normal 2 Flashcards Preview

Vocabulary > normal 2 > Flashcards

Flashcards in normal 2 Deck (18)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

Although the likelihood that you will see religious topics in IELTS writing is rather slim, knowing some useful relevant phrases may help you out a good bit. Just remember this topic is all about belief systems (236).

You and I might be subscribing to a religion (237) such as Buddism, Christianity, Hinduism or Islam. Each religion has its own belief system, which followers are supposed to collectively believe in certain underlying principles and probably even perform some sorts of rituals (238). A ritual simply means an activity that you have to perform on a regularly basis as required by your religious law (239). Going to the church every Sunday is a prime example of a ritual. Performing religious rituals are believed to help you maintain your healthy mental state (240), especially true in meditation. Whether it’s true to you or not, it’s up to you to decide.
When you subscribe to a belief system, you are also imparted with ethical and moral codes (241). For example, you cannot intentionally harm other people. You have to help the needy (242) when you have the opportunity and such. Some people are considered themselves atheists (243), which indicates their disbelief in the existence of God and the like. If you believe in God or some higher consciousness (244), you are definitely not an atheist.
Irrespective of religion you are subscribing to, freedom to practice religion (245) is what you want. In North America, freedom to practice religion is highly respected by both societies and laws.

A

(236) religions
(237) follow a religion
(238) do the activities as required by religion (frequently)

(239) what is required by religion
(240) good mind
(241) Ethical set of rules that you have to follow

(242) poor people
(243) people who dont believe in God

(244) general phrase to refer to God
(245) perform various religious activities in real life

2
Q
  1. Do you uphold the reverence for God or any higher counsciousness? If you do, it’s likely you are subscribing to a religion. If you don’t, you probably are an atheist.
  2. Do you support freedom to practice religion? Or you want a certain level of legal restrictions on practicing religions? If you lean towards to latter, it’s likely you want religious practitioners (246) to perform their rituals in a reasonable manner (247), not affecting the rest of society.
  3. Do you think cultural intermingling helps promote the freedom to practice religion? I believe it does. Thanks to cultural intermingling and globalization, the society tends to embrace (248) cultural and religious diversity.
  4. Do you think religion has anything to do with the extraterrestrial life? Some theorists believe higher consciousness like God has come into contact with the aliens.
  5. Do you think subscribing to a religion offer you a net positive benefit? Or do you think atheism is a more realistic view?
  6. Do you think performing religious rituals has a net positive benefit? Given that it would take a great deal of time and effort.
    Irrespective of what you think, what really matters is that you have learned a ton of vocabulary. LOL. And that’s what I really care about.
A

(246) people who practice religions

(247) not overdoing something that might affect other people
(248) support

3
Q

Okay, I’m not talking about cooking oils like olive oil or vegetable oil. So no food, sorry. LOL! This topic will be about oil as a form of energy.
Oil or crude oil is a non-renewable energy resource extracted (249) by drilling a very long hole underground, known as oil drilling (250). It sounds pretty simple but oil drilling or oil extraction is actually a very long and complicated process. After that it’s still not the end of the story. Oil has to be refined (251) by an oil refinery (252) into gasoline or diesel fuel so they can be consumed by humans. Refining oil is a long, complicated and costly process, too. Just to remind you there is an oil refinery by the name of Dung Quat in Quang Ngai, Vietnam.
Because oil is non-renewable, it will inevitably run out over the next 30 years according to an estimate. In fact, numerous nations are deeply concerned about the future of oil as most of their household and industrial activities consume oil or oil products. In other words, they are highly dependent on oil, particularly foreign oil. Even foreign oil wells (253) are on the verge of (254) exhaustion. Therefore, many countries need to take environmental actions (255) to address the future of oil. Switching to a new sustainable source of energy sounds like an ideal solution, but easier said than done.
I will discuss some misconceptions on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar in a later section. They are not as effective as one may expect.

