in Use Vocabulary reference and practice Self-study and classroom use Second Edition Michael McCarthy Felicity O’Dell Academic Vocabulary in Use Vocabulary reference and practice Self-study and classroom use Second Edition Michael McCarthy Felicity O’Dell University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.org Information on this title: www.org/9781107591660 © Cambridge University Press 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2008 Second edition 2016 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 Printed in Dubai by Oriental Press A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-107-59166-0 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents Acknowledgements 5 Planning and starting work To the student and the teacher 6 24 Identifying goals 56 25 Planning a piece of work 58 0 Before you start 8 26 Describing methods 60 Getting started: 27 Using sources 62 General academic vocabulary Thinking and interacting 1 What is special about 10 academic English? 28 Analysing data 64 2 Key nouns 12 29 Talking about ideas 66 3 Key verbs 14 30 Reporting what others say 68 4 Key adjectives 16 31 Talking about meaning 70 5 Key adverbs 18 32 Talking about points of view 72 6 Phrasal verbs in academic English 20 Ways of talking about … 7 Key quantifying expressions 22 33 Numbers 74 8 Words with several meanings 24 34 Statistics 76 9 Metaphors and idioms 26 35 Graphs and diagrams 78 Word combinations 36 Time 80 10 Nouns and the words they 37 Cause and effect 82 combine with 28 38 Classifying 84 11 Adjective and noun combinations 30 Organising and presenting ideas 12 Verbs and the words they combine with 32 39 Structuring an argument 86 13 Prepositional phrases 34 40 Organising your writing 88 14 Verbs and prepositions 36 41 Processes and procedures 90 15 Nouns and prepositions 38 42 Facts, evidence and data 92 16 Chunks: useful phrases 40 43 Making connections 94 17 Abbreviations and affixes 42 44 Describing problems 96 45 Describing situations 98 Academic life 46 Comparing and contrasting 100 18 Applications and application forms 44 47 Evaluation and emphasis 102 19 The social and academic environment 46 48 Describing change 104 20 Academic courses 48 49 Summarising and concluding 106 21 E-learning 50 50 Making a presentation 108 22 Study habits and skills 52 23 Money and education 54 Academic Vocabulary in Use 3 Reading and vocabulary 1 Nutrition for elite athletes 110 2 The solar system 111 3 Graphology 112 4 Measuring time 113 5 Archaeology and medicine 114 6 Seeing things differently 115 Reference 1 Formal and informal academic words and expressions 116 2 Numbers, units of measurement and common symbols 120 3 British and North American academic vocabulary 122 4 Spelling variations 126 5 Word formation 128 Answer key 132 Phonemic symbols 162 Index 163 4 Academic Vocabulary in Use Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Helen Freeman, Chris Publishing Group for the text on p. 39 adapted Capper and Sheila Dignen for their invaluable from ‘Abridged Extract timing is life and death’, intellectual and editorial support during the Nature, Vol 441, no. Copyright course of the preparation of this new edition. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group.
Reproduced We must also thank the lexicography and with permission; Text on p. computational team at Cambridge University Anderson, Colorado State University Extension Press whose work with the Cambridge foods and nutrition specialist and professor; S. International Corpus, the Cambridge Learner Perryman, CSU Extension foods and nutrition Corpus and the CANCODE corpus of spoken specialist; L. Young, former foods and nutrition English (developed at the University of graduate student; and S.
Prior, former graduate Nottingham in association with Cambridge intern, food science and human nutrition. University Press), enabled us to make a fully Reviewed and revised, July, 2015 by Colorado corpus-informed selection of the academic State University Jessica Clifford, Research vocabulary we focus on in these materials. Associate and Extension Specialist and K. Maloney, graduate student in the Dept.
of Food We acknowledge with gratitude the pioneering Science Human Nutrition; Dunedin Academic work on academic word lists done by Averil Press Ltd for the text on p. 111 adapted from Coxhead. In planning this book we made ‘Introducing the planets and their moons’ by considerable use of her lists at http://www. Reproduced with permission victoria.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/ from Cattermole Introducing the Planets and We also acknowledge the work of Annette Capel their Moons (Dunedin, Edinburgh, 2014); Text on and the English Vocabulary Profile.
112 adapted from David Crystal, The Cambridge enabled us to select vocabulary appropriate to Encyclopedia of Language 2nd Edition, 1997, © the level. David Crystal 1997, published by Cambridge Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell University Press, adapted and reproduced with Development of this publication has made use permission of the author and publisher; Scientific of the Cambridge English Corpus, a multi-billion American for the text on p. 113 adapted from word collection of spoken and written English. ‘A Chronicle of timekeeping’ by William J.
It includes the Cambridge Learner Corpus, a Andrews, Scientific American, Vol 23. Reproduced unique collection of candidate exam answers. Copyright © (2014) Scientific Cambridge University Press has built up the American, Inc. All rights reserved; Text on p.
