contact [verb]
to get in touch (e.g. by phone or email)

• Please contact me by email if you need help understanding your assignment.
• The police would like to contact everyone who was in the area when the accident happened.
• All students whose college/university will be forwarding tuition payments will need to contact the OSA to find out the exact procedure.
• He claimed that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre knew about the tsunami ahead of time but failed to contact affected countries.

research [noun]
study; the finding of information

• Internet research has become extremely popular, but it's easy to waste time and find nothing useful.
• The government is going to set up a research laboratory to investigate the outbreak of the sickness in farm animals.
• The journal publishes scholarly research aimed at describing and explaining consumer behavior.
• Turkish law requires foreign scholars to obtain formal permission to carry out research at institutions in Turkey.

site [noun]
place

• The site of the new hotel has been well-chosen: halfway between the airport and the beach.
• Government ministers laid flowers at the site of the terrorist explosion.
• Slave remains appeared during an excavation at the site of these ruins.
• The catheter then deploys a small balloon at the site of the blood clot.

state [noun]
condition, situation

• Look at the state of your book. Did your dog try to eat it?
• Iraq is virtually in a state of civil war.
• As maintenance requirements and costs increase, fewer aircraft will be in a satisfactory state of readiness or mission-capable.
• It was found, in a bad state of repair and covered with moss and rust.

view [verb]
to have an opinion

• I view learning vocabulary as the single most important thing that ESL students should do.
• Most people view the airport's plans to finger-print all passengers as an expensive waste of time.
• Mrs. Cassells did not view us as young children in need of constant guidance, but instead thought we should have the opportunity to make our own decisions.
• We view his behavior as very serious and we hope this ban will serve as an example.

education [noun]
schooling

• It's very important to have a good education. Then you have much more chance of getting the job you want.
• The government is thinking of extending compulsory education by two years.
• The role of public schools in the education of these disturbed children is controversial.
• She expects to complete her education and earn her doctorate between 2012 and 2015, after which she intends to become a mathematics professor.

form [verb]
to make (into a shape)

• Students whose own language does not use the Latin alphabet may find it difficult at first to form English letters.
• The manager has decided form a committee to investigate the recent increase in theft from the storeroom.
• You will need to form project teams of two or three students, and then it will be your responsibility to organize meetings.
• In fact, Lenin knew that it was impossible to form a Communist International without the Germans.

provide [verb]
to give

• Cows provide us with milk; and we get wool from a sheep.
• The government is planning to provide all new mothers with a book advising them how to take care of their baby.
• What if a student alleges that she is entitled to a tuition refund because her instructors failed to provide the required number of hours of instruction?
• The discovery of a mutant gene in fruit flies will likely provide scientists with a useful model to study neurodegenerative diseases in humans.
• The system uses a novel inference engine that does not require users to explicitly provide information about the start or ending points of their journeys.
• For your child to be considered your dependent, you must provide more than half of their support.

staff [noun]
people working at a particular place (particularly an office or school)

• The school's staff were told that they would not be getting an increase of pay in the new year.
• There is no point in getting angry with security staff at airports. They have no choice but to follow orders.
• University staff will notice the new look and feel because information will be presented on Web pages instead of on bulletin boards.
• Nadeem has worked with FSU London since early 2004 as a permanent member of staff managing the Information Technology Systems.

include [verb]
to put in; to have in

• You have forgotten to include an introductory paragraph. Please do so.
• All new cars have airbags and many include navigation systems too.
• An assessment report must include a summary of procedures and instruments.
• The global trade agreements have failed to include meaningful, enforceable labour or environmental standards.

community [noun]
a group of people

• Frankfurt International School has invited the local community to its Open Day.
• The internet has made it possible for a community of people with similar interests to get together online, even if they don't live close to each other.
• Unidata is a diverse community of education and research institutions vested in the common goal of sharing data, tools to access the data, and software to use and visualize the data.
• The situation is such that not only is the Muslim community conflicted with the outside pressures to conform, but it is conflicted within itself.

found [verb]
to begin (often an organization)

• Frankfurt International School has decided to found a student-teacher group to help with the education of students in the Kalahari.
• The government intends to found a new organization to help young people find suitable jobs.
• The single, vital, principle on which the true republic must found itself, he insists, is the principle of good-will.
• Wilhelm Wundt began writing on psychology and psychophysics as early as 1858, even though he did not found his laboratory until 1879.

course [noun]
a subject or period of study

• This year you cannot choose which science course to do, but when you are in grade 9 you can select chemistry, physics or biology.
• The government has introduced a compulsory language course for immigrants who cannot speak English.
• If you fail the midterm exam and the first homework then you fail the course.
• After an initial period of introduction and practice, the German course begins with Chapter 1 in the text Deutsch: Na klar!

address [verb]
to give attention to (an issue)

• The school needs to address the serious problem of bullying among grade 7 students.
• Some people are unwilling to address the issue of global warming. They claim it is not happening.
• We need to address the issue of absenteeism and lower productivity among working parents who worry that their kids are not safe.
• Although the amendment claimed to reduce opportunities for voter fraud, it did not address the more common problems of fraudulent voter registration.

support [noun]
help

• Most beginning ESL students need a lot of support from their teachers and parents before they can start to work more independently.
• The government needs to offer more financial support to young married couples who want to buy a house.
• As one of its many uses to support learning, the Internet is increasingly being used as a forum for students to give feedback to each other.
• A layer of this cement three tenthousandths of an inch thick over one square inch will support a weight of 7000 pounds.

own [verb]
to have or possess

• The school does not own the sports hall. It belongs to the local council, which charges the school to use it.
• Many more people own a house in England than in Germany.
• If you do not own a computer you should not enroll in the program.
• I believe police agencies have no right to determine who can or cannot own guns.

description [noun]
an account of what something is like or looks like

• Thanks to the accurate description of the witnesses, the police were able to identify the bank robbers.
• You will see the description of the problem on the left and the solution on the right.
• Newton's Laws provide a good description of the flight of a baseball.
• The lesson plans contained an incomplete description of learners, their background and prior knowledge.

review [verb]
to check over (and make changes)

• Be sure to review your writing before you give it to me.
• The government promised to review its policy on drug criminality.
• If this request is approved by the IRB, the researcher and his or her clinic staff would be permitted to review the medical records.
• It is important to review language that reinforces the dominant culture's attitude to disability.

apply [verb]
to be relevant (to)

• The advice does not apply to adults, only to children.
• The new rules will apply to anyone who has come to Germany in the last 10 years.
• The decision does not usually apply to aliens who are under mandatory detention.
• They argued that the law did not apply to Cheney's task force, since all of its members were government officials, not outsiders.

service [noun]
work done for others; help

• The school offers a free translation service to help families new to the school and to the country.
• The train service in Germany is much better than that in England.
• In recognition of your continuous satisfactory service to the university, you will receive an award at five-year intervals.
• Professor Cowen has a particular interest in professional service firms and has conducted much of her research in the investment banking industry.

current [adjective]
happening now

• The current prediction is that there will be no more oil by the end of the century.
• The director has called a meeting to discuss current problems in the computer labs.
• Parental assistance should be just sufficient to get the learner past his current difficulties.
• The aim of the course is to have students discuss current events in Germany.

present [verb]
to give or show; to make a presentation

• Remember that you will present your ecology poster to the rest of the class in tomorrow's lesson.
• The government plans to present its report on adult education before the beginning of the summer vacation.
• If you fail to present proper identification you will be billed €5.00 per test.
• Your work will be penalized if you do not present it by the assigned deadline.

policy [noun]
formal rules

• The school has a policy of expelling any student who brings drugs into the building.
• Not everyone agrees with the government's policy of putting illegal immigrants into prison.
• I have read the terms of the University's Internet Access Policy and agree to abide by them.
• He alleged that the state had adopted the policy of attacking the entire independent media rather than targeting individual journalists as in the past.

order [noun]
sequence, place

• You have not got these words in the right order. In German the main verb must be the second element in the sentence.
• The company has done things in the wrong order. It should not have built the next factory before employing people to work in it, not after.
• Arrange the terms in the correct order from simplest to most complex.
• The 1970 draft lottery, intended to pick birthdays in random order, didn't do a very good job of randomization.

control [verb]
to have and exercise power over something or someone

• The new teacher found it difficult to control the class.
• Terrorists control large areas of the country outside of the main towns.
• You can't always control what happens to you, but you can always control how you react to what happens to you.
• While most adults with phobias know that these fears are extreme and irrational, they are unable to control them.

public [adjective]
open to all; not private

• The school sports field is not a public facility. Only students, parents or teachers are allowed to use it.
• The government has so far refused to make public its plans for the continued presence of its soldiers in Iraq.
• News digest covers critical public health issues from around the world.
• How do I find out whether the book is in the public domain?

request [verb]
to ask politely

• Some students request to go to the bathroom when in fact all they want to do is escape a boring lesson for a few minutes.
• The airport authorities request all passengers to keep their bags in sight at all times.
• You will not be able to request a domain name unless you provide the following information.
• How do I request that the Libraries purchase a book or other material?
• You will need to request a formal leave of absence with USC if you intend to be away from more than 3 days.
• Megan Wood said although students were more educated on the issues, many did not vote simply because they forgot to request an application form.

available [adjective]
can be had (bought or obtained)

• Microsoft's new operating system will not be available until the beginning of September.
• Digital television is not yet available in many parts of the country.
• The practice test materials will become available just prior to the class.
• Certain items are not available at this time since the originals have been put into storage for the duration of the construction.

area [noun]
field, sphere

• Religion is an area in which many people have very strong feelings.
• I don't have very much knowledge in the area of electronics.
• Though this is not an area where government can go it alone, it can and must set a good example.
• The book is an educational and approachable reference in a difficult area of medicine where clinicians often feel uncertain.

process [noun]
a series of steps

• A very important way to improve writing is to follow the writing process: plan, compose, revise, edit, publish.
• Bringing a new medical drug onto the market is a process that can take several years.
• This page traces the process by which a bill becomes a law in the United States.
• The committee will investigate the process by which the decision was made.

add [verb]
to include; to give or say extra

• Your report is good, but you need to add a paragraph on the causes of the accident.
• Please add Einstein to your list of famous scientists.
• This means that you will be able to add money from your bank account to your StanfordCardPlan using this new online service.
• This form is to be used by students who seek to add or drop a course during the first two weeks of the trimester.

related [adjective]
connected; having something to do with each other

• I think her problems in school are related to problems at home.
• Many social scientists believe that poverty and crime are related.
• Incoming personal mail and packages are not related to university business and are not permitted.
• Problem behaviors were found to be related to drinking practices.

level [noun]
standard; layer; amount

• You are not yet ready to go to the next level of ESL.
• The government is concerned about the current high level of unemployment.
• This requires thought, but not at a level which should be inaccessible to advanced students.
• The department is responsible for notifying the Office of Compliance & Consultation of the required level of training for new employees.

field [noun]
area of interest or study

• Before becoming a teacher she worked in the field of green technologies.
• The causes of gun and knife crime among young people is an important field of inquiry.
• Stephen Krashen, a distinguished scholar and leading expert in the field of language acquisition, held an open forum to present his findings on five topics.
• Digital Libraries constitute a relatively young scientific field, whose life spans roughly the last fifteen years.

access [noun]
the right to enter or use

• There will be no access to the school on Saturday morning. The fire alarms are being tested.
• I didn't have my identity card with me so I was not allowed access to the building.
• Students must have access to a PC that has at least a 700 MHz processor.
• The pharmacy does not have access to your medical record, thus is unable to obtain insurance information from the health forms.

create [verb]
to make; to use your imagination to make something new

• Many scientists are working hard to create a robot that can understand spoken language and do jobs around the house.
• We must face the reality that we will have to create systems out of components that are far less than perfect.
• The developing world does not create many industrial wastes; thus it has had little opportunity to develop proper disposal techniques.
• Most recently, he has focused on discarded metal objects, hundreds or even thousands of which are joined together to create remarkable works of art.

experience [noun]
knowledge and skills gained over a long period of time

• I think the new teacher will do very well. She has a lot of experience with students whose first language is not English.
• A typical problem is that many companies will only employ workers with experience, but how do young people gain that experience if they are not given a job. This is called a "vicious circle".
• Many undergraduates have little experience in organizing tasks and making good use of time.
• Mr. Elliott was at fault for delegating that function to a person who lacked the experience to perform the job properly.

degree [noun]
amount

• To a certain degree I think you are right, but not 100%.
• To what degree do you believe that the government has made the right decision?
• Most of Africa suffers to some degree from similar issues: weak institutions, stagnant economies, ethnic conflict, etc.
• The hypothesis put forward in this paper depends in no degree upon the completeness of our knowledge of the former condition of the organic world.

main [adjective]
most important

• You have many small errors in your writing, but your main problem is that you have not organized your thoughts clearly enough.
• The main advantage of living in the city is that you are close to good shopping and entertainment. Of course, city life has many disadvantages too.
• The main objective of the proposed research is to investigate the influence of West African languages.
• The main consequence of these wars is the social unrest, and the increasing economic and social divergence between the groups of the community.

focus [verb]
to direct attention (on an issue)

• The next project that we need to focus on is the school extension.
• We need to focus on the important issues.
• Students are encouraged to focus not only on the skills and knowledge related to the high stakes tests but also the skills and knowledge to perform more authentic tasks.
• During this period she developed her ideas on art, her main one being that the best art did not focus on reality but evoked the state of the soul.

design [noun]
planning (drawing)

• Students have been invited to comment on the design of the school's new sports facility.
• For some people the design of a car is more important than its price or performance.
• Poor web page design occurs when a writer does not follow accepted standards.
• After the war, Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory to work on the design of a computer.

receive [verb]
to get

• Did everyone receive their report card.
• If you order a book from Amazon, you usually receive it within a few days.
• You will receive an email from the Financial Aid office when your financial aid eligibility has been determined.
• The U.S. government likely approached China on this matter prior to the announcement of sanctions, but did not receive a satisfactory response.