A

(249) taken

(250) the process of drilling a hole to extract oil
(251) transform oil into gasoline or fuels

(252) a plant refining oil
(253) a place underground containing lots of oil

(254) very close to
(255) good phrase

4
Q

What do you think? In most cases, the answer is Yes.
However in reality, dress codes for professors vary from one discipline to another (256). For example, enginneering professors tend to dress casually (257) while law professors tend to dress very formally. It seems clothing styles are closely related to what field a professor is in.
But why do law or business professors have to comply with (258) such a strict dress code policy (259)? Well, it has a lot to do with meeting the professional standards (260). Psychologically speaking, the way a you groom yourself implies a lot about your credibility, respectfulness and intelligence. As a result, it will change how other people receive the message you convey (261). Not saying engineering professors are not credible, but law and business ones rely heavily on the establishment of credibility in order to get their business done. They also want influence the perception (262) of others on their professions. The more respected their professions are, the more salary they can earn.
In conclusion, dress codes among different professions do not show a consistent trend (263). Some professors need to establish high credibility to get their jobs done while some are more flexible in terms of dress codes.

A

(256) are not the same from one to another
(258) follow/abide by

(259) the policy on how you should dress

(260) good phrase
(261) what you say
(262) make others think
(263) similar

5
Q

So I bet you’ve heard a myriad of essayists screaming about using wind and solar energy instead of fossil fuels. Yes, they’re free, cleaner, and abundant. But do you know why the hell wind and solar energy still do not prevail (264)?
Although sunlight and wind are free, the process of turning them into usable energy is prohibitively expensive (265). Yes, the cost of oil extraction is supposed to be high, but it is still nothing compared to the cost of processing sunlight and wind. In fact, solar energy and wind are very intermittent (266) and dilute (267). Just remember whenever you have an essay about renewable energy, ‘intermittent’ and ‘dilute’ are the terms that best describe these energy sources and thereby showcase your knowledge.
Solar and wind energy are intermittent or discontinuous. Unlike oil or gas, they cannot be stored. Therefore, no sun or no wind simply means the flows of energy are disrupted (268), which means all human activities are also seriously disrupted.
Solar and wind energy are dilute or weak. For solar one, you need to use many large solar panels (269) and a lot of other materials to harness enough energy (270) to make it useful.
Theoretically speaking, solar and wind energy offer a great deal of benefits to both men and the environment. In actuality, reaping those benefits is not easy, meriting complex calculations and considerations.

A

(264) Dominate/become more powerful and popular

(265) really expensive
(266) discontinuous

(267) weak and thin, not concentrated
(268) interrupt with problem
(269) the equipments that you see them placed on the rooftop to collect sunlight

(270) collect/concentrate energy

6
Q

Sex education is perhaps one of the most sensitive topics in school.

Thus in reality, the number of students getting access to formal sex education v_aries from school to school._ Most schools only cover topics up to puberty (271) in their curriculum, so in many cases parents have to fill in the rest. If that is not the case (279), chances are students have to figure out by themselves, which may supposedly lead to the distortion in perception about sex.

If students are lucky enough, they will get to learn about things like reproductive processes (272), reproductive organs (273), the different consequences of engaging in sexual activities (280), abstinence (274) as one of the most effective forms of birth control (275), the acceptance of sexual orientation (276), common STDs (277) and so on.

Sex education still remains a controversial issue as it has caused quite a variety of responses (281) among families. It should be acknowledged, however, that having a parental conversation (278) with the children about sex is also not a preferable choice for most families. Therefore, the rise of formal sex education would be an ideal solution but only if complete unanimity on (282) this issue comes into play.

A

(271) day. thi`

(279) if that doesn’t happen
(272) the process of giving birth

(273) body parts that are related to the process of giving birth
(274) say ‘NO’ to easy sex
(280) good phrase
(275) used to prevent pregnancy (276) boy, girl or gay?
(277) sexually transmitted diseases
(281) good phrase
(278) a conversation of the parents with the children
(282) complete aggreement

7
Q

Do you ever have a parental conversation about sex? If you do, lucky you.
Does your high school have complete unanimity about sex education? If it does, there is 100% agreement and the sex curriculum should be updated. If that’s not the case, then you should figure out by yourself. HAHA. Shame on you.
AIDS is probably the best-known STDs.
There are a myriad of birth control methods such as birth control pills, condom, and abstinence. They all serve the purpose of preventing unintended pregnancies.
Do you think sex education will have a net positive benefit on promoting healthy relationships? If you do, then most likely you are right because it is thought to give you the correct perception on sex.
If you hold no prejudices of (use: towards/ against) gay or lesbian, then you have high acceptance of sexual orientation.
Do you think carrying out sex education campaigns on a global scale (283) is prohibitively expensive? If they are prohibitively expensive, then they’re definitely not achievable (284).

