week 8 vocabulary and grammar noun combinations exercises

8/16/2019 Week 8 Vocabulary and Grammar Noun Combinations Exercises

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Week 8 – Noun combinations Practical course – Vocabulary and Grammar

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1. The word in bold have been jumbled. Swap them around to make correct collocations.

1 These exams are important and I think it‟s good time you got down to some serious revision.

2 I‟ve got very tight feelings about moving to New Zeeland. Part of me wants to go and part of me wants to stay here.

3 “We can all go in my car,” she said. “It‟ll be a bit of a last squeeze, but it‟s only a short trip.”

4 He speaks with such a close Scottish accent that even I find him difficult to understand – and I‟m English!

5 We can get the money. We can try the bank, you could ask your father and I suppose as a mixed resort we could always

sell the car.

6 I was certainly thrown in at the good end when I started teaching as I was given the biggest and the most badly behaved

class in the school.

7 I‟m going to ask my boss for a day off on Friday. I‟m in her high books at the moment so I‟m sure she‟ll say yes.

8 It was a broad shave. If the teacher had arrived five minutes earlier, we‟d have been caught red-handed.

2. Circle the correct item.

1 I‟d love to come out tonight, but I can‟t. I‟m too tired. I‟ve had a very heavy / loaded week.

2 Brian‟s losing his job was a full / mixed blessing as it forced him to think about his future and set up what is now a very

successful business.

3 As it says in the advertisement, the Omicron Zoom is the final / last word in digital cameras.

4 I‟ve known him for donkey‟s years. He‟s like a brother to me. He‟s a very close / near friend.

5 He‟s not noisy?! Are you joking? He‟s got the radio on at full / high blast and he‟s singing at the top of his voice.

6 If your parents find out what you have done, you will be in high / deep trouble.

7 The traffic was so heavy / deep in the city centre that it took me two hours to get to the office.8 There he stood with a broad / full grin on his face.

9 Nobody ever finds themselves at a dead / loose end in New York. There‟s too much going on.

10 Don‟t worry. I will take great / full responsibility if anything goes wrong.

11 She had such a deep / full voice that when she first spoke to me over the phone I thought she was a man.

12 Can you hear the noise they are making next door? I‟ve got a full / good mind to report them to the police.

13 Rising inflation, deep / high unemployment, an enormous trade deficit. How can you say that this government is

anything but incompetent?

14 He has high / full hopes of winning the gold medal at next year‟s Olympic Games.

15 It was a near / tight match, with neither player ever getting the upper hand. Balkov finally won 7-6, 6-7, 7-6.

16 Last week I was the only one who didn‟t get a holiday. Now everyone is getting a bonus except me? Well, that‟s the

last / final straw.

17 I‟m afraid Roberta is not very well. She‟s in bed with a deep / heavy cold.18 In general, he was happy with the contract, but there were still a few loose / undone ends that needed tying up before

he would sign.

19 The party started at 7:30 and when we got there it was in good / full swing.

20 She needed to make a phone call but she didn‟t have any little / loose change.

3. Choose the correct item.

1 He gave his father back his keys, knowing that to have taken the car would have landed him in [a. f ul l; b. deep; c. close;

d. loose] trouble.

2 With the present [a. mixed; b. broad; c. tight; d. high] rate of unemployment, the government stands little chance of

being re-elected.

3 She was burning the midnight oil, working into the [a. hi gh; b. heavy; c. small ; d. broad] hours to finish her thesis.

4 He decided to take a [a. ful l; b. close; c. tight; d. small ] look at the contract before signing it.5 Look, it‟s started raining. It‟s a [a. heavy; b. broad; c. great; d. good] job we brought an umbrella.