schedule [noun]
timetable

• I think your schedule is wrong. You should be in science class now, not ESL
• The government has announced its schedule for the introduction of the new tax system over the next 5 years.
• Check the schedule below for specific dates and starting times.
• She discussed the schedule for implementing the system through April 2003 and outlined several potential advantages of the system.

develop [verb]
to grow or improve

• If you learn 6 or 7 words a day, your vocabulary will develop very quickly.
• Most car companies are putting money into research into alternative forms of fuel. It will take a number of years, however, before anyone can develop a car that runs on water.
• Why have these countries failed to develop despite receiving billions of dollars in assistance?
• The best assurance that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons is to allow it to have a full civilian nuclear program under IAEA supervision.

section [noun]
part

• This section of the book has exercises that I expect you to do as homework every day.
• The government has removed a section of the report which they said was no longer up-to-date.
• In this section, we first take a closer look at the energy band diagrams of common semiconductors.
• This section of the GED web site provides several example questions from each part of the GED Tests.

administration [noun]
the people responsible for running an organization such as the government or a school

• The administration is planning to extend the school day until 4pm.
• Not all the decisions of the administration have been welcomed by the workers.
• Such web content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University administration.
• The Bush administration has failed to address the matter urgently, spending only €1.3 billion per year.

point [noun]
purpose; reason; value

• There is no point in turning on the computer. The monitor isn't working.
• Many people do not see the point of trying to save money when interest rates are so low.
• There is really no point in arguing which approach is better.
• So, what's the point of all this hindsight and what do we stand to gain from it?

career [noun]
a long-term job

• Teaching is the career of the people who work at FIS.
• A career in science or engineering usually pays more than one in manufacturing.
• Our primary mission is to help you identify, plan for, and achieve your career goals.
• Preparing yourself for a career in oceanography is probably one of the most interesting and rewarding (yet difficult) paths to travel.

version [noun]
form

• Can you please give me the final version of your writing? This looks like your first draft before you corrected the spelling and grammar.
• The police chief gave a very different version of the incident than the TV reporter the previous day.
• The current version of our anatomy information system has evolved from several previous systems.
• Now retired and free to speak out about the scandal, Karpinski is devoting herself to publicizing her version of event.

select [verb]
to choose

• Which activity are you going to select next time? - I think I'll try chess.
• When attempting to select a food service for an on-campus event, please be sure to ask the following questions.
• There are six categories to select from, each containing five answers in ascending order of difficulty.
• Students choosing this option must select a faculty adviser from the departmental faculty who will supervise the student's program.
• The board was unable to select a candidate in the first round because of disagreement over candidates' performance.

event [noun]
a happening

• The death of Princess Diana was an event that shocked the whole world.
• I believe that the most important event in my generation is the war in Iraq.
• It was an event that had such a deep effect on me that it helped me decide to move back to Prague.
• The goal of this unit is to teach students how a seemingly unimportant event can have a significant effect on their lives.

approach [verb]
to near; to get closer

• When you approach the city, you will notice the many disused factories.
• As we approach the end of the school year, it's time you started to work a little harder!
• Be sure to ask if this is a good time to approach the professor for your specific need.
• Despite his success, Salieri's musical talent did not approach that of Mozart.

master [verb]
to (gain) control

• She is yet to master basic verb grammar. She often says He do .. instead of He does ...
• It takes a lot of training to master the skills in professions such as car mechanics or cooking,
• Teacher trainees will need to master problem-solving strategies that offer clear practical solutions to issues that affect those in poverty.
• It was a ridiculous fear, but she was unable to master it.

member [noun]
a person who is part of a team or other organization

• If you are a member of the school orchestra should have lunch early and come to the practice at 12.30.
• The police have arrested a man who they say is a member of a terrorist organization.
• Do I have to be a member of the Society to submit a paper?
• Nazi paramilitary organization was compulsory, although he was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Hitler's regime.

associate [verb]
to link to; to make a connection to

• Many economists associate the rise in prices with the government's decision to tax imports.
• Even today some Russian people refuse to associate Stalin with the terrible crimes that were committed when he was Russian leader.
• Many people do not associate a top engineering education with a liberal arts setting.
• It is often necessary to associate a complex set of "metadata" with each data point in order to make that datum useful.

location [noun]
place, where something or someone is

• The school is in a very good location to the north of Frankfurt and on the edge of the beautiful Taunus forest.
• Despite looking for Osama Bin Laden for many years, the USA still do not know his exact location.
• An important clue to understanding volcanoes is knowing the location of the volcanic bands.
• The Regional Oral History Office has moved to a temporary location.

individual [noun]
one person

• Every individual in this class has made excellent progress and passed the final exam.
• No individual can have much effect on the environment, but people working together can make a big difference.
• There will be no verbal or written personal attacks on any individual or group of individuals based on age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap.
• While the individual is not responsible for developing the disease, he or she is responsible for not passing it on.

submit [verb]
to give; to send

• If you plan for your child to attend the school, you must submit an online request.
• Every employee must submit an annual tax declaration to his or her local tax office.
• You can submit your work at any time prior to the due date.
• He failed to submit proof that he had completed an approved substance- abuse program as required.

society [noun]
a group of people; the entire group of people living in a country

• The United States has a very cosmopolitan society. People have come from all countries in the world to live there.
• Many people think that terrorism is the greatest problem affecting society today.
• While addiction and drugs are serious problems in society that require a humane approach, there is no room for nonsense if we want to achieve success.
• Whig-Clio is the oldest political, literary, and debating society in the United States.
• The older population of the U.S. and the world is growing rapidly, and these large numbers will represent a major challenge for society in general.
• Science and technology are driving explosive growth in the production of new knowledge, often with the power to induce profound changes in society.

previous [adjective]
the one before

• The new government has promised not to repeat the mistakes of the previous one.
• In our previous class on binary counting, we found a way to represent numbers using just two digits, 0 and 1.
• Yoo Jong-pil, spokesman of the DP, claimed Roh wanted to further distinguish himself from the previous government and humiliate the DP.
• Ask the candidate to discuss what they believe to have been their most significant challenges and accomplishments in their current job or a previous job.

major [adjective]
important, large

• Unemployment is a major problem in many European countries.
• A major factor in his success was his willingness to work very hard.
• Poverty has been a major problem in the United States for many years.
• Russian is one of the major world languages and is spoken by over 250 million people.

continue [verb]
to carry on, not stop

• When you get to the end of the page, do not stop. Please continue reading on the next side.
• The government must continue to make every effort to prevent young people from becoming addicted to drugs.
• The review of applications will continue until all positions are filled.
• Martin Luther King was killed simply for insisting that America could not continue with people isolated on lonely islands of poverty.

increase [verb]
to get bigger

• The population of the world is will continue to increase. It is expected that there will be 7 billion people on earth in the year 2010.
• Tight budgets made it impossible to increase our faculty to keep pace with our student growth.
• The number of extremely warm nights and the length of heat waves will increase significantly over nearly all land areas across the globe.
• Bernstein argues that progressive reforms not only failed to increase the power of the people but were conservative and not innovative.

materials [noun]
the things you need to do something

• Please bring all your materials to class. That includes your homework planner and dictionary.
• Many universities make their materials available to students online.
• Students are responsible for gathering all materials necessary to support an appeal.
• Individuals are granted the use of the materials on this website without written permission provided that all of the following conditions are met.

series [noun]
a number of things, one after the other

• We will watch a series of films about Ancient Rome. This first one is about Julius Caesar.
• The managers made a series of errors, which resulted in the company losing over €2 million..
• Wonderwise is a series of educational packages introducing you to women who have made science their career.
• A series of accidents and a mounting public demand resulted in the government licensing of pilots and aircraft.

aid [noun]
help (often financial help)

• The government decided to increase its aid to the countries of eastern Africa.
• You should contact the office to see if you can get aid.
• Financial aid is the term we use to describe a variety of funds available to help students and their families finance the cost of a Berry College education.
• Evidently both species can discriminate depth by differential motion alone, with no aid from texture density and probably little help from other cues.

opportunity [noun]
chance

• You have one last opportunity to show that you can work hard and behave properly. If you don't take it, you will be asked to leave the school.
• The doctor took the opportunity to ask her patient if he had stopped smoking as promised.
• Here is a good opportunity to get paid for conducting undergraduate research at UH through its Summer Research Program.
• King Charles not only lost the opportunity to establish an independent kingdom; he also lost his life.

share [verb]
to exchange; to give

• It is a tradition at the school for teachers to share a cake or cookies with their colleagues when it is their birthday.
• Developed countries should share some of their wealth with poorer nations in Africa.
• Teachers and parents can learn and share ideas for helping to work for more successful outcomes in the transition from school to adult life.
• The Madrid attack was like the September 11 attack in that government agencies failed to share information about a potential terrorist threat.

term [noun]
a word or expression

• What's the meaning of the term hypothesis?
• Hypotenuse is a term that you will normally hear only in mathematics class.
• Theatre is not the correct term for such a performance, since it is a matter of the virtual as well as the actual.
• Hmong elders did not have symptoms before coming to the U.S. and question why diabetes exists in the U.S. There is no term for diabetes in the Hmong language.

transfer [verb]
to move to a different place or job

• My father is going to transfer to Germany at the end of 2004.
• Many German companies have decided to transfer their factories to parts of the world where workers are cheaper.
• She was unable to transfer her ability and experience to this new problem.
• If you are relocating to another U.S. school after your graduation, we will need to transfer your records to that school.

determine [verb]
to find out; to establish or identify; state

• There are two possible answers to this question. You have to determine which one makes more sense in the world of today.
• The intelligence service is finding it very difficult to determine which young men are likely to become terrorists and which are not.
• Then you will need to determine the selection criteria you want to use.
• The Coroner who made the investigation, was unable to determine whether it was suicide or accidental death.

source [noun]
where something begins, where you can find something

• The source of the Urselbach river is high in the Taunus hills behind the school.
• Insects are an important source of food in many societies throughout the world.
• GeoRef is the most complete single source of literature references concerning active volcanoes.
• They have to stop and ask those questions because the internet is not the best source of all information.

consider [verb]
to think

• You must consider how much it is going to cost and whether you really need it
• The government should consider the effects of its proposal on poor people.
• What do I need to consider in deciding if this course is right for me?
• Adults who did not consider nutrition very important when buying food, as compared to adults who considered nutrition very important, were less likely to eat a good quality diet.

require [verb]
to need

• I require your help, please. I can't do this on my own.
• Doctors usually require patients to have some proof of ability to pay for treatment.
• Prior to the change, students had the option of taking a track that didn't require language proficiency.
• By the time they reach preschool, about 1 in 3 Odham children require eyeglasses for astigmatism.
• My research does not require contacting people because I intend to use existing or archived material.
• It's a complex problem, and its solutions will require new technology, policy, awareness and education.

environment [noun]
the world around us

• In each classroom of the school there are 3 recycling bins. This is a small way to help protect the environment.
• Greenpeace and World Wide Fund are two of the non-governmental organizations that work to protect the environment.
• There are a few steps you can take to further ensure that construction activities do not damage the environment.
• Can we trust the scientists and experts to make the right decisions to protect the environment?

quality [noun]
worth or value

• The quality of your work has improved greatly in the last few weeks.
• Very few companies can manufacture cars of the quality of German makes such as BMW or Mercedes.
• The main indicator of the sanitary quality of drinking water is the coliform bacteria count.
• Follow these recommended times for storage in the freezer to enjoy the best quality in flavor and texture and to maintain good nutritive value.

complete [adjective]
full or finished

• The list of students who have signed up for the ski trip is now complete. There are no places left.
• Your report is not complete. You have failed to include a bibliography.
• The Iowa State Theater group will present "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" five times during the festival.
• Unfortunately, the data was not complete and often inaccurate.

offer [verb]
to ask if someone would like something (e.g. food or help)

• I would offer to help you, but I've got no time now.
• The directors say they are forced to close the factory, but they are going to offer the workers jobs in factories in different parts of the country.
• He also responded that his particular school did not offer courses in English as a Second Language (ESL).
• In all cases, employers must offer alternative dates for a second-round interview if the date originally suggested is inconvenient.

code [noun]
a set of rules

• The UK Highway code is the book of road rules that must be learned by new drivers.
• Most countries have a code by which parents can decide if a film is suitable for their children.
• D. perceives this as deviation from what she considers the traditional code of behaviour of Greek women.
• Princeton University computer scientist Edward Felton has decided not to publish a paper on how his research team broke the code of copyright protection.

result [noun]
outcome, effect

• The result of the school's drive to improve student eating habits is that far fewer plates of French fries are now sold in the cafeteria.
• The cost of oil has risen sharply this year, with the result that people are having to pay a lot more to heat their homes in the winter.
• This is a direct result of how the black hole deforms space and time, a four-dimensional concept that Einstein called spacetime.
• The IGH claims that Preval's decrease was the result of more information coming through.

performance [noun]
action or achievement

• Her performance in the band concert was wonderful. She's probably the best piano player we have ever had at the school.
• The shareholders were not pleased with the company's performance in the last quarter of the year.
• List the specific things you did to achieve strong performance in your project.
• These results suggest that being treated as a sex object can undermine women's performance in stereotypically masculine domains.

guide [noun]
someone or something that helps people (to understand or find their way)

• This name of this website is 'A guide to learning English.'
• Tourists who visit a foreign city often employ a guide to show them the most interesting things to see.
• The following information has been prepared to serve as a guide to assist you in establishing criteria for a successful teaching practice.
• This makes Kraay's work an unreliable guide to whether globalisation really is making people in those countries better off.

statement [noun]
a spoken sentence or sentences (sometimes prepared in advance)

• I'm not sure that I agree with your statement.
• The government is planning to make a statement tomorrow morning on its discussions the doctors' union.
• On the back of this form or on a separate sheet, write a thorough statement describing yourself, your interests, and why you have applied.
• The Board provided an inadequate statement of reasons for its 1981 decision.

several [adjective]
many (about 6 or seven)

