Words in the News

Words in the news

You probably don’t know most of the words featured in today’s lesson. Some you might think you know, but if you look more closely, you will see that I have used them with a much less familiar meaning.

The easiest way to understand what I mean is to start with some examples. Let’s look at two of the words mentioned above. First, here’s a word you probably don’t know:

sabotage (SAB a taj)

As a verb, sabotage normally means to deliberately cause damage in order to prevent an enemy or competitor from being successful. The noun refers to the act of doing so.

 An angry Samak Sundaravej lost his patience yesterday and accused "a dirty movement" of seeking to sabotage his chances of winning the Bangkok governor election on Sunday.  Chinese officials blamed the violence in Tiananmen Square on a small group of people seeking to sabotage and overthrow the government.  In 1963, former South African President Nelson Mandela was convicted of recruiting persons for sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the government.

 Company computer systems are in danger of sabotage from outside hackers and from unhappy employees as well.

The example sentences are especially important in helping you get a deep understanding of the word. I’ll explain how I write them a little later. First, here is another example from my column which features a familiar word used in less familiar ways.

Everyone knows the meaning of dog when it refers to the popular animal. But what does it mean when it is used as something other than a noun? In the newspaper, you will often see dog used as a verb meaning to follow someone very closely and continuously. As you will see from some of the examples below, the thing that does the following is usually some sort of trouble. On the other hand, the adjective and adverb forms, dogged (DOG id), and doggedly (DOG idli), often have positive meanings. They usually refer to people who have a great determination to do something successfully, even if it is very difficult.

 Chatchawan Kongudom, better known as Chat Tawpoon, has been continually dogged by rumours that he operates an illegal casino.  Dogged by stories that it would soon lose its profitable business in China, the company saw its stock price fall over 60 percent in six months.  Kenneth Starr won both praise and criticism for his dogged investigation of President Clinton’s alleged wrongdoings which included his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

 For seven long years she doggedly searched for her former husband who had disappeared with their three young children.

Today’s activities

The activities in this lesson are designed to help you guess the meanings of some words that are probably not familiar with you. You will also be able to get a good understanding of how they are used. Thus, when you finish this lesson, you should be able to use them yourself.

For the most part you will be building your understanding of the words by using the example sentences. Read each sentence clearly and use it to help you understand the target word. Then look closely at the sentence to see how the word is used. For example, what part of speech is the word (noun, verb, adjective, etc.?) What other words surround it? What kind of situations does it seem to be used with?

Good language learners are observant and they ask themselves questions like these all the time. That is why they are good learners.

ACTIVITIES

Which meaning is it?

The words below have two or more meanings. Read each of the example sentences that follow them and decide which meaning is the one being used. pelt

1. the skin and fur of a dead animal 2. to throw a large number of things very quickly at a person or thing

a. The US Embassy in Beijing was a mess after being pelted with rocks, bottles, and paint bombs. b. The cheering crowds pelted their returning heroes with roses and other flowers.

c. In the early days, hunters and trappers earned a good living killing wild animals and selling their pelts. * * * * * * * lapse (laps)

1. a short time when someone is careless or forgetful 2. a temporary failure of some kind 3. to allow something to come to a legal or an official end 4. to begin to behave in a certain way

a. The winning goal came after an unusual lapse in concentration on the part of the Everton’s goalkeeper. b. After three months without a single drop of alcohol, he treated himself to a beer and soon afterwards he lapsed into his old habits. c. In an attempt to save money, he decided to let his credit card lapse and not renew it when the time came. d. In court, the witness admitted to having frequent memory lapses and had difficulty recalling his own telephone number.

e. Two independent researchers have discovered a potentially serious security lapse in the Microsoft Outlook e-mail program which could make it easier for hackers to take over control of your computer.

What does it mean?

Below are five sets of word definitions (meanings) and five sets of example sentences. Match the definitions with the appropriate set of example sentences. The word in bold is the one defined.

Set __: to secretly listen to or spy on the private conversations of others. The act of doing so. A person who does so.