A

(283) globally
(284) cannot be achieved - good phrase

8
Q

Slow down, my friends. Implanting this huge amount of vocab into your head is certainly not the easiest thing in the world. We need to review on a regular basis just so you can exercise the repetitive aspect of this book. But no fret, reviewing is not as boring as it sounds. On the contrary, it’s actually a lot of fun!

  1. When lawyers give advice to their clients, they are (????) service => the answer is “rendering” => rendering service(s)
  2. When there are a myriad of cultures within a small town, this is called cultural (????) => The answer is “diversity” => cultural diversity
  3. Another words for “poor people?” => Low-income people
  4. $5000 for a car seems reasonable. But $500,000 for a car is (????) => Prohibitively expensive
  5. What causes us to have different views about a celebrity? => The media portrayals
  6. Name two types of media? => Mainstream and alternative media
  7. When it comes to abortion, you are pro-life, I am pro-choice. We have two (????) views => Two diverging views
A

repeat

9
Q
  1. A general phrase to indicate animals and plants living in an area? => Ecological community
  2. What caused by nuclear plants has deleterious impacts on ecological community? => Radioactive waste
  3. Another words for ‘the unborn’ => human fetus
  4. People who trade drug? => Drug traffickers
  5. Eating a lot of vegetables and fruits can help your body (????) against cancer => Guard against cancer
  6. When two different cultures are friendly with each other, they (????) each other’s differences => Tolerate
  7. What might be the result of globalization? Cultural (????) => Cultural intermingling
  8. A society when everyone is treated fairly and equally? => Egalitarian society
  9. Having pets have more benefits than problems => Net positive benefit
A

repeat

10
Q

Here is one of the most popular mistakes made by even many IELTS teachers. HAHA. No kidding. But it’s true. They still can’t distinguish between
On the contrary vs. In contrast
So what is ‘on the contrary’ and what is ‘in contrast’?
Let’s look at some examples.
This food is not bad. On the contrary, it’s excellent I don’t hate you. On the contrary, I love you This book is not expensive. On the contrary, it’s cheap
This food is delicious to me. However, in contrast, many people think it’s not.
Most of the time you will use In contrast in your essay, not on the contrary. Why? Because on the contrary is used to emphasize the claim whereas In contrast is used to compare/contrast between two ideas or two opinions.

A

grammar

11
Q

Did you know that Canada is one of the most generous countries in the world when it comes to health care? This obviously gets its neighbor downstairs-the U.S. jealous because health care expenses are known to be astronomically high. Given that, Canadians do not have to pay out of their pocket a darn penny for any medical procedures (283). So who bears the burden (284)? The federal government.
Free universal health care coverage also comes at a cost (290). This publicly-funded health care regime (288) is also clearly very expensive to maintain. The governments will pay the bill for all check-ups (285), exams (286) and operations (287). In addition, due to the ease of accessibility (289), Canadian hospitals are notoriously overcrowded at times. Over the past couple of years, some governments would like to scale back (291) their scope of coverage (292) to make room for (293) the privatization of hospitals and clinics (294). This means that Canadians would no longer have free access to some supplementary coverages (295) such as dental cares, eye exams, and any operation deemed (296)”non-essential”.

Any negative changes in the current publicly-funded health care regime would inevitably cause widespread public disagreement (297) as people have taken it for granted for a long time. Therefore, it would be a challenge for politicians to openly discuss the issue (298).