• There are several teachers from Australia in the school and a few from Canada.
• The company is selecting the best of several names that have been suggested for its new product.
• It is important to note, however, that rankings are just one of several tools to use in evaluating the many and varied educational programs offered.
• Please note that there are several options, including different connections for viewers at the MU campus and for viewers outside of the MU campus.
• This is one of several errors that indicate that your account is not set up properly; this can be corrected only by University personnel.
• This site provides an overview of several aspects of Egyptian culture.

improve [verb]
to get better

• I want to improve my ESL grade, so I'm going to try to read many more books next semester.
• When schools are unable to improve student academic achievement, districts are responsible for helping those schools make the necessary changes.
• This situation is certain to improve over the next few years, given the quantity of research now being done on the effectiveness of complementary medicine.
• We further believe that the general quality of student writing will not improve unless we as a department are willing to state explicitly the standards we require.

discuss [verb]
to talk about

• Can I come and see you after school today? I would like to discuss my math project.
• He said that he did not want to discuss the issue until the committee meeting.
• Students should discuss appropriate options with their academic advisor.
• Lilly initiated a conversation with Smith in an attempt to resolve the conflict, but Smith did not wish to discuss the issues.

local [adjective]
in the area where you live or work

• The school has set up many service projects in the local community; for example at the old people home or the refugee centre.
• Most people prefer to drive to huge out-of-town stores than use their local shops which are often much more expensive.
• The issue is not only a local problem, but must be dealt with on a national level.
• Individual academies apply the curriculum in the manner that best fits local facilities and opportunities.

role [noun]
job or function

• My role is to be your teacher, not to entertain you with endless youTube clips.
• It is not the government's role to tell its citizens how to live.
• It only drew more attention to the 13-year-old Robertson panel report and the CIA's role in the investigation of UFOs.
• Knowledge about hazards plays a central but curious role in risk perception.

resource [noun]
a source of information or material

• Wikipedia is a wonderful resource for high school students, but the information it contains must be checked for reliability.
• The ocean floor is the last great resource waiting to be exploited for its oil and other minerals.
• Forests are both an important part of the global ecosystem and an important resource of raw materials for lumber, paper, and fuelwood.
• Business Index provides a one-stop resource of information on: small business management, foreign trade opportunities, job hunting strategies.

enter [verb]
to go in or put in

• When you enter the school, turn right and walk along the corridor. You will find the library on the left-hand side.
• You will need to enter the data in the same order for every questionnaire.
• Just follow the on-screen instructions as you enter the discussion forum from within a course.
• You must enter the US using the visa document issued by the institution you will be attending.

issue [noun]
a matter or problem

• Before making our decision we need to consider the issue of financial support.
• The most important issue facing the government is unemployment.
• C. S. Lewis tackled this issue head-on and offered some good advice that informs how we select our projects.
• The issue of global warming is one of the more contentious issues in science.

range [noun]
extent, distance between two points

• Most of the test scores were in the range from 70-80%.
• The government survey produced a wide range of responses.
• Students successfully completing a family history major should demonstrate a significant range of skills and abilities in research and critical thinking.
• A color model is an orderly system for creating a whole range of colors from a small set of primary colors.

means [noun]
way

• She has no means of studying in peace at home. Her domestic life is too chaotic.
• The company is investigating means of increasing its business in Asia and Africa.
• Online students need a means of realistically assessing their readiness for the demands of taking a course in the online environment.
• At this stage of our research we were unable to find a means for accessing the actual decisions made in these cases.

credit [noun]
.. gained on completing a course of study; praise

• You will gain no credit for work that has simply been copied from the internet.
• It is to the government's credit that they refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq.
• Students with Advanced Placement scores of 4 or 5 in English Language receive a credit toward graduation but not toward the English major.
• As a simple soldier he gained much credit by conducting a retreat after all the superior officers had been killed or wounded.

cover [verb]
to do; to complete

• In history class this year, we will cover the French and Russian revolutions.
• The meeting ended very late but the administration still did not have time to cover all the issues it wanted to.
• The unit did not cover nuclear weapons in as much detail as some of my students would have liked.
• Biology courses will cover all major human or animal body systems.

while [conjuntion]
.. used to contrast to people or things; although

• Hannah always tries her best, while her brother never makes any effort.
• While the company made a small profit, the management were hoping it would be greater.
• Msall said that while the situation has improved, the numbers haven't been changing fast enough.
• One group consistently chose cooperation while the other group chose competition.

account [noun]
a written or spoken report of a happening

• Can you please give me an account of what happened while I was out of the classroom?
• Different newspapers will often have a different account of the same event - especially newspapers from different parts of the world.
• Chapter 6 gives a sketchy and rather incomplete account of molecular genetics.
• This book provides the definitive account of the origins of coffee drinking.

identify [verb]
to know or say who or what something is

• I can't identify this beetle; I'll have to ask the science teacher what it is.
• The police are trying to identify the men seen on camera breaking the bus shelter.
• Should the counselor attempt to identify him and inform him that there is a risk to his future children?
• The student could not identify the basic factors in a solution to the problem.

risk [verb]
to act in a way that might lead to danger or failure

• If you do not start working harder you risk failing the exams.
• Many athletes who take performance drugs risk serious, long-term damage to their health.
• The treatment must not risk damage to any personal or public property.
• They would not fill their barrels when the captain told them, but instead, ran the risk that there would be water ahead.

period [noun]
a length of time (e.g. a lesson)

• Please don't forget that you have a vocabulary test next period.
• The time when Hitler was leader of Germany is possibly the most terrible period in all of history.
• Nevertheless, even within the period 1550-1850 there was a great deal of temperature variation both in time and space.
• Adolescents go through a difficult period of separating from their parents and becoming subject to increasing scrutiny from their peers.

committee [noun]
a group of people meeting to discuss an issue

• The school established a committee to discuss the introduction of a bilingual programme.
• The government set up a committee to investigate the reasons for the riots.
• He reported that the presidential search committee has been formed and thanked some groups for forwarding diverse nominees.
• The current timing left the committee with only one working week to review the applications.

release [verb]
to let go or let out

• Please release that spider from the box. It will die if you keep it in there.
• The government has no plans to release the information that led to its decision to make war on Iraq.
• The service will send the letter of recommendation directly to the institution, but we cannot release it to the student without the letter writer's permission.
• The aquarium owner decided sometime in the spring of 1992 to release the animal before any further damage or an accident with the other dolphins could occur.
• The companies did not release the preliminary results of the trial until almost two years after the trial was finished.
• They may have been unwilling to release information to an unknown group with unknown intentions.

facilities [noun]
buildings and other places that can be used by people

• The school's facilities have been improved recently with the addition of a second library and media centre.
• The town council has been criticized for not providing enough facilities for young people in the town.
• The construction of new facilities is an opportunity for any university to make a clear statement about its environmental concern.
• Many prisons cannot comply with this law due to lack of space and inadequate facilities.

power [noun]
the right or authority to do something

• The student council can offer suggestions, but it has no power to make changes happen.
• Most people do not like other parking their car outside their house, but they have no power to stop them.
• You have the power to change the world, Ballam tells graduates.
• By reason of the duress of mental disease, he has so far lost the power to choose between right and wrong.

status [noun]
position, standing

• Some subjects in our school have a higher status than others. Everyone wants to take science, but few want to study a second language.
• Today women and men have the same status in western society. This wasn't always the case.
• The contributors assert that teaching is a gendered occupation with low status and relatively low pay.
• Over the course of the period there is a steady rise in the status of the painter, sculptor, and architect and a growing sympathy expressed for the visual arts.

participate [verb]
to take part

• You should participate a little more in class discussions. This will help to improve your spoken English.
• The company directors invited the workers' union to participate in a meeting to discuss the new factory.
• Each student must participate in a group project during the second half of the semester.
• She made it clear many times throughout the work that she did not believe in and did not want to participate in the concept and institution of marriage.

structure [noun]
the way something is made or organized

• The structure of your writing is not at all clear to me.
• The human ear has a very complex structure.
• This research study will focus on the current practice of web writers and the structure of the web pages they create.
• The loose and often unclear structure of the organizational responsibilities enabled energetic managers to network.

function [noun]
job or role

• The function of the arteries is to transport oxygen around the body.
• The main function of the committee is to recommend a plan for future development.
• Court asserted that education was perhaps the most significant function of state and local governments.
• A primary function of the system is to facilitate the sharing of information with others.

join [verb]
to become a member (of an organization; to get together with others

• If you want to join the chess club, please sign your name on the list below.
• Everyone should join together to protect the environment.
• World War II was a turning point because, for the first time, women were allowed to join the military.
• We have found that students are more likely to complete a community health project if they join a team.

appear [verb]
to come, be seen

• The President will appear on TV this evening to talk about the riots in the capital city.
• Venus will next appear in the night sky in August 2007.
• Study suggests macroscopic bilaterian animals did not appear until 555 million years ago.
• A new class of antibiotic drugs is not expected to appear in the immediate future.

various [adjective]
several, of different kinds

• There are various ways that you can improve your English. Probably the best is to do plenty of reading.
• This report contains various problems, the most important of which is that it is not up to date.
• The book provides good documentation of the various difficulties that confronted West Africans in Britain during the colonial period.
• You will understand the interactions and contributions of the various people and cultures that have lived in or migrated to the area that is now Oregon.

image [noun]
picture

• To learn a new word, it often helps to make an image of it in your mind.
• The terrorist plane crashing into the New York tower is an image that most people will never forget.
• Keep in mind that Dreamweaver is not an picture editor. If you need to make major changes in the size or other attributes of an image, use Photoshop or other graphics program.
• One danger of any powerful image is that, at the height of its power, people confuse the image and the thing that is being compared to it.

theory [noun]
idea or hypothesis

• Many a theory that was once believed by everyone later proves to be false - e.g. that the sun goes around the earth.
• The government's theory is that the bomb was set off by a recent immigrant.
• Since exactly the same language can be used by those who disagree with him, the theory is too general to be of any use.
• The theory was that starving the brain of sugar would kill marginally functioning brain cells, but the therapy was soon phased out because it was considered too dangerous.

potential [noun]
good possibility

• He has the potential to be a professional soccer player. He is only 11 but he is already better than anyone else in the school.
• China has the potential to become the world's largest economy with the next decade.
• Hydrogen has the potential to provide a clean, storable, transportable and renewable source of energy that can meet the need for power throughout the world.
• It is important to identify possible solutions that hunters and ranchers feel have no potential to resolve conflicts.

force [verb]
to make happen or to make someone do something

• The school cannot force its teachers to give up smoking, but it can tell them not to smoke inside the building.
• If the demonstrations continue much longer, they will force the government to change its plans.
• Difficult financial times must not force us to abandon the integration of teaching and research.
• Congress implemented the draft in January of 1777, but was unable to force the states to comply.

base [verb]
to use as a way of doing or deciding something

• School need to base their curricula on the needs of the students who attend them.
• The government should not base its tax policies on what newspaper editors tell it to do.
• You are being quizzed on how well you understand the information in your required readings, so base your answers on what is written in the Hunt textbook.
• We did not base our selections on an author's nationality, religion, politics, or field of study; nor on an author's race or gender.

record [noun]
evidence; documentation

• There is no record of you having paid for the trip. Are you sure?
• The government has a record of everyone who has travelled to Afghanistan in the last 5 years.
• One particular group of bacteria, the "blue-green algae," have left a fossil record that extends far back into the Precambrian Era.
• Employees must have worked for the State for at least five years, and have a satisfactory record of sick leave usage and work performance.
• There was also no apparent record of an attempt to measure the relationship between individual differences in facial shape.

annual [adjective]
yearly

• The government will today publish its annual report on crime statistics.
• The Tour de France is an annual bike race that is watched by millions of people on the roads and on TV.
• At our 10th annual symposium in late 2005, we posed this set of questions about Space Exploration: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
• Typically held the 3rd week of February, this is an annual event that helps College of Fine Arts students explore careers, develop strategies to pursue career and artistic goals successfully.

final [adjective]
last

• The final question in the test was the most difficult.
• The judge gave the young criminal his final warning. Next time he stole, he would be sent to prison.
• The final examination shall be designed to cover a period not to exceed two hours.
• The Iraqi regime failed to take that final opportunity to cooperate with the United Nations investigation.

summary [noun]
a short account of the most important details

• Please write a summary of the most important causes of the French Revolution
• The organization has published a summary of its history since it was founded in 1965.
• For a summary of the survey, visit www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html, and click on 'Recent Findings'.
• This document contains a summary of what scientists think happened at Loihi in the summer of 1996, based upon geological, geophysical, geochemical and biological evidence.

since [conjuntion]
because

• Since you have made such good progress in English this year, you will not need to continue in ESL class in grade 10.
• Many stores have stopped selling analog cameras since people only buy digital ones these days.
• We are also interested in the cell biology and genetics of plasma membrane fusion since these mechanisms are also important for muscular dystrophy.
• Since Ramadan emphasizes community aspects and since everyone eats dinner at the same time, Muslims often invite one another to share in the Ramadan evening.

attend [verb]
to go to, to be present at

• Did you attend the meeting after school yesterday?
• The government's plan is for at least 50% of school leavers to attend a university or college.
• If you are unable to attend a class for any reason, and would prefer to work directly from the student guide, please contact the Training Coordinator.
• As a general rule, all persons wishing to attend the conference must register and pay for participation.

purpose [noun]
reason, goal

• The purpose of this website is to help ESL students learn English as enjoyably and effectively as possible.
• This room is now used as a computer lab, but it wasn't built for that purpose, and it often gets very hot.
• At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically.
• The purpose of this study is to determine whether antioxidants (Vitamins C and E) reduce the frequency of serious illness.

necessary [adjective]
needed; very important

• It's not necessary to do all the questions on the sheet.
• If you want to learn a language, it is helpful, but not necessary, to have a native-speaking teacher.
• The Court did not find it necessary to hear the testimony of the two forensic experts and did not consider the possibility of ordering a further investigation.
• Being at least 18 years old is a necessary condition for being registered to vote.