114 Cambridge English Corpus to provide evidence adapted from Patricia A. Baker, The Archaeology about language use that helps to produce better of Medicine in the Greco-Roman World, 2013, © language teaching materials. Baker 2013, published by Cambridge University Press, adapted and reproduced with The authors and publishers acknowledge the permission of the author and publisher; Text on following sources of copyright material and p. 115 adapted from ‘Seeing Things Differently’ are grateful for the permissions granted.
While by Shaaron Ainsworth, RSA Journal, Issue 2. every effort has been made, it has not always Copyright © 2014 RSA Journal. Reproduced with been possible to identify the sources of all the permission of Shaaron Ainsworth. material used, or to trace all copyright holders.
If any omissions are brought to our notice, Photographs we will be happy to include the appropriate p. 20: © Lars Wallin/Etsa Images/Corbis; p. 21: acknowledgements on reprinting and in the next Plume Creative/Getty Images; p. 35: kikujungboy/ update to the digital edition, as applicable.
36: © Radius Images/Corbis; p. 54 New Scientist for the text on p. 25 adapted from (photo 2): payaercan/Getty Images; p. 54 (photo ‘Simulator could predict where epidemics will 3): © YAY Media AS/Alamy; p.
64: © Ken Welsh/ strike next’, New Scientist, 30. 70: © Radius Images/Alamy; p. 71: © © 2006 Reed Business Information UK. All Michael Ochs/Corbis; p.
80: © Wavebreak Media rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Ltd/Alamy; p. Services; Scientific American for the text on p. 27 adapted from ‘Shutting Down Alzheimers’ by Illustrations Michael S.
Wolfe, Scientific American. Reproduced Kamae Design pp. Copyright © (2006) Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved; Nature Academic Vocabulary in Use 5 To the student and the teacher Who is this book for? This book is for anyone who wants or needs to learn the kind of English which is used in academic contexts.
It deals with the language used in written works such as textbooks and journal articles as well as with the spoken language of lectures and seminars. It also presents vocabulary relating to being a student at a university or college in that it covers topics relating to university life. It will be particularly useful for students preparing for IELTS, the Pearson Academic English Test or any other examination aimed at assessing whether candidates’ English is at a high enough level to study in an institution where English is the medium of instruction. It will be helpful for people who need to attend – or indeed give – lectures or presentations in English or to participate in international conferences.
It will enable students who have to prepare assignments or write up a dissertation in English to do so in a much more natural and appropriate way. What kind of vocabulary does the book deal with? The book presents and practises the kind of vocabulary that is used in academic contexts regardless of which discipline you are specialising in. So it considers words and expressions like concept, put forward a theory and come to a conclusion. It does not deal with the specialist vocabulary of any particular subject such as anatomy or physics.
Specialist terms are often relatively easy to master – they will be explained and taught as you study the subject and indeed these words may sometimes be similar in English and your own language. However, it is the more general vocabulary used for discussing ideas and research and for talking and writing about academic work that you need to be familiar with in order to feel comfortable in an academic environment. Despite the fact that such vocabulary items are much more frequent than specialist vocabulary, they are often felt to be more difficult to learn. It is, therefore, useful to approach them in the systematic way suggested by this book.
One positive aspect of academic vocabulary is that there are relatively few differences, depending on whether you are studying in London or New York, Delhi or Sydney, Johannesburg, Dublin, Wellington, Toronto or Singapore or indeed any other place where you may be using English for academic purposes. Academic English tends to be a truly international language and the units of the book focus on vocabulary that will be essential for you regardless of where you are studying now or where you may be likely to study in the future. There are some differences between words used to describe people and places and these are highlighted in Unit 19. Reference sections 3 and 4 also focus on some vocabulary and spelling variations.
In the units of the book we use British English spelling conventions, except when quoting texts which originally used American spellings. Much of the vocabulary used in the book is neutral in that it is equally appropriate in both written and spoken contexts. We indicate those instances where a word is too formal to be used in speech or too informal to use in academic writing. How was the vocabulary for the book selected? The academic vocabulary focused on in this book was all selected from language identified as significant by the Cambridge International Corpus of written and spoken English and also the CANCODE corpus of spoken English developed at the University of Nottingham in association with Cambridge University Press.
These enormous corpora include large collections of written and spoken academic text and so it was possible to identify language that is distinctive for academic contexts. We also made considerable use of the Cambridge Learner Corpus, a corpus of more than 60 million words of text taken from hundreds of thousands of learner scripts from students taking Cambridge English exams all over the world. From this corpus we were able to learn what kinds of errors students taking, for example, IELTS, were typically making. In planning this book we made considerable use of Averil Coxhead’s work on developing academic wordlists.
Her lists can be found at, for example, http://www.com/vocab/select/ awl.htm 6 Academic Vocabulary in Use How is the book organised?