A

(283) series of medical actions to take care of patients
(284) good phrase
(290) has a disadvantage
(288) regime ~ system
(285) check your health
(286) check your health even more
(287) some sort of surgeons

(289) easy to access
(291) reduce

(292) the extent of service covered
(293) good phrase
(294) medical center
(295) non-essential services

(296) considered (but stronger than considered)
(297) good phrase
(298) good phrase

12
Q

Do you know why the U.S. do not offer its citizens publicly-funded health care coverage like Canada? Well, I think the obvious reason is that free health care coverage for more than 300 million people is prohibitively expensive and the U.S. governments don’t want to bear the burden to pay for all the medical procedures.

What could be a temporary solution for that? Health insurance. By paying for health insurance coverage, the burden and the risk are spreaded across all Americans at lowest possible costs. Each citizen will pay a small amount of money called insurance premium (299) to the insurance company, say, every month. The large sum of money collected will then be used by theinsurance company pay for the medical bills (300) for those who actually need medical assistance (301).

However, it still remains a temporary solution because not all Americans can get covered (302) by any health insurance plans. For those who are not covered, they are at the highest risk (303) if the medical bills come. In fact, there have been so many cases of Americans declaring bankrupcy because they are unable (304) to pay their medical expenses. When Americans go to the hospital, the first question they are asked is “what level of service would you like?”. When Canadians go to the hospital, the first question they are asked is “What is your medical situation?

A

(299) the money you pay for the insurance company (periodically)
(300) medical expenses
(301) good phrase
(302) protected by insurance
(303) good phrase
(304) cannot

13
Q

Do you prefer living in a country where information and ideas are restricted (305) or liberated (306). Statistically speaking, countries like China or Vietnam are among the lowest when it comes to freedom of speech. But I dare not openly discuss this issue further as that may lead to my imprisonment.

When you live in a country ranked the highest in terms of freedom of speech, there is almost no constraints (307) on the flows of information or ideas. The governments are not supposed to go after you for your criticisms against them. If you say something bad about your leader, let’s say, you are not imprisoned or sentenced to death. In fact, people are even encouraged to criticize the leaders if they are not doing the right things. Why? Because criticisms make him a more competent leader. In countries like China, leaders are God and they never make mistakes. They’re always right. Therefore, anyone disagreeing can be subject to capital punishment.

Internet censorship, monitoring and surveillance (308) are the norm (311) in China. Every bit of information is under the surveillance of the governments. Why? Their logic is that they want to keep the peace of the region. Americans are bad people. America is the enemy. Sounds familiar to you?

Well, I think the governments cannot withhold the information (312) forever. One day, the truth will be exposed (309) to everyone, given the ever-growing (310) flows of information these days.

A

(305) limited
(306) freed/unlimited
(307) limits
(308) spying, close observation, monitoring
(311) something very usual
(312) keep back
(309) good phrase
(310) always growing

14
Q

If you ever mention mainstream media and alternative media in your essays, you know what, the examiners are gonna love you for that. Because it’s a clear indication of higher level of critical thinking. Distinguishing between the two notions are vitally important and should not be taken lightly as they have substantial impacts on how you perceive a fact or an opinion. When I write an IELTS essay, my focus will be on showing knowledge and thinking, not just English. Why? Isn’t that the ultimate indication of English proficiency?

Applying English in acquiring knowledge. You can do the same or even better by changing your mindset just a little bit. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Just keep in mind that your acquisition of vocabulary is not for the purpose of showcasing how many vocab you know, but how many smart vocab you know. Smart vocab are usually originated from long in-depth research (313) and ongoing debates by smart people. I tend to steal some vocab from social psychology textbooks or some science journals as they are so well-established and highly credible.

So open the books and expand your horizons (314) right now, guys!

A

(313) good phrase
(314) expand your experience and knowledge

15
Q

Yo. Let’s face it. There is a strong link between (315) the media and freedom of speech as most ideas and information are transmitted (316) from one place to another through the media, either mainstream or alternative.

Most media in Vietnam are government-controlled, especially the mainstream media. With the involvement of the governments, there is never a guarantee that (322) the information is portrayed entirely accurately. On the contrary, it is highly manipulative to the point that even many Vietnamese people do not seem to wholly trust any info or announcements disseminated (317) by the governments.