grant [noun]
a sum of money given to a person or organization

• A rich parent has made a large grant so that the school can buy new computers.
• The government reduced its grant to the Arts Council after it was found that much of the money had been wasted.
• If you come from an EU country and follow a study programme in the Netherlands, you may be eligible for a grant for these tuition fees.
• The VFWF reserves the right to seek additional funds if the amount of the grant is insufficient to fully meet the needs.

standard [noun]
quality

• Well done. This writing is of an excellent standard.
• The patient was not at all happy with the standard of treatment she received while in hospital.
• All new computer purchases by the University, and its various Auxiliaries, shall meet a minimum standard for both hardware and operating system.
• Among the issues that may be examined include whether personal trainers should be held to a higher standard than other exercise professionals.

impact [noun]
effect

• Do you think the government's decision to raise taxes will have an impact on the unemployment figures?
• The teacher's threat to give the student a detention had an immediate impact on his behaviour.
• No consensus exists as to the impact of the Hyde Amendment on the number of abortions or births.
• My guess is that it had no impact on prices except, possibly, the very first time, and that this impact would probably have been very minor.

notice [verb]
to see or realize

• The teacher did not notice that one of the students had been crying for most of the lesson.
• The government surely cannot fail to notice that its attempts to reduce teenage pregnancy are not working.
• If you look at the course policies you will notice an item that accounts for 4% of your grade.
• He did not notice the problem until too late.

rate [noun]
quantity; proportion; speed

• The dropout rate for high schoolers rose to 3.8 percent during the last decade.
• Your target heart rate is a useful way of pacing yourself during exercise.
• This is slightly down from the 19 percent failure rate last year but still significantly above the failure rate in other freshmen subjects.
• Education has reduced the rate at which the disease has spread throughout the population.

explore [verb]
to look into a place or thing (in order to learn more about it)

• Cats and young children are similar: they both like to explore new places.
• The USA is designing a spaceship that will land on Mars and explore its polar regions.
• Students will develop a critical basis for the evaluation of their use and explore the possibilities of digital tools and processes.
• Our preliminary surveys did not differentiate between different types of questions, so we were unable to explore this issue.

response [noun]
answer or reply; reaction

• Your response was unclear. Could you please repeat it.
• The government's response to the demonstrations was to promise a public inquiry into the reasons for going to war.
• NOAA is supporting the Coast Guard in the response to an oil spill in the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
• People with another genetic variant, glycine (Gly-389), had no response to the drug compared to the placebo.

common [adjective]
often seen or happening

• Volkswagen is a very common car in Germany.
• Graffiti is common on the buildings in big German cities.
• In fact, most of the errors discussed on this site are common in the writing of privileged middle-class Americans.
• Plants that possess certain traits or characteristics not common to the entire species are referred to as biotypes.

separate [verb]
to pull or put apart

• If two students are always talking in class, then the teacher will often separate them and make them sit in opposite parts of the room
• The police found it difficult to separate the two groups of opposing demonstrators.
• To separate white light into its component colors with a prism and use an identical prism to recombine the light.
• Dr. Carpenter told the jury that Hinckley was unable to separate reality from fiction.

produce [verb]
to make or create

• The students worked together to produce a poster about the dangers of nuclear power.
• The government's plan to kill all infected cows in the region is sure to produce an angry response from the farmers.
• The easiest way to produce documents in .pdf is by using the Adobe Acrobat software.
• Many spiders can produce seven different kinds of silk.

ensure [verb]
to make sure (of)

• Please ensure that I have your report by next Friday.
• If they want to ensure more business, they will have to reduce their prices.
• The department must ensure that all students and faculty members have access to a broad range of learning resources.
• The organization was facing financial problems since it was unable to ensure that all the members paid their subscriptions.

key [adjective]
most important

• The key issue is not whether you enjoyed the lesson but whether you learned anything.
• One of the key problems facing the government is how to reduce unemployment.
• Education is a key factor in the development of all countries, regardless of their social, political, economic, or cultural characteristics.
• The researchers found that some of the key decision makers lacked the proper knowledge and expertise to handle the disaster.

basic [adjective]
first or easy

• You have not yet mastered basic grammar. You still make mistakes like "he go" or she don't".
• The basic problem is that we don't have enough money.
• The most basic technique to develop is observational drawing skills.
• The basic issue is, and always has been, one of parenting.

effect [noun]
result

• The effect of all your hard work is an excellent score in your final test. Well done!
• Some people say that the effect of banning smoking in public places will be that more people will smoke at home. This will be worse for the children.
• Learners' perception of complexity had a negative effect on successful problem solving performance.
• Another well-known effect of marijuana is its ability to increase appetite.

physical [adjective]
of the body

• Not all ESL students know that the subject PE means physical exercise.
• Many soldiers come home from war with no physical problems, but often they have psychological problems that never really disappear.
• Men and women of all ages benefit from a moderate amount of daily physical activity (for example: 30 minutes of brisk walking or 15 minutes of jogging).
• If there is any question whether the individual might have a physical problem, the mental health professional should recommend a complete examination.

obtain [verb]
to get

• You can obtain all the things you need for class at the school's bookstore.
• Research has demonstrated that good-looking people are more likely to obtain a job than less good-looking people with the same qualifications.
• The assignments and quizzes form an integral part of the course grade and you may not obtain a good grade if you ignore them.
• If the funding is from personal or family funds, you will need to obtain a current bank statement showing that you have enough funds to cover expenses.

ability [noun]
ableness to do something; a skill for doing something well

• She has a lot of ability in tennis; in fact she's the best player in her grade!
• I'm sorry but the school has no ability to educate children with severe learning problems.
• This finding may explain why increasing numbers of people in the United States lack the natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight.
• Strong families possess the ability to manage both daily stressors and difficult life crises creatively and effectively.

maintain [verb]
to claim or state

• John continue to maintain that he gave me his homework, but I'm certain he didn't.
• The government politicians maintain that the proposed tax changes will lift thousands of people out of poverty.
• A verbal contract is impossible to prove, and the organization will always maintain that it was a misunderstanding.
• Therefore he was unable to maintain that he was breaking new methodological ground.

method [noun]
a way of doing something

• I have a good method of getting my class to be quiet. I tell them a joke.
• There is more than one successful method to teach and learn a foreign language.
• It is not the only method of teaching we use at the university; instead we calibrate our teaching techniques to fit our abilities.
• Probably every introductory science text in the world includes a first chapter section on the scientific method.

format [noun]
appearance, layout, way of presenting

• My science teacher returned my homework and told me to do it again. She said I had to use the standard format for lab reports.
• Most educational institutions have a required format for citations and references.
• The date of birth that you entered does not match our records, or was entered in the wrong format.
• I prefer to believe that the quality of my thinking has not diminished; I simply have chosen a different format to express my ideas.

goal [noun]
aim or intention

• My goal this term is to improve my mathematics and science grades.
• The government has set itself the goal of reducing teenage pregnancy by 20% in the next 10 years.
• A primary goal of teaching is conveying fundamental knowledge of the subject matter while inculcating curiosity, generating interest, and developing independence.
• It was not the goal of this book to discuss whether America can win the war, or whether it must lose it.

exchange [verb]
to give or change one thing and get a different thing

• Please exchange your books and check each other's writing.
• The government is thinking of passing a law that will require all house owners to exchange their oil heating system for one that runs on gas.
• Students post messages and exchange ideas through the bulletin board.
• If you discover that you have the wrong textbook, you must contact the source from which you purchased the book and make arrangements to exchange the book.

amount [noun]
how much there is of something

• You have to measure the amount of salt in the water.
• The government has given €10 million to fight AIDS in Africa, but some people believe that this amount is not sufficient.
• Little association is found between the amount of homework young students complete and achievement.
• Participants donate a small amount of blood or saliva, which will be used as a comparison to blood from children with genetic diseases.

appropriate [adjective]
right (for the occasion; suitable

• Sorry but low-cut T-shirts are not appropriate clothes for school.
• This is not an appropriate test for ESL beginners. It is far too difficult.
• The CLAS Institute identifies, evaluates, and promotes effective and appropriate early intervention and preschool practices that are sensitive to diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
• Having a primarily peasant background, their training was not appropriate to more skilled positions in an industrial city.

respect [verb]
to think positively about someone; to tolerate or avoid interfering with something

• Please respect my possessions and not use them without asking permission.
• Most people do not respect politicians who make promises everyone knows cannot be kept.
• Learning to value and respect the differences of the people around you is an important part of a liberal arts education.
• We will not violate the personal property of co-workers and customers, and will respect their right to privacy.

industry [noun]
area of business ( often manufacturing )

• He wants to get a job in the engineering industry when he leaves school.
• The world's largest film industry is in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
• The whole new industry of purchasing drugs "on line" is another area where care and common sense are essential.
• The last decade has seen a major transformation of the Indian car industry.

reduce [verb]
to make smaller or shorter

• If you want to do well in tests then you will need to reduce the amount of time watching TV and spend more time studying.
• The government is planning a TV campaign in an attempt to reduce teenage pregnancy,
• Several campus departments have been working to reduce the number of false alarms that result from controllable and mechanical factors.
• Simply supplying more protein with alfalfa in the ration will reduce the need for purchased soybean meal and result in lower ration P.
• The new procedure should help to reduce the number of problems resulting from adjustment to semester length.
• Russia was unable to reduce its budget deficit, which stayed around 5% of GDP.

represent [verb]
to be; to show or indicate

• These tests represent your last chance to demonstrate what you have learned in the course.
• It is not easy to represent an abstract idea in picture form so that ESL students can understand it.
• Social network analysts use two kinds of tools from mathematics to represent information about patterns of ties among social actors.
• In decimal notation we represent a negative number by writing a minus in front of a positive number.

occur [verb]
to happen; take place

• How did the accident occur? - It happened because one of the cars was travelling too fast and couldn't stop in time at the traffic lights.
• His examination failure did not occur through lack of effort or ability but because of serious illness in the weeks before.
• In many cases, simply stating to the student that the behavior is unacceptable and must not occur again is sufficient.
• An error will occur if this software is not installed on the user's machine.

assist [verb]
to help

• If you can't do your homework, you should ask your parents to assist you.
• The government has set up a programme to assist refugees on entry to the country.
• The data center will assist researchers through the application of mathematics and computer science to biological problems.
• If you cannot obtain such a statement, you must verify that you have contacted your employer and that the employer was unable to assist you with the refund.

case [conjuntion]
.. for the event that, because maybe .. will

• I always take my dictionary to class in case I have to look up a word.
• The weather forecast warned people to stay at home in case the storm got even worse.
• In case of an emergency, leave your classroom as quickly as possible and follow the Exit signs to the nearest exit.
• A back-up plan is recommended in case the system fails to operate as expected.

growth [noun]
development, increase

• It is very satisfying as a teacher to see the growth in the ability of your students.
• A common science experiment for young people is to investigate the growth of plants under different soil, light and water conditions.
• Recent years have seen significant growth in scholarship on the history of telecommunications and related technologies.
• This forecast showed much less growth than expected by the district's officials and residents.

technical [adjective]
to do with machines or the way things work

• My father has a workshop in the garage so I have a lot of technical knowledge.
• Some people say that there should be technical schools for students who are not so interested in writing or learning from books.
• Some of the key personal resources that you will draw from include your own academic background, teaching style, life experience, and technical experience.
• Recent government IT initiatives focus narrowly on a specific technical problem, like enabling mobile data communication or Web-based transactions.

conduct [verb]
to do or perform; to behave

• That is no way to conduct yourself in the library.
• Researchers at the university plan to conduct a survey into what makes people over-drink.
• The United Nations Commission of Human Rights did not conduct an investigation.
• This document explains why it is important to conduct a community assessment during a sustainability project.

survey [noun]
questionnaire; information gained by questioning people or data

• A survey of all students in grade 12 shows that more than 70% think they are given too much homework.
• Every 10 years the government carries out a official survey of all households in the country. This is called a census.
• This survey is being used to gather information about the current level of frustration with computers and the extent to which users feel rage.
• A survey of 438 Rhode Island registered voters conducted August 26-30 also finds nearly half feel the state's health care system has gotten worse over the last decade.

remain [verb]
to stay; still exist

• Please remain after class. I need to talk to you.
• Many questions remain about how humans evolved from apes.
• Under the new plan, the garden would remain at its current location on Walnut and Virginia streets and the pumping station would be built on the northeast.
• Dogs keep dying: Too many owners remain unaware of toxic dog food.

indicate [verb]
to show or convey

• You must indicate at the top of the page how many words you wrote.
• The unemployment figures indicate that the recent changes in tax have been successful.
• These results indicate that substantial numbers of students attending the school are not attaining minimum levels of literacy and mathematical competency.
• You need to indicate on your admissions application that you will have 24 credits completed at the time of attendance.

institution [noun]
a large organization; an important system or custom

• Harvard is probably the most famous education institution in the USA.
• The government is planning to set up an institution to document climate change.
• Slavery is not an institution which developed itself.
• A recommended visit is to the Spa Town, a famous institution from Roman times as well as from the Turkish era.

prepare [verb]
to get something ready (or to get ready for something)

• If you have to give a speech you must prepare for it carefully. First write out speech cards, then practise at home with your parents.
• Are you really doing everything you can to prepare for tests?
• The US Senate voted yesterday to provide €4 billion for antiviral drugs and other measures to prepare for a feared influenza epidemic.
• In the excitement of bringing the Internet into our classrooms, we sometimes forget to prepare our learners appropriately.
• With winter weather comes the need to prepare your home, automobile and family to deal with the colder temperatures.

particular [adjective]
specific

• She has no particular difficulties with English, but she just seems to be learning very slowly.
• The government should pay particular attention to reducing unemployment among young people.
• The English writing system itself causes no particular problems to Spanish learners.
• There was a particular reason for this: psychologically, it fitted her deeply personal sense of the appropriate relationship between the sexes.