4. Collocate the adjectives below with the correct nouns. Two of the nouns should be used twice.

1 a non-stop ___________ a) conclusion

2 a cushy ___________ b) job

3 a wasted ___________ c) tune

4 a foregone ___________ d) crowd

5 a catchy ___________ e) flight

6 a compulsive ___________ f) speed

7 the public ___________ g) driving licence




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8 a condemned ___________ h) liar

9 a broken ___________ i) journey

10 a strong ___________ j) building

11 a total ___________ k) home

12 the sole ___________ l) knowledge

13 a capacity ___________ m) survivor

14 a vicious ___________ n) language

15 a resounding ___________ o) possibility

16 a clean ___________ p) stranger

17 common ___________ q) success

18 a bumpy ___________ r) circle

19 breakneck ___________ s) eye

20 a remote ___________ t) technology

21 cutting-edge ___________ u) talk

22 a mobile ___________

23 small ___________

5. Complete the sentences using the nouns from Exercise 4.

1 No other passenger got out of the crash alive. She was the sole ______________________ .

2 He‟s got such a cushy ______________________ . He gets to work at eleven, does nothing and leaves at four.

3 He is incapable of telling the truth. He‟s a compulsive ______________________ .4 They played to a capacity ______________________ wherever they went. No matter how big the venue, not a seat

remained empty.

5 They want someone with a clean ______________________ , which counts me out as I was fined for speeding.

6 It was common ______________________ that Sandra was planning to leave the company.

7 His last film was hardly what you‟d call a resounding ______________________ . The critics hated it and it lost over

ten million dollars.

8 He is living in a condemned ______________________ on the Bays Road. I wonder where he‟ll go when they pull it

down.

9 Not only was the film extremely violent but it also contained a lot of strong ______________________ .

10 Buenos Aires to London in twelve hours? It must have been a non-stop ______________________ .

11 I‟d never met her before. She was a total ______________________ .

12 It‟s very unlikely that he‟ll win. There‟s a remote ______________________ , I suppose. But it would take a miracle.13 It‟s one of those songs with a really catchy ______________________ . It sticks in your mind.

14 You‟ve travelled 200 miles to see him? But he moved last year. I‟m sorry, it looks like you‟ve had a wasted

______________________ .

15 The pilot said that there was a lot of turbulence en route and that we should expect a bit of a bumpy

______________________ .

16 He was driving around these narrow, winding mountain roads at breakneck ______________________ in a powerful

sports car. I was terrified.

17 She had a terrible childhood. Her father left home when she was five and, like most kids from a broken

______________________ , she grew up feeling insecure about relationships.

18 Manchester United are playing the Women‟s Institute third team in the first round of the cup. That Manchester United

will win is a foregone ______________________ .

19 This really is cutting-edge ______________ ________ . You won‟t find a more advanced scanner anywhere on themarket.

20 It was a vicious ______________________ . We were losing customers so our sales were down. As a result, we had to

put up our prices to cover costs. However, because we had put up our prices we lost more customers.

21 John is hopeless at small ______________________ . He gives one-word answers to anything you ask him!

22 Rather than love in a conventional house, he chose to live in a mobile ______________________ .

23 He says that he hates being on the front page of all the tabloids every other day, which is rubbish because we all know

that he loves being in the ______________________ eye.




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6. The words in bold below have been jumbled. Swap them around so that the sentences make sense.

1 Although „Nosia‟ was only founded four years ago, it has become a household dream.

2 The gutter gossip got hold of the story and distorted it out of all recognition.

3 A recurring future about falling bothered him so much that he made an appointment with a psychologist.

4 I read this column in the Daily Herald because it‟s always full of juicy press.

5 In the not-too-distant finish, fossil fuels will have run out and we‟ll have to use alternative sources of energy.

6 They were shouting and waving their arms, clearly in the middle of a heated name.

7 Spiralling damage is making life increasingly difficult.

8 The fans were on the edge of their seats as they watched the nail-biting argument.

9 The flood did irreparable inflation to many of the city‟s oldest buildings.

7. a) Complete the noun combinations by providing the missing noun in column B. The first letter is given and the

spaces that follow indicate the number of missing letters. The Associated Words box will provide clues for the

missing Column B word. The meaning of the adjective half of the combination (A) is given in the Meaning of A

column.