Set __: an angry and often violent disagreement or quarrel between two people or groups, especially one which lasts a long time.

Set __: an unusually large number of similar events happening at about the same time. The events are generally unpleasant and unwanted.

Set __: to calm someone who is angry or anxious. It can also mean to make something less painful. As an adjective it means calm or peaceful.

 Laos said yesterday that it had arrested two men in connection with a spate of bombings in the capital Vientiane and other cities in recent months.  Indonesia’s President Abdurrahaman Wahid has declared a civil emergency in an effort to halt a spate of bloody battles between Christians and Muslims.  Defects in the product brought on a spate of expensive lawsuits which eventually caused the manufacturer to go out of business.

 Recent statistics showing a slowdown in the US economy have soothed investors’ fears that prices might be on the rise.  The cream did much to soothe the skin, but it would be many days before she could touch the burned area without crying out.  We dined in a lovely shaded corner of the garden, surrounded by the soothing sounds of a rushing waterfall.

 Veera Somkhwankid told police he suspected the eavesdropping discovered last month at his house was caused by his complaints against Sanan Kachornprasart, the powerful former Interior Minister.  Police technicians installed see-through mirrors and microphones through which eavesdroppers could film, photograph and record the actions of suspected drug traffickers.  He’d never thought of himself as an eavesdropper, but the opportunity to secretly watch his beautiful neighbour seemed just to good to pass up.

 The bitter feud among prominent Chart Thai Party members came out into open public view recently with both sides attacking each other live on television.  The Thai press has clearly enjoyed reporting on a feud between the commerce and the finance ministers despite their claims that they get along just fine.  Critics said the killing of a monk by two other monks in a feud over money was just another example of the decline in religious discipline found in many Thai temples.

 The decades-long hatred between feuding neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea has once again led to war.

How do we use it?

You have seen how you can use examples sentences to understand an unfamiliar word’s meaning. In this exercise, you will try to use such sentences to learn how the use the word as well. dent

 The can of soup had a noticeable dent in it, so the storekeeper gave it away free.  Investigators were able to match the dents on the car with the hammer which caused them.  The two thousand baht I paid to the bank last week hardly made a dent in the huge amount of money I owe.  Three weeks of heavy rainfall and flooding has severely dented the city’s plans to attract a large crowd to the upcoming festival.  The absence of two of their star players has dented the football teams chances of winning the championship match.  All we could find to indicate that he had been there was a dented can of soup.

1. From the examples above, dent can be used as a noun and ______and ______. 2. In each of the examples above, dent appears to refer to something

a. good b. bad c. neither good nor bad

3. Which diagram bests represents dent as it was used in the first two examples?

4. In the third example, the best meaning for dent is:

a. an increase b. a decrease

5. In the last two examples, the best meaning for dent is

a. to strengthen b. to help c. to damage

6. Write a sentence using dent as a noun.

 A Japanese tourist who was duped by a gems shop into paying 106,000 baht for fake jewellery received a refund yesterday.  It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health to prevent the public from being duped by "doctors" claiming they can cure diseases like Aids and cancer with simple herbal remedies.  It is no accident that professional cheats look for the dupes among the old and wealthy.  Afraid of becoming a dupe, he decided to ask his lawyer for an opinion before he bought the property.

1. The word dupe can be used as

a. a verb only b. a noun only c. both a verb and a noun

2. As a noun, dupe refers to

a. a person b. an object c. a part of something

3. From the examples, it is clear that if you dupe someone

a. you help them b. you trick them c. you pay them money

4. Write two sentences using dupe, using two different "parts of speech" (noun, verb, etc.).

TEACHER'S NOTE

In this lesson, I am giving your students a chance to use their powers of observation. Too often, our English lessons are like processed food, in which everything is neatly laid out for them to ingest. That’s often not very nutritious for food and in terms of English teaching, it does not always develop language skills.

In this lesson, however, students will work largely with some rather raw data in the form of example sentences. The students will use these sentences in various ways to build up an understanding of words that most of them will probably be unfamiliar with.