decision [noun]
intention to do something, choice

• The school has made the difficult decision to ban the wearing of religious symbols in the classroom.
• Because of massive protest, the government had to go back on its decision to put up the tax on petrol.
• This illustrates the variety of rational choices that a criminal would make in the decision to commit a crime.
• The recent switch from Webmail to the express mail interface was a poor decision.

advance [verb]
to go or move forward; to get better

• The German army planned to advance as far as Moscow, but were then stopped by the severe Russian winter.
• You will advance more rapidly if you make more effort.
• Here you can recommend areas for investment of resources to advance the University in its health sciences, education, research, service and outreach missions.
• The goals are to answer some of the most urgent questions to advance significantly our scientific knowledge about Mars.

affect [verb]
to have an influence on

• If you fail the last test, this will seriously affect your overall grade for the year.
• Even very low temperatures do not affect the strength of this material.
• Because of the interactive nature of the classroom, absences will significantly affect your performance in the course.
• Color did not affect the perceived sweetness of the drink and did not affect the drink's ability to quench thirst.

topic [noun]
area of interest or discussion

• The topic I liked best in ESL class this year was Cultural Differences.
• The French Revolution is the main topic to be covered in History class in grade 8.
• The final topic presents the impact of traditional, sometimes outdated, teaching methods and their effect on the participants' learning.
• This is a complex topic, unless you already have some knowledge of superconductivity.

global [adjective]
world

• Global warming is a problem that we will hear more and more about.
• The most famous global organization is the United Nations.
• Pick a global issue and collect a series of newspaper articles and/or news clips on it during the semester.
• Giuliani's leadership during New York City's darkest hours of the September 11th terrorist attacks earned him global praise and admiration.

lecture [noun]
a talk on a particular subject; talk criticizing unacceptable behaviour

• The teacher gave me a lecture about the need to be in class on time with all my materials.
• The lecture is the most common teaching style at university. There is not so much question and answer as in schools.
• Kiewra found that students who did not even attend the lecture but reviewed the instructor notes performed better than students who did attend but failed to take notes.
• And, further, he didn't appreciate a lecture from one whose own morality has been deficient.

similar [adjective]
like, almost the same as

• The school had similar exam results to last year, with the exception except that mathematics scores were a little higher.
• Germany and France have similar problems integrating their Muslim immigrants.
• A similar study conducted by Dr. Francisco Moreno at the University of Arizona tested the effects of psilocybin psychotherapy on patients with obsessive disorders.
• Corms have shapes similar to bulbs, but do not contain fleshy scales.
• The pattern of weight change through pregnancy was similar across the 3 projects.
• The study also found that both genders get a similar benefit from the therapy, which reduced mortality risk in women by an estimated 43%.

background [noun]
family experiences; circumstances

• With her background it is not surprising that she has had problems in her new school.
• You need to know a little more about the background before you criticize the government's decision.
• Furthermore, as an educational institution, the College cannot ignore the background and perspectives of its students and must attempt to promote teaching practices and a campus atmosphere that benefits and ensures the success of all of its learners.
• These questions are meant to help you research the background information you will need to evaluate some of the water quality issues in NYC

explain [verb]
to give the reason for something or say how to do something

• I like teachers who can explain clearly what we have to do.
• The police chief found it difficult to explain why the wrong man had been arrested.
• When questioned by the instructor, the student was unable to explain several of the terms and phrases he had used in his writing.
• You will need to explain your situation as clearly as possible and provide appropriate supporting documentation.

measure [verb]
to find out how much there is of something

• It is not always easy to measure student progress.
• However, in those studies, he was unable to measure the campaign's effectiveness in reaching the people of Uganda.
• Tests are valid when they measure what they claim to measure, and reliable when they measure consistently.
• Over the same period research was unable to measure significant effects on achievement from readily available school characteristics.

distance [noun]
how far it is from one place to another

• The distance from Frankfurt to Oberursel is about 12 kilometers.
• When the earth is closest to the sun, the distance between the earth and sun is 147000000k.
• The eagle is capable of carrying animals nearly as heavy as itself a great distance.
• Over the course of her journey in the program she has come a great distance from her primary focus as an agent for FEMA.

store [verb]
to put something in a place where it can be found and used later

• This is the room where we store the science equipment ready for use in the classroom.
• Modern computers can store the equivalent of many millions of pages of writing.
• You must remember to store all the images and other HTML documents you have created and referenced in your "Public/html" directory.
• Before the accident he did not store his guns locked or unloaded; now he does.

avoid [verb]
to not do something or go somewhere

• I avoid the cafeteria at lunchtime. It's too crowded and noisy.
• The government should avoid making promises that it cannot keep.
• To prevent this from happening, it is very helpful for patients to avoid talking unless absolutely necessary for three days following surgery.
• Those who will be attending the event should try to make it to the Speedway early to avoid the rush hour traffic.

legal [adjective]
acceptable in law (to do with the law)

• The parents took legal advice when the school expelled their daughter for repeated plagiarism.
• The government wants to make it legal for the police to keep suspected terrorists in prison for 90 days before bringing them to trial.
• Click for information about legal drinking ages in the United States and around the world.
• Make sure you use legal resources to download your favorite music and other media!

purchase [verb]
to buy

• The school plans to purchase a new computer for each of its teachers.
• It is still somewhat of a risk to purchase things on the internet.
• The following publications are available for purchase from the Florida Solar Energy Center.
• In all such cases, we are happy to refund the purchase price and shipping charges once the prints are returned to us, at your expense, in good condition.

region [noun]
part of a place

• The school is located in the wooded region to the north west of Frankfurt.
• The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is the most remote region on Earth.
• Asia is our closest region and essentially I feel that we need more understanding and exchange culturally to make sense of where we all are'.
• The cost of transporting diesel fuel to operate machines in the arctic region is very high, typically 2-4 times world market prices.

trade [verb]
to exchange products or services

• "I'll trade you these 7 Pokemon cards for your 8 Yugioh cards."
• Most western countries want to trade with China. It's the largest market in the world and its developing fast.
• The American public seems prepared to trade some privacy for security.
• When the Powhatans did not want to trade with the settlers, Smith used force to acquire food.

evidence [noun]
proof, signs

• There is some evidence that she plagiarized her research essay.
• When police investigate a crime, they look for evidence such as fingerprints, specks of blood, etc.
• Students must demonstrate evidence of a competent reading knowledge of a language other than modern English.
• Top American scientists assigned to the weapons hunt in Iraq found no evidence Saddam Hussein was making chemical weapons.

suggest [verb]
to say an idea; to recommend

• The librarian will be able to suggest some good books for you to read in the summer vacation.
• The government can suggest that people eat more healthily but it cannot force them to do so.
• If you do not have a particular title in mind, but wish to suggest that the library purchase more material on a specific subject, please enter your name.
• I would also suggest that you contact your physician for further information.

relationship [noun]
the way to things are connected

• There is a clear relationship between vocabulary and academic success. The more words you know, the better you can read. The better you can read, the more successful you will be in all your subjects.
• There is not always a direct relationship between the amount of money one spends on a problem and one's ability to solve it.
• There is no relationship between an individual's education and their income.
• Wartella speculated that a possible explanation for this lack of strong relationship in the obesity studies may reside in the methodological approach.

achieve [verb]
to gain or get something (often academic success)

• If you worked hard you would achieve a better grade.
• It is difficult to achieve success in school if you are absent so often.
• Girls and boys achieve at similar levels in mathematics through school and at the undergraduate level.
• To achieve this goal, planning must apply the best available scientific information and analysis.

contain [verb]
to have in it; to hold inside

• The test will contain all of the topics that we have covered this trimester.
• Your password should contain only letters or numbers.
• The ethnographic reports were clear and did not contain conflicting information.
• The text should contain a concise description of the aims and scope of your thesis.

attention [noun]
focus

• A common teacher request to students who are not listening in class is: Pay attention.
• Once the conference is over the government will turn its attention to the problems of urban crime.
• If there is a group that we have paid no attention to, it's old women, says Hawkes.
• After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Pat Cornell turned her attention to detecting and preventing terrorism.

rather [adverb]
instead

• Would you help me with my science homework? - OK, but I'd rather go out and play basketball.
• Many people would rather drive 500 meters to the shops than walk there.
• You'll save yourself a lot of work if you concentrate on creating a healthy lawn, rather than the manicured look.
• Rather than worrying about anthrax, this is the time of year to make sure that those at high risk for the flu receive their vaccinations.

original [adjective]
the first of its kind

• This looks like a copy. Can you please give me the original sheet.
• The company's original plan was to close down only one of their factories. Because of continuing bad sales, however, they were forced to close three of them.
• The picture on the left is the original picture. That on the right is a copy.
• Summarizing or paraphrasing is expressing the original idea or information in your own words.

effective [adjective]
good, working well

• A very effective way to check how the use of an English word is to look in Google for pages that contain it.
• The government's policy of reducing teenage drinking by raising the price of alcopops has not been very effective.
• It offers an effective solution to a problem based on good audience analysis, and fulfills minor as well as all major purposes.
• When used correctly and consistently, condoms are an effective means of preventing pregnancy.

due [preposition]
as a result of, because of

• She will not be in school tomorrow due to an appointment at the dentist.
• Profits have declined due to the massive increase in the cost of oil.
• Campus schedules change due to snow.
• The dramatic drop in teen smoking is due to the N.C. Health and Wellness tobacco program.

evaluate [verb]
to decide on the value, quality or importance of something

• Teachers need to regularly evaluate the quality of their student's work.
• It is too soon to evaluate the success of the "war on terror".
• David Malik maintains that most students are not able to evaluate teaching effectiveness.
• These programs must evaluate factors that may be affecting profits.

choice [noun]
decision, selection

• Younger students usually have no choice in what they study.
• Should the government invest more in solar energy or nuclear energy? It's a difficult choice.
• Their research draws a connection between school choice and segregation, but hasn't yet tackled the "whys."
• To use or not use alcohol is a personal choice.

cause [noun]
the reason why something happens

• The main cause of her poor grades are her frequent absences from school.
• It is a well-known fact that smoking is a cause of lung cancer.
• Poor diet itself is not a cause of scoliosis, but maintaining a healthy diet can diminish the symptoms of scoliosis.
• It should be obvious that the consumption habits of the wealthy countries are the prime cause of environmental problems.

among [preposition]
in, between

• There have been problems in the school among students of different nationalities.
• The decision on whether to shut down its nuclear power stations is among the most serious issues facing the government.
• The report was designed to measure computer and Internet use among people with disabilities.
• Human rights activist John Prendergast, who will present the lecture "Stopping Genocide", is among the notable speakers coming to campus.

volume [noun]
amount

• The volume of business between Europe and Asia has greatly increased in recent years.
• It is possible to find the volume of an object by measuring the amount of water that it displaces.
• A simple and often effective means to reduce blood pressure is to reduce the volume of body fluid with a diuretic.
• What is the exact change in volume of the water when it freezes as ice?

sample [noun]
example; a smaller number of a larger collection

• The publishing company brought a sample of its books to display to teachers.
• You will need to provide a sample of recent writing so that your English level can be assessed.
• This page contains a sample outline to be used as a guide for the creation of a strong outline.
• Sample problems are under the links in the "Sample Problems" column and the corresponding review material is under the Concepts column.

scale [noun]
extent

• Copying from the internet has grown on a large scale in recent years.
• From the airplane it was possible to see the scale of the destruction caused in the earthquake.
• Using this size scale, the table shows how large each planet is and how far it is from the sun.
• A large scale map shows a small area with a large amount of detail.

treatment [noun]
way of handing a person, situation or problem (often of illness)

• I don't think that the school's treatment of the students caught smoking in the toilets was very fair.
• Many people were very unhappy at the police's treatment of the demonstrators.
• You are encouraged to commit to the therapy group for a sufficient amount of time before deciding that it is not the right treatment for you.
• This is an important finding that has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of children with PTSD.

effort [noun]
hard work; attempt

• She has not been making much effort in the last few weeks. I think the counselor should talk to her and find out if anything is wrong.
• Scientists have so far been unsuccessful in their effort to find a cure for cancer.
• I expect each student to put significant effort into every assignment, providing the foundation for rich and engaging classroom discussions.
• Surprisingly little effort, however, has been devoted to the scientific study of how to prevent teenage pregnancy.

refer [verb]
to direct (attention) to; to mean

• Does this report refer to this year or last year?
• To justify their high salary, top managers like to refer to the increased risk that they will lose their jobs.
• Refer this page to a friend.
• You may need to refer to the terms and scope of the permission (i.e., duration, purpose, etc.).

progress [noun]
improvement or development

• You have made excellent progress in English this year. You will soon no longer need to take ESL lessons.
• Little progress has been made in negotiations to free the Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan,.
• We have not made much progress toward the fulfillment of Xabier's dream of finding a solution to world poverty.
• Significant progress has been toward reaching this goal through the broad workforce planning effort as well as specific unit managerial decisions.

alternative [noun]
other possibility

• Sorry, you have no alternative. You must do the work and you must do it by Friday.
• For the last 30 years scientists have been searching for a good alternative to gasoline (petrol) as a fuel to run cars.
• If breastfeeding is not possible, commercial infant milk formulas are a good alternative.
• This section is not an alternative to reading course materials or attending lectures, but rather an opportunity explore topics in greater detail.

establish [verb]
to begin or set up

• Many large companies are trying to establish operations in China. This is the key market of the future.
• The university plans to establish a fund so that poorer students can attend.
• The American colonists did not establish a real newspaper of their own for another century.
• We wanted to establish a long-term relationship that could grow with our company.

political [adjective]
to do government and politics

• A subject that interests many students at our school is political history.
• Some government decisions are made for political reasons and others for economic reasons.
• You will analyze recurrent patterns of international political conflict, identify underlying issues, and suggest alternative resolutions.
• Aside from the significant political impact of the bill, it carries little weight and makes little difference.

encourage [verb]
to move someone to do something by positive talk; support or help

• I encourage you to spend part of the summer vacation reading. This is an excellent way to improve your English.
• The government wants to encourage young mothers in poor areas to attend parenting classes.
• How can the traditional classroom and the technology in it encourage deeper learning?
• It is the president who will need to encourage the strategic thinking and action necessary to attract and retain employees of quality.

