Vocabulary Level 2 – Package 4

Learning Outcomes

By the end of VOCABULARY LEVEL 2 you should be able to
✔ study vocabulary independently
✔ use different strategies to expand and record vocabulary

Introduction to Independent Learning

Independent learning gives you more choice about what, when and how fast to study. It also prepares you to learn after complete full time education.

In order to study independently you need to be able to set your own aims, choose how you want to study and reflect on the usefulness of studying that you do and on your overall progress.

Since you have chosen to study VOCABULARY LEVEL 2, we can assume that you want to learn more about how to expand and remember words more effectively. The online activities are designed to help you to develop and build the bank of words and expressions that you have at your disposal.

Activity 1 Activity 2 Rating Form

Package 4 – Word roots

Many academic words in English are formed using ancient Greek and Latin roots. You may have already learnt some of them. Mastering the meanings of these commonly used “word-parts” will help you work out and remember the meaning of unfamiliar words when you see them in context.

Roots can be at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word.

Activity 1 Roots and their meanings

These tables contain English roots of Latin and Greek origin. This activity is designed to assess your knowledge of roots. Try to complete the tables by typing the roots or meanings in the spaces provided.

Latin derivations

example	root	meaning
audience, audible	aud Ans: aud	hear
concede, precede	cede	move, go Ans: move, go
education, conduct	duc/duct	lead Ans: lead
portable, transport	port Ans: port	carry
spectator, spectacle	spect Ans: spect	look
convert, revert	vert	turn Ans: turn
visual, visible	vis	see Ans: see
decapitate, capital	cap Ans: cap	head
adequate, equivalent	equ	equal Ans: equal
abbreviation, brevity	brev Ans: brev	short
colloquial, eloquent	loqu	speak Ans: speak
mortal, post-mortem	mort Ans: mort	die
bankrupt, rupture	rupt Ans: rupt	broken

Once you have finished, click on the Check button below and your results will be displayed.

Greek derivations

example	root	meaning
autonomy, automatic	auto	self Ans: self
biodegradable, biology	bio Ans: bio	life
chronological, chronicle	chron	time Ans: time
apathetic, sympathy	path	feeling Ans: feeling
claustrophobia, hydrophobia	phobia Ans: phobia	fear
symphony, phonic	phon Ans: phon	sound
philosophy, sophisticated	soph	wisdom Ans: wisdom
pseudonym, pseudo-science	pseudo	false Ans: false
orthodox, orthopaedic	ortho Ans: ortho	straight
bibliophile, bibliography	biblio	book Ans: book
democracy, demography	demo Ans: demo	people

Once you have finished, click on the Check button below and your results will be displayed.

Activity 2 Inferring meaning

One of the most effective ways of working out the meaning of new or unfamiliar words is to study its contexts. This activity helps you to practise how to do that.

Read the article “Mooncakes in moderation” and then complete the table. You may use a dictionary if you wish. Fill in the column ‘Context sentence’, which may help you to work out not only the definition of the word but also the meaning of the underlined word part. The first one has been done for you.

Mooncakes in moderation

Mooncakes are an essential part of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Hong Kong, though indulging in them has never been advocated by dieticians.

A 185 gram mooncake is a dense concoction of ingredients including lotus paste, egg yolks, fat and sugar and contains 840 calories. This is the equivalent of 3.5 bowls of rice, 18 teaspoons of sugar or 10 teaspoons of oil. Two salted egg yolks contain 1,238 milligrams of cholesterol, four times the American Heart Association’s suggested daily intake for an adult.

The Department of Health advises people to eat mooncakes “in moderation”. “People in good health should eat no more than half a mooncake a day. For people suffering from chronic illnesses, especially those with high cholesterol levels, hypertension and diabetes, mooncakes should be avoided,” according to a department spokesman. Some bakers have introduced a low-fat version of these local delicacies for the health conscious traditionalists who want to jui yuet or “chase the moon”.

Unfortunately, the department said that the so-called “snowy” mooncakes - which have pastry comprised of cooked glutenous flour – are not much better, as they contain substantial amounts of fat and sugar. A healthier, yet no less delicious variation is the mooncake consisting of red bean paste and pine nuts.

The health department spokesman did add that if people only have mooncakes once a year to celebrate the festival, they do not need to be paranoid about their health.

Word	Definition	Context in sentence	Other words with underlined affix
to advocate	to call as in to express or support	to support by argument	vocation, an advocate, (=barrister), to revoke
equivalent (to)	equal Ans: equal	equal in value Ans: equal in value	equidistant Ans: equidistant
chronic	time Ans: time	time Ans: illness over a period of time	chronological, synchronise Ans: chronological, synchronise
hypertension	excessive Ans: excessive	high blood pressure Ans: high blood pressure	hyperactive, hypermarket Ans: hyperactive, hypermarket
a delicacy	pleasurable Ans: pleasurable	rare/expensive food Ans: rare/expensive food	delicious Ans: delicious
to be comprised of	to contain, include Ans: to contain, include	consists of Ans: consists of	comprehensive Ans: comprehensive
diabetes	across Ans: across	disease: too much sugar in the blood Ans: disease: too much sugar in the blood	diameter Ans: diameter
paranoid	shape / form Ans: shape / form	belief that people want to harm you Ans: belief that people want to harm you	cuboid, spheroid Ans: cuboid, spheroid

Once you have finished, click on the Check button below and your results will be displayed.

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