A B Meaning of A Association Words

1 a golden O _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ good, not-to-be-missed chance, possibility

2 a husky V _ _ _ _ deep, hoarse sound, speak

3 a straight A _ _ _ _ _ honest and truthful question, reply

4 a hefty F _ _ _ large money, punishment

5 full M _ _ _ _ maximum exam, points

6 a gaping H _ _ _ very big cavity, dig, leak

7 bare F _ _ _ without shoes and socks toes, inches

8 rampant I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ rapidly increasing economics, price

9 the hot F _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ most people‟s popular, winner

10 a/the wrong N _ _ _ _ _ incorrect six, four, nine

11 a ghost T _ _ _ empty, abandoned city, village

12 a package H _ _ _ _ _ _ with everything organised sun, rest, brochure

b) Now complete each of the sentences below with one of the above noun combinations.

1 Hello. Hello. Is Tim there? ... Tim Ford ... Is that 37465? ... Sorry, I must have got the ______________________ .

2 Stop beating about the bush and give me a ______________________ . Did you or did you not leak this information to

the press?

3 Twenty out of twenty. You got ______________________ in your composition. Wow.

4 I‟d never go on a ______________________ . I like my independence too much and I hate huge resorts.

5 You shouldn‟t walk around the garden in ______________________ . You could tread on a wasp.

6 I‟m not surprised it sank. There‟s a ______________________ in the bottom of it.

7 If you are caught driving without insurance, not only will you lose your licence but you will also have to pay a

______________________ .

8 Newells Old Boys are the ______________________ to win this year‟s championship, and with the likes of Arano,

Jansen and Copani in their side who would bet against them?

9 ______________________ was crippling the country‟s economy.

10 When I spoke to his secretary for the first time, it was on the phone. She had such a ______________________ that I

thought I was talking to a man.

11 At night, once the temperatures had dropped there were people everywhere, but during the day it was a

______________________ .

12 A scholarship to study at Cambridge! It was a ______________________ that she just had to take.

8. The sentences below are definitions of noun combinations. Choose the correct noun combination for each

definition by matching an adjective (1 – 19) with a noun (a – s).

1 bank 4 the spitting 7 wildest 10 an only 13 a rough 16 a sweeping 19 a sweet

2 a steady 5 poetic 8 a regular 11 an uphill 14 a nervous 17 a crushing

3 scrap 6 a niggling 9 small 12 a split 15 wishful 18 a narrow




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a. guess d. justice g. doubt j. margin m. paper p. image s. blow

b. child e. second h. thinking k. struggle n. tooth q. job

c. generalisation f. wreck i. customer l. holiday o. print r. dreams

1 If you go to one particular shop all the time, then the shopkeeper would consider you to be one of these.

______________________

2 Nobody works on one of these nowadays. ______________________

3 If it happens in this amount of time, then it happens very quickly indeed. ______________________

4 You sometimes need some of this in an exam. You might need it to make notes on.

5 „All football fans are hooligans‟ is an example of one of these. ______________________

6 It‟s only approximate. You don‟t know for sure. ______________________

7 If you have got one of these, uncertainty just won ‟t go away. ______________________

8 If you are one of these, you should take a holiday and try to relax. Worrying all the time will only make you ill.

______________________

9 If someone who cheats at a sport without being caught is later disqualified for something he/she didn‟t do, you could say

it was this. ______________________

10 If you work at the same place for a long time and it is probable that you will continue doing so, then you have this.

______________________

11 If you are this of your mother, then you look just like her. ______________________

12 If the X party beats Y party in an election, but only wins by one of these, then the Y party only needed a few more

votes and they would have won the election.

13 If you have got one of these, then you almost certainly love chocolate. ______________________

14 If a plan you have is dealt one of these, then something has happened that means your plan will probably have to be

abandoned. ______________________

15 You have bought a lottery ticket. You want to believe that you are going to win but you know what this is.

______________________

16 It‟s at the bottom of a contract and you should always read it before signing anything. ______________________

17 The economy is a total disaster. Getting the country back on its feet again will be very difficult and will take a lot of

time. This is what it will be. ______________________

18 Of course you are amazed that you won the lottery. You never thought it would happen to you, not even in these.

______________________

19 He/She has not got any brothers or sisters. ______________________

week 8 vocabulary and grammar noun combinations exercises

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