comment [noun]
a short written or spoken statement or opinion

• The principal made no comment on the reasons for asking the student to leave the school.
• The government minister expressed regret at her thoughtless comment about 'lazy incompetent teachers'.
• She listened attentively, but made no comment.
• That's probably the most fatuous comment I've read on this website.

especially [adverb]
particularly

• He's having a lot of problems learning English, especially in grammar and spelling.
• Doctors have found a connection between cannabis use and mental illness. This is especially a danger for people who have started taking drugs at an early age.
• Students are encouraged to discuss topics early on with the instructor, especially in the case of an independent investigation.
• It's not that the mathematics is especially difficult; the problem is comprehending the convoluted English.

reflect [verb]
to think or consider

• You need to reflect a little more on the books that you read. It's not enough to just write what happens.
• The government clearly did not reflect carefully enough on the consequences of its new law.
• If we reflect just a little more, we will see that random is hardly the right adjective.
• As a teacher educator, I believe that new teachers need to reflect on, critically analyze, and evaluate their own teaching.

context [noun]
the place or situation in which something is found

• A good way to guess the meaning of a new word is to examine its context in the sentence.
• It is essential to consider her difficulties at school in the context of her chaotic home life.
• Ever since 9/11, the word "terrorist" has been thrown around so much that it is being used way too much out of context.
• Game reasoning is simply moral reasoning that occurs in the context of competitive sports, and perhaps elsewhere as well.

certain [adjective]
sure

• You are certain to fail unless you put in more effort.
• The professor was not certain that the work contained the student's own ideas.
• Be certain to answer the question in its entirety. Be certain to explain how and why you came to a particular conclusion.
• Since the U.S. flu vaccine supply was cut in half early this month, shots are scarce, lines long and some people are certain to miss out.

contribute [verb]
to give (for example: money, help or ideas); to play a part in

• Could you please contribute to our Christmas collection for flood victims in Bangladesh?
• They sit there in every meeting but they never contribute their own ideas.
• If you wish to contribute material that is copyrighted by someone besides yourself, then you will need to document that the copyright holder has agreed.
• It is during adolescence that clear gender differences arise which might contribute to the varying rates of depression.

complex [adjective]
difficult, complicated

• This is a very complex problem. We need more time to think of a good solution.
• This issue is more complex than we expected; we're going to need some outside help.
• You either are or are not married; it's not a complex question.
• This is especially true in the environmental sciences where many of the systems are dynamic and extremely complex.

display [noun]
a show, demonstration, illustration

• There is a display of student work in the corridor outside of the cafeteria.
• Many people like to change the display on their computer desktop.
• There will be a display of Chinese art, literature, instruments, calligraphy, and fashion from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 27.
• Based on his research, Healey developed a system that combined the display of multiple values into a single visual element.

minimum [noun]
the smallest amount; the least

• You must write a minimum of 3 pages for your final report.
• Many countries have a minimum wage - this is the smallest amount of money that people may earn for a full-time job.
• Students may take a longer time to complete this program, but a minimum of two semesters shall be devoted to full-time work and normally the program must be completed within eight calendar years.
• When a satisfactory minimum has been found using limits, the limits should then be removed if possible, in order to perform or re-perform the error.

economic [adjective]
financial; to do with money

• The economic position of the school has improved since the government reduced its tax requirements.
• The rising price of oil could result in a global economic disaster.
• For most children, two parents are better than one for more than just economic reasons.
• The Seminar is an intensive examination of economic policy making in Washington.

prevent [verb]
to stop from doing or happening

• If you want to prevent tooth decay, you need to brush your teeth properly at least twice a day.
• It will help to prevent the nuclear powers from developing more advanced and more dangerous weapons.
• Even though the South voted solidly against Lincoln, they could not prevent his victory.
• China also experienced social upheaval, and was unable to prevent foreign domination of its trade.
• Dhawan says that he is confident that the summer rate cuts will prevent the economy from spiraling into a recession.

thus [adverb]
so

• You have made no effort to learn, thus you will not be entered for the test.
• The government failed to understand why the people were so unhappy with its policies, and thus was voted out at the next election.
• Thus, the results obtained are consistent with the popular belief that alcohol intoxication causes males to view women as more attractive.
• It is not necessarily subjected to a thorough analysis, thus it will need to be evaluated by the user.

equipment [noun]
the things you need (to do a job or play sport, etc.)

• Can someone please return this science equipment to the store cupboard?
• The police did not have the necessary equipment to cut the man free from the crashed car.
• The communication medium is a computer, phone line, and modem; the student must have access to the necessary equipment.
• They faced problems for which they did not have the equipment or the training.

promote [verb]
to encourage; to raise to a higher position in a job

• The school is trying to promote reading by having a small library of books in every classroom.
• Advertising often tries to promote the idea that the customer deserves to buy the product because they are worth it!
• Could you use informal writing tasks to promote thinking and learning?
• In the mid-1930s, when she was back at Vogue as fashion editor, Nast declined to promote her to editor of the magazine, once again because of the morality issue.

attempt [verb]
to try

• If you don't make the basketball team this year, you should attempt it again next year when you are in grade 8.
• The President accepts full responsibility for the decision to attempt the rescue.
• Despite the fact that this was a simple questionnaire, the researchers did not even attempt to translate it for use with less educated deaf people.
• The student was hardly active with the experiment and did not attempt to contribute.

demonstrate [verb]
to show

• The science teacher planned to demonstrate how water evaporates more quickly in hot temperatures.
• Can you please demonstrate how to make a table in Microsoft Word. I've read the instructions but don't understand them.
• Candidates must demonstrate a high level of responsibility, the ability to work independently, and a strong commitment to customer service.
• We were not able to demonstrate statistically significant differences in performance or quality.

enhance [verb]
to make something better

• Learning lots of academic words will enhance your chances of success in school.
• Computer scan technology can enhance the diagnosis of many sports injuries.
• These projects will enhance student learning through the provision of modern technologies.
• The drugs are used to enhance performance artificially to the degree that they give athletes a competitive edge.
• This project involves students in the process of learning in an attempt to enhance their skills and their successes across all areas of the course.
• The merger of two sellers of that product in the area could not enhance market power significantly.

assume [verb]
to believe to be true; to presume or predict

• I assume his strange behaviour recently is the result of his parents' divorce.
• The boss was right to assume that his workers would return to work once it was clear that they would otherwise lose their jobs.
• You should not assume that the test questions this semester will be on the same topics.
• However, it would be foolish to assume that our planet has seen the last of this powerful and frightening virus.

property [noun]
the things that belong to someone, especially their home

• This computer is the property of the school.
• Every year in Germany many people lose all their property when their houses burn down in a fire.
• Our new system for handling lost property makes it possible for you to report the loss of belongings via Internet, on the telephone or at the counter.
• In fact, the price of property is €5000 higher if it lies in a section with the Mississippi river passing.
• You may lose your property, you may become quite a poor man but, never fear, for sooner or later you will be ten times richer than you were before.

figure [noun]
number

• When I typed in the term 'English as a Second Language' in Google, I got more than 20 million hits. That's a huge figure.
• We know it's not 100% correct, but it's the best figure that we can produce at this time.
• Fully 10 percent of the U.S. population has some form of learning disability; the true figure may in fact be higher.
• Both Initial and Wokingham now dispute the figure for the cost of food and say it is lower.

average [adjective]
ordinary, typical

• The average student at our school spends about 90 minutes doing homework every evening.
• The average German family has 1.8 children.
• Each section of the book, is represented by a family, which was chosen as an average family representing that country.
• What's the average time needed to finish a course?

examine [verb]
to look at carefully

• If you want to examine very small objects, you will need a good microscope.
• The government plans to examine the research data carefully before making an announcement.
• In this class, we will examine the controversy about the risks generated by the war on terror.
• We have had no chance to examine changes of this sort systematically, but simply offer them as examples of processes that we expect to be completed.

significant [adjective]
important, large

• Your work has shown a significant improvement in recent weeks.
• Unemployment is a significant problem in Germany.
• Until 30 years ago, this was not a significant problem because most could work in the agricultural and industrial economies of the day with little education.
• The results indicated that there was a significant improvement in fluency, a slight improvement in accuracy, but no improvement in complexity.

seek [verb]
to look for or want

• Students who seek advice about university courses should make an appointment with the counselor.
• Police are continuing to seek the two men who were seen behaving suspiciously just before the bomb exploded.
• Knowing when to seek treatment for mental health disorders is important for parents and families.
• Scientists seek to unwrap the sweet mystery of the sugar coat on bacteria.

loss [noun]
removal or reduction

• She will be a great loss to the school when she retires next month. She has been a wonderful teacher here for many years.
• Most people are shocked by the loss of life in Iraq since the invasion a few years ago.
• The class learns that Alzheimer's disease is a deterioration of cells within the brain that leads to loss of memory.
• Some beach systems showed significant loss of sand in the period from 1964.

responsibility [noun]
job, duty to do something

• The main responsibility of a teacher is to teach.
• It is not the government's responsibility to tell people how they should live and what they should spend their money on.
• The College will take no responsibility for any actions taken by students who have been drinking, on or off campus.
• The head of FEMA said that the victims of Hurricane Katrina who failed to evacuate bore some responsibility for that failure.

express [verb]
to say or mean

• This is an excellent piece of work. You express your ideas very clearly.
• These poems express the poet's feeling of anger at the evil of war.
• I did not understand what the artist was trying to express by these two pieces, nor did I see any skill in the work.
• The word give is substituted for the word deliver to express more clearly the intent of the section.

independent [adjective]
free; not needing anyone or anything else

• The aim of teaching is to help students become independent learners.
• Greenpeace is an independent organization. It's not part of any government or the United Nations.
• Both children and adults can be encouraged to be independent learners, but their needs as language learners are often different.
• The assessment was not independent of influence by Coca-Cola (i.e. the final report appeared to have been edited by Coca-Cola prior to its release.

finance [noun]
to do with money and payment

• All large companies have departments to take care of finance.
• He wanted to start a new business but the bank would not give him enough finance.
• The course will develop the knowledge base regarding the finance of community education programs.
• These are only a few of the interesting and challenging situations professionals resolve each day in the world of business finance.

instruction [noun]
advice or teaching how to do something; an order to do something

• The school offers basketball instruction in the vacation.
• The teacher left an instruction that no homework was to be set in her absence.
• How can educators design instruction to maximize the learning of all students?
• These tips do not relieve you of the obligation to read and follow the Instruction Booklet which is ONLY available on line this year!

recently [adverb]
in the near past

• Your work has got much better recently.
• The company has started to do more business in Asia recently.
• They are quoted at length in Kornbluh's book, The Pinochet File, and recently cited in the New York Times.
• Until recently there have been few sources of information about the morphological and syntactic structure of the Kam language.

error [noun]
a mistake

• There is only one error in your writing. You put: He play tennis instead of He plays tennis.
• He found a serious error in the work and did a very careful study to determine the correct results.
• We should avoid the error of assuming that we will ever be able to comprehend the causes of his behaviour.
• If authors realize there is a significant error in a published paper, they may correct their paper by submitting a short correction notice.

enable [verb]
to make something or someone able to do something

• The information that you receive in today's lesson will enable you to complete your project on nuclear energy.
• Mobile phones enable parents to keep in contact with their children when they are out with their friends
• Our results did not enable us to determine whether SMR or MOEE had reached minimum values.
• We are focused on creating the technology and applications that will enable daily media consumers to become daily media producers.

entire [adjective]
whole, all

• We spent the entire lesson talking about the past continuous tense. It was so boring.
• The entire workforce is opposed to the managers' plans to relocate the factory.
• The entire collection is complete and available for online access.
• Not all members of the Bush Administration have been telling the entire truth about their dealing with Iraq.

therefore [adverb]
so, as a result

• You didn't study for the test. Therefore you got a low grade.
• She had been smoking since the age of 12. It was no real surprise, therefore, that she developed lung cancer.
• The course is aimed to develop appropriate skills and will therefore attempt to identify contexts where a traditional lecture might be required.
• The most we can say with confidence, therefore, is that CONTU recommended, and Congress adopted, the policy.

accept [verb]
to agree (to have)

• I don't accept your conclusion. I think you have made a mistake.
• Germany had to accept a harsh peace treaty after being defeated in the first world war.
• If you accept a housing assignment in the Summer Allocation and subsequently cancel it or fail to move in you are charged an administrative fee.
• Assad did not want to accept a cease-fire until Israel evacuated at least those parts of the Golan Heights occupied in the October war.

detail [noun]
a small piece of information

• This is an excellent piece of work. You forgot just one detail - your name at the top!
• We should agree on our general plan first. We can talk later about the important detail of who will pay.
• You are recommended to record every significant detail about each of your customers.
• She found that the document had no detail and conflicted with the assessments of military intelligence.

exist [verb]
to be alive, to be in the world

• Dinosaurs no longer exist - they have been extinct for millions of years.
• If our planet were much farther from, or much closer to, the sun, for example, then life might not exist.
• The Birth Control Pill may have modernized society, but it tore apart a nation and created many social problems that did not exist before its invention.
• Ventures like Amazon.com will only continue to exist as long as they make money.

abstract [adjective]
not specific or concrete

• Infinity is an abstract idea that many students find difficult to understand.
• I find your arguments too abstract. Can you give me some specific examples of what you mean?
• Audio software can help students to record their spoken words describing an abstract concept or how to perform a computation.
• The book is at its best when it delves energetically into some particular event, and draws out its abstract meaning with reference to the grand themes.

benefit [noun]
advantage

• With her good grades she is now getting the benefit of all her hard work.
• I know the disadvantages of living far from the city and my work, but there is an important benefit: fresh air!
• Customers found no benefit in comparison -shopping, since price uniformity was nearly absolute.
• Janice Walker wanted to examine further ways to continue this great benefit to the company's staff as well as the company's productivity.

