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Entries Tagged as 'Culture and Society'

vocab

July 26th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

words…

veracity - unwillingness to tell lies 
Corinthian Column - n classical architecture, a column decorated at the top with a mixed bag of curlicues, scrolls and other lavish ornamentation.
assault - close fighting during the culmination of a military attack 
intransignent - 
obscure - not clearly understood or expressed; “an obscure turn of phrase”; “an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure [...]

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vocab

July 24th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

some more words…

acuteness - keenly perceptive
muse - a guiding point/poet
syllogism - A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion
tenous - long and thin
liturgy - A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship
gargoyles - a carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away [...]

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vocab

July 23rd, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

some more words…

gall - bitterness of feeling
connoisseurs - experts in fine arts
preclude - to make impssoble/exclude
mitigate - To moderate (a quality or condition) in force or intensity; alleviate.
ratify - To approve and give formal sanction to; confirm
unfettered - to set free
inscrutable - difficult to understand
perspicacity - acuteness of perception/understanding
Occidentals - Western Christian 
fathom - to comprehend

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‘who’ vs ‘whom’

July 19th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Who

answers the subject of the question
the answer of the question should be the object form of pronoun
E.g. Who wrote the codes? He wrote!

Whom
 

answers the object of the question
the answer of the question should be the subject form of pronoun
E.g. By whom was the window broken? By him!

gmat
 

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‘each’ vs ‘every’

July 18th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Each

means is one by one. 
Each can be followed by a verb. E.g. Each soldier received a medal.
Each means two. E.g. She was wearing a bangle in each hand.
Each can be followed by ‘of’. E.g. I spoke to each of them.

Every

Every is an intermediate of each and all, meaning a group. E.g. Every composer …

Verbs with [...]

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usage of ‘one of’

July 17th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

there are many ways of using one of:

singular verb: one of, one of the, only one of, only one of those
plural verb: one of those who, one of the things that

gmat

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participial adjectives

July 16th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

When a verb in the participle form is used as an adjective, it is called a participial adjective.
There are 2 forms of participial adjectives:

-ing (present participle): cause of the feeling.  E.g. The drink was refreshing.
-ed (past participle): receiver of the feeling. E.g. I feel refreshed.

gmat

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Subordination and Coordination

July 15th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

In English, there are 2 ways to join a sentence: Subordination or Coordination.
Subordination is used for emphasising one part:
Time:  when, whenever, after, as, before, once, since, till, until, now, that, while, as long as, as soon as.
Concession:  though, although, even though, if, while.
Contingency:  if, once
Condition:  if, in case, as long as, unless provided that.
Reason:  because, since, [...]

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‘rather than’ vs ‘insead of’

July 14th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

What is the difference between rather than and instead of ?
Rather than suggests preference or choice. 
Instead of suggests replacement.

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Use of relative pronouns

July 13th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Relative pronouns are: that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why.
This table (OWL Purdue) summarises the usage of these pronouns…
gmat

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Subject and Object form of Pronouns

July 12th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

There are 2 forms of pronouns:

subject form: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
object form: me, you, him, her, it, us, them

These 2 forms are not interchangeable.
Wrong: My sister and me wanted to take a hike!  Right: My sisyer and I wanted to take a hike! 
Wrong: Mike ran after Jack and she.  Right: Mike ran after [...]

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‘Because’, ‘because of’, ‘due to’ & ’caused by’

July 11th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

What are the differences among these words?

because - a conjunction and it is followed by a sentence with its own subject and verb
because of - followed by noun/noun phrase. It is the same as due to
due to - followed by noun/noun phrase. It is the same as cause by
caused by - followed by noun/noun phrase. It is the [...]

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‘Compare with’ vs ‘Compare to’

July 10th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Compare with is used to place two things side by side for the purpose of examining their similarities or differences. E.g. It is interesting to compare X with Y.
Compare to used to assert that two things are alike. E.g. The economy is compared to a running horse!
gmat

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Like vs. Such as

July 9th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Like means the author does not want the examples. E.g. I want some green leafy vegatables like cabbage and celery. E.g. A writer like Shakespeare and a composer like Beethoven.
Such as means the author wants the examples. E.g. I want some green leafy vegatables such as cabbage and celery. E.g. The Ivy league colleges such as Princeton.

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if-then & tenses

July 8th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

3 conditions…

E.g. If she wins… she will go
Present … will + Verb
E.g. If she won… she would go
Past… would/could + verb
W.g. If she had won… she would have gone
Past Perfect… would/could + have + Participle

gmat

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Subordinate Clause

July 7th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Structure of a sentence with a subordinate clause goes like this:
Subordinate conjunction/Relative pronoun +Subordinate clause, Main Clause
E.g. Although it was raining, we went out to reach the station on time
Subordinate clause does not form a complete sentence and hence it will start the sentence with Subordinate conjunctions or Relative pronouns
Subordinate conjunctions: after, although, as, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order that once, provided [...]

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restrictive and non-restrictive clauses

July 6th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Restricitive Clauses limit the possible meaning of a preceding subject. [uses that, no comma]
Nonrestrictive clauses tell you something about a preceding subject, but they do not limit, or restrict, the meaning of that subject. [uses which, with comma]
For Example, 
Correct Restrictive Use: The store honored the complaints that were less than 60 days old. –> the store honored only those complaints [...]

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vocab 2

July 5th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

concede -  To acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true, just, or proper; admit. 
antecedent - ancestors, one that precedes another
declesion - decline
schistosomiasis - Any of a group of diseases caused by flatworm parasites of the genus Schistosoma that infest the blood of humans and other mammals
debilitate - To sap the strength or energy of; enervate.
reticent - Reluctant; unwilling.
pugnacious - tough, [...]

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That vs. Which

July 4th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

When to use that and when to use which?
That introduces a restrictive clause, which is critical to understanding the sentence because the clause defines its antecedent.
E.g. The brown house that has a rooftop is my favourite.
Which introduces nonrestrictive clause, which include information relevant but not critical to an understanding of the sentence.
E.g. The brown house, which has a [...]

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Redundant words

July 3rd, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Some words are superfluous and redundant in english…

Advance forward / proceed forward / progress forward return back 
revert back 
sufficient enough 
complete together 
reason … because 
join together 
repeat again 
new innovations 
same identical 
two twins 
the time when / the place where 
extremely critical 
both of them 
consensus of opinion 
fewer in number 
discussed about 
estimated at about 
sum total 
exact [...]

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