Unit 1 Using a Thesaurus A thesaurus will help you expand your vocabulary by giving you alternative words with a similar meaning. It is very important that you use a dictionary to check the finer meanings of words. Some Features on a Thesaurus Page Guide Words These words at the top of the page indicate the first and last words included on this page. Words in a thesaurus are arranged alphabetically: a, b, c, d, etc. Therefore, you can expect to find on this page those words that would alphabetically follow the first guide word but precede the second. Main Entry Words These are words listed in boldface and in alphabetical order. If words begin with the same letter, they are arranged according to their second letter: hat, head, high, holiday, huge, etc. An entry is composed of: 1. Part of speech This part shows how words can be used in a sentence such as, a verb(v) , noun(n)and adjective(adj).These abbreviations appear after the word before the words with similar meaning, or definition, and examples. Some words can be more than one part of speech and there can be several definitions for a word within one thesaurus entry. 2. Meanings The meanings of the words are synonyms or near-synonyms. 3. Idiomatic expressions 4. Example in context. 5. Opposite meaning, or antonyms Example of a Thesaurus Page (Source: Oxford The Australian Student’s Thesaurus,1998, p. 115) 3 Exercise 1 Put these entries in the order in which they would appear in a thesaurus. 1. picture class student book notes teacher report dictionary _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 2. break beginner build brain basic bibliography blot board _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 3. lime like limit line lick lie life literature listen live lift _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 4. mango manful manhood mankind manly manner mansion manual _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 5. orbit leave agriculture mind letter headache nonfiction king queen keep envelope lesson swim pretty knock strategy trick _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 6. __________direction 7.___________beautiful __________capable ___________angry __________mural ___________curious _________ rinse ___________honest _________ spectacular ___________strong __________pygmy ___________harmful __________vocal __________ fantastic __________extra __________ childish __________repellent ___________tame __________humidity ___________fragile 4 Exercise 2 Work in pairs. Read the passage quickly and list the underlined words in alphabetical order from it. Then write them in the table provided. Tea –the natural drink with a unique refined taste With its own characteristic flavor and smell, tea is a unique drink that has one people’s hearts the world over. Drinking tea is not merely about quenching one’s thirst; there is an art etiquette to it that can be traced back thousands of years. In contemporary times, too, tea drinking continues to be popular both among the young and the young at heart. For avid fans of tea, the proper way to drink it is hot, as it yields more of its delightful scent and pleasant taste. As a tradition, hot tea served with such snacks as normally sees in buffets, conferences and seminars. With each type of tea boasting its own flavor and quality, a wide variety of teas suitable for serving hot are available nowadays, giving tea drinkers more alternatives. There are many types of teas-black tea, red tea, green tea, and others- and each flaunts it own attributes of flavor, smell and color that differ from traditional Early. For example, Four Red Fruit Tea- the fruity flavored black tea bursting with a combination of strawberry, cherry, red currant, rasp berry-yields a sweet fragrance and refined flavor that delights the taste buds. The blend also includes green tea that brings together pure fruit scents such as GreenTea&Apple, Green Tea& Orange. These aromatic teas bring tea drinkers fine moments of enjoyment. (Bangkok Post, December 15, 2005, p. 5) 1. 8. 15. 2. 9. 16. 3. 10. 17. 4. 11. 18. 5. 12. 19. 6. 13. 20. 7. 14. 21. 5 Exercise 3 Study the thesaurus entries on page 3 and then answer the following questions. 1. What are the guide words for this page? _________________________________________________________________ 2. What part of speech is the word delight? _________________________________________________________________ 3. How many head words are there for the word deliver on this page? _________________________________________________________________ 4. How many meanings are given to the word delicate? _________________________________________________________________ 5. Write an example of the meaning in 6. __________________________________________________________________ 6. When delicious is used as an informal language, what is its meaning? __________________________________________________________________ 7. What is the opposite meaning of the word delete? ___________________________________________________________________ 8. When delight is used as a noun, what does it mean? ___________________________________________________________________ 9. Write an example of usage of the word delay in 2? ___________________________________________________________________ 6 10.Which of these words would you find on this page: deft design, defraud, deleterious, deliver, defrost,? ___________________________________________________________________ Exercise 4 Study the thesaurus entries on page 115, and then copy the parts of speech of these words. Some words can be more than one part of speech. Example: deliberate – adjective ___________________ 1. delinquent ______________________________________ 2. deify __________________________________________ 3. delicacy _______________________________________ 4. deity __________________________________________ 5. delineate _______________________________________ 6. delegation ______________________________________ 7. delightful _______________________________________ 8. delirious ________________________________________ 9. dejected ________________________________________ 10. deign ___________________________________________ 7 Example of a Thesaurus Page (Source: Oxford The Australian Student’s Thesaurus, 1998, p. 214) 8 Exercise 5 Study the thesaurus entries on page 8 and then answer these questions. 1. Write the entries of the thesaurus on page 8. _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ 2. Which of the words do you expect to see at the end of the page? _______________________________________________________________ 3. Which word contains the most definitions? _______________________________________________________________ 4. How many meanings are there for that word? _______________________________________________________________ 5. In the sentence, He has made sufficient headway with the work. What is the synonym of headway. ? _______________________________________________________________ 6. The opposite of the word healthy is __________________________________ 7. Give the usage of the word head which means supervisor. _______________________________________________________________ 8. Give 2 examples of plural nouns. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 9 9. Which word has the same meaning as light and headlight? _______________________________________________________ 10. a hazy blue means ________________________________________________ The Use of a Thesaurus Some strange sentences can emerge from the use of the thesaurus. Example It was a nice day and we got into our old red car to go for a lovely drive in the beautiful sunshine. Unfortunately, we ran over a bottle and got a flat tire. Then the weather turned cold and so the outing turned out to be terrible. Using a dictionary and a thesaurus to check finer meanings you might come up with the following: It was a marvelous day and we leapt into our ancient vehicle to go for a delightful outing in the brilliant sunshine. Unfortunately, we ran over a bottle and sustained a flat tire. The weather turned bleak and the outing concluded disastrously. (Adapted from Ford, & Haywood, 1993, p. 148) Exercise 6 Compare the two passages and look at the changes made to the second passage. Do you think they improved the passage? Discuss this in groups. What other alternative words could have been used? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 10 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Exercise 7 From the paragraph below write a new paragraph by changing some of the words in bold type that have the same meanings. (use a thesaurus to help you find new words) Traveling by Horse One hundred years ago, horses provided the best way to travel. At that time, most people traveled from city to city in coaches or buggies. When someone was sick, a family member rode by horse to call the doctor, and the doctor came by buggy. Mailmen rode from door to door on their horses to deliver the mail. It was a fast and efficient way to get from place to place. But this way of traveling was both good and bad. It was good because people didn’t pollute the air. Cars, trains, and other means of transportation today leave gases behind when they move. But it was bad because riding on a horse damaged the horse’s back and legs. And traveling by horse could be dangerous, especially on bad roads, in bad weather, and at night. It was also much slower than transportation today. The ways of transportation today are better than travel by horse 100 years ago because they are safer and faster. (Adapted from Fellag, 1998, p. 52) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 11 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 12 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Exercise 8 As you can see, the thesaurus can help your writing be more interesting and accurate. It can also help you think more carefully about the words you choose in your writing. In this exercise use your thesaurus to find synonyms of the following words. 1. tell :______________________________________________________ 1. big :_______________________________________________________ 2. love :_______________________________________________________ 3. funny :_______________________________________________________ 4. kind :_______________________________________________________ 4. beautiful :_____________________________________________________ 5. clearly :_____________________________________________________ 6. busy :________________________________________________________ 7. upset :________________________________________________________ 8. hill :________________________________________________________ 9. cut :________________________________________________________ 10. show :________________________________________________________ 13 Exercise 9 Read the following paragraphs again. And then rewrite them by choosing the suitable words from the thesaurus given to you for the underlined words. You have to understand the context in the passage before you decide on a suitable word. After that, check your grammar. Tea –the natural drink with a unique refined taste With its own characteristic flavor and smell, tea is a unique drink that has won people’s hearts the world over. Drinking tea is not merely about quenching one’s thirst; there is an art etiquette to it that can be traced back thousands of years. In contemporary times, too, tea drinking continues to be popular both among the young and the young at heart. smell (n) : fragrance, odor, merely (adv): commonly, perfume, scent, ordinarily, aroma slightly quenching (adj): satisfying etiquette (n): manner, convention, contemporary (adj): current, rules modern, new, present-day, famous, renowned, recent, trendy popular (adj) admired, well-known young at heart : thinking and behaving like a young person even when you are old (old people) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 14 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Paragraph 2 For avid fans of tea, the proper way to drink it is hot, as it yields more of its delightful scent and pleasant taste. As a tradition, hot tea served with such snacks as one normally sees in buffets, conferences and seminars. With each type of tea boasting its own flavor and quality, a wide variety of teas suitable for serving hot are available nowadays, giving tea drinkers more alternatives. avid (adj): eager, yields (v): bear, enthusiastic, bring, tradition (n) custom, convention, quality (n) feature, attribute, greedy, keen give, produce habit, practice characteristic available (adj) usable, handy, ready, alternative (n) choice, option, possibility obtainable _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 15 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Paragraph 3 There are many types of teas-black tea, red tea, green tea, and others- and each flaunts it own attributes of flavor, smell and color that differ from traditional teas. For example, Four Red Fruit Tea- the fruity flavored black tea bursting with a combination of strawberry, cherry, redcurrant, raspberry-yields a sweet fragrance and refined flavor that delights the taste buds. The blend also includes green tea that brings together pure fruit scents such as Green Tea & Apple, Green Tea& Orange. These aromatic teas bring tea drinkers fine moments of enjoyment. (Bangkok Post, Thursday, December 15, 2005, p. 5) 16 type (n) kind, flaunt (v) make, show off, bursting (adj) filled, model, sort, variety, species exhibit full, overflowing combination (n) blend, composition, conjunction, refined (adj) elegant, polished, precious, blend (n) go together, pure (adj) aromatic (adj) unmixed, fragrant, mixture cultivated harmonize clear, clean, spicy, unpolluted strong-smelling _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 17 Exercise 10 Use the words from Exercise 8 to write a paragraph telling a story from your own imagination. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 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