category [noun]
group of similar items

• Run, eat and think are words in the same category, namely: verbs.
• Illegal drugs are grouped into one or other category according to how dangerous they are considered.
• A link is provided in case the visitor wishes to return to the Search page to review other products in the same category.
• He is an American citizen which obviously puts him in a different category from the kinds of individuals that the president has suggested might be suitable.

tool [noun]
something used to do a job

• The computer is an excellent tool for language learning.
• Force is not always the best tool to get people to change their behaviour, and especially not their way of thinking.
• Educational research is a useful tool for both practical and theoretical problem solving.
• Military power is not an appropriate tool to transform the Middle East.

task [noun]
job

• Your main task for this lesson is to work together to prepare a presentation on air pollution.
• The police chief set up a committee whose task was to investigate the reasons for the shooting of the wrong man.
• Without a filter on perceptual input, our brains would have the impossible task of sifting through an overload of information to separate important from unimportant information.
• Students receive feedback from the teacher on their performance on the interpretative task before they start on the next one.

block [verb]
to not allow; to stop or prevent

• After listening to the students' assurance, the principal decided not to block their plan for a sleepover in the school gym.
• The government has decided to block financial aid to the African country until the civil war is over.
• The king could delay implementing a new law, but could not block it entirely.
• The filter must block out all but about one part in a million of the light that hits it, and must do so all across the spectrum.

fund [noun]
money collected for a particular purpose

• The school has set up a fund so that less wealthy students can attend.
• The government has cut its fund for research into the causes of cancer.
• Visit our Student Support page to see how you can set up a fund to give someone the opportunity to pursue higher education at Michigan Tech.
• The partners realized that their small fund was not sufficient to support early stage start-ups in the environment of the early 2000s.

feature [noun]
part, aspect

• The best feature of your essay is the fact that it was very easy to follow your line of argument.
• One feature of the internet that concerns many parents and teachers is that a huge amount of very offensive material is just a click away.
• The most important feature of the new design is that it consumes less power.
• Tobacco smoke was a feature of life up through the 1970s.

likely [adjective]
probable

• The likely cause of the accident in the science lab is errors in labelling the chemicals.
• It is not likely that medical science will find a cure for cancer in the near future.
• Collecting information with no particular plan or purpose and then hoping to transform it into a research project is not likely to succeed.
• Global warming will likely cause big changes in California's coastal waters.

whether [conjuntion]
if

• She cannot remember whether the student gave her the work or not.
• It is not yet clear whether the decision was correct or not.
• Check with your academic advisor if you are uncertain whether this will count as a credit towards your graduation.
• How can employees determine whether they have a disability under the new regulations?

protect [verb]
to keep something out of danger

• Important politicians are usually surrounded by bodyguards whose job is to protect them.
• To protect your head while mountain biking, you should wear a helmet.
• Some steps you can take to protect yourself and your property are: Lock your room when sleeping and when you leave your room.
• This report draws on lessons learned from previous military deployments to consider strategies to protect the health of troops in future deployments.

define [verb]
to state what something is or means

• ESL teachers often ask their students to define words in class.
• Many arguments would not develop if people would define the words they use.
• I'm not sure how to define any of these abstract terms, and yet I recognize some of the components of forgiveness.
• If you try to define something that is beyond the comprehension of your paper or your own experience, the task will become overwhelming.

recognize [verb]
to know or understand (who someone is or what something is)

• I did not recognize my ESL teacher. He was wearing a costume for Renaissance Day.
• Doctors recognize the difficulty of giving up smoking. That's why they recommend never starting.
• Make sure the people you care about learn to recognize a stroke and act quickly.
• This brochure was created to help home owners and land managers recognize hazardous defects in trees and to suggest possible corrective actions.

overall [adjective]
general

• My overall opinion of him since he joined the class is very positive.
• The government has made overall progress towards its goal of reducing child poverty.
• Think about what you want to describe and the overall impression you want to give your readers.
• Having access to the laptop does seem to have substantially increased the overall feeling of having adequate resources to do the job.

unique [adjective]
single, unusual, one of a kind

• This is a unique chance to visit South Africa, and at the same time help build a school in the desert.
• Google uses a unique computer program to generate its lists of hits within a very short period of time.
• A hunt for hazardous asteroids by University of Hawaii astronomers who use a unique search strategy has paid off.
• The best way to ensure that your machine has a unique name is to use your University account name for your computer name.

directions [noun]
instructions

• I gave him clear directions how to do the experiment, but he obviously wasn't listening.
• You should follow the directions that the doctor has given you.
• She did not follow the directions on the label, despite carefully reading it.
• While this was a great idea, the directions were unclear about the requirements and how it would be graded.

manage [verb]
to succeed in doing something; to be able to do something

• I don't know how I always manage to get such a good grade. I never work particularly hard.
• I don't think the government will manage to persuade many people to recycle more of their garbage.
• He did not manage to develop a particularly good balance in his own life until he was able to stop worrying about what others thought of him.
• She should be able to manage to take care of the children on €200.00 per month.

simply [adverb]
completely; just; only

• She finds it simply impossible to sit still in class.
• There is simply no way to make people believe what they don't want to believe.
• Students arriving late had simply failed to read the reminder post card.
• As time went on scientists realized that mixing science and religion was simply unnecessary and unproductive.

perspective [noun]
view; opinion; way of thinking

• From my perspective as a teacher and parent, I would say that her difficulties in school are due to problems at home.
• The government's efforts to reduce unemployment are failing. It needs a new perspective.
• Traveling really gives students a better perspective of the world.
• Her perspective was that the Korean people believe that the U.S. policy is to have a divided Korea and that the U.S. is the reason the two countries are not united.

deal [noun]
agreement

• The students made a deal that they would speak to each other only in English.
• The government has done a deal with the nurses union in order to avoid strikes in hospitals.
• China won't take strong action against Iran's nuclear program because China just made a deal to buy lots of Iranian oil.
• The Hershey Corporation, however, already had a deal to provide chocolate for the troops.

situation [noun]
circumstances

• She lied to the principal and cheated in her test, but because of her family situation, it was decided to allow her to stay.
• The situation of the old people in the home was serious. There was not enough personnel to take care of them.
• Nancy Tsai knew from experience that the housing situation for graduate students living off campus was bleak.
• By the middle of May the situation was critical and the rebellion seemed to get closer daily to the capital.

gain [noun]
to get; to increase in ..

• I hope to gain a good grade in my grammar test.
• House prices in England have continued to gain in value every year for the past century.
• Cocaine did not gain much popularity in the United States until the 1960s.
• Participants will gain in-depth exposure to each topic through classroom assignments and structured exercises within team environments.

official [adjective]
approved by an authority

• The official language of the school is English but many documents are also translated into German.
• There has been no official statement about the number of soldiers who were killed in the fighting.
• If you are applying from a country in which English is not the official language, you are required to submit evidence of English language proficiency.
• We will also tell you how the precaution to take if you decide to use email as an official means of communication.

initial [adjective]
starting, first

• My initial intention was to resign, but then I changed my mind.
• Of course she makes grammar mistakes; she is at the initial stage of learning English.
• This report summarizes our initial findings.
• The student is experiencing initial difficulties with the reading requirements of the course.

generally [adverb]
usually

• I generally come to school by bus, but my father is driving me this week.
• It is generally impossible to get into university unless you have done well in school.
• The government generally did not take steps to investigate or punish the most serious cases of abuse.
• The method of evaluation used will be determined by the instructor but will generally include a combination (or all) of the following: homework, quizzes, exams, and a comprehensive final exam.

justice [noun]
fairness in law

• There is no justice. She worked very hard and got poor grades, whereas he didn't work at all but came top of the class.
• The parents of the innocent man who was shot by police on the London Underground are fighting for justice.
• There is very little justice of the poor and middle class as our corrupt judges have developed a system called lawyer denial.
• Antigone makes it clear that she is willing to meet her untimely death to gain justice.

monitor [verb]
to watch ( someone's or something's behaviour )

• I think we should monitor her work more closely for the next few weeks. She needs to know that we are concerned about her progress.
• The government will monitor the situation in Iraq very carefully, but has not yet made any changes in its policy.
• Another reason to monitor student e-mail and internet usage is to ensure their safety.
• The robot will monitor medications, and alert help if the patient falls.

reserve [verb]
to keep

• Please reserve me a seat at the back of the school bus.
• The government intends to reserve the information for itself. The public will not have access to it until the end of the decade.
• Once you've chosen the course or courses you wish to take, you should contact COM so that we can reserve a place for you.
• We reserve the right to refuse alcohol service to anyone who cannot provide proper identification.

analyze [verb]
to look at something in detail in order to understand it

• If you analyze the figures carefully, you will see some strong patterns.
• Modern computers can analyze huge amounts of information every second.
• When you analyze a primary source, you are undertaking the most important job of the historian.
• Critical thinking is the ability of students to analyze carefully and logically information and ideas from multiple perspectives.

against [preposition]
opposed to; not for or in favour

• The head teacher is thinking of introducing a school uniform. Most students are against the idea.
• Although nuclear power does not pollute the air, many people are against it because they fear an accident or terrorist attack on a nuclear power station.
• I think this the first time that the administration has done something almost totally against student interest.
• The majority of American voters have turned against the war in Iraq but not against the American troops and not against patriotism.

connect [verb]
to bring or put together

• No wonder your computer doesn't work. You must connect it to the monitor!
• The government needs to do more to connect people without jobs to business that are looking for workers.
• As each hydrogen only has one electron to share in the formation of chemical bonds, it is impossible to connect more than two hydrogen atoms to each other.
• When they did investigations after 9-11, one of the major things that they came up with was that the various government agencies did not connect the dots.

challenge [noun]
difficult situation; problem

• The school faces a real challenge in educating students from poor backgrounds.
• The greatest challenge that we face is to reduce global warming.
• The University of California library system faces a challenge in relation to the costs of online journal subscriptions.
• Delivery of safe and timely care is a huge challenge given the complexities of modern medicine.

item [noun]
thing, element

• You can buy each item on the school supplies list from the bookstore.
• The first item on the agenda is the proposal to increase working hours to 42 per work.
• "Recommended Changes to Student Handbook" was the next item for discussion.
• If there is an item that you need quickly, please state the time frame within which you need it.

remove [verb]
to take away

• Please remove your feet from the table! People have to eat here!
• This document explains how to remove password protection from your Web site.
• It is also notable that in Justice Brennan agreement he commented that the Board could not remove books based on mere disapproval of their content.
• If the student refuses to leave after being requested to do so, the instructor may summon University Police to remove the student.
• The idea was to remove the possibility of a local court or government treating a foreign investor unfairly.

generate [verb]
to make or produce

• The bank didn't think that her idea would generate enough money so they refused to finance it.
• Scientists hope that in the future wind power will be able to generate 50% of the electricity we need.
• This is a controversial point that will generate much debate in the classroom, mainly among graduate students.
• These were very industrialized nations but their economies did not generate the high levels of consumer spending we see in the First World.

advantage [noun]
benefit

• The most important advantage of living near the school is that I can go home for lunch every day.
• If you want to be successful in business, it is certainly an advantage to be able to speak more than one language.
• Humor can be advantage in politics.
• Previous experience in such areas, especially microscopy, would be an advantage but is not essential.

edit [verb]
to make changes in a piece of writing

• You need to do a better job when you edit your work. There are far too many unnecessary spelling and punctuation errors.
• Newspapers employ people to edit the articles submitted by their journalists, but not all mistakes are found.
• Someone forgot to edit the book with the result that it contains serious errors of grammar or punctuation.
• You will have to edit your documents to fit the required length.

surface [noun]
the outside layer of an object

• Two thirds of the surface of the earth are covered with water.
• Scientists have found life over a mile below the surface of the sea, far from the sun.
• Her problems are close to the surface and tend to be expressed in more direct, less symbolic, behavioral and emotional terms.
• She was very feminine, yet very strong, very tough under the surface.

trust [verb]
to believe that someone or something will be or work as promised

• If she told you she gave you her work, you can trust her. She is very honest and reliable.
• You need to be careful not to trust people that you meet on the internet They may not be who they claim to be..
• Some parents or guardians who place their children temporarily in foster care do so because they cannot trust their abilities to raise their children.
• We must trust the scientists and experts to make the right decisions to protect the environment.

regular [adjective]
predictable, following a pattern; normal

• Her absences from school are very regular. She's away every Monday morning.
• Doctors advise that the better way to get and stay healthy is to eat lots of fruit and vegetables and take regular exercise.
• There is very little difference in the quality of learning received by distance education students and regular students, according to a study.
• A book published in the regular way must depend mainly upon its own merits for its success.

implement [verb]
to start or put into practice (something that has been planned)

• Next year the school will implement a policy of no smoking on campus for both teachers and students.
• As a result of the rise in the price of oil, the government has decided not to implement the proposed tax increase.
• In the Spring semester, CIS faculty plans to implement three new courses in high demand.
• He was unable to implement his plans for an industrial area, which he purchased from the Israel Land Administration.

involve [verb]
to include or mean

• Be warned: Becoming a parent will involve many sleepless nights and a house full of plastic toys.
• Don't involve me in your plan - I want nothing to do with it.
• There are so many careers that involve Astronomy.
• The course is intended to involve a lot of class discussion.
• After these two periods of individual work time that did not involve any teacher instruction, the students presented their work to the class.
• Typical conversations involve a huge amount of "world knowledge" or common facts about life which humans accumulate as they grow.

procedure [noun]
the way to do something

• The procedure for recording TV programmes onto a video cassette is often very complicated.
• The procedure for writing such a report consists of the following steps: Choosing a subject; Finding sources of materials; Gathering the notes, etc.
• Repeat this procedure until only a small amount of pressure is released when it is vented.
• This is not the correct procedure to use when comparing two separate databases.

component [noun]
part of; an element of

• A sound card is an essential component of a games computer.
• An important component of the course is the unit on grammar.
• Iron is a major component of hemoglobin that carries oxygen to all parts of the body.
• While the Spartans were principally responsible for the victory, the Athenian fleet was probably the most important component of that victory.

