Exercise 6

Concordancer Exercises

Mini-Research Question 6:

What does the word 'outlook' actually mean?

First go to http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/ and find the "Web Concordancer" in the middle of the page.

Type in the word "outlook" in the "Keyword" box. Don't worry about the first box , which is set at "equal to" , just now. After you've typed in "outlook" hit the "Go" icon.

1. What does 'outlook' mean?

Look at the first 9 examples (forget about number 5). What meanings do you think they have in the context?

To help you with this, you can see the complete paragraph where the word occurs by clicking on 'outlook' in the first line.

What do you think it means?

Go back to the concordances, now click on the second one.

Finally to help you some more, on the same page as the fuller text you can find "Net Dictionary entries for outlook". Click on 'outlook'. You'll find six meanings for 'outlook' Just concentrate on the first 3.

Now match the examples in Lines 1-9 (except Line 5) to meanings 1, 2 or 3.

1. 2. 3. 4.

6. 7. 8. 9.

Remember to look out for the answers which will be given with the next question next week!

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Key to Last Week's Exercise: Research Question:5

1. Prevent + noun+ from + -ing form

e.g. "prevent her children from standing"

Extra Information

Verbs with a similar meaning which have the same pattern are:

ban dissuade

deter stop

discourage prohibit

Check the Web Concordancer to find examples of these followed by 'noun + from + -ing form'.