IELTS Reading: collecting vocabulary

Whenever you read something in English, it's a good idea to write useful vocabulary in a notebook. But don't just write individual words, write the related words too. For example, do you know which verb is usually used with the noun "commitment"?

As an example, read the following short text:

A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a personal goal, project, or the reforming of a habit in the coming year. Some examples include resolutions to lose weight, learn something new, or give up a habit such as smoking.

Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. A separate study in 2007 at the University of Bristol showed that 78% of those who set New Year’s resolutions fail.

Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, a system where small measurable goals are set, while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

Here is some key vocabulary from the text:

• make a commitment to something
• give up a habit
• be confident of something
• set measurable goals
• make something public
• get support from

Remember: understanding the meaning of a word is not the same as being able to use it correctly.

Comments

[m'ambo]

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=*_VERB+a+commitment%2C*_ADJ+commitment%2Ccommitment+to+*_NOUN%2C+commitment+to+the+*&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=set+*+goals%2Cachieve+*+goals%2Cmeet+*+goals%2C+accomplish+*+goals%2C+have+*+goals&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=

[Yves]

Owning a track bike does not guarantee you sprint like Sir Chris Hoy. It's how you USE is not how many you KNOW.