district [noun]
region of a city

• The banking district of Frankfurt is right in the city centre.
• The district of most big cities around the main train station is often a dangerous place to be at night.
• The government district was cleared of protesters by riot police and police horses.
• He also was able to assist in identifying outstanding science curriculum materials for the teachers in the district to review.

fee [noun]
money for a service (e.g. a baking service)

• The school charges a fee for outside clubs to use its sports facilities.
• The agent's fee for selling a house is usually a percentage of the sale price.
• Due to the money shortage in schools, teachers are now being charged a high fee for training.
• The fee was determined by querying the number of research proposals received by RSPP and the direct costs associated with reviewing each proposal.

operation [noun]
procedure; happening; process

• The opening of the new sports block was the biggest operation in the school's history.
• Computer hard disk cleaning is not an operation that many people perform very frequently.
• Odland demonstrated the ability to run a significant operation with a wide geographical spread.
• Seed cleaning is not an operation that requires a large amount of labor.

prior [preposition]
before

• You should use the bathroom prior to coming to class.
• There are very few people living today who were born prior to the first world war.
• It is advisable that you put your name on these waiting lists prior to your arrival.
• Prior to age 5, children have learned a number of things and developed in a number of ways.

influence [noun]
effect

• My teacher will not let me sit near to John any more. She says he is a bad influence on me.
• Many people become aggressive under the influence of alcohol.
• Being under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol on the job may pose serious risks.
• European democratic nation states have increasingly lost influence over the conduct of their own economies.

former [adjective]
previous, the one before, the first of two

• One of the teacher's former students came into the class yesterday. She had just been offered a teaching job herself.
• The former head of police criticized the government's changes in drugs policy.
• The grade will be amended but the former grade will remain on the record with an appropriate notation.
• The former is preferable for a field of inquiry that is still in its infancy, whereas the latter is suitable for fields that have a developed theory.

stress [verb]
to emphasize; to say what is important

• I need to stress again that you may not use your calculator in the examination.
• The airport police always stress the need for everyone to be vigilant with their suitcases and other bags.
• Next the teacher must stress that nicotine in tobacco products is addictive.
• However, as a dermatologist I felt the articles did not stress strongly enough the possible drawbacks of the treatment.

positive [adjective]
good; optimistic

• I have a positive feeling about the forthcoming exams.
• He did not get a positive response to his request for a day's absence from work.
• Alumni have expressed much positive reaction to the Alumni Association's recent initiatives to expand its use of electronic newsletters and its Web site.
• It is possible this information was ignored because it was not positive or because it was simply unavailable.

condition [noun]
state

• Look at the condition of your homework planner! You will have to buy a new one.
• The company was in a very strong condition after winning a million dollar contract to build its machines.
• The libraries are in a poor condition and are in urgent need of restocking with new books and journals in both Arabic and English.
• Applying the engineering feedback concept, we can search and reach the optimum condition with a very small number of tests.

relevant [adjective]
connected to the topic of discussion or consideration

• The whole of the second paragraph is not relevant to your topic. You should write it again.
• The government thanked Greenpeace for the information but said that it wasn't relevant to its decision.
• The search results are likely to include lots of hits that are not particularly relevant to your topic.
• A geography graduate produces a piece of geographic research and analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates the relevant information.

comparison [noun]
a statement of how two things are similar or different

• In this report you must write a comparison of FIS and your previous school.
• If I make a comparison of England and Germany, I have to say I prefer Germany. The weather is better and the people are more friendly.
• There have been several reviews done regarding the comparison of online course delivery tools that are on the market today.
• What is the comparison between continental and oceanic volcanic eruptions?

object [noun]
thing

• The one object in the classroom that belongs to me is the old typewriter.
• Police investigating the scene of the crime have taken away an object that they have not yet been able to identify.
• It's a bit surprising at first, how easy it is to measure such a huge object as the earth.
• Since the human body is not an object that can be disposed of at will, the results of research should be made available to the whole scientific community.

assess [verb]
to judge or test

• Most students agree that teachers need assess them on how much they have learned.
• It is still too soon to assess how important this invention will be.
• Imagine a bridge that can self - diagnose cracks or a building able to assess its own health after an earthquake without any help from humans.
• If the adult victim acknowledges having experienced abuse, it is important to assess the potential for future violence, as well as the danger involved.

solve [verb]
to find an answer

• Did anyone manage to solve question 11?
• Not everyone agrees that the best way to solve the problem of crime is to put more criminals in prison.
• There is much effort being expended on attempting to solve this problem.
• A great deal of discussion focused on observations which could solve the mystery by testing the predictions of the various hypotheses.

limit [noun]
extent, boundary

• This line on the playground is the limit to where you are allowed to go as a grade 7 student.
• The government has set a clear limit on how much pollution factories are allowed to release into the atmosphere every year.
• There was no limit, it seemed, to what the terrorists who target America were prepared to do.
• How much storage space do I get, and what happens if I go over the limit?

lack [noun]
absence of a thing

• Your writing shows a basic lack of care or thought.
• Farmers in Germany complain every summer about the lack of people who are prepared to work in the fields harvesting asparagus or strawberries.
• The parent appears to have a serious lack of understanding of child development, resulting in unrealistic expectations for child that may be harmful.
• There was a lack of consistency in programs at conferences to develop the adviser's professional skills.

concept [noun]
idea; understanding

• Some students may find it difficult to understand the concept of democracy.
• You have no concept how difficult this problem is.
• In any economy in which individuals, firms and governments have the time preference, the time value of money is an important concept.
• The proponents of disability rights and design professionals have come to realize that the concept of accessible design has to be rethought.

strategy [noun]
a plan for how to achieve a goal

• The best strategy in learning a new language is to find a girlfriend or boyfriend who speaks it!
• Not everyone agrees with the strategy of reducing drug-taking by putting more users in prison.
• The strategy failed to persuade workers themselves to consider domestic service as anything other than a temporary transition.
• The best survival strategy for one part of the organization is usually not the best strategy for another.

stage [noun]
period of time, part of a process

• Now that you have revised your work, the next stage of the writing process is to edit it for errors of grammar or spelling.
• Reducing taxation is the second stage of the government's 5-year financial plan.
• This international degree course has been especially created for international students in their final stage of studies in Law.
• The Committee is concerned that children dropping out of school during the compulsory stage of education have insufficient alternative educational opportunities.

generation [noun]
group of people all born around the same time

• In many families precious objects like jewelry or photographs are handed down from one generation to the next.
• The current generation of children is usually thought to be less polite and hard-working than the previous one.
• We wish to employ women who want to invent, create, and design the next generation of computers, and computing methodology.
• The cold, hard truth is that your parents' generation was more open to experimentation, social change and an overall 'looser' way of life.

expand [verb]
to get bigger; to move into new areas

• Metals expand when heated.
• The business is hoping to expand into new markets in Africa.
• Lincoln's early position as president was that slavery could remain in current slave states but could not expand to new states or territories.
• This tells us that there is a very large market for us to expand into, if we take advantage of the opportunities as they arise.

facilitate [verb]
to make something easier

• My father's company is going to facilitate our move to Germany by employing an agent to help us find a house here.
• Web sites such as Wikipedia certainly facilitate the finding of information, although not all of it is reliable.
• We will facilitate growth and development in our district communities by serving as a key educational resource.
• Lorelei's fine efforts in starting and maintaining the list have done much to facilitate group communication and interaction.

manner [noun]
way of doing something

• It's not winning or losing that is important in school sport, but the manner in which you do it.
• Almost everyone believes that terrorism should be fought, but there is little agreement about the manner in which it should be done.
• This should be obvious, but many go about studying their notes in the wrong manner.
• That doesn't mean I have a personality disorder because I conduct myself in a different manner to different people.

approximately [adverb]
about; not exactly

• There are approximately 350 students in high school. I'm not sure of the exact number.
• Prices have risen by approximately 4% over the last 10 years.
• The professor meets with each student for a half-hour private tutorial approximately three times during the semester.
• In 1996, approximately 805 million Smart cards were issued, with an estimated 2.8 billion to be distributed in 2000.

yet [conjuntion]
but

• She said she studied hard for the test, yet she got a very low score.
• Everyone knows the dangers of smoking, yet hundred of young people start the habit each year..
• Flowering plants have roots, yet the root systems can vary.
• Lucy has been formed by the West Indies; she still is deeply influenced, yet she would resist and reject that heritage.

recommend [verb]
to suggest something to someone because it is good

• If you want to improve in English, I recommend that you read plenty of books for pleasure.
• Doctors recommend that people eat 5 fruits or vegetables every day.
• If you want your letter to be a private communication, I usually do not recommend sending copies to other people, since they may decide to act on the matter.
• I thoroughly recommend this book to anybody interest in the vegetation of North America and to those studying similar vegetation in other parts of the world.

estimate [verb]
to make an intelligent guess

• I estimate that at least 80% of the students will pass with the top grade.
• Scientists estimate that most children born today in First World countries will see their 75th birthday.
• By studying these financial transactions, it is possible to estimate the amount of money that people are willing to pay for the essentials.
• The Commission was unable to estimate the cost of complying with new requirements regarding data recording.

comprehensive [adjective]
full, complete

• You have written a very clear and comprehensive report. Well done!
• The company has comprehensive plans to increase its business by 50% in the next two years.
• This guide is not comprehensive; it does not list all of the resources covering Endangered Species.
• The Catherwood Library is the most comprehensive resource of its type in North America.

pursue [verb]
to follow (or do)

• That's the third time she's been late in the last week. I think I need to pursue the matter with her parents.
• The police plan to pursue their inquiries across the border in France.
• It is an opportunity to pursue a more demanding curriculum while having an equal opportunity to share in the full benefits of university life.
• I did not pursue the issue at the time. It was too big and I was not sure I would like the answer.

claim [verb]
to state to be true

• They claim that they did the work independently of each, but I don't believe them.
• The cyclist tried to claim that he had not used drugs, but the blood tests proved the opposite.
• The Committee determines, in its sole discretion, whether the College is entitled to claim ownership of the invention.
• Some Western scholars have erroneously tried to claim that Theravada is primarily a monastic religion.

introduce [verb]
to talk about or bring in for the first time

• The library is going to introduce a new electronic system for checking out books.
• The chairman of the meeting forgot to introduce the guest speaker.
• This article will only introduce the issues rather than present a detailed analysis with proofs.
• Columbus did not introduce slavery to the New World; the practice existed there before his arrival.

assignment [noun]
a task; the giving of a task

• This assignment is due on September 23.
• Not everyone approved of the government's assignment of the important position to a former sports star.
• The research addresses teacher attitudes toward the assignment of homework.
• I am an American clergywoman with the unusual assignment of teaching these young people the Hebrew language, in Arabic.

extend [verb]
to make longer in time or space

• The school is planning to extend the school day until 4:30.
• The library is going to extend the space its has made available for computers and video screens.
• Although we have already received a number of excellent proposals for papers, it has been decided to extend the deadline for submissions.
• Entrants in this competition are challenged to use or extend the building's unique infrastructure in the service of the people who learn and teach here.

regard [verb]
to think or have an opinion about something or someone

• I regard vocabulary as the single most important aspect of learning English.
• Although the patient was in pain, the doctor did not regard the problem as serious.
• Most people who use a wheelchair or mobility devices do not regard them as confining. They are viewed as liberating; a means of getting around.
• I regard what people actually do in practice as far more significant and worthy of formalization than what ivory-tower logicians prefer in principle.

discover [verb]
to find out; to find something for the first time (esp. land or scientific knowledge)

• Who was the first person to discover America? Most people say it was Columbus.
• The government will discover in the coming election how unpopular its politics have been.
• Through the exhibit and its constant updating, people will be able to discover new, thought- provoking works of art from around the globe.
• I was unable to discover the reason for Angelica's sudden departure at the beginning of the second trimester.
• The study did not discover any significant relationship between the type of music and the amount of stress.

opinion [noun]
view; what you think about someone or something

• In my opinion she is going to fail course unless she starts making more effort.
• The government is having difficulties getting people to change their opinion toward use of public transportation.
• This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the university journal.
• The court decided to ignore the opinion of the mental health specialist.

spread [verb]
to move (over a wider area)

• A rumour spread around the school that the headmaster had resigned.
• The Health Department is advertising on TV to spread the message about the importance of healthy eating and exercise.
• There are currently no published predictions as to the likelihood that the disease will spread to other animals or plant life.
• Despite the political, economic and cultural success of the Arab city states, Islam for many years did not spread into the interior of East.

engage [verb]
to participate in; to focus attention on

• She would have a better chance of academic success if she didn't engage in so many activities outside of school.
• The recent conference about green energy failed to engage the interest of the British public.
• Future research would need to ensure that participants did not engage in any other activities immediately prior to the study at hand.
• Good teachers must engage their students as they find them, as they present themselves, walking in the door.

external [adjective]
outside

• The school is planning to bring in an external tax expert to analyze its finance methods.
• Some animals, such as the tortoise or snail, have an external shell rather than an internal skeleton.
• The purpose of this study was to explore the internal and external factors influencing the career development of first generation Filipina Americans.
• The main reason for not responding to terrorism was not an external issue, but an internal one: the government failed to fulfill its duties.

sequence [noun]
the order in which things are arranged or happen

• What is the correct key sequence on a calculator for working out a percentage from a fraction?
• What is the next letter in the sequence O, T, F, S, N, E, _?
• The purpose of this tutorial is to give you an idea of the sequence of events leading up to graduation.
• For this task, instructors present a series of steps in a mixed order and students are asked to re-order the items into the correct sequence.
• Notes made by Payne provide a careful study of the sequence of events leading to the final confrontation between the National Guard and the students on May 19.

raise [verb]
to lift; to make higher

• The government plans to raise the money they donate to poor countries in the Third World.
• The employee asked his boss to raise his salary.
• Dear Alice, Does caffeine raise your blood pressure?
• The Student Activities Committee presented a project designed to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis in the Sudan.

though [conjuntion]
although, even though, but