Information other than that is also strictly under surveillance or censored if needed. Bad - mouthing (318) the governments are sometimes considered unlawful (319). Criticizing or complaining about the leaders is usually done with extra caution. So where is the freedom?

The wealth of a nation and the degree of freedom of speech have been long proved (323) positively correlated (320). With any restrictions in the flows of ideas and information, corruptions and poverty certainly ensue (321).

A

(315) strong connection
(316) send out/pass
(322) good phrase
(317) distributed or spread the info
(318) speak something bad about someone
(319) not legal
(323) good phrase
(320) go hand in hand with one another
(321) Happen as a result of something

16
Q

If you are lucky enough to have a chance to use the word ‘stereotype’ in the IELTS exam, you will be killing it.

Stereotype (322) is a prior general belief about a certain social group. Don’t be scared of the definition. Let’s look at the examples.

“All Asians are good at math” is a typical stereotype about Asians. “All Chinese people are bad” is a typical stereotype about Chinese people that many Vietnamese people have. “All Americans are enterprising” is probably a prime example of stereotype about Americans. “Women are weak” is quite a gender stereotype. Basically, stereotype is a shortcut that helps our minds form a general image representing a certain group of people. When we see a Canadian, for example, we quickly realize that he or she is very friendly and so we treat him or her differently than when we see a Chinese.

As can be observed, stereotype has both advantages and disadvantages. The good thing about stereotype is that we know what to expect and what to watch out for from a social group. The bad thing about stereotype is that your preconceived perceptions (323) oftentimes do not truly represent the reality (324). Of course, it is safe to say not all Chinese people are bad many are exceptionally good (325); not all Americans are enterprising, many are horribly dumb. Not all Asians are good at math and so on.

And it is also safe to say if you have a chance to utilize the concept stereotype for the sake of your argument, do not miss it.

A

(322) prior general belief abouta certain social group
(323) views on somethings before having evidence
(324) reflect the reality
(325) very good

17
Q

Social loafing (326) refers to the concept that people are prone to (327) exert less effort on (328) a task if they are in a group versus when they work alone.

Teamwork has been long proved to be essential when it comes to getting a massive task done by pooling (329) the skills and talents of people within the team. Without teamwork, we could not be able to build things like bridges and skyscrapers. That said (330), social loafing comes into play every time teamwork is involved. Put simply, people often get lazy when they work in a team than individually.

Teamwork activities in college all too often do not work as well as expected due to social loafing. In fact, many students express their frustration towards (331) teamwork because other team members refuse to contribute. It’s not they are bad people, it’s social loafing that makes them exert less effort than they otherwise would, making the team leader bear the burden.

Group size and social loafing are positively correlated. The larger the group, the more serious social loafing becomes. Let’s imagine you work for a team of 3 and for a team of 300. In which team would you exert more effort on doing the job? Clearly, the one with 3 people.

Whenever you see a topic about teamwork, social loafing is a vitally important concept to support your point.

A

(326) lazy because of working in team
(327) tend to
(328) spend less effort
(329) puting everything together
(330) however
(331) frustrate

18
Q

Food stamps (332) refer to any nutrition assistance programs, usually from the governments, to help purchase healthy food for low or no-income groups of people. If you are on the verge of poverty, you may be eligible for (333) food stamps. HAHA. Just kidding, I know you’re rich.

But seriously many families are earning a living wage (334) and this program was established to somewhat assist them financially (335) so they can afford healthy food. To qualify for food stamps benefits, you have to meet certain criteria such as earning less than a certain threshold (336) or promising to participate in a work training program so as to improve your future income.

Because food stamps programs give people free money in the form of credit card to buy their food, many people are prone to abuse them. Instead of purchasing healthy food, they choose to buy junk food or energy drinks, making the program deviate from its core purpose (337)

In order for the food stamps to run properly, more regulations are needed. That said, the cost of hiring personnel to enforce healthy eating would not justify the benefits, making food stamps remain a controversial topic.

A

(332) Nutrition assistance program
(333) qualify for
(334) having low income
(335) good phrase
(336) a certain point OR a certain level
(337) lose its focus