevitably going to suffer economically. The decade of the 1950s saw more than 1.1 million divorces.

The second spike was during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. In many of these cases, those targeted intellectuals who were married would arrange for a divorce, so that their spouse and their children would not be implicated. In other cases, spouses turned against their mates to prove themselves worthy revolutionaries. During this time divorces rose to 1.8 million according to government statistics.

But, while divorces during the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution were mainly driven by dramatic political change, the current spike is due to social and ideological changes brought about by the country's economic reform, when Deng Xiaoping proclaimed that to get rich was glorious.

In an effort to cope with these changes, the government revised the Marriage Law in 2001 and its regulation governing marriage (and divorce) registration in 2003. Under the old rules, young couples had to get written permission from their work units to marry and divorce, before they could file applications. Now, couples can largely decide by themselves when to marry or divorce, which is no longer the business of any other party. Certainly, the new laws make divorce much easier, which helps explain the climbing divorce rate in recent years.

While the sharp increase in divorce appears at odds with traditional Chinese values concerning marriage and family, it should be hailed as progress. To choose your mate - or get rid of one - is a basic human right. Divorce gives unhappily married couples the freedom to decide whether they should continue to co-habit. The latest statistics indicate that mainlanders are increasingly exercising their rights and, one hopes, living happier lives as a result.

Adapted from Wu, Zhong. (2005, June 13). A New Form of Splittism. The Standard. Retrieved from http://www.thestandard.com.hk (With permission to reprint from the newspaper)

2. Guessing meaning from context

Now let's focus on the vocabulary. You may not know all the words in the text, but you can use the context to help you guess their meanings. This is a useful skill when reading, as stopping to use a dictionary all the time reduces your reading fluency.

Click on the words in bold type below, then choose the most appropriate meaning from the drop down menu. Use the context (the words surrounding the bolded word) as well as your own knowledge, to help you. Do not use a dictionary or google translate.

A New Form of Splittism

It is an age-old truism that growing economic wealth fuels divorce, and China, with its ⁽¹⁾soaring income levels, is hardly ⁽²⁾immune to this new ⁽³⁾splittism.

Since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, divorce cases have ⁽⁴⁾spiked sharply three times. The first time was in the early 1950s when the newly ⁽⁵⁾installed Communists ⁽⁶⁾denounced the centuries-old practice of arranged marriage, encouraging adults to pick their own ⁽⁷⁾spouses. This inspired many men to divorce the wives that had been arranged for them. Few of these divorce cases were ⁽⁸⁾initiated by women because they were ⁽⁹⁾inevitably going to suffer economically. The decade of the 1950s saw more than 1.1 million divorces.

The second spike was during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. In many of these cases, those targeted ⁽¹⁰⁾intellectuals who were married would arrange for a divorce, so that their spouse and their children would not be ⁽¹¹⁾implicated. In other cases, spouses ⁽¹²⁾turned against their ⁽¹³⁾mates to prove themselves ⁽¹⁴⁾worthy revolutionaries. During this time divorces rose to 1.8 million according to government statistics.

But, while divorces during the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution were mainly driven by dramatic political change, the current spike is due to social and ⁽¹⁵⁾ideological changes brought about by the country's economic reform, when Deng Xiaoping ⁽¹⁶⁾proclaimed that to get rich was glorious.

While the sharp increase in divorce appears ⁽¹⁷⁾at odds with traditional Chinese values concerning marriage and family, it should be ⁽¹⁸⁾hailed as progress. To choose your mate - or ⁽¹⁹⁾get rid of one - is a basic human right. Divorce gives unhappily married couples the freedom to decide whether they should continue to ⁽²⁰⁾co-habit. The latest statistics indicate that mainlanders are increasingly exercising their rights and, one hopes, living happier lives as a result.

Adapted from Wu, Zhong. (2005, June 13). A New Form of Splittism. The Standard. Retrieved from http://www.thestandard.com.hk (With permission to reprint from the newspaper)

3. Part of speech

As well as their meanings, you need to know more details about new words in order to use them better (see ELSAC Workout, Vocabulary 1). Let's think about parts of speech and word stress.

Here are 16 of the words you considered in Practice 2. Type each one into the correct box in the table below, according to their part of speech. Use lower case letters throughout. If you don't know their parts of speech, click on the Practice 2 tab above and read the words in context to help you. Do NOT use a dictionary - by typing in and thinking about the words, you will remember them better.

at odds with	hail	inevitably	mate	spike
co-habit	ideological	initiate	proclaim	spouse
denounce	immune to	install	soaring	worthy
get rid of*	implicate	intellectual	splittism	turn against*

Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives	Adverbs

Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives	Adverbs

*These are phrasal verbs (see ELSAC Workout Grammar 7 for more information).

4. Word stress

In order to say the words correctly, you need to know which syllable in each word is spoken with the most emphasis, i.e. more strongly than the others. Check the pronunciation of each word in a dictionary, then say the words to yourself. Type them into the correct box in the table below. The first one has been done for you as an example.

co-habit	immune	initiate	proclaim
denounce	implicate	install	soaring
ideological	inevitably	intellectuals	worthy

1^st syllable stressed	2^nd syllable stressed	3^rd syllable stressed	4^th syllable stressed
	co-habit

1^st syllable stressed	2^nd syllable stressed	3^rd syllable stressed	4^th syllable stressed

5. Test your stamina

Let's see if you can remember how to use the new vocabulary. Here are some sentences with gaps. Fill each gap with one of the new items of vocabulary (maybe a phrase). Try to do it without looking at the words below. If you need to see the words, click on Reveal - you will see them for five seconds. When you type in the words, make sure the grammar is correct. Check spelling, spacing, capitalization.

1. The young opera singer has been by the critics.; I think we should buy a ticket to see her perform.

2. The new oven will be on Thursday, just in time to cook your birthday meal.

3. Vaccinations usually make children diseases like chicken pox.

4. He is because he was seen on CCTV very near where they found the dead body.

5. Although they , my sister and her partner are not married.

6. Politicians are not always ; sometimes they don't think very carefully.

7. Records show that global temperatures twice in the last decade.

8. My father always laziness when we were children, because he wanted us to be productive adults.

9. The house prices in Hong Kong have been for several years so it's very difficult for young people to buy a flat.

10. There are some differences between the church and the government, so they can't agree on the new policy about religion in education.

11. She is a winner because she worked extremely hard to improve her skills.

12. There are tax breaks for working adults if your doesn't have a job.

at odds with	hail	inevitably	mate	spike
co-habit	ideological	initiate	proclaim	spouse
denounce	immune to	install	soaring	worthy
get rid of	implicate	intellectual	splittism	turn against

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed this workout and improved your vocabulary fitness. Your results are below. Record your results as proof of independent learning. Take a rest, then repeat this workout to beat your personal best, or try a different one.

Suggested next workout: This is the final vocabulary workout. Choose the next workout depending on your learning needs.

Student's Name (Type in):

Final Result of Vocabulary 3

Date:

Activity	Correct	Maximum	Percentage
Practice 1	0		0%
Practice 2	0		0%
Practice 3	0		0%
Practice 4	0		0%
Practice 5	0		0%
Total Score	0		0%

Time Taken:

	a. Rising divorce rates in China are a sign of improved human rights.
	b. Getting divorced is a new phenomenon in China.
	c. Many people in China are upset by the rise in divorce rates.