The New Saturday IELTS Course begins this Saturday // Get in Quick!

We often start new courses, then have students contact us after the course has started. They can join in an IELTS course a little bit late (by doing scheduled make-up classes), but it is, obviously, much better to start a course at the beginning – particularly with respect to IELTS Writing. Writing is so complicated, so I have designed a progression in the lessons, where each new lesson builds on the previous one. Students should start at the beginning, then proceed through the lessons in order to best get the learning effect.

So, if you are interested in IELTS, or have a friend who is interested in IELTS, the Saturday IELTS Course begins this weekend! Get in quickly to do that first class, and keep the order perfect for the maximum learning ability. Click on the video above to get an idea about what happens, or go to the website: www.aisielts.com.

Collocation: the other key to IELTS 7 (13 of 16)

Okay, let’s move back to collocation. As you know, it is the key to getting a higher IELTS Writing and Speaking score, but it is not easy. Students often do not collocate words very well (which is why they don’t receive IELTS 7 or 8). To do this, all the parts of speech [adjectives & nouns, verbs & adverbs, prepositions & nouns, and others] must fit together in accepted patterns, stylishly and nice, while all the time conveying clear and precise meaning – like the video at the top of this page. Watch it, and notice all the parts of this complex creation blend together perfectly. This is what your writing should be like.

Well, to have ‘a sense of collocation’ (= IELTS 7), you need to have some familiarity with English. So, start reading all my pixnet posts, and getting this familiarity, right?

In the meantime, the following exercises will help.

Time to Practice

Can you ‘fix’ the following sentences by changing (or removing) the underlined word? There may be different ways to answer these. The answers will be in the next ‘collocation’ post.

1.

Guns are useful when people are suffering from dangerous situations.

2.

People murder their leaders to make a revolution.

3.

People start smoking by curiosity.

4.

Banning smoking would minimise the opportunity to receive passive smoke.

5.

Fathers start noticing that they have a responsibility to their children.

6.

People often smoke due to the peer-group effect.

7.

Some drugs can release people from the smoking hunger.

8.

Schools can teach students not to smoke.

Answers to Collocation 12 of 16

Here are the answers to the previous collocation exercise. The first sentence has the wrong collocation; the second sentence has the correct one.

1.

Tourists enjoy travelling abroad to experience culture shock.

Tourists enjoy travelling abroad to experience the different cultures.

Culture shock is a negative concept. That is not why people travel.

2.

Another negative effect is the demolition of local culture.

Another negative effect is the destruction of local culture.

‘Demolition’ is for buildings and constructions.

3.

I would suggest advertising domestic tourist attractions.

I would suggest promoting domestic tourist attractions.

4.

Nuclear waste is dangerous, and the government does not save it well.

Nuclear waste is dangerous, and the government does not store it well.

5.

Nuclear power is popular in many countries.

Nuclear power is common in many countries.

Nuclear power is never popular with anyone – but it is accepted as a reliable source of energy.

6.

The strong points of nuclear energy are more.

The good points of nuclear energy are more.

The support for nuclear energy is stronger.

In the original sentence, ‘strong’ and ‘more’ repeat.

7.

Nuclear power is better than other forms of energy production.

Nuclear power is better than other forms of energy generation.

8.

The Fukashima nuclear plant was broken by a tsunami.

The Fukashima nuclear plant was damaged by a tsunami.

By the way, you can learn more about me at   www.